Q: I currently have Asset Manager and TAP on my desktop PC and on a laptop computer. Most of my data entries are done on the desktop PC, but I want to take the laptop to sites to gather data. How can I update the files between the two computers?

A: The SoftWright Software License Agreement permits one user to have TAP installed on a desktop and a portable PC at the same time.

If you want to transfer files (such as antenna libraries, Fixed Facility database, computed coverages, etc.) between the machines, you can copy all the folders under the SoftWright installation folder, typically the SWTAP folder. Since several of the files in different folders are inter-related, it is important to copy all the folders from one machine to the other.

We strongly suggest you keep a backup from each machine in case of problems during the file transfer. The easiest way to make this backup is to copy all the folders to another location, such as a server drive, making a separate folder for the backup from each machine.

The folders you should expect to find under the SoftWright installation folder include:

ANTENNAS

AUTOPATH

BOUNDARY

COORDSYS DATA

DATA

INTERMOD

LAYOUT

LINES

LULC

NADCON

REPORTS

SURFACE

SYSTEM

WORK

You can just drag and drop all the folders from one TAP system to the other machine. Since all SoftWright software (such as TAP and AssetManager) should be installed in the same folder, such as SWTAP, dragging and dropping all the folders under this folder will transfer the database files for both programs. You will probably get a warning message from Windows that the files on the target system will be overwritten. You should respond "Yes to All" at this prompt.

Be sure you do not copy any of the files, especially application (.EXE, .DLL) files from one machine to another, since this may cause confusion in the Windows Registry entries for those files.

Note that this process overwrites the files on the system where the folders are dropped. For example, if you make changes (such as adding or editing Fixed Facilities records or running coverage studies) on your notebook copy of TAP, and then drag and drop folders from the desktop system onto the notebook, the changes made to the notebook files will be overwritten and lost.

This process assumes that you have the same version and release number of all SoftWright software (TAP, AssetManager, etc.) on both machines. Copying files between machines using different versions of TAP or AssetManager may cause unexpected results.

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