AceViewer 2.1 Readme (obsolete)

IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS SOFTWARE IS LICENSED FOR A SINGLE USER AT YOUR COMPANY. ADDITIONAL SEATS ARE AVAILABLE FOR A REDUCED COST. THE SOFTWARE LICENSEE IS SHOWN IN THE ABOUT BOX.
There is no need for an “installer”, just extract the exe somewhere on your hard drive (maybe in c:\Program Files\AceViewer) and put a shortcut on your desktop (or in the start menu if you prefer). It can also be run directly from the desktop.

To register the software (required for full functionality), simply fill in the Help > Registration dialog using the keys provided with your license.

Here are some of the features (and instructions):

1. When you first run the program, you’ll need to open both a VCdb.mdb and PCdb.mdb database. The program will remember these and use them in the future. You can change them whenever you get new versions from AAIA. The version dates are shown in the status bar.
2. Use File > Open Source File… (or the folder icon) to select the delivery file to view. You can also drag an ACES xml file to the program to open it (or use “Open With…” from Explorer)
3. Use View > Word Wrap to turn on/off in-cell word wrapping. It will adjust the row height to the deepest one so you can see all the data.
4. If you want to see more text on a line you can adjust the column widths (just drag them). The program will remember these widths next time it is run.
5. Double-Click a row (or use View > Row Source…) to bring up a an XML Viewer if you want to see the raw data stored in the file for that row. You can keep this window open (move it off the grid if you like) and it will update automatically as you navigate around the grid.
6. If a code is not found in the database, it is surrounded by angle brackets (for example, <345>). This can happen if you’ve used an old database with a newer data file.
7. Use View > Separate Columns to show each ACES attribute in a separate column instead of combining where possible.
8. Use View > Hide Empty Columns to show only those columns that have data.
9. Use File > Export File… (or the export icon) to save the grid to a csv or tab-delimited file. You also have the option of including an “App Fingerprint”, a 32 character code that uniquely represents the application (excluding the App ID and Ref columns). This can be helpful if you want to compare two ACES files. A second option is available (if you use the ACES “ref” feature) to create a separate row for each ref found (separated by a comma, space or semicolon).
10. Use View > Find… (or Ctrl-F) to perform a case-insensitive search beginning after the current row. If one or more columns are selected, only those columns will be included in the search. If columns are selected, look at the “row indicator” arrow in the left gutter to see which row contains the search string. Note that the first search can be much slower than subsequent ones.
11. Use View > Sort… (or Ctrl-S) to bring up a sort dialog. Move the columns you want sorted into the right-hand list (you can multi-select). The order of the columns is significant to the sort and can be changed with the up and down arrow buttons. The default is Ascending for each column. You can change this with the +/- button. If you check the “Move Sort Columns in Grid” checkbox, the sort columns will be shown together at the front of the grid. To revert back to the natural order of the file, just select no columns to sort by. Part Numbers are ordered intelligently by alpha/numeric segmentation.
12. Use View > Filter to temporarily limit the applications shown in the grid to only those with the substring entered for a column. You can use View > Add a Filter to further limit the list by another column.
13. Use Reports > Part Usage… to generate a list of Make/Model/Year-Range by part number similar to a Buyers Guide.
14. If MfrCode is included in the header, and it looks like an AAIA Brand Code, it will be used as one.
15. Columns are kept the same for all ACES versions for consistency (making it easier for you too work with different versions).