Key Files and Folders




A note for everyone: It should be noted that, your Project folders and user preferences are located in a separate location from application files. This insures Projects and prefernces are never over written or modified by an application upgrade.
This remains true even if you do a full uninstall and reinstall in windows, your preferences and projects will remain in tact.

BigComm Pro, Folder Structure - A brief over view is for advanced users that may wish to modify any files related to a project.
This proveides an explaination of the folder structure for the application and key files within both the Application installation folder and the Project Folders
TS keeps all files for a project in the Project directory tree, so the project ini will never be replaced by an update. Actually since the beginning of TS the projects have always remained backward compatible with every upgrade.

There are 2 key Folder structures, the project structure and the installation structure. Within these structures, the folders and files that might be of interest are covered below; looking at the installation 1st:

[InstallationDir]:
By default: c:\Program Files\EFIAnalytics\BigCommPro\
This directory and it's children are managed by the installer or update and the intention is that there are files referenced here, but never should be a need to edit or change anything within this structure. If you do, you will run the risk of having it over written on an upgrade.

Sub Folders of Installation:
Dash - These are the template dashboards that are offered in the Load Gauge Cluster menu
config\ecuDef - the ini files are stored here. Projects do not reference these ini files, but on an ini mismatch, this is where TS looks for it first and these are the ini's that will show up in the Project Properties drop down. If you have a firmware not here, so you browse to a new ini that TS does not have, it will be copied to the Project structure and to this location if you have write permission to this folder. Win 7 and Vista do not have permission unless you are running as an administrator.

inc - All table lookups and TS specific ini fragments are here. The inc files should not be edited here. If you need a new inc or to alter an inc, it should be placed in the Project structure. The ini's should not be edited here, if you want to alter the ini fragment, the fragment should be included in the Project's ini or projects custom.ini. These ini fragments are only loaded if the section was not found in the project ini or custom.ini

Projects - these are only reference Projects that are copied to the BigComm ProProjects folder if there is no BigCommProjects folder. These projects should not be opened directly and projects should not be saved to this location as it is common to not have write access to this location as on Windows 7 and Vista.

help - Help files that are displayed from the help menu and other areas in tha application are located here.

The other folders within the installation folder are primarily binary files that TS owns and there should be no reason to modify, if modified they may be over written on an update.

[ProjectStructure]:
BigCommProjects folder - by default this is in your Documents folder on any Windows, or your home folder on other OS's. If you create and open a project in another location, TS will use that as your Projects folder. No files within the Project Structure will be updated with an update to BigComm Pro.

BigCommProAppDebugFile.txt - this will always be located in you current Projects folder, so if you change the Projects folder from BigCommProjects, this file will move too.

Sub folders - Each Project will have a folder with the Projects name. If you rename a project folder, the Projects name will change and the project will be updated accordingly. All files under this Project folder are always referenced relatively, so you can copy the project to another computer or make a copy of it to another project with a different name.

Project Folder - By default bigTune's will be saved to this top level Projects folder. Also logs for tables written to the controller will be written here. If "Automatically Load and Save Current Tune" is enabled as it is by default, there will be a CurrentTune.bigTune file in the Project Folder. All settings are saved to this file after ever page burn or on project close. This file will be loaded on Project open.

Subfolders Under the Project folder:
DataLogs - This is the default location for data logs captured by TS or converted from an SD log by TS.

dashboards - all dashboards used by the project are stored here, whether it is main dashboards or secondary dashboards. It you use the Load Dashboard dialog, it will reference the dashboards in the [InstallFolder]\Dash\ folder, but once a dash is selected, it is copied here. For the main dashboards the naming is dashboard.dash for the front tab Main Dashboard, any additional dashboard you add will be named by the name you gave that tab with a .dash extension. Secondary Dashboards are saved by the dialog name.dash

inc - this is where any inc files that are specific to your project or over-ride the one found in the [InstallDir]\inc\ folder. That makes this the proper place to put files like the inc files produced by EasyTherm if you are using an MS1 with non-GM sensors.

projectCfg - this is where TS stores files that are specific to this project:
mainController.ini - this will be a copy of the ini file you selected on project creation and is the ini that will be used when you open the project. This file is only written to by TS if you select a new ECU Definition(ini) file, it read on project open. Any changes to this file require a project reload to see. The fastest way to do a project reload is CTRL+SHIFT+F10

project.properties - Project settings and user preferences specific to this project are stored in this file. Things like Comm Port, window positions, Configuration Settings are store in this folder. It is saved an over written every time you close the project.

custom.ini - Optional file manually created if you wish to add ini scripting to the mainController.ini or over-ride something in the mainController.ini. By placing those changes in this file they will not be over-written if you change ECU definition files such as after a firmware upgrade.


Tune Files
There are several file types for saving your Tune Settings, that is settings you have on the controller for you setup. Here are the key Tuner Settings files:

bigTune - File that contains all tune settings from your MegaSquirt. This includes all tables, curves and tune dialog settings. Between this file and your project settings, you can fully restore your BigStuff3.

bigTunepart - This file type is of the same format as an bigTune, but used for saving subset of tune settings. In TunerStudio there is now a concept of "dialog settings", where when you have any tune dialog open you can select to save or load just the settings in that dialog. The bigTunepart extension is used to differentiate it from an bigTune which would contain all settings for that firmware.

table - .table format is used for saving a table to import elsewhere or another application such as MLV. It is an xml file that contains only the table X, Y and Z values. This is often used for backing up just your table, or exporting a table to import for a new firmware. The table values when store in a .table file are not tied to an specific format and if you import a .table file into a table of a different size, the values of all axis will automatically be interpolated.

vex - same as .table but deprecated do to limitations of the format. use of .table is preferred. vex is still available for interoperability with older apps.


More on Save / Load dialog tune
There is a File menu in the dialog with:
File --> Save dialog tune
and
File --> Load dialog tune

If you select "Save dialog tune", BigComm Pro will save only any settings you see in the dialog, they will have an bigTunepart extension to differentiate it from and bigTune which would typically have all the settings in the controller. "Save dialog settings" will allow you to save specific parts of your tune settings to an bigTunepart file. So you can save just the ignition settings for example, then use them later as a starting point to set up a car with a similar ignition and firmware.

Selecting "Load dialog settings" also only will alter the settings within that dialog. You can load either an bigTunepart or a full bigTune. If you load a full bigTune using "load dialog settings" BigComm Pro will still only load the settings on that dialog, no other settings will be changed. So this allows you to load bits an pieces of various bigTune's.


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