NEWSLETTER

How to Get the Most Out of SpecLink-E

The BSD SpecLink-E (SLE) software, although patterned as the successor to the popular SpecLink+, is new from the ground up. Like many new software products, SLE is going through a shakedown period as we work to tune it and enhance its productivity. This article is intended to help get the most out of the software as we work to eliminate the annoyances.

System Architecture
We know SpecLink-E may be the first “client-server” application that many of you have used, so some aspects of the system can be confusing.  Even when installed standalone on a single computer, there are two separate applications: the server and the client.  The interface that you work with is the client application. The client in SLE is sometimes referred to as a disconnected client because it can do many things on its own. When you are editing a section, everything is handled by the client.

On the other hand, there are many processes that run on the server. At the heart of the server application is the main link engine. While there is a small engine on the client to handle the links within the document you are editing, the main engine is ultimately responsible for the project. The server is also responsible for managing the database for saving, copying, and comparing sections at the request of one or more clients.

How Can Performance Be Improved?
We are making significant enhancements to the main linking engine, which is the principal performance bottleneck. We’re also modifying the reporting engine to address issues with end of page detection and header and footer placement. This work will be delivered as an interim release as soon as it is complete and tested.

Don’t Reboot Prematurely
In the meantime, there are things you can do to minimize any problems. The first is to try to AVOID using “End Task” or rebooting computers. Even when the title bar says “Not Responding” the software is often still working and will eventually return control to you. It’s better to wait 15 minutes or so than suffer the data corruption or missing data that can result from rebooting the software.



A good place to begin when looking to improve performance is the Projects database. Try to keep the size under 1.5 GB (the smaller the better). The Projects database size is shown on the About dialog, which is accessed by a button on the lower right corner of the main App Menu. Archive your projects (Save Project to File and delete on the Tools Tab), or delete old or unused projects. You can use Load from File as soon as you need the project again.

Don’t Copy Your Office Master
If you use an Office Master database and typically copy it to start a new project, you can reduce database size significantly by slightly modifying your process. Instead of copying the whole master, start a new project and import all the sections you will need from the office master all at once or as you need them. It’s easy and unlike SpecLink+, SLE does place user-created sections in the same place in the target project as it found them in the source office master. A smaller project will also process faster.

Pay Attention to Your Hardware
Be aware of the load on your server. How many other applications does it support? Is it responsible for office backups and if so, do they take place while you’re trying to work on a spec late at night? Is there a high volume of network traffic? 64-bit operating systems have significant impact on performance. They allow use of large amounts of memory, finally breaking the 3 GB limit of 32-bit systems. Memory is relatively cheap. It offers a bigger bang for the buck, and on a 64-bit server, 8-12 GB is not inappropriate.  On a 64-bit client workstation running Revit, SpecLink-E LinkMan-E, Word, Outlook and potentially many other applications, 6-8 GB is certainly warranted.

Protect Yourself
SpecLink-E offers five different ways to save and /or backup your data. Three are on the Documents Tab and pertain to individual documents (sections), and two are on the Tools Tab and pertain to the whole Project or Projects Database. On the Documents Tab, the Save to Database command acts just like the Check-In command, except it leaves the document checked out. Save to Database takes place automatically when you use Print, Preview, or Rebuild Document Links. Obviously, you must be connected to the server for Save to Database to be available.



Save to Disk runs automatically every 5 minutes when SpecLink-E is running and saves your current section to a temporary storage area on the client computer. It is chiefly useful when you are working disconnected from the server. Save to Database is always the better choice when you are connected, even though it takes a little longer. Check-In and Close saves your section to the Projects database, causes the main link engine to run, and removes the section from your desktop.

The two commands on the Tools tab let you save an entire project to a single file (Save to File) with an option to delete the copy of the project the Projects database. The second command, Backup Databases, lets you backup your entire database setup for periodic backup purposes. The Backup Databases command is also useful if and when you want to move the server installation to another server computer.

You also want to protect yourself from corruption to the data. For the most part, this is SpecLink-E’s responsibility, but there is an area where you can help. SLE allows you to copy and paste blocks of text from Microsoft Word documents and RTF-formatted files. Sometimes these files can contain data or information that is not compatible with the SLE text manager. The software tries to filter as much as it can during the import or pasting process, but sometimes incompatible data slips through. A good filtering approach is to open the document in WordPad, save it to a new name, and then import or paste the saved document to SLE. This also applies when you use Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V to copy and paste blocks – the WordPad version is likely to inject less incompatible data than the Word version.

Running multiple instances of SLE
There are several reasons to run more than one instance of SLE. You may want to check something in another project but don’t want to close the project you are working on. You also need to run another instance of SLE to copy paragraphs or branches from one SLE project to another. Keep in mind that each instance is a separate application and places a corresponding load on the client computer memory “store.” Note that if you have multiple instances of SLE running and are closing down for the day, it is best to complete closing sections in one instance before beginning to close sections in the second instance of SLE.

Maintenance Activities
An automatic database maintenance routine runs nightly on the server to “‘clean and straighten” the Projects database. If you are running standalone or choose to shut down your server every evening, it’s possible to manually initiate maintenance from the client software. For information on running this process, press F1 while in the software, click on Index and type in "Server" to find the topic called “Server Database Maintenance.”

On occasion, a section can become corrupted, e.g., by importing text directly from Word. This corruption can manifest itself as distortion in the document panel display, inability to print one or more sections, or difficulty in opening the Print Dialog window.  If you have a project that has any of these issues, try running the Verify Document Sequencing command from the Tools tab.  This process cannot hurt your project and may solve the problem.

As you probably know by now, despite a few glitches, BSD SpecLink-E has tremendous potential. We’re working full time to realize that potential sooner rather than later. If you have questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to call our technical support group at 800-266-7732 or write us at support@bsdsoftlink.com.