When working with ProStructures, you will see that it provides a variety of different dialogs, which are used to enter settings for the functions and commands. Many of these settings are repeated for construction tasks in different orders or are used in a slightly modified for (e.g., connection plates with holes for specific supports) – it would be useful to save these settings for later use. For this purpose, ProStructures offers you a template management function.

• ProStructures dialogs : (Template). Clicking this button calls up the Template management dialog box where you then can save or load the settings. Sometimes, the templates can also be accessed via the context menu of the right mouse key.
  Note: Although this is always the same window, the saved entries depend on the type of dialog box from which you are using the template management dialog. The only items visible in Work Frames are saved work frames. The Plates tool correspondingly offers only connection plate specifications.

The methods of working within the template management are very similar to those of Windows Explorer. For example, you can organize the templates’ structure in different list branches and easily modify this structure at any time via drag and drop.

Setting	Description
Load Template	Loads a template into your current project. When you click on this button, the template marked in the selection list is loaded and the input fields of the dialog box are filled in accordingly. Then, the dialog will be closed immediately. You can also double-click the list entry for this command.
Save Template As	Saves your template settings. Create a new folder or subfolder for settings in your template. By clicking on this button, you can save the settings entered in the dialog frame using a name indicated by you. You first have to select the desired list branch where your template has to be saved and then click . Now an entry with a standard name is created the name of which can be modified immediately or at a later moment. To overwrite an existing entry, select the corresponding entry instead of a list branch.
New Folder	Creates a new folder or subfolder for settings in your template. By clicking on this button, you can create a new branch (folder) on the topmost level or even within a list branch to save your templates. First select the desired list branch and then click .
Import	Imports a template to your current project. Click on this button to add other templates of the same type to your current template file. This may be a single template, a list branch or the complete file. A file selection dialog opens where you can select the template file to be imported. It is checked whether you selected the same type. If the name of some list branches of the imported template file is identical with the entry in the existing file, you can decide for each branch individually whether the existing data have to be overwritten or not. The new branches or templates are only added; they may be re-organized later by using drag and drop.
Sort	Sorts folders alphabetically. Click on this button, and the alphabetical order of the display list is turned upside down. You can reach entries which are placed further down without having to scroll up and down the list. First, you have to select a list branch the order of which has to be changed. Sorting can be defined for each branch individually.
Help	Opens online help.

Permanent and Temporary Dialog Templates

The templates are saved as permanent dialog settings in the variants folder of the program and thus are available for all users at the same time in a network if the same folder has been set at this workstation.

In addition, the last settings are saved in an individual temporary folder of the workstation each time the dialog is left. Thus you have fast access to the last entry when selecting the function repeatedly.

Version Control

You are perhaps used to the fact that in other programs and in previous ProStructures versions already defined templates were often lost during an update.

This is the reason why the data structure of template file was equipped with a version and type control. Your new defined templates remain compatible with the following versions and when former files are loaded, any new added values will have a standard value.

dBASE-Import and -Export

Different functions additionally offer the possibility to export the template files into the dBASE-format or to import them from this format. You can create data records using Excel or comparable programs. These data records then are available as ProStructures-templates.

Especially the creation of template records similar in quality (e.g., only with two variable dimensions) is considerably facilitated.

Select EXPORT and IMPORT as file type dBASE III List in the dialog commands to export individual templates or branches into the dBASE-format or to import them from there.

If the selection is not possible, format conversion is not available for these dialog templates.

Favorites

You can collect selected templates individually in a favorites list. These lists are displayed in the dialogs of the functions to have a quick selection of templates available.

First click on the corresponding entry to define a template as favorite. Then, select the option Add to Favorites in the context menu. Now, the entry is displayed in bold type.

To remove an entry, click on the entry again and select the entry Remove from Favorites in the context menu.