The CaptureDent.ini settings file
Many of CaptureDent’s™ settings are stored in a file called CaptureDent.ini. Its structure, purpose, and use are documented in this chapter.
Precautions
In general, only trained service personnel or technically knowledgeable “power users” should attempt to change CaptureDent’s settings by editing CaptureDent.ini directly. In most cases it’s better to use the “Options” and “Practice” pages to achieve the same things safely.
However, a few operations can be performed only by editing this file. To help you to accomplish such operations with minimum risk, a description of the CaptureDent.ini file’s structure is provided.
Before editing CaptureDent.ini, you must be entirely comfortable with these things:
- Copying and renaming files, using either Windows Explorer or Windows’ command line interface, whichever you prefer.
- Editing plain text files using Windows Notepad. Microsoft Word and other word processing applications will not work and could damage your CaptureDent installation!
Before subjecting CaptureDent.ini to any editing, always make a backup copy. Give it a name different from any other backups you may previously have made. In case of trouble, you’ll be able to revert to this version and try again to make the desired changes.
CaptureDent.ini file structure
Most of a typical CaptureDent.ini file is shown here, with any omissions or alterations noted where they occur. Lines in the .ini file are color-coded according to this plan:
- A section heading declares the beginning of a section of settings
concerning one area of program operation. Headings are displayed
bracketed and in
[black text], and must not be changed. All lines that are not headings or blank contain settings. - Settings that you may edit are shown in
green text. - Settings that should be edited only with extreme caution — and
only if you know exactly what you are doing — are shown
in
gold text. - Settings that you should not edit are shown
in
red text. - Comments and notes (not parts of the file but explanations for you) are shown in a pale blue-gray shade.
[General] Miscellaneous settings: ShowHint=Yes Show pop-up hint windows? WarnIfNoPatient=No Warn user if no patient active? [Practice] Practice information. Name=Croatan Dental Clinic Practice’s name and other… ReportSubtitle=Sun, Surf, and Smiles Proprietor=Mark Ellis, DDS general information about the StreetAddress=17 Teach St. practice. It’s easier to edit these Locality=Croatan, NC 00000 settings right on CaptureDent’s Phone=111-111-1111 “Practice” page than here. [Process] Image processing settings: SaveOrigImage=No Unused. SaveOrigImagePrompt=No Unused. MouseDragThreshold=4 Distance before drag begins. MouseDrawThreshold=4 Distance before drawing begins. PaintColorBg=FCF6C4 Latest paint background color. PaintColorFg=F8FEFF Latest paint foreground color. PaintBrushWidth=5 Latest paintbrush width. PaintBrushShape=1 Latest paintbrush shape. [Media] Audio-video input configuration: VideoDevice=ATI Rage Video Capture Video input device. VideoLine=Video SVideo Video input line. AudioDevice=Santa Cruz(tm) Audio input device. VideoCompressor=No recompression Unused. AudioCompressor=No recompression Unused. VideoSize=640 × 480 pixels Captured image size. RecordSource= Unused. [VoiceRecord] Voice notes recording quality: SampleRate=11025 Sampling rate. BitsPerSample=8 Sampling bit depth. [VoicePlay] Voice notes playback: AutoPlay=No Auto-play voice notes when clicked? [Speech] Voice synthesis and speech recognition: UseSynth=No Use voice synthesis feedback? UseRecog=No Use speech recognition command? SynthVoice= Which synthesized voice to use. RecogEngine= Speech recognition engine. [Controller] Pedal or other controller: Name=VPedal foot pedal Pre-programmed controller, if any. Capture=3 Binary codes for switch closures Cancel=2 corresponding to each of the named Toggle=1 picture-taking functions.
Changing your controller settings using CaptureDent’s “Options” page is much easier than editing CaptureDent.ini. Unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise, we recommend using that page.
[Annotations] Preset annotation captions:
EditOnPlacement=Yes Pop up edit dialog whenever an
annotation is placed?
CaptionPreset1=First A list of pre-programmed
CaptionPreset2=Second annotation captions from which
CaptionPreset3=Third users may choose when placing.
CaptionPreset4=Fourth an annotation. Optional.
CaptionPreset5=Fifth
CaptionPreset6=Sixth
CaptionPreset7=Seventh
CaptionPreset8=Eighth
There may be up to forty CaptionPresetX items in the
[Annotations] section.
[frmMain] Main CaptureDent window:
Flags=0 For internal use.
ShowCmd=1 Normal/maximized/minimized?
NormalPos=153,164,955,915 Window position.
PixelsPerInch=96 Display resolution.
Color=-2147483633 Background color.
The above section is typical of many that follow in the actual CaptureDent.ini file; the rest are omitted from this page. They are for CaptureDent’s internal use and of academic interest only, since every time the program closes it overwrites whatever was stored there.
[dbgrdPatients] Patients grid column widths: Col0Width=74 Widths of columns in the Col1Width=90 spreadsheet-style patient Col2Width=66 records grid. The easy way Col3Width=122 to change these is by dragging Col4Width=65 the grooves between column Col5Width=62 headers in the grid itself. Col6Width=-1 A width of -1 hides a column. Col7Width=56 Col8Width=-1 Col9Width=-1 [PatientSelector] Patients alpha tabs: AlphaTabIndex=27 Which alpha tab was selected (0-25=A-Z, 26=All, 27=Star).
There’s usually no point editing this section. All this does is to change which letter tab is selected the next time CaptureDent starts up.
However, if the “All” tab is selected and
your practice has a great many patients, start-up can take a long time. In
this case, you may wish to change the number shown here to 25,
to select the Z tab. This should narrow down the patient list, making the
program load fairly quickly next time you start it up.
Whatever number you put here, it will overwritten the next time CaptureDent closes.
[dbgrdProviders] Providers grid column widths: Col0Width=64 Widths of columns in the Col1Width=125 spreadsheet-style provider Col2Width=76 records grid. The easy way Col3Width=148 to change these is by dragging Col4Width=-1 the grooves between column Col5Width=-1 headers in the grid itself. Col6Width=64 A width of -1 hides a column. [ProviderSelector] Providers alpha tabs: AlphaTabIndex=26 Which alpha tab was selected (0-25=A-Z, 26=All, 27=Star).
You’ll probably never need to edit this
section. Very few practices will have enough providers for the behavior
described under the [PatientSelector] section,
above, to affect the provider page.
[Database] Local/remote storage control.
UseRemoteDb=No
UseRemoteImg=No
[Local] Local storage connection info.
AliasName=medy
AliasPath=D:\home\medy\data\
MaxRAM=10
ImageStorage=D:\home\medy\CaptureDent 3.2\photos\
[Remote] Remote storage connection info.
Host=
Database=
User=
Pw=
The sections above concern internals of the CaptureDent database. Only support personnel familiar with this area should make any changes to these sections.
Recovering from editing errors
If, after editing your CaptureDent.ini file, you find that CaptureDent isn’t working correctly, copy the backup that you made before editing back over the edited CaptureDent.ini file.
