Diamond Version 5 User Manual: Working with Diamond

Importing Registry settings and recent pictures

Diamond stores settings that are made or changed in several dialogs to build up or design a structure picture in the Windows Registry, so they are available again when you use Diamond the next time. The technical background of the Diamond settings (categories, location) and a summary of the commands to import, export, or reset Registry settings is available through the Diamond online help system: Open the Tools menu from the main menu bar, then the Registry Settings sub-menu and hit the F1 key when you highlight one of the commands to open the corresponding help text. In the See also section at the bottom open the link to About Registry settings.

This article in brief:
- Using the Start page to import settings or recent pictures
- Import of settings
- Export and reset of settings
- Import of recent pictures (command in Recent Pictures docking window)

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Using the Start page to import settings or recent pictures

A good occasion to import Registry settings and to import recent pictures from another computer or from an older version of Diamond is to use the Start page. By default, Diamond version 5 shows the Start page with three columns: Get started, Recent files or Recent pictures, and Latest news.

The link for the command Import Registry Settings is given in the middle column and is available for both Recent files and Recent pictures. The link to Import Recent Pictures is only available when the Recent pictures tab is activated:

Screenshot of the Start page after a young installation when just one "recent picture" (and one "recent file") is available.

Import of Settings

The command to import settings - regardless, if you call it through the main menu or from the Start page (as described above) - helps you to import (selected) settings from version 4 into version 5. It is especially useful to transfer your atom design resources (colors of elements), building and design schemes, recent files and pictures, tables configurations, and more.

The command is available from the Import command of the Registry Settings sub-menu of the Tools menu. In the Import Settings dialog you can choose where to import settings from as well as which Registry sections ("categories") to import data from:

The command Tools/Registry Settings/Import imports Diamond specific settings from selected (or all) categories into the Windows Registry section of this Diamond version 5.x.

You can choose to import directly from the settings of a Diamond version 4.x on the same computer (if available) or from a REG file containing Diamond version 4 or 5 settings, most likely exported on a different computer.

The Import Registry Settings dialog offers the following options:

Origin
Here you can choose if to import directly from the settings of a Diamond version 4.x on the same computer (if available) or from a REG file containing Diamond version 4 or 5 settings, which has most likely been exported on a different computer.
Diamond 4 Registry settings accesses the settings directly from your computer, if Diamond version 4.x is (or was) available on your computer.
If available, the Registry path is given below, usually: "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Crystal Impact\Diamond 4".
From REG file reads Registry settings from a file that has been created by the Windows Registry Editor REGEDIT (from Diamond 4 or 5 settings) or from the "Export (settings)" command of another Diamond 5 version.
The file path (if already defined or the latest used file) is given below.
To choose a file or a different REG file use the File name... button.
If the REG file is available and correct, the Registry path where the settings have been exported from is given below the file path.

Categories to import values from
This list shows all possible categories of Diamond Registry settings. Mark the corresponding row to get information about the marked category and what happens with the corresponding settings that may be already available in your Diamond version 5. Set or clear the checkmark to import settings of a category.

Check all and Clear all
These two buttons can be used to set or clear, rsp., all checkmarks in the above list.

OK
Pressing the OK button starts the import of settings belonging to the selected categories into the Diamond 5 Registry section. Find details about what and how settings are imported in the article About Registry settings (available from the online help system, see above.)

Export and reset of settings

Although this article is about importing Registry settings, especially from Diamond 4.x to Diamond 5, there are also two commands to export settings into a REG file and to reset settings to "factory (default) settings".

Export settings to a file

This command exports all Diamond specific settings in the Windows Registry into a REG file. These settings are stored in the Registry key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Crystal Impact\Diamond 5" with several sub-keys like "Settings", "Recent File List", and many more.

After a prompt informing you about the Registry key to be exported, the Save Diamond 5 Registry Settings dialog will follow where you choose the file name and destination of the REG file. After closing this dialog with OK, Diamond will create the REG file with all sub-keys of the Diamond 5 Registry key.

Note: The REG file created by the Tools/Registry Settings/Export... command has the "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00" format, which is a UTF-16 text format. To create a REG file in 8 bit ANSI format, you must use the Windows Registry editor REGEDIT. Read the article About Registry settings for informations how to export Registry settings using REGEDIT (available from the online help system, see above.)

Reset settings to default values

If you want to (or need to) restore all options and settings of Diamond to the original ones selected by Crystal Impact ("factory settings").

When you have executed this command, a message box will be opened describing the purpose of this function, indicating that Diamond will have to be closed (so that you will have to restart it afterwards). Once you have accepted by clicking "OK", a second message box will ask "Close application now?" which has to be done in order to apply the factory settings. When you restart Diamond afterwards, it will operate exactly like it has just been installed.

Import of recent pictures

The command Import Recent Pictures is available from the context menu of the Recent Pictures docking window, which can be opened with the command Recent Pictures from the View menu. The Recent Pictures window lists thumbnails of the recently used (edited) structure pictures in descending order of the last access.

The Import Recent Pictures command can import informations about recently used pictures that have been accessed by and/or edited by Diamond version 4.x. Provided this version is on the same computer as your current Diamond version 5.x, the command will prompt you to get a copy of these recent picture informations. (The command does not make any changes to the recent pictures buffer of version 4.x nor does it change any of the referenced files.)

How to import recent picture informations from Diamond version 4.x

1. Run the Import Recent Pictures command and you will receive a message, if and how many of recent picture informations are available from Diamond version 4. (If Diamond version 4.x is not or is not more installed on the same computer where you run version 5.x, you will receive a message that no folder with recent picture informations could be found or the folder is empty.)

2. Provided that recent picture informations have been found, confirm the request to import these informations with the Yes button.

3. If the import was successful, the number of imported recent picture informations is given in a final message window. This number may be less than the total number of recent picture informations found in the Diamond 4.x folder to avoid duplicates in the target recent pictures folder of version 5.x, see the notes below.

Notes:

(1) Diamond stores recent picture informations in a sub-folder of the user's "AppData/Roaming" folder. Usually this is "C:\Users\user_name\AppData\Roaming\Diamond 4\Recent Pictures" for version 4.x and "C:\Users\user_name\AppData\Roaming\Diamond 5\Recent Pictures" for version 5.x.

(2) Every recent picture information is stored in a DAT file with a title having the general date and time format yyyy-mm-dd-hhmmss, e.g. "2022-06-08-130918.dat". The associated bitmap file showing a thumbnail of the latest condition of the "recent picture" uses the same title but the extension ".BMP".

(3) When you import recent picture informations from version 4.x into version 5.x, Diamond avoids duplicates. This means, if the recent pictures buffer of version 5.x already has a reference to a picture in a document file, Diamond will not add another link to the same picture in the same document file. (This may happen, if you already have viewed and/or edited the same picture with Diamond version 5.x that you viewed/edited some time ago with version 4.x. Or you run the Import Recent Pictures command for a second, third, etc. time.

(4) To ensure to have all and only the recent picture informations from version 4.x, it may be a good idea to remove all recent picture informations that have been collected in version 5.x in the meantime. For that, run the Clear Recent Pictures Buffer command before you run Import Recent Pictures.

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