Dialog Compare properties of projects

In this dialog you can specify settings for the property comparison of projects. To do this you compare specific properties of the current project with the corresponding properties of a reference project. Normally, the reference project is a copy of an older version of the current project; you can, however, select any project as a reference project.

Overview of the main dialog elements:

Selected project:

The currently selected project is shown here.

Show only associated reference projects:

If this check box is selected, then the list will only show write-protected reference projects generated from the current project; otherwise, all of the existing projects in the project directory (except for the current one) will appear in the list.

Note:

When you remove the write protection from an associated reference project, it is no longer displayed as an "associated reference project" but is shown in the list of all projects.

Compare with:

The projects / reference projects present in the project directory are shown in this list. Select the one that you would like to compare the currently opened project with.

Settings for property comparison:

This field shows the current scheme for the property comparison of projects. Click [...] to branch to the Settings: Property comparison of projects dialog. You can determine which properties should be compared with one another there, and you can save these settings in a separate scheme.

A selected scheme is activated automatically.
If you have selected the entry "-Not activated-", the default scheme is used. In this case, all of the properties of all the objects will be compared. This can take some time for larger projects.

Structure identifier setting:

This field shows the current scheme for replacing structure identifiers. If you have renamed the structure identifiers, they will normally be treated in the property comparison of projects as if they have been deleted and inserted again. If you do not wish to display such changes, you can create a scheme that tells you which structure identifiers were renamed. The specified structure identifiers are no longer seen as different during a property comparison of projects. This setting is handy when you have activated the alternative identification of objects using the check box Alternative identification.

Use [...] to go to the Structure identifier settings dialog. There you specify which structure identifier in the reference project is to be replaced by which structure identifier from the current project, and you can save these settings in a separate scheme.

A selected scheme is activated automatically.
If you have selected the entry "-Not activated-", no scheme is used. In this case, renamed structure identifiers are seen as deleted and newly inserted.

Revision marker text:

You can enter the text to be displayed here for the changed properties as a revision marker.

Create deletion markers for deleted objects:

If this check box is selected, the deleted objects (components, texts, etc.), on the project pages are identified by a revision marker and a deletion marker. The properties of the deleted object are stored at the deletion marker and can be viewed there.

If the check box is deselected, no deletion marker is generated.

Set revision marker for deleted objects in reference project:

If this check box is selected, a revision marker is entered in the reference project for objects that are no longer in the current project. The objects are thus marked as deleted in the reference project.

Note:

Revision markers can only be inserted in a reference project that is not write-protected. A message is displayed if the reference project is write-protected. Before executing the property comparison you must therefore remove the write protection of the reference project. Note that even temporary reference projects are write-protected.

Delete all existing revision markers:

If this check box is selected, the revision markers from a previous property comparison will be deleted from the project.

If the check box is deselected, all of the revision markers present in the project will be retained. The new revision markers will also be entered into the project.

Apply active filter from the page navigator:

If this check box is selected, then a filter set for the page navigator is also used for the property comparison. This means that only the pages shown in the page navigator are compared. Hidden pages and unplaced objects are not compared.

If the check box is not activated, all pages of the project are compared, even those not displayed in the page navigator.

Alternative identification:

If this check box is activated, objects can be identified with the help of so-called "candidate keys". A candidate key is a minimal quantity of properties that uniquely identifies an object. The identifying properties are preset by EPLAN.

If the check box is not activated, objects are identified using the internal object ID.

Note:

When you compare the properties of projects that were automatically generated (e.g. using the EPLAN Engineering Configuration), you should activate this check box because the internal object IDs are reallocated every time you generate projects. This means that every time you generate them, a completely new project emerges and all objects in this project are given new object IDs. This makes it impossible to carry out a properties comparison using the identification of objects based on the object ID anymore.

Collect comparison results:

If this check box is activated, the revision results list is not overwritten during a properties comparison of projects, but the results are appended to the existing list.

If the check box is deactivated, the revision results list is overwritten at each new properties comparison of projects. This is the default setting.

Note:

At each call up of the dialog, the check box is deactivated and must be consciously activated by the user before the start of the project comparison, if so required.