This is a problem when using the Windows Vista operating system. A fix is provided in v3.4 and later software versions. All you need to do is drag the border of the toolbar until the captions are visible, then close the toolbar. When you subsequently open it again the new dimensions for the toolbar form will persist. If you accidentally drag the borders so the toolbar form is too large, simply drag it back to the correct dimensions.
Enterprise defaults are held centrally in the database. User defaults are stored locally on the user PC. The two sets of defaults are the same when the software is initially installed. Users may subsequently amend their local defaults. The “Restore” button on the defaults form (accessed using the Options/Defaults menu option) will set the User defaults back to the Enterprise values.
Any User may edit the User defaults but only Administrator (Level 5) users may edit the Enterprise defaults.
This feature is intended to assist the administration of large corporate installations. It will be of little relevance to single PC installations.
Two data platforms are available for use with APT software: MS Access and MS SQL Server. Look on the Database tab of the user defaults form to see which option is in use and where the file is located. Versions 3.2 and later allow user chosen database file names. The default name is APT.mdb for MS Access and APT for SQL Server and most installations are likely to continue to use this name.
No! If you get your system Administrator to set up a user profile for you where the User ID is the same as your Windows User ID you will find that you no longer have to enter your name and password at the start of each session.
Your APT password will still exist and you will be prompted to renew it at 3 months intervals so don’t forget what it is! You may re-use your existing password when “renewing” it.
The functionality of the data grid control has certain limitations. In order to double click on a grid row or cell you must first place the cursor in the relevant row or cell, then perform the double-click. Otherwise the first click of the double-click will just relocate the cursor and the second click will be interpreted as a single-click.
Because it is invalid! You have probably made an error when typing the information. Common errors are described here. Typing “O” (oh) instead or “0” (zero) in the security code, there are never any “O”s (Oh) as the security code is made up of the characters 0 – 9 and A – F. The only likely typing error is “B” for “8” and vice-versa so check for this. Another possibility is that there are multiple spaces between words in the Organisation name or licence number, these should be separated by single spaces only. There should be no trailing spaces.
If you have checked your entries thoroughly and still have problems then you must of course call APT support who will be pleased to help.
These licences are policed by Networked hardware security keys, often called “dongles”. They can only work when all users are on the same network. The only alternative is to use a limited number of single user dongles that must be passed between users as required but this will usually be impractical and will result in lost dongles and frustrated users.
First of all you should ensure that your system clock is set to the correct date and time. If this does not cure the problem you must ring APT support and quote the number displayed by your computer. APT will provide a response number that you must enter in order to re-activate the software.
This message will only appear to users who have time-limited software licences. It is part of a security feature to prevent abuse of such licenses by users who have turned back their system clocks.
The licence numbers of time limited licenses contain text similar to the following: “Expires: mm/yyyy”. The licence expires at the END of the specified month.
The licence numbers of Demonstration licences contain the text: “(Demo)”. These licenses are normally issued to prospective purchasers of APT software who wish to see if it meets their business needs prior to purchase. The restrictions of the demonstration licence are designed to discourage the commercial use of the software in these circumstances.
Demonstration licences will not operate when there are more than approximately 50 analyses in the database file. Regular nag screens are displayed during a user session stating that the software is not for commercial use. Any reports that are printed will contain watermarks with the same message as will any graphs that are copied and pasted into other documents.
This is simply a security feature. APT recommends that user organisations appoint one Administrator from the computing department and one from the business user community. Administrators have the ability to clear down the “module user list” and excessive use of this feature could lead to fraudulent abuse of software licenses therefore their numbers have been limited to two.
This is yet another security feature! You have purchased a specific number of user licenses for each of the software modules you have purchased. The APT software automatically tracks the number of individual users that have used each module. If a new user attempts to use a module when the maximum number has been reached then a warning is displayed and the user is blocked.
Before this new user can proceed at least one previous user of the module must be deleted from the “Module User List”. This list may be accessed by an Administrator (level 5) user via the Admin/Module user list menu option.
The APT-SPARES Batch product is only sold to users who are also purchasing or already have the APT-SPARES module of the APT Toolkit. It is intended to be used in conjunction with the main toolkit and to use the same database file. For this reason it is not supplied with a database file of its own. When you first use APT-SPARES Batch you will be prompted to input the location of the data file you wish to work with.
All the modules of the APT Toolkit other than APT-PROJECT allow the user to change the currency for individual analyses. APT-PROJECT does not permit this because one of its functions is to rank analyses according to financial criteria. It can only do this if all the analyses use the same currency units.
The currency unit used by APT-PROJECT is specified on the Enterprise defaults form. This form may be accessed by Administrator users (level 5) only via the Admin/Enterprise defaults menu option.
When creating an APT-SCHEDULE analysis it is possible to include existing analyses. These are listed on the Equipment/Tasks tab of the analysis input form. By double-clicking on one line of the data grid it is possible to display the inputs and results of the “component analysis”. It is not possible to amend this analysis however. This is because the information displayed is a copy of the original analysis that was created at the time it was added to the APT-SCHEDULE analysis. At this time a number of changes to the component analysis were made. The calculated intervals were changed to align with the timescale of the parent APT-SCHEDULE analysis and the planned task penalty costs were removed (because they are accounted for elsewhere in an APT-SCHEDULE analysis).
Any changes made to the component analysis from within APT-SCHEDULE would not be reflected in the original analysis and APT believes this would create confusion and inconsistency so we do not permit such amendments.
Note that amendments to the original component analysis will not carry through to the copy held within APT-SCHEDULE. If you wish to change the details of a component analysis and see the changes reflected in the APT-SCHEDULE analysis you must delete it from the Equipment/Tasks grid, edit the original analysis, and then add it back into the APT-SCHEDULE analysis.
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