Project Management

Immediately after launching WinCan VX an empty main screen appears and the tab Projects is opened automatically:

Important note:

Once you have clicked the Finish button and confirmed the basic project settings' you won't be able to change them in the future. So, always make sure that you use the RIGHT template and catalogue for the current project BEFORE you start the inspection job.

Creating New Projects

Click on the icon New Project in the Projects ribbon to create a new project with the Project Wizard:

Enter the name for the project (1) and WinCan automatically enters the date in the format year-month-day. This name can be extended or overwritten.

Then, select the database type (2). By default, this is always the local database of the user's computer (Microsoft SQL Server Compact or Microsoft SQL Lite) and should only be modified by expert or network users.

The Country and Language settings (3) will follow the default regional settings as applied to the host computer. Under normal circumstances, there will be no need to alter these settings.

In the Project standard settings (4), the desired project template can be selected. Only the standards available to the Country/Language in the previous options will be listed.

The button More Options opens the advanced project setup menu which allows you to further define the templates for your project. This is particularly useful for clients who have specific requirements.

The New Project Standard button allows the user to save their own predefined option in the Project Standard drop down list by setting the required templates, catalogues and giving the standard a name:

The Next button leads to the next step in the Project Wizard, which is where you can accept or alter the project save location.

The default save location as defined in Home > Settings will be declared in the save location. You can change this by clicking the folder icon and selecting a different location.

Click Next again to see a final summary of your settings. If you are unhappy with any of these, now is the time to go back and make adjustments.

Click Next one more time and wait for the green bar (1) to complete, showing you that the project folder has been successfully created, and hit the green button (2) to close this stage of the Project Wizard.

WinCan VX automatically creates a project with a given structure in the destination folder C:\WinCan_Projects or in the folder defined in the settings. The basic folder structure and the most important subfolders of a WinCan project are described below:

The project folder can be called up at any time by clicking on the project header tab of the WinCan VX main screen and selecting the Project Path link.

In general, it is recommended to split the drive into 2 partitions: drive C:\ (app. 250 GByte) is reserved for the installation of operating system and application software (e.g. WinCan VX) and drive D:\ (or E:) for storing the WinCan projects.

Creating a Job

Following the project folder structure and database creation, the Job Wizard is launched, where you can enter project header data like project description, project type, work order, start and end date etc. This dialog box can also be called up at any time by double-clicking the required survey line (2) in the Project Header tab (1):

When all the details are completed, click on the green tick to save and close the Job Wizard (Job Editor).

Note on jobs:
A WinCanVX project can be subdivided into several jobs, which must be defined in the project header. In most cases however, a project consists on just one job.

Importing Existing Projects

An existing project can only be opened in WinCan VX if the corresponding language and country standard have been installed and the relevant license slots are enabled on the dongle. Start WinCan VX, open the tab Projects in the main screen and hit the button Open project:

In the dialog box that opens, use Windows to navigate to the location of your project folder. Double click on the subfolder DB and highlight the project database (.sdf or.db3 file).

Finally click the Open button to add the project to the list displayed in the left column of the WinCan VX main screen.

Note on database files (sdf or db3):
Every WinCan VX project carries two database files in the DB folder by default. The file that has the suffix _Meta.sdf is the metadata file for the project and cannot be used to open the project. It should be ignored for these purposes. This file only carries the project-specific user entries as well as the address data of the assigned participants (i.e. client, site, contractor, operators, equipment) but is none-the-less very important to the successful opening and editing of the WinCan VX project.

The Project Manager

For full administration of all the projects located either on a local or a network drive WinCan VX provides the user with various project management options via the Manage Projects button on the Projects ribbon:

The Project Manager provides the user with the following options using the buttons on the right hand side of the dialog window:

Create a new project using the project wizard.
Add projects located on the local or a network drive to the list of available projects.
Project Renaming: Click this button after you have selected the corresponding project in the list of available projects. This will bring up a new small dialog box where you can enter and confirm the new project name. A project which is currently loaded in WinCan VX can also be directly renamed.
Project Deletion: First highlight the project in the list of available projects before you click this button. You can then either confirm or reject the delete action in the message box that follows. WinCan only deletes the project links from the project manager's list. The project itself has to be deleted in the Windows-Explorer!
Project Properties: Clicking on the Project Properties button displays a panel that shows the project type as well as options for user access control. Unchecking the option Global Visible (5a) enables the check boxes in the list field below (5b) where the availability of the the project can be set for specific user groups. Additionally, the Project Memo (RTF) window on the right hand side of the panel (5c) allows the user to free-type and format notes about the project for inclusion in the final outputs.
Oracle/SQL Server Setup: If this button is not in view, go to the File menu of the dialog window and select Expert Mode. The setup of this command is for expert users typically running very large projects from multiple CCTV sources. Expertise can be sought from WinCan if help is needed with establishing these types of projects.
Undo Delete: This command allows the user either to restore deleted database records (1) or to have them deleted definitely (2) from the database:

Clicking the buttons to the left allows the user to select or deselect all records which have been deleted from the database and need to be restored.

General Note on Deleting:

The software WinCanVX does NEVER delete a project or database records directly from the hard drive. This always lies within the user's responsibility.

The search field at the top of the project manager dialogue enables to look for a specific project within a large number of projects. Write a part of the project name into this text field and click on the magnifier icon to run the search process:

WinCanVX then is going to show you the first project that matches the search string you have entered before. The search string itself can be deleted with the delete button right to the magnifier icon.

Shortcuts to existing projects:

The WinCan main screen provides a quick access to the project list available inside the project manager. This view also allows the user to create groups which existing projects can be assigned to: Right-click on the basic folder Unassigned, create (1) and rename (2) as many folders (groups) as needed and drag the corresponding projects from the list directly to the desired folder (3).

Always mind that you lay the mouse pointer over the project symbol (4) before you drag the object to the target folder:

Existing folders can be moved and deleted or renamed via the context menu (5). When deleting a folder, WinCan is automatically going to move any projects back to the basic folder Unassigned.

At the end of the folder list an arrow button (6) is giving access to another command group. Select the command Project list options (7) to edit the order of the folders (8) or to specify folders you want to hide (9).

To quickly look for a specific project, simply type a part of the project name into the search field located below the group list (10) and WinCan is going to filter out the corresponding project(s) directly (11).

Closing Project

The Close Project button ends the current project and saves all changes in their respective directories. This is a convenient option, which tales the se back to the main screen for new projects with WinCan VX in a neutral state.

Refreshing Project

The Refresh Project command helps the user to update the current project. This is useful at various times during project work including refreshing the outputs to WinCan Map and after merging data from other projects.

Working with Projects