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New Update - v2.5

C

Colen

Ex-Staff
Hi there,

I've just updated the Hero Lab 4e data files to version 2.5. As usual, you can find them through the Hero Lab automatic updates mechanism.

Changes this version:

• Updated the downloader to support the November compendium update.
• Fixed a bug with ranger powers like Twin Strike.

Enjoy! Please let me know if you find any problems.
 
No Essentials PC builds?

I've just downloaded the data from the DDI Compendium and don't see any way to build characters from the Essentials books for players - Heroes of the Fallen Lands or Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. Is there an option I'm not seeing in Hero Lab that turns these classes on, or is this data not available for some reason?

Please advise. Need to build a slayer quickly. :cool:
 
Downloaded data, but not able to access

Hello!

I've just started using Hero Lab with the 4E data set & seem to be running into a problem accessing the latest data update. I've run the ddidownloader program, entered my DDI username & password as prompted, finished downloading the data & restarted the Hero Lab program in Administrator mode as per the 4E manual's instructions.

Despite doing all this, I don't seem to have access to the data. For example, after filling in the blanks in the Configure Your Character Window & clicking OK, I find myself with a character that has no class or race selected. When I try to select a class or race, I get the message that there is nothing to choose from.

I'm guessing I've overlooked something, but have no idea what. Any suggestions?

James Yonemura
 
Wagyu said:
I've just started using Hero Lab with the 4E data set & seem to be running into a problem accessing the latest data update. I've run the ddidownloader program, entered my DDI username & password as prompted, finished downloading the data & restarted the Hero Lab program in Administrator mode as per the 4E manual's instructions.

Despite doing all this, I don't seem to have access to the data. For example, after filling in the blanks in the Configure Your Character Window & clicking OK, I find myself with a character that has no class or race selected. When I try to select a class or race, I get the message that there is nothing to choose from.
Click to expand...

First of all, did the downloader report any error messages? If so, that could be the initial problem, so please let us know what those errors were (if any).

I'm going to assume that the downloader was successful and generated the appropriate Hero Lab data files once it completed. So the next possible problem could be that the data files were generated in a place different from where Hero Lab expects them. Please locate the generated files on your computer and make sure they reside in the same folder where the 4E data files exist. By default, this will be "c:\herolab\data\4e". If you don't find the files there, something is odd.
 
I just thought of one other possibility. If you are running Windows Vista/7, installed Hero Lab beneath the Program Files folder, and are NOT running Hero Lab as an Administrator, you probably will run into the behavior you describe. If you don't run as Administrator, Windows does some really wonky things to PRETEND you're in the "Program Files" folder when you really aren't. This causes all sorts of confusion when you do some things with Administrator rights and some things without. The really annoying thing is that Windows automatically goes into Administrator mode when installing software, which jumpstarts all the weirdness. We're working to resolve this in the next feature release of Hero Lab, but it's a problem for now.

NOTE! This post only applies if you managed to achieve the perfect combination of the three conditions cited above.

If you did manage to achieve the above combination, I think you can get things to work properly by doing the following:

1. Configure HL to always be launched in Administrator mode. This is achieved by right-clicking on the shortcut you use to launch HL, then selecting Properties. Go to the Compatibility tab and then check the box that says "Run as Administrator". Then save the change.

2. Launch HL in Administrator mode using the now-modified shortcut.

3. Try loading the 4E data files. If Hero Lab says they need to be downloaded, let them be downloaded again.

4. Now see if you have access to all of the 4E content generated by the downloader.

Under most conditions, the above steps should work. However, if you don't see any of the 4E content at this point, you have three choices:

1. Locate the the 4E content on your computer and copy it into the proper location beneath the "Program Files" folder that Hero Lab uses. The complication with this is that you'll need to do this in Administrator mode so that Windows doesn't pretend things anymore. If you aren't knowledgeable about this stuff, you might want to skip this approach.

2. Re-run the downloader again. Now that Hero Lab is running in Administrator mode, this ought to work correctly. The problem is that this will take a good chunk of time to complete again.

