I've written to Bob about these problems, but it doesn't look like he's got it, so I'm trying to put my problems here instead. I'm sorry that this message is somewhat long.

At our last usergroup meeting, we were talking about both DS and MPD. Some of us would like to still use DS,but to transfer a made pattern into MPD to see how it looks there and possibly print out from MPD. Helen in our group told us how to do this and a couple of the others have tried and it works. It doesn't work on my computer though for whatever reason. I can get the pattern to show up, but with the message that I don't own that pattern and the printer icon is crossed over. I have been poking around to try and figure out why it doesn't work on my computer. In my path I've accidently changed the setting in which the program saves the pattern, it's now set to open in Adobe Acrobat, which is not doing it and I can't for the life of me find how to get the right program? back.

On top of that, one from our group tried to help me, but it got worse. Some setting has been changed (we went into control panel in folders/files too), so I lost my measurements in DS. When I opened DS it opens up with Dress Shop Pro Beta Test Version 6 oct 1 build. Click out of the initiation, Information bar, Illusions and setting box the DS 7 appears allright with all my programs. In desperation I deleted everything and downloaded from scratch, entered my measurements (I had a copy thank god), but it didn't change anything, it still comes up with the beta thing. I also noticed that it doesn't hold the measurement file I had entered, in case that tells you more on what's going on.

Whatever setting I've accidently changed, I don't know if it has changed other things on my computer, everything else seem to work ok. I will be very greatful it you can come with some suggestions to fix these problems for me, otherwise I think the computer and everything in it is going to become a boat anchor!!!!!

In hope of a solution,

Anne I was having similar problems,I had microsoft shutting me down also,my measurements weren't holding eighther,I got so frustrated. I took in my PC to the shop,turns out I had a bug in my system!although i wasn't getting a beta testing thing,but at one point pattns I did own I was asked to buy GGG.How I wish i was more tech inclined with computers. Im sure someone will help here.Are you using IE6/7?

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On top of that, one from our group tried to help me, but it got worse. Some setting has been changed (we went into control panel in folders/files too), so I lost my measurements in DS. When I opened DS it opens up with Dress Shop Pro Beta Test Version 6

To re-activate your Dress Shop program with your ISP running go to Help, on the web, Get my activation codes and follow the directions.

Thank you for the posts. I have tried to enter the codes and when I get to the program (behind the beta stuff) it shows shat I own. Kaaren I did what you suggested too, but it didn't change anything. I worked on the problems yesterday too and I did solve the problem to get away from trying to open a pattern in Adobe, but the 2 other problems are still there. Any other suggestions please.

Anne,
I hate it when something changes and I haven't a clue. Since changes were made to the file/folder option in the control panel, have you tried going back and in view area and file area changing back to default (by hitting the default key) this should change the setting back to the way it was set by the window's program.

Also try going in to restore and chose a date prior to the changes you made. That should take your program back to the way it operated before. Window's Help will give you instructions on how to restore. This has been a life saver for me on more than one occasion.

Good luck

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Thank you for the posts. I have tried to enter the codes and when I get to the program (behind the beta stuff) it shows shat I own. Kaaren I did what you suggested too, but it didn't change anything. I worked on the problems yesterday too and I did solve the problem to get away from trying to open a pattern in Adobe, but the 2 other problems are still there. Any other suggestions please.

I'm sorry I did not responde sooner on this one. I've been struggling to get a release released and was hoping someone else would get here before I did. I'll look into this further when I can, but a quick and easy (almost always) fix to things that stick is to hand delete some key files. Those are:

1. MPDA.cfg - these are your activation codes.
2. MPDSettings.txt - program settings
3. MPDMeasurements.mea - the measurement set currently being used
4. The folder MyPatterns/Womens and everything in it - these are the personal copies of all the patterns you own.
5. The folder MyMeasurements - contains all other measurement sets you have.

Any of these can get corrupted by things going badly on your computer. And, none of them is restored if you uninstall and then reinstall MPD. They are kept intact, as they were. The corruption will still be there when you next run.

