Problem

We are creating an installation package for AECOsim Building Designer V8i (SELECTseries 6) for machines where previous versions (SELECTseries 3 thru SELECTseries5) are already installed and have a few questions: 

1) Will shared components be updated for AECOsim Building Designer V8i Ss6?

2) Can existing installations of AECOsim Energy Simulator co-exist with the version that is included with AECOsim Building DesignerV8i Ss6?

3) We received an "MFC" error when attempting to install/run the RAM 3D Viewer so need to resolve this, or, to confirm whether the RAM 3D Viewer can be eliminated from the installation package we are creating without any adverse side-effects.  Can our previous versions of AECOsim Building Designer run the RAM 3D Viewer if we elect to keep them?

4) During uninstall, do existing AECOsim Building Designer folders under C:\ProgramData\ need to be removed or will it harm anything if these folders remain?  Our client does not wish to backup any datasets so that prompt is typically bypassed during a manual uninstall.

Solution

1) In regards to standard shared components, items such as RealDWG or DgnIndexer are always installed with AECOsim Building Designer if they do not already exist, and are cumulative so should always be backwards-compatible as well (if needed for older installs).

2) There should not be any issues having multiple installations of AECOsim Energy Simulator since each release is a separate version; e.g., standalone versions SELECTseries1 and SELECTseries3, along with the AECOsim Energy Simulator SELECTseries6 included with AECOsim Building Designer SELECTseries6. This is similar to the way in which AECOsim Building Designer itself allows multiple installations as long as they are of different release series.

3) The RAM translation option has been removed from the Analysis Import and Export tools in AECOsim Building Designer Ss6 in favor of ISM, so you do not need to have the RAM 3D Viewer available for Ss6 or even installed if Ss6 is the only version of AECOsim Building Designer in use. The error you are getting may be permissions related, so it is best to confirm that Windows' UAC was disabled during installation or attempt a Repair from Windows' Control Panel > Programs and Features.

Each version of AECOsim Building Designer includes a specific build of the RAM 3D Viewer based on the current version of RAM Structural System available at the time; e.g., SELECTseries4 includes RAM 14.05, SELECTseries5 includes 14.06 and SELECTseries6 includes 14.07. The RAM 3D Viewer viewer is a subset of RAM Structural System and includes shared components under the C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Bentley\Engineering folder.  If you do not need to view RAM Structural System files from AECOsim Building Designer and/or simply do not use RAM Structural System, there should be no harm in removing it from your installation package. If you do use RAM Structural System standalone, that installer will include everything needed for it to run independently of AECOsim Building Designer; Bentley Systems includes these files primarily so RAM Structural System is not an installation requirement (similar to including OpenSTAAD).

4) The existing AECOsim Building Designer folders under C:ProgramData\ represent the workspace/dataset folders for previous versions of AECOsim Building Designer.  Deleting these folder should have no adverse effect assuming that the matching versions of AECOsim Building Designer itself are not being used, while leaving them in place simply uses a bit of hard disk space.  The Backup portion of the uninstaller simply copies the data to another location, but otherwise the contents of those folders is typically removed during the uninstall process.  In addition, subsequent installations should overwrite any existing data of the same name and time stamp so in effect would be a non-factor.

See Also

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