Stupid Question Dept

[Rod Brown]

I just finished aking teh shift to Version 12 and the library was the bigges issue in makeing the change. One thing for certain i needed to re-do teh library i had in version 11 even though i had grown quite fimiliar with it adn moved in it quite el. makin teh change required me to do a major SLOW shift to the new library in version 12. many many things wre not it the new library in 12. IT is all there now as organized as i can get it. ONE item at a time them once there moving them around inan orderly fashion. now it s more difficult tofind things however this is one great thing. teh search tool in 12 is great nd it needed to be! now i am learning to move around even more efficently in the new 12 library but still need to go in and regroup things to be better organized.

I like version 12 but i am sorry to say this but with all due respect making the change to 12 was a lot harder withlibrary set up. I am not computer smart enough to say if it could have been any different however i wish it would have ben easier. I amstill struggling a little but the more i use it the friendlier it will become! Happy but a tad sad!!! I could say a lot of good things about 12 that have nothing to do with the library!!

[DougM]

Pam, I thought he was referring to Imported libraies knowing you can't do anything with locked libraries. Exactly why I mentioned renaming. As far as the Core (locked libraries) I'm convinced there is a pretty good reason why they are locked. And for the Manufacturers libraries, perhaps contacting the manufacturer might help you. Although I'm sure they too have a good reason as to why thier libraries are as they are.

[lbuttery]

Pam:

you can copy those libraries under a new name and delete the original via windows explorer

or maybe it's remove them via the control panel add/remove programs ???

Haven't done this in awhile but that's what I remember

Lew

[Glenn Woodward]

I want to categorize the Manufacturer's Libraries themselves (and not alphabetically)- not the individual symbols within them. You can't re-name them because they're locked. The library names are long which makes navigating through them tedious.

BTW -shouldn't this thread be in "Suggestions"?

Pam,

Within the Library Browser, you can copy a manufacturers library to the User Library Section and then it becomes unlocked so that you can rename it.

[pamdesigns]

Thanks Lew and Glen! In the back of my mind amongst the cobwebs, I remember doing something like that a couple of versions ago. This is great, as I had created several Huntwood symbols back when I worked for a Huntwood dealer. Now I can put all the symbols together in one catalog. I'll give it a try.

[pamdesigns]

OK -I've copied all of the mfg. libraries into my user library and catagorized them as I wanted. However, I have now double the size of my mfg. libraries because I can't delete the originals in the Manufacturer Libraries folders as they do not show up in the "Add & Remove Programs" list --only Bonus catalogs (which I think are prior X2). I can deal with this by just minimizing the file, but it just seems like a lot of extra dead weight to me.

[lbuttery]

Pam:

use windows exporer and naviagate to where chief CORE libraries are installed
usually under DOCUMENTS or MY DOCUMENTS

under CORE libraries move the desired folder(s) to another folder outside of the chief folders

you could delete them but it's safer to move them to another location, verify via chief's browser that they are not duplicated and then delete them from their "saved" location

Lew

[pamdesigns]

Hi Lew,
There is only one file in my X2 Core Library. I can't access it and it's only showing as 4 KB so I'm not going to loose any sleep over it. I think I'll just leave well-enough alone. Am very happy with the ability to copy the locked files so I can manipulate them though. That's working out very well. ;-)

[lbuttery]

Pam:

that how it worked in prior versions with the .ALB files

I haven't done much with the .CALIB/.CALIBZ files

Lew

[pamdesigns]

Lew --I've just discovered that I can delete locked libraries from the Manufacturer Library in X2 by just right clicking on the individual library and choosing 'remove library'. I have previously copied them into my User Library (which unlocks them) and they did not go away when I deleted the locked library. I can see the reason why manufacturers submit locked libraries as they only want to be responsible for the work they provide. Unfortunately, it sometimes makes them cumbersome to use. For instance, the Mohawk library is gigantic with half of it being a material library (carpets) and the other half is objects (rugs). I like to keep my materials separate from my objects which makes them easier to find. Also, say I only want to have Mohawk carpets in my materials but really have no use for rug symbols taking up space on my hard drive, I can do it this way. Anywho -that's how you do it in X2.

[lbuttery]

Pam:

thanks for the update

I am seriously way behind in working with my libraries.

Lew