To fix a problem in one of these files, you need to delete them manually. Most can be restored easily (exeptions below). Delete the lot, then run MPD and use the File - Settings - Auto-activate. It will rebuild all the files it can, downloading your activations and default pattern files from the web site, importing your old Dress Shop measurement files and converting them to MPD files.

What would be lost are:

1. Any customized pattern files that you made and saved manually. To avoid losing those, copy them elsewhere while you fix the rest.

2. Any measurement files that you entered manually within MPD. If you do not suspect corrupted measurement sets, just do not delete the MyMeasurements folder. If you do think something is bad in there, print what you can before you delete. Or, copy the good ones elsewhere and move them back after you rebuild.

Now, these files are not necessarily all of your problem. But, they are the next step you should take in cleaning up. If it is not a corruption in one of those, then the problem is outside of MPD and those will be much harder for us to help with.

Let us know about this step before we look further....

Thank you very much for suggestions Janet and Bob. I've printed out your email and will use them if I need to in the future.
Helen from our group came around yesterday afternoon to see if she could help me. I have 2 hard drives, only using one of them, but DS and MPD are on both, allthough different versions. Helen went into harddrive no. 2 and had a look without doing anything else. Went back to harddrive no. 1 and for whatever reason DS now opened up allright, without the beta stuff and the measurements I had last used was also there.
The other problem re. opening a saved pattern from DS into MPD. I still get the message that I don't own this pattern, but will show it on screen. Doing that, the pattern comes up, printer icon is crossed, but for an unexplained reason, when you click on help, then what pattern do I own, the printer icon is free to use. Why the other girls don't have to go through all that, I still don't know, do you?

I hope I have explained this so you can understand it?

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The other problem re. opening a saved pattern from DS into MPD. I still get the message that I don't own this pattern, but will show it on screen. Doing that, the pattern comes up, printer icon is crossed, but for an unexplained reason, when you click on help, then what pattern do I own, the printer icon is free to use. Why the other girls don't have to go through all that, I still don't know, do you?

The patterns should load and be printable if both Dress Shop and MPD are registered to the same person and the saved pattern file was created by that person. Every saved pattern file includes the customer id number of the owner that created it. If the customer id number the pattern was made with matches the customer id number that MPD is registered to, it should load and print without any extra effort.

The bigger problem about importing DS patterns into MPD is that the MPD options are based on the id number of the pattern in MPD terms. The MPD pattern number specifies which menu choice was used for each step of that pattern's definition. For instance, the first drop menu in the MPD catalog specifies whether a pattern is for a woman, man, girl, or boy. The next specifies whether it is a blouse, skirt, pants, dress, outerwear, etc. All women's blouse patterns, therefore look like this - "11xxxx". All women's skirts start with "12" while girl's skirts start with "31". So, each digit of the pattern number tells the program something critical about that pattern.

The MPD option dialogs all change the options they offer based on those numbers. Dresses and skirts get different length options than blouses or vests.

The Dress Shop patterns do not match those menus and do not include those types of pattern numbers. So, if you import a pair of Dress Shop pants, for instance, the MPD option dialogs think it is some type of short jacket (I have no idea why). The length option dialog offers length choices of Waist length, ab length, or hip length. These are not very useful for pants, of course.

We have been working for some time now on revising the MPD options so they work with both MPD patterns and with Dress Shop patterns. We are close to having that work now, but not quite. I believe that with the next update, we will have that properly supported and you can bulk import all of your Dress Shop patterns into MPD and get reasonable options for all of them.

Until we have that fully working, though, getting Dress Shop patterns into MPD is hardly worth the effort. Just MHO, though....

I understand the reason's you're giving for not use a DS pattern in MPD for the time being.

The other concern re. id number. I opened as suggested a pattern and it's not opening with my customer id nor with the other 2 numbers, which I have no idea where it came from. I haven't used any other numbers that the 004063, which goes in front of all the activation codes.
When looking at my activation codes, it doesn't show anything else than the id code.