[Phoenix] How can I copy setups from character to character?

[Onkl]

Hi

First of all, thank you for the gift of Phoenix, it's an excellent addition to GCA4.

I was wondering, is there a possibility to copy setups made to the character sheet from character to character?

Also, I would very much like to use the setup you made for the combat oriented Dai Blackthorn, could you please send me the setup (if possible)?

Cheers

Onkl

[tjbuege]

I believe the custom sheet options are global. They appear to be stored under C:\Documents and Settings\{userid}\Application Data\Steve Jackson Games\GURPS Character Assistant 4\sheetoptions.ini, not with the individual character files.

[Onkl]

Originally Posted by tjbuege

I believe the custom sheet options are global. They appear to be stored under C:\Documents and Settings\{userid}\Application Data\Steve Jackson Games\GURPS Character Assistant 4\sheetoptions.ini, not with the individual character files.

You're right, they're global! Thanks!

[Kuroshima]

If you need two (o more) sets of options for your Phoenix, just copy and rename the file. GCA only identifies the shet by the filename, so for GCA, they would be two different sheets (I have standard Phoenix with default options, Phoenix without colors or greyscale [since my printer right now doesn't have green or blue ink, an color or shade of grey becomes magenta] and a copy of Phoenix customized for one particular character)

[tmedwards]

Originally Posted by Onkl

First of all, thank you for the gift of Phoenix, it's an excellent addition to GCA4.

You're welcome. I'm glad it's useful to you. :)

Originally Posted by Onkl

I was wondering, is there a possibility to copy setups made to the character sheet from character to character?

Yes. As you've probably gleaned from the previous replies (thanks, tjbuege & Kuroshima): sheet option settings in GCA are per sheet, but you can have multiple copies of a sheet and GCA will give each its own option settings, and you can edit GCA's sheetoptions.ini file to copy one sheet's options to another.

So, the current way to get what you want is to make copies of the character sheet you want to have multiple setups for. You could do this thematically (i.e. have a copy for fantasy/supers/etc or combat oriented vs. non-combat, whatever), per character, or both. Once you've made the copies of the sheet that you'll need, you can either:

1. Setup each one completely in GCA via the Character Sheet Options window.
2. If you have several copies whose options will be the same or similar, while GCA is not running, open the sheetoptions.ini* file in any plain text editor (e.g. notepad) and copy the options of one sheet to another. You'll be able to tell the different sheet option sections apart because each one starts with the path of the sheet bounded by square brackets (e.g. [{PATH}\gurps character assistant 4\sheets\phoenix.gcs]). You can then tweak each one, as needed, in GCA via the Character Sheet Options window.

* If you've installed the latest program update for GCA (4.0.371), and you should, sheetoptions.ini will be found in:

• Windows XP:
  C:\Documents and Settings\{USER}\Application Data\Steve Jackson Games\GURPS Character Assistant 4\
• Windows Vista & Windows 7:
  C:\Users\{USER}\AppData\Roaming\Steve Jackson Games\GURPS Character Assistant 4\

Originally Posted by Onkl

Also, I would very much like to use the setup you made for the combat oriented Dai Blackthorn, could you please send me the setup (if possible)?

I'll probably have to recreate it, but I can do that, yes. You'll also have to edit the sheetoptions.ini file, so you'll need to be comfortable doing that. Also note, such option setups are complex, so you'll probably want to have a sheet for each such character that you want to do this way, since it will likely take a bit of fine tuning to get it right.

When I have the options done, I'll put them someplace you can download them and then post a note here.

[tmedwards]

Actually, I'll just post the options you'll need here. There's not all that much to them, really. To use