12.1.1 Project Management

Project Management

To create a new project,

• select Project → New in the project manager menu or
• click the [New Project] button in the toolbar.

The following dialog box opens where you have to enter the Name of the new project and select the Folder where you want to save the structures. You can use the button to set the directory. You can also add a short project Description. It is also shown in the header of the printout report but has no further relevance.

It is also possible to create sub-projects in the project manager by selecting a project in the Place project under list. The new project is then displayed as a sub-project in the navigator. If you do not want to use this setting, select the Projects list entry on the top of the list. The project then appears as the main entry in the navigator.

After clicking [OK], a new folder with the project name is created on the local or network drive.

To integrate a folder that already contains several RFEM models as a project,

• select Project → Connect Folder in the project manager menu or
• use the [Connect Folder] button in the toolbar.

Which folder of the local or network drive the project is located in is irrelevant. It is included in the internal file management and left at its location – similar to the creation of a shortcut on the desktop. The information is saved in the ASCII file PRO.DLP in the Project Manager folder (see Chapter 12.1.4.3).

A dialog box opens that is similar to the dialog box shown in Figure 12.5. Enter the Name and Description of the project and, if necessary, use to set the directory of the relevant Folder.

With the Connect folder including all subfolders option, you can connect all folders contained in the selected folder with the management of the project manager at once.

To disconnect a folder from the project management,

• use the Project → Disconnect menu option (select project beforehand),

• click the [Disconnect Project] button in the toolbar, or
• use the shortcut menu of the project in the navigator.

To delete a project,

• select Project → Delete in the project manager menu (select project beforehand),

• click the [Delete] button in the toolbar, or
• use the Delete entry in the project's shortcut menu in the navigator (see Figure 12.7).

The folder including its content is completely deleted from the hard disk.

• Edit → Restore from Dlubal Recycle Bin.

The Dlubal recycle bin is described in Chapter 12.1.4.2.

If files that are stored on a network drive are deleted, the deleted files are copied into the Dlubal recycle bin on the hard disk. This way, you can restore files that were deleted on network drives. If you do not want the files to be copied into the recycle bin, we recommend simply disconnecting the project (see above). Then you can manually delete the data from the network drive.

To copy a project,

• select Project → Copy in the project manager menu (select project beforehand) or
• use the Copy entry in the project's shortcut menu in the navigator (see Figure 12.7).

Enter the Name, Description, and location of the new project in the project manager and define the Folder that is created by the copy function.

You can also copy the project with the Windows Explorer and then integrate it into the project manager as a connected folder (see Figure 12.6).

To change the description of a project retroactively,

• select Project → Properties in the project manager menu (select project beforehand) or
• use the Properties entry in the project's shortcut menu in the navigator (see Figure 12.7).

In the Project Properties dialog box, you can change the Name and Description of the project. The Folder of the project is also displayed.

With this feature, you can restore the complete directory structure of the project manager without copying the PRO.DLP file (see Chapter 12.3) after changing your computer. All projects contained in a folder are included in the project management (which means that this folder must contain projects, not models). In this way, the projects do not need to be connected individually.

To open the dialog box for importing a project folder, use the project manager menu option

• Project → Import Folder.

In the Place projects under list, you can define how you want to integrate the project folders into the management. If you want the folders to appear as independent projects in the project manager, select the Projects list entry at the top of the list. Use the button to set the directory for the Folder to be linked.

Select the Connect folders including all subfolders option to integrate all subfolders of the folders into the management of the project manager.