3DxWare 10.5.5 overrided my profile customizations!

[mhoopes]

I installed 10.5.5 yesterday, and my customized settings are no longer present in Properties (macros, radial menus, button assignments) for the AltiumDesigner.xml profile.

This update has added a new user configuration file (with a space in the file name) to %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\3Dconnexion\3DxWare\Cfg, overrided all of my customizations, and increased the tracking speed significantly. I'm guessing that Altium submitted a new core profile, but why aren't my AppData customizations showing up?

New file: Altium Designer.xml (1 KB)
My old file (still present) AltiumDesigner.xml (11 KB)

I tried to restore my settings by renaming the new AppData file (Altium Designer.xml -> Altium Designer.new). No difference after stopping and starting the driver. I renamed my old file AltiumDesigner.xml -> Altium Designer.xml. No difference. I tried replacing AltiumDesigner.xml in Program Files, even rebooting. No difference.

Do I have to recreate all of my macros and radial menus from scratch, or Is there a reasonable workaround?

[jwick]

Please PM me your two Altium files.

[mhoopes]

Ok, I tried to send you a PM. It shows up in my Outbox. Does it need to move from the Outbox to Sent, and if so, how?

[mhoopes]

Ok, the message changed status after a sizeable delay. Let me know what you find.

[jwick]

I responded via PM and email.

[mhoopes]

3DxWare isn't inheriting CfgProperties from STR_ALTIUMDESIGNER in C:\Program Files\3Dconnexion\3DxWare\3DxWinCore64\Cfg\AltiumDesigner.xml.

I was able to restore the xml of most of my macros, button assignments, and radial menus from my old profile, by copying the content from
<Devices>...</ButtonActions>

Because of the aforementioned noninheritance issue, I had to copy the MotionMacro ButtonActions from the Program Files profile mentioned above.

[mhoopes]

jwick informed me of a typo that appears on Line 15 (comes after <Hints>) of the following file:
C:\Program Files\3Dconnexion\3DxWare\3DxWinCore64\Cfg\AltiumDesigner.xml.

It should be the following (and capitalization matters, too):
<Uses3DxInput/>

If %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\3Dconnexion\3DxWare\Cfg\Altium Designer.xml (note the space) has been created, it will need to be deleted for profile inheritance to work properly.

Your user profile should have <InheritsFrom>STR_ALTIUMDESIGNER</InheritsFrom> in it.

[mhoopes]

There is another issue of note for Altium Designer profile inheritance in 3DxWare 10.5.5. My macros and radial menus do not work in Altium Designer unless I modify and save something in the Buttons menu (edit a Macro, then just click save).

The Buttons menu shows all of the proper profile settings (button assignments, macros, radial menus), but none of the button assignments are operational until the profile is re-saved in 3DxSmartUi.

[mhoopes]

The above behavior recurs every time I restart Altium Designer. The buttons appear to follow the generic assignments until the profile is re-saved.

[UtaSH]

Hi mhoopes,

we have released a new driver yesterday - 3DxWare 10.5.6. Please uninstall the one you have and install 10.5.6. It might be a good idea to remove the existing settings. You should be asked when installing the newer version.

[mhoopes]

Thanks, Uta - I got it working, though I think the new 3DxWare version was not the actual solution for me. I had already corrected the AltiumDesigner.xml typo in Program Files.

What did it for me was looking at a new roaming profile generated by the 10.5.6 3DxSmartUI, and seeing if there was something in my original roaming profile that was unaccountable, perhaps created by the 10.5.5 3DxSmartUI before I corrected the typo. I found the following code snippet in the old roaming profile:

Code: Select all

     <ButtonBank>
        <ID>PRO_MODE_PART</ID>
        <Button>
          <Input>
            <ActionID>HIDButton_13</ActionID>
          </Input>
          <Output>
            <ActionID>Macro_AltiumDesigner_Measure</ActionID>
          </Output>
        </Button>
        <Name>STR_DEFAULT_BUTTONBANK</Name>
      </ButtonBank>

I pasted the following code into the new roaming profile from my old one (... represents redacted) to restore my macros, button bindings, and radial menus. I did not paste the PRO_MODE_PART binding. I suspect that may have been the cause of my problem.

Code: Select all

     <ButtonBank Default="true">
        <Name>STR_DEFAULT_BUTTONBANK</Name>
        <ID>Default</ID>
...
      </ButtonBank>

  <MacroTable>
...
  </MacroTable>

  <Menus>
...
  </Menus>

  <ButtonActions>
...
  </ButtonActions>

[mhoopes]

I think I figured out where that rogue code snippet came from. I probably copied it from ProE.xml; it has PRO_MODE_PART, PRO_MODE_ASSEMBLY, and other ButtonBanks, depending on application context. The Altium Designer core profile only has a "default" ButtonBank context.