Hero Lab 8.6 release
 

Just wanted to announce the release of Hero Lab 8.6 today. This version expands the data file capability for unique IDs from a maximum of 10 characters to a maximum of 20 characters. Because of this change, several data file formats needed to be adjusted as well, so new data files will also need to be downloaded for each game system you are using.

Ever since downloading the new update I am unable to save portfolios. I get the error "unexpected internal error while saving", and I have tried reinstalling to no avail. Is there any way to get the old version back so I can use the software? Being unable to save anything makes it pretty useless.

A longer Unique ID? That sounds nice.

Will there be problems with my own datasets?

Due to some errors in this release, it has been temporarily rolled back. We hope to have an update very soon.

Oh we. Asked for this year's ago. This will make things easier.

Was getting reports that this broke the 5e Community Pack. Since your tool has such a heavy reliance on our pack to be useful can you please work with us and give us a heads up on any changes that need to be made prior to pushing this out?

You have to download a new version of the official 5e data set which may have been pulled at this stage.

The pathfinder community pack is working without issues with v8.6 and I have allot more content than the 5e does. I think the issue is with the official data set not the community stuff specifically.

Update: The errors I get are from the core LW packages not the community stuff...

Got confirmation. If you downloaded 8.6 you need to go to updates and download 8.5c again manually. Let it install and roll you back to 8.5c. Then download 5e v2.6 again and you will be able to load 5e and the community pack.

I just rolled back to 8.5c and 5e v2.6 and it now loads without issues. :)

I can confirm that I am also getting this error.

Are there going to be issues with Authoring Kit systems like the 4e files?

EDIT: After testing 8.6a, the 4e files (with all our fixes) appear to be working just fine.

I got a message when I opened Hero Lab on my iPad this morning that there was an update. The update is for D&D 5th Edition SRD for iPad v2.7.
Yet when I try to install the update, I get an error message that "The file could not be imported because: Newer version of Hero Lab required! Make sure you're using the latest version of the product."

Yet when I check the App Store, there are no newer versions available of Hero Lab.

Was the SRD update sent out before v8.6 of the software? I have v8.5.1 (#773) currently on my iPad.

Or am I supposed to delete Hero Lab from my tablet, then download it from scratch? Because software updates have never been done that way before, but there's always a first time.

The iPad app version is awaiting Apple approval and is not yet available. The official word is that it will be out "soon". I would expect in the next day or so. Until then the current version 8.5.1 and games should work just fine.

Just ignore the "update" messages until the app version updates.

8.6b issues
 

I've tried to updated to 8.6b, but, HL keeps saying I'm at 8.6a #797. I've tried the built-in updater, which runs with no errors, retrieves my license and says I'm gtg, but, when I check HL itself, it still says I'm at 8.6a.

I downloaded the installer from the website and again, it runs with no issues, retrieves my license, and says I'm gtg, but I'm still at 8.6a.

The main reason I've noticed this is because when I try to update all of the game systems, it keeps prompting me that there's a new version of HL available.

I am having this issue, too.

I have the same issue.

The update this morning had a simple text error saying it was still 8.6a, however the build number (797) is correct and you should not need to update again. The installer on the server has now been updated to show the correct version number for this build, but as long as you already have 797 this is not necessary to download.

Thanks. The updated installer fixed the issue. Even though 797 was the correct version, the updater still thought you're on the wrong version and kept prompting to download. Running the updated installer gets rid of that issue.

BTW, the updater version still has some issues. It's easily fixable by downloading the installer from the website directly, but, thought you might like to be aware of it.

You can see from the attached images, that it's trying to copy the .exe file and can't. Retry or Ignore leads to the second error of course.

I encountered this issue updating my desktop machine (as opposed to my laptop in a previous message.)

I'm not able to replicate this behavior here. Is it possible you had more than one Hero Lab instance running at the time? Is anyone else seeing this issue?

Nope, only the one instance. I loaded HL, and used the built-in updater to try to update to 8.6b. I ran into this issue when updating to 8.6a as well, and it was fixed the same way. Downloading the installer from the website, then running the installer instead. Both times I had only opened one instance of HL to check/perform updates.

Posting to say that I had the .exe file issue as well.

I ended up using the setup tool from when I downloaded hero lab to get it back, and then I was able to update with no errors.

Ran a game yesterday and getting quite a few errors when accessing content that originated from Realm Works. Need to do further testing to confirm the cause though.

With 8.6 increasing the ID limit to 20 characters, I have a couple of questions. :)

1) Does anyone know if there is a simple way to increase/expand existing ids?
2) Does the 20 character limit apply to Group names for Tags?
3) Does the 20 character limit apply to component/compset ids as well?

Thanks!
TC

1) it would be the same as any other time you wanted to change the Id you're using for a tag - you'll need to replace all uses of it at the same time.

2) yes
3) yes

Unless they are at a convention they are usually very quick to respond.

You are right - they already replied! Thanks

I found that leaving the old tags alone keeps from causing problems with random portfolios you might forget to update.

However, I also found that Notepad++ has a nice little tool where you can replace all occurrences of a string in multiple files at once. You can hit Ctrl+Shift+F to "Find in Files..." You can set up your search string, replacement string and even set a filter to *.user files and even set a restriction to only search a single directory. I'm pretty sure it does this without having to download a plugin either.

EditPad Pro is what I use, and it has the same feature. I don't know if the Lite version does, as well.

I just updated my Hero Lab to 8.6b and when I start the program there is an error and none of the community-created stuff shows up. In particular the Pathfinder Pack does not work. Any ideas?

Or if necessary, can you tell me how to roll back to a previous version that the Pack worked with? I use the program's built in update function by the way.

I need to see the errors to help. You can select and copy all the errors from the window and past into this thread.

Just FYI I have the latest community pack and versions of HL running without issues. Do you have any other addons installed?