OpenPlant Spec-Gen Material (mat_grade) - SpecGen-Settings.mdb

Question

Hi All, I can't be the first to do this so I hope there is a manageable work around, 
 So I've been building specs in AutoPLANT for 20 odd years, and I'm finally moving over to OpenPlant Spec-Gen with the old AutoPLANT specs/Catalogs to convert and use in OPM 
 Catalogs - I can see that there is an exchange for AutoPLANT to OpenPlant catalogs, which seems to strip out a lot of fields in the catalog's that are not required, and yes I had to fix the mm as per another post. 
 Specs - I don't see anything except the Upgrade to OpenPlant that adds the extra field into each Spec. I can open an old AutoPLANT spec in OP Spec-Gen and then assign a new OP Class Name but then part of the filter disappears, mat_grade. Previous in AutoPLANT it use the SpecGen-Settings.mdb to read the list of materials and then you could use this to build long descriptions in AutoPLANT. But I can't see this in OpenPlant the field is missing and all of my descriptions use this field. 
 
 Below shows the AutoPLANT spec as it is loaded in OP Spec-gen then after the CLASS has been selected the fields that don't exist are removed including Mat_Grade which in AutoPLANT is not sourced from the Catalog.

I hope the answer is not to rebuild all of these specs again, or create catalogs from the AutoPLANT specs.

Kestutis Mitkus · Answer

Hello Ray, 
 Unfortunately, I haven&rsquo;t found any way how to convert AutoPLANT specifications to OpenPlant. We have only Upgrade to OPM option which as stated in Help Contents is not converting specification and after upgrading it can&rsquo;t be edited in SpecGen. 
 As you can see this option is only upgrading spec to be usable in OPM, but it does not update specification tables and after trying to edit it removes all data. 
 In this current situation you have few options: 
 
 The easiest way would be to Use AutoPLANT SpecGen for AutoPLANT Specifications each time when you want to edit it and then upgrade to OPM format. 
 You can Exchange AutoPLANT catalogs, Upgrade Spec to OPM Format and then add MAT_GRADE lookup field with required values to it. https://communities.bentley.com/products/plant/w/plant_design_and_engineering__wiki/29413/to-add-lookup-value-in-spec-grid-during-placement-of-component-in-openplant-modeler 
 Or you can Use Open Exchange Spec, which will convert AutoPLANT Specification and create new same name catalog with MAT_GRADE data inside. With this MAT_GRADE column and values inside catalog you will be able to use it as constrain in SpecGen without creating Lookup Filed. 
 Or I would recommend creating new OpenPlant Specification with all OpenPlant required settings and then use Exchanged AutoPLANT catalogs. Catalog Exchange works fine, and catalogs are converted, so for any new Spec which you would like to create you can do this in OpenPlant SpecGen. 
 
 I hope this information will be useful. Please let me know if you need additional help on this topic or if you have other concerns/questions. 
 Best Regards, Kestutis Mitkus