Projects and Item Tracking

Project files and project items (data files, saved states, and so on) may be saved to any location. They do not need to be saved in the same location. The project file tracks the location of all project items.

The key to all project management, with regard to files and file storage, is the idea of the current working directory. At any time, the program has a specific path that it uses as the current working directory. This has two key impacts.

• Any item requested by the program (by the program call or model restore commands, for instance) will be searched for in the current working directory, unless a full path for the item is explicitly given.
• Any item to be saved by the program (again, by commands such as model save or plot export, for instance) will be saved to the current working directory, unless a full path for the item is explicitly given.

The illustrations above involve commands. When in the user interface (for instance, using the File -> Open Item… dialog), the current working directory will be the folder initially presented in any file handling dialog when called.

By default, the folder containing the project file is used by the program as the current working directory.

Given this information, when working with projects and the items it tracks, the following additional notes are worth keeping in mind.

Opening an Item Outside the Project Folder

A project item that is brought into the project using the File -> Open Item… command is not moved or copied into the folder containing the project file. Users who wish to utilize a file-handling scheme where all project items are stored in the same location as the project file should move any preexisting items to be used into the project file folder before using “Open Item…” to open them into the project.

Saving Files When Closing the Project

Currently, all open items are saved when a project is closed. Users should be aware of this if they intend to handle data files in an outside editor while also editing them in the program.

Caution

About File Handling Outside the Program

Moving, renaming, or deleting an item using facilities outside the program (for instance, using the Windows Explorer file browser) will break the link to that file in any project that uses it.

Edits to a data file outside the program will be reflected to an open instance of that file in the program when focus is returned to the Editor pane containing the file, if it was in a saved state when the edits were made. If the file was not in a saved state (i.e., changes had been made to it in the program but not yet saved), then a warning dialog will appear requesting that the user determine how to handle the file.