When new releases of BikeCAD Pro come out, all owners of BikeCAD Pro receive these updates for free. All customers are encouraged to join the BikeCAD Pro Updates Google Group so that they may receive a notice when new versions are available.
Customers can download the new version from their account on BikeCAD.ca as described at: bikecad.ca/downloading_bikecadpro.
The program comes in a compressed zip file. It is not simply a patch or something that needs to be added to the existing program. It is the entire program. It can be installed just like it was the first time as described here for PC, Mac and Linux.
If nothing was ever done to customize your previous version of BikeCAD, there's no harm in simply uninstalling the old version. Uninstalling the program will not delete any of the designs that you may have previously created on BikeCAD. To uninstall, Mac users can drag their dock icon into the trash and delete the BikeCAD folder that had been unzipped originally. For PC users, the process will be similar across all Windows operating systems. On Windows 7, go to the Start menu and from there enter the Control Panel. Under the Programs section, click Uninstall a program. In this demonstration, I have a copy of BikeCAD 7.11 installed. I'll right click on that and choose Uninstall.
On the other hand, if some extensive customization had been done with the previous copy of BikeCAD. It may be worth copying a few files over. In the demonstration above, we have an old copy of BikeCAD 8.1 along with a new copy of BikeCAD 9.0. Let's suppose we want to copy some settings over from version 8.1. Linux users should locate both the old and the new BikeCAD folders which should still be in the same spot they were left when the program was downloaded. Mac users can find the folder where BikeCAD was installed by CTRL clicking on the BikeCAD icon and choosing Options >> Show in Finder. PC users can right click on the BikeCAD icon for each version and in the popup menu select Open file location. In this demonstration, we'll put the folder containing BikeCAD 8.1 on the left and the folder containing BikeCAD 9.0 on the right. The files we'll consider copying over will all be in the configuration directory.
The following is a list of files you may wish to copy over along with a description of what each file does:
- template.bcad (stores the bike design that BikeCAD will display when launched)
- properties.xml (stores settings from the Startup tab in the Customize dialog box. If we look at the Startup tab in the Customize dialog box, we can see that if we'd previously filled out information like our contact info and added a custom image to appear in our title block, we could save ourselves the trouble of redoing this by copying over the properties.xml file from the 8.1 folder into the 9.0 folder. The case where it is likely most important to copy this file over is if you've assigned several custom palettes in the paint section, this operation could potentially be quite time consuming to repeat. If you are using an old properties.xml file where the check box that enables the Zoom slider is turned on, consider turning that off in version 9.0 as the ability to zoom with the scroll wheel makes this zoom slider obsolete for most applications. If your properties file references a custom image for your title block, you should find that image file in your TITLEBLOCK_IMG folder. Be sure to copy that file over as well. Similarly, if you've created custom paint palettes, you'll find those paint palettes stored in files in the Colors\Schemes folder.)
- fit_advisor.xml (stores fit advisor formulas and settings. If any of your Fit advisor settings employ custom image files depicting unique measurement schemes, you should find those image files in the FIT_ADVISOR_IMG folder. Be sure to copy those files over as well.)
- dialogs1(2)(3).xml (stores the size and location of dialog boxes when you exit from BikeCAD Pro, so that the dialog boxes can be restored to their past states when BikeCAD Pro is launched again.)
- csv_props.xml (stores settings from the Configure CSV output tab in the Customize dialog box. If you use a spreadsheet that reads specific fields out of the CSV output file. You should check out this info.)
- BikeCADlang.props (stores language choice. If you've never changed the language of BikeCAD, you won't have this file.)
- BikeCADrecent.props (stores locations of last few BikeCAD files that were opened. This file will not exist in a new installation.)
- BikeCADdir.props (stores the location of the last directory you opened a file from. As with the BikeCADrecent.props file, the BikeCADdir.props file will not exist in a new installation. However, it does not hurt to copy either of these files over.)
With the exception of the few folders already mentioned, the rest of the subfolders listed below will either contain template files such as dimension templates and paint templates, or they will contain standard components such as standard saddles, cranks and wheels. Copy over whatever content you may have created in your earlier version of BikeCAD.
If you are copying the contents of your folders from a Mac computer onto a PC, you may notice the presence of a file called .DS_Store in your PC folder after files have been copied from your Mac. These files are proprietary format hidden files created by the Mac OS X operating system to store custom attributes of a folder. They are not required on your PC and should actually be deleted from any directories inside BikeCAD's configuration folder.
- BIKE folder (contains all Bike template files.)
- CARGO folder (contains all standard rear cargo loads)
- Colors\Images folder (contains all Images from the advanced color palette)
- Colors\Schemes folder (contains all predefined color schemes (palettes))
- CRANKS folder (contains all standard cranks)
- DIMS folder (contains all Dimensions templates)
- DISPLAY folder (contains all Display templates)
- FIT_ADVISOR_IMG folder (contains all images used to describe Fit advisor fit schemes)
- FORK folder (contains all standard forks)
- FRONTCARGO folder (contains all standard front cargo loads)
- FRONTPANNIERS folder (contains all standard front panniers)
- FRONTRACK folder (contains all standard front racks)
- HANDLEBAR folder (contains all standard handlebars)
- HEADSETS folder (contains all standard headsets)
- LOWRIDER folder (contains all standard lowrider racks)
- LRPANNIERS folder (contains all standard lowrider panniers)
- MODEL folder (contains all Model template files.)
- NOTES folder (contains all Notes template files.)
- PAINT folder (contains all Paint template files.)
- PANNIERS folder (contains all standard rear panniers)
- Pedals folder (contains all standard pedals.)
- PHOTO folder (contains all Photo template files.)
- RACK folder (contains all standard rear racks)
- REARBRAKE folder (contains all standard rear brakes)
- REARDROPOUTS folder (contains all standard rear dropouts.)
- RIDER folder (contains all Rider template files.)
- SADDLE folder (contains all standard saddles.)
- SEATPOST folder (contains all standard seatposts.)
- SPROCKETS folder (contains all standard cassettes.)
- TITLEBLOCK folder (contains all Titleblock template files.)
- TITLEBLOCK_IMG folder (contains any images that may be used in the Title block.)
- WHEELS folder (contains all standard wheels.)
Once you've copied over all of your relevant files and launched the new version of BikeCAD to confirm all your custom settings have been copied over, it should be safe to uninstall all older versions of BikeCAD Pro.