Partworks 3D and partworks tool database different

[shaun]

I just updated my software and my tool databases are different. I can not seem to find the correct file for partworks 3D. I even tried deleting what I thought was the tools.tool_db file but it still finds a database from somewhere.
Any ideas?
Shaun

[adrianm]

What version of Windows are you running?

Later versions of Windows don't like files being written to the Program Files folder so they create a VirtualStore which is what is referenced so even if you remove the database from the Program Files folder it's still in the VirtualStore.

PartWorks stores the database in a different location to get around this (you can find that location by accessing Open Application Data Folder from the file menu) but Partworks 3D still does it the old way.

You should be able to find the Partworks 3D database in an area called something like "C:\Users\your login name\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\PartWorks 3D"

[shaun]

Adrian,
Thanks for the help. I did find the tool database as you described. Unfortunately I copied in the database from partworks and got the following error message.
Error: tooldatabase written by later version of the program
I have windows 7 premium
partworks 3D 1.002
partworks 6.5
shopbot 3.8.2
photo v carve 1.102
Any suggestions on how to have them all have the same tool database?

[adrianm]

You can't.

The tool databases from PartWorks 3D and PhotoVCarve are not compatible with PartWorks as it's much a newer program with a different format.

The 3D and PhotoVCarve databases might be compatible as they're a similar age but I've never tried it with those two.

There is a way to get Partworks and the previewer in SB3 to share the same database via a file with locations in it but I can't seem to find where I found out about that from and I haven't bothered doing it on my last couple of installs as I never use the previewer these days. Hopefully someone else will know what I'm going on about!

[shaun]

turns out their is not a newer version of partworks 3D so you cannot copy the database and make them the same if you update your partworks software. I ended up manually recreating all of the tools in my 3D database. A little bug for Vetric to look at in their next release:)

[adrianm]

The new versions of Partworks have an import/export feature which is the recommended way of updating the tool databases. Currently it's in Partworks/Vcarve and Aspire.