Managing subflowcharts

You can perform typical management actions on your subflowchart, such as renaming it, deleting it, or editing its description. You can also make your subflowcharts available to other projects and to other computers that have Matrox Design Assistant. To do all this, access the Manage Flowcharts dialog by clicking on the Manage Flowcharts... context menu item in the Flowchart context menu.

The Manage Flowcharts dialog has 2 tabs. Use the Project Flowcharts tab to manage project-specific subflowcharts, and the Library Flowcharts tab to manage shared subflowcharts.

Every subflowchart that you add to the library has a unique internal ID and can be identified regardless of its path and file name. You can therefore rename, move, or export subflowcharts, and the flowchart manager will transparently maintain the correspondence between the IDs and files.

Transferring subflowcharts

Subflowcharts can be transferred between projects on the same computer or between computers that have Matrox Design Assistant installed.

Sharing subflowcharts using libraries

All subflowcharts are available to the project in which you create them. To share a subflowchart with other projects, move it to the flowchart library using the Move to Library button from the Project Flowcharts tab. You can now add the subflowchart to all of your projects using the Add Step dialog.

If you upgrade a project that has library subflowcharts, you will be asked if you want to upgrade the subflowchart, and if you want to keep a copy of the original subflowchart for projects of the older version.

Transferring subflowcharts to another project

You can transfer subflowcharts between projects using the Add or Export buttons in the Manage Flowcharts dialog, or by copying and pasting.

To transfer the subflowchart(s) by adding. In the destination project, click on the Add button in the Library Flowcharts tab, and browse for the folder of the source project containing the required subflowchart. Click on the required subflowchart's .daf file to add it to the library. Once the subflowchart has been added to the library, you can use it as a library subflowchart, or copy it to the project using the Copy to Project button.

To transfer the subflowchart(s) by exporting. If you are transferring several subflowcharts at once, save the subflowcharts to a ZIP file using the Export button in the Manage Flowcharts dialog of the source project. In the destination project, click on the Add button in the Library Flowcharts tab and select the ZIP file (or the individual .daf (Matrox Design Assistant Flowchart definition) file). This adds the subflowcharts to the library, from where you can add it to your project.

If the subflowchart is not going to be used in many other projects, it is recommended to use the Copy to Project button to add the subflowchart from the library to your project, after which you can delete it from the library .

To transfer subflowchart steps by copying and pasting. Open both projects in separate instances of Matrox Design Assistant. Select and copy all steps from the source subflowchart, and paste them in the destination.

This method is less appropriate for transferring entire subflowcharts because copying and pasting cannot transfer input parameters, output parameters, or variable definitions.

Transferring subflowcharts to another computer

You can transfer subflowcharts between computers that have Matrox Design Assistant, from your project (Project Flowcharts tab), or the library (Library Flowcharts tab).

To transfer the subflowchart(s) to another computer. Place one or several subflowcharts into a ZIP file by selecting the subflowcharts and pressing the Export button. This saves all the subflowcharts to one ZIP file, which you can store in any location that your computer can access (for example, in a network folder).

To transfer the subflowchart(s) from another computer. From a computer that can access the folder, click on the Add button in the Library Flowcharts tab and select a ZIP file or an individual .daf (Matrox Design Assistant Flowchart definition) file.

Note that when emailing a ZIP or .daf file, you follow the same procedure as above. Save the file attached to your email anywhere on your computer; then, click on the Add button as described above.

Copying subflowcharts from a library

You can also copy subflowchart files from the Library to a project-specific collection. To do so, use the Copy to Project button in the Library Flowcharts tab. This is useful if you want to modify an existing subflowchart without affecting all other projects that use the library.