CC3+ install major fail

GThiel

Since my C drive is limited, and I needed to get all the symbols and stuff off to an external drive, I ended up uninstalling CC3+ and tried to reinstall it. What I get is one of the most useless computer messages I've ever seen in my 40 years of programming. Any suggestions??

Monsen

Not sure, but I would start by manually cleaning up the directories if there are any remains after the uninstall, i.e removing the installation directory (at c:\program files (x86)\profantasy\cc3plus) and the data directory (You'll might have two since you where reinstalling CC3+ to move it, so I would check for and remove both). You can also remove the registry entries from HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\EvolutionComputing\CampaignCartographer3Plus and then rebooting your computer just in case something had locked up your file system.
Note that sometimes antivirus software can also result in weird error because sometimes they end up blocking a write while they try to analyze stuff, and never releasing it properly/in time, so you may wish to try disable that too.

If none of these helps, I recommend contacting technical support.

GThiel

I used the uninstalls to get rid of what I could that way. then went in and manually deleted any directories that I could find, then went into regedit and deleted any references I could find to ProFantasy and CC3+. Restarted computer and still failed. I can install Fractal Terrain and CC3 (the old version) but not CC3+. I've put a ticket in to technical support.

Loopysue

Did you deactivate your AV while you were trying to reinstall?

GThiel

No, because in all the previous installs/re-installs I've never had to do that. Got a response to my tech support request from Ralf Schemmann and have gotten past the initial install issue. Now I'm just trying to get all the CSUAC and Vintyri Cartographic Collection as my maps right now have lots and lots of red Xs, and when I am trying to link to some of the symbols, the program is crashing. This is going to be a bitch of a day!! :-)

GThiel

OK, Red Xs are all better. It's only taken 6 hrs to get back to where I was when I started this adventure.

LordEntrails

Any chance of stating the solution?

GThiel

I contacted Tech Support, and Ralf sent me an alternate install for CC3+. I then installed everything. None of the solutions for moving symbols to an external drive and accessing them there have worked, so I guess I am stuck for now leaving things on the C Drive. As a programmer of 35+ years, I find it really annoying that the program persists in having the symbols where it wants them instead of allowing the user to determine that for himself/herself. I don't have all of the annuals and right now, my symbol directory and its subdirectories are eating upwards of 15 GB of space. I have a nice external drive with 1.9 TB of available space that I would much rather be using.

LordEntrails

It doesn't help for existing symbols and maps, but when you make symbol catalogs, you can define the path to the new symbol catalog as either relative or absolute. Using the absolute you should (?) be able to put them anywhere. Not sure if that helps at all though since it would only work for new stuff moving forward.

Monsen

What where the problems with moving the symbols? CC3+ symbols/fills can be anywhere you want them. The location of the CC3+ data directory is specified int he file @.ini in the CC3+ installation directory, and that location is set in the installer (but you can also just edit this file manually later and then move the folder manually). There is nothing in CC3+ that forces the data directory to be on the C drive, although that is the default location. I've moved this folder many times without any issues.

The only issue may be if you have made symbol catalogs yourself (or just inserted image files directly in the map without using symbol catalogs). In these cases, your existing maps may have hardcoded paths to the C-drive instead of the relative path CC3+ uses in it's own configuration. Custom symbol catalogs should always be defined with relative paths as LordEntrails points out above.

GThiel

As Ralf suggested I changed the @.ini to reflect the external drive and copied the full Symbol Directory and its subdirectories to the external drive, and all I ended up with was many many red Xs. In a follow up message from Ralf he said that copying only the symbol directory to a new location was not enough, he said as I understood him to say that the full ProgramData directory had to be copied. This just makes no sense to me so for now I will stick with the C drive location.

jslayton

You should just need to copy the C:\ProgramData\Profantasy\CC3Plus directory to your external disk and then point the @.ini file at that new directory. This would qualify as the "full CC3Plus ProgramData directory" in case that's how it was phrased.

Ralf

Posted By: GThielAs Ralf suggested I changed the @.ini to reflect the external drive and copied the full Symbol Directory and its subdirectories to the external drive, and all I ended up with was many many red Xs. In a follow up message from Ralf he said that copying only the symbol directory to a new location was not enough, he said as I understood him to say that the full ProgramData directory had to be copied. This just makes no sense to me so for now I will stick with the C drive location.

Sorry if I was unclear. As Joe clarifies, the whole CC3+ program data directory (i.e. C:\ProgramData\Profantasy\CC3plus) needs to be copied, not the whole Windows Programdata folder (C.\Programdata). That would indeed make no sense.

GThiel

In the process of copying all 133,461 things from C drive to the external drive, all 19.5 MB of it. Before I change the ini file, is the directory name have to be exactly ##:\ProgramData\Profantasy\CC3plus where ## is the external drive ID? or can it be something like "##\campaignSymbols\cc3plus"

Monsen

It can be called anything you want. The only thing you cannot changes it he the internal structure of the CC3Plus directory, CC3+ expects a fixed layout here (which is why you couldn't move just the symbols subdirectory), but you can put the CC3Plus directory anywhere you want (it doesn't even have to be named CC3Plus, although I recommend keeping that name for the sake of easy reference).
Beware of the Windows Max Path depth limitation though, so don't go hide it very deep within some substructure on your external drive, that could lead to problems accessing the files furthest down the hierarchy. I recommend something simple like d:\mapping\CC3Plus or something similar like your last example.

GThiel

I've managed to get this to point to an external drive -- Yeah!!!. ?ne more question, when I was copying from C drive to the external drive, I copied the complete CC3Plus directory and all its subdirectories. Was this neccessary or could I have just copied the Symbols directory> And if not just Symbols, what should I be moving and what will CC3+ still expect to find in the original install location (ProgramData\Profantasy\CC3Plus)?

Monsen

You need the complete CC3Plus directory. CC3+ expects to find everything from the data directory in one place, the location specified in @.ini. If @.ini doesn't point to the c:\programdata\..... directory, CC3+ won't look for anything there.

GThiel

TY. Only thing remaining for me is to redirect any symbols that I am using, as when I bring up a map, they are appearing as a red x. Repointing them to the new location makes them all better. Must be a case of me choosing Absolute location when I first added them.

Monsen

I assume this is just for custom symbols you added yourself? Any symbols added to a map from an official symbol catalog should work perfectly after the move since these reference the relative data directory path. (This also applies to the symbol catalog from the four community adddons)