137 — Up-Convert Panel

Every panel drawing carries its own panel data inside the drawing: the main panel, openings, plates, weld connections, pick and brace points and the rest. Panels made in older ConstructiVision releases keep that data in an older record format. Up-Convert Panel writes the panel’s data again in the current storage format, alongside the older record.

You do not need it day to day. Older panels open, edit and draw without it. Use it on an older panel you are bringing back into active work.

Where it is

ConstructiVision Site & Tools toolbar → Up-Convert Panel, the button right after Linked Panels.

  • Tooltip: Up-convert this panel to the compact NOD format (reversible)

  • Typed command: CV-UPCONVERT

  • Its undo command: CV-UPCONVERT-UNDO (see What this lesson does not cover, below)

Open the panel drawing you want to convert. You do not have to open Main Panel Details first. When the panel’s data is not already loaded, the command reads it from the drawing itself, and says so on the command line:

[UPCONVERT] model not in RAM (post-draw clear) -- running panatt first...

Try it on a panel drawing

  1. Open the panel drawing.

  2. Click Up-Convert Panel, or type CV-UPCONVERT and press Enter.

  3. Watch the command line. The command reads the panel’s stored data (the line shown above), then writes each part of the panel record in the current format, one line per part, for example:

    [CVP] wrote section "so" src=panel replaced -> panel dict PRESENT

  4. When every part is written, the command asks one question:

    Compact NOD written.  Also park the FLAT panel_list as CV_PANEL_LIST_BAK?  (The panel reads COMPACT either way since D4.) [Yes/No] <No>:

    The current-format copy is already in place when you see this. The question is only whether to also set the older record aside as a named backup. No is the default, and the prompt itself tells you the panel reads the current-format copy either way.

    What each answer leaves behind, and why Yes is the answer that makes CV-UPCONVERT-UNDO available, is set out in Up-convert a legacy panel.

  5. Read the report the command prints when it finishes.

  6. Save the drawing to keep the conversion.

If the command stops instead

Some older panels do not convert in one pass. On a test panel whose older record held an active round-blockout row, the command wrote the parts it could, then stopped with:

[CSV-ERROR] cv-upconvert: 1 section(s) FAILED -- panel_list KEPT (panel still decodes FLAT, no corruption).  Fix the error(s) and re-run to complete the up-convert.
[UPCONVERT] INCOMPLETE -- panel still decodes FLAT (panel_list kept)

The line above those named the part that failed and why — here, the blockout data, which the older record does not hold in full. The command asked no question, and the panel’s stored data afterwards was the same as before: the panel keeps reading its original record.

Reading the result

  • The drawing is changed as soon as the parts are written. In the run this lesson is drawn from, AutoCAD marked the drawing as modified after the command, even though the final question was cancelled. Cancelling the question does not take back the parts already written.

  • No value should move. The conversion re-writes the panel’s data; it should not change it. In that run the panel’s first three ledger rows were read before and after the command and came back identical, digit for digit.

  • The active rows: line counts the rows in use in each part of the panel record, in the form active rows: mp=1 so=0 dr=0 .... Compare it with what the panel visibly carries.

What this lesson does not cover

  • CV-UPCONVERT-UNDO. It restores the older record from the backup that a Yes answer makes. It has not been run in this lesson; see Up-convert a legacy panel.

  • Converting a whole project at once. The command works on the current panel drawing only; run it per panel.

Watch the lesson

A companion video for this lesson is planned alongside the written curriculum.