3. Uninstall Hero Lab from it's current location beneath "Program Files". Then install it again into it's default location. Now you can locate the 4E content that the downloader generated and move it to the proper location. Since Hero Lab isn't installed beneath "Program Files", Windows won't do anything special and gum up the process.

Option #3 above is probably the fastest to complete.
 
I just opened up the Hero Labs folder and right-clicked on the downloader .exe to run it as Administrator.
Worked just fine for me! :)
 
Thanks for the suggestions rob!

Hi rob!

Thanks for the advice!
So you can keep track of this sort of thing, I'm running Windows 7 (64bit) & had installed the program under "Program Files (x86)." (I had assumed since this program had been available prior to the availability of 64-bit OS's that this would be an appropriate location for the install.)

I don't recall seeing errors after running "ddidownloader.exe" & I have been running Hero Lab in Administrator mode. (Also, I had re-run the ddidownloader after starting up Hero Lab in administrator mode because I figured that might be one of the issues as well.)

So... I'm guessing "Program Files (x86)" needs to be added to the list of problematic installation locations for Windows 7 systems.

It's sounding like my best bet will be to uninstall & re-install in the expected location. I suppose another experiment could be to install Hero Lab under "Program Files" instead of "Program Files (x86)" to see if that gives me any better results.

This uninstalling & re-installing won't cause any issues with license activation/reactivation will it?

Jim
 
Wagyu/Jim,


If you're having problems with it in Program Files (x86) install it instead to Program Files in the Common Files folder or directly to C as mine did.
I'm having no problems with it in C, and I run Win7 64 bit as well.

Sorry, I barely skimmed through your post and began typing how I found my ddidownloader.exe file.
 
Last edited:
Installing to "Program Files" instead of "Program Files (x86)" won't make any difference. Windows 7 has the convention of putting 64-bit applications in "Program Files" and 32-bit applications in "Program Files (x86)". Since I didn't know which O/S you were running, I didn't clarify this little detail.

At this point, I'm guessing the easiest alternative is to uninstall and reinstall in the default folder ("c:\herolab"). Remember, you'll also need to move all the 4E downloaded data into the proper folder for the new install. There might be a way to get this sorted out, but it's going to be difficult without having access to your computer to check lots of stuff and "follow the breadcrumbs" to a solution.

Unless you make substantive changes to your computer, the licensing mechanism should report the "identity" for your computer every time. So uninstalling and then reinstalling should work smoothly. It will simply look like to our server like you're reinstalling the product on the same computer as before - which is exactly what you're doing.

We should have this all sorted out in the next feature update of Hero Lab (V3.7). However, until then, this combination of variables is an Achilles heel for the product. I'm sorry you ran into it, and hopefully everything will run smoothly once you do the reinstall. <fingers crossed>
 
After updating to the latest 4e I have tried over the last day to update the data files using ddidownloader but each time I try most of the progress markers show the !

is there a problem with the downloader / Wizards site or am I just hitting a busy period :( ?
 
3 Nov 2010: Wizards of the Coast announced yesterday that starting November 16 the Character Builder program included with every D&D Insider subscription would be moving online. The Character Builder allows players to create characters of any level using the most up-to-date version of the Dungeons & Dragons rules. The previous version of the Character Builder was a downloadable application for PCs.
Click to expand...

I am still having issues downloading (More ! than . appearing), I was curious is this annoucement by Wizards will have an effect on hero-labs ability to download updates going forward?

Cheers..
 
Hero Lab doesn't download character builder's data.

Hero Lab parses the compendium and downloads its contents (more or less) and converts them to something it can use (more or less).

The only thing that will affect HL is when WotC screws with the compendium, which they seem to do on a frequent basis.

But when they do, LoneWolf is quit to release an updated down loader to handle it.
 
Just thought I'd post an update. Moving Hero Lab to the root directory seems to have done the trick! However, just moving the ddidownloader data to the same relative location didn't give me access to it. I ended up needing to run the ddidownloader program again in order for Hero Lab to access the data.

It's working now though. Woo hoo!
 
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