Technical Support

Both PALLETMANAGER and CARGOMANAGER are designed primarily as single user applications, but we have many sites where multiple users are active. Guidelines below describe how such situations are best catered for. Users may purchase just a single copy license or multiples of the same depending on requirements. Each copy is assigned to a named user.

A licensed copy (but not a Trial Copy) can be installed on either a local or network drive for access by a single user. Any attempt by two or more users (at the same time) to access the same folder will cause file corruption. Users of PALLETMANAGER may use either the Webbase or the e-PALLET functions to generate JPG or PDF format files respectively. Specifications generated in this way may be viewed / printed by others using either a web browser or Adobe reader. Details of both Webbase and e-PALLET can be found in the PALLETMANAGER manual.

Single license - Network Installation.

A single user license does allow you to install the software on a network drive as long as access is restricted to a single user. It also allows for network installation where non concurrent use of the software is to be made by a second named user. However it is essential that suitable protection be provided to ensure that at any one time access is only available to one user - otherwise file corruption will occur. We recommend that a special network user is created (PMUSER / CMUSER) with sole access rights to the application folder and that this user is restricted to a single login at any time.

Multiple Licenses.

If you have several regular application users you require a license for each user. (Our discount pricing makes this cost effective). The simplest installation scenario for these licenses is for each user to have the software installed on their own personal local or network drive with no file interaction between users. There may be situations where some sharing of files is a requirement and ways of achieving this are discussed below.

Multiple Licenses - PALLETMANAGER.

In most modes of operation it is unlikely that PALLETMANAGER users would wish / need to interchange files. A possible exception to this is where the STORE module is utilised.

The complete list of PALLETMANAGER files which are modified as a result of user actions is given at the end of Section 2 of the manual, and is also given below:

DEFAULT (holds pallet sizes); PACKTYPE (holds case style details); CASEBASE.DAT (case rationalisation database); COMPRESS.DAT (case compression data); CUBEBASE.PAL (cube shipper database)

STORFILE.DEL (store module data); STORFILE.DAT (store module data); STORFILE.IDX (store module data)

In most environments such items as pallet size, case styles etc will, once set, remain unchanged for some time.

The STORE mode saves palletisation specifications to the inbuilt database for subsequent recall for viewing / re-printing and re-calculation. In use the 3 STORFILE files listed above are used.

In a multiple license situation one user ('master') might well be given the responsibility for STORE database maintenance, with the other users ('slaves') being given access to the database on a read only basis. In such an environment we would recommend that the three STORFILE's of the master user be copied to the slave users on a regular basis using whatever mechanisms are most appropriate to the environment.

It is also possible to specify that STORE database files are located in a different folder / drive from the PALLETMANAGER program files. This is not recommended and has been retained for compatibility reasons. It is described in Appendix 1 of the manual.

Multiple Licenses - CARGOMANAGER.

In most modes of operation it is unlikely that CARGOMANAGER users would wish / need to interchange files. A possible exception to this is ITEMBASE database file which is used to contain dimensional details of cargo items.

The complete list of CARGOMANAGER files which are modified as a result of user actions is given at the end of Section 2 of the manual, and is also given below:

CONTBASE.CAR (container database); CMCONFIG (system file); GRPARAMS (system file); PACKPARA.DEF (packing options); ITEMBASE.CAR (item database).

Once set files such as the container (size) database, packing parameters etc are unlikely to change on a regular basis.

The ITEMBASE database file contains dimensional information on items which might form future cargo (dimensions, weight etc).

In a multiple license situation one user ('master') might well be given the responsibility for ITEMBASE database maintenance, with the other users ('slaves') being given access to the database on a read only basis. In such an environment we would recommend that the single ITEMBASE file of the master user be copied to the slave users on a regular basis using whatever mechanisms are most appropriate to the environment.

It is also possible to set up CARGOMANAGER so that files created by the user (these are files with a .DAT extension), and in addition the Container Database (CONTBASE.CAR) and the Cargo Database (ITEMBASE.CAR), are located on a different drive / directory to the one where CARGOMANAGER programs are installed. Whilst, for simplicity, we do not recommend this, it is described in Appendix 1 of the manual.