ACES to Legacy Output

Overview

AceMapper has the ability to create Legacy formatted files (as long as the VCdb contains the proper migration tables which are scheduled to go away in January 2013). Some of the features of this process are: Overcome limitations in VCdb migration tables (see below); Add vehicle attributes to Notes as necessary to correctly represent applications (see “One-to-many” discussion below); Remove selected Vehicle Attributes from comments where they duplicate MM information (e.g. remove “Wagon” when mapping to BMW 323i SPORTWAGON).

One-To-Many

Converting from Legacy to ACES often requires a one-to-many mapping. This is easiest to see with respect to submodel (for example, a blank submodel may map to several different ACES submodels).

There are also many cases where a legacy configuration maps to two different engine bases (usually due to different bore/stroke). In addition, there are a few cases where a legacy model maps to more than one ACES model. To convert from ACES to legacy, you must have everything on the ACES side, or you need to output “overflow” options.

For example, if the legacy record has a blank submodel and that blank represents Base, SE, LE and LX submodels in the VCdb, all four submodels must be covered by applications in the ACES file in order to use the legacy id without qualifying it with a submodel comment. These issues are all taken care of with our solution.

Limitations

One issue to be aware of when producing AAIA Legacy files from ACES data is something we call “fan-out.”

Fan-out is a result of the way ACES files must be delivered: (a) you cannot include OR’ed attributes, they must be delivered on separate applications, and (b) “Excepts” must be exploded to positive logic.

This means a Legacy application like “Exc. Wagon”, for example, might be represented by two ACES applications: one with “Coupe” and one with “Sedan”. Our ACES to Legacy conversion routines would not combine these two applications. They would stay as they were delivered in the ACES file. While the applications are still correct, it might create more applications than would be necessary in a normal Legacy file. (This fan-out effect is likely to be true with any ACES to Legacy solution unless there is a separate compression pass after the conversion process.)

Qualifier IDs are not verified for ACES 2.0 files. The required “text” elements are used to create Legacy notes when processing 2.0+ files.