Product Support

Please note that from the 20th of November our Support phone number will be 01954 251222

These are the latest updates to Design Manager V7. They can only be used to update an existing Version 5/6/7 and are intended only for Service Agreement Holders. A password is required to install this update, eligible customers can telephone or email for the password. When you have downloaded the file just run it to start the installation.

If you are using the client/server mode of operation you MUST also re-install the database Server, this can be downloaded from the link below. If you are running the server as a service ensure that the service is stopped before installation. Contact us if in doubt. The patch password has also changed for V7.0, please call us on 01954-251222.

As usual all changes are detailed in the ReadMe file.

Note: The Update option on the DmDbMaint application may be required, the installation will now run this program after it completes if appropriate.

Although we have not fully tested Design Manager with the Vista operating system it appears to work. Two minor things we have observed:- The installation places a Design Manager icon on the desktop but may not put items in the Start menu also the title text on the dockable toolbars is misplaced. These do not affect the operation of Design Manager. We recommend that the default installation folder of C:\desman is used and NOT a Program Files location.

If Design Manager seems slow, particularly when making changes to data, try the following:

If you are experiencing data and index corruption or speed problems (duplicate Document Ids is a common problem) it may be because your workstations and server are set to use OpportunisticLocking. This is known to cause problems with any Multi-user database application. Please download OpLocks.Exe and run it on all workstations and your server, press the Disable button, then re-boot all machines and the server.

This also partially solves slowdowns that occur when NT Service Pack 6 is installed, our recommendation is to NOT install this service pack unless you have other problems that it is known to solve. 'If it ain't broke don't fix it'.

If you change any of the standard fields such as Sheet Size, Doc. Type, Scale on the Title Block or Application properties tabs you should then check that the field order is OK. From the Tabs page on properties check the 'Order' box and then press 'Save'. If an error occurs refer to the panel that pops out on the right of the dialog and make the corrections required. If this is not done it will lead to errors when editing existing and creating new document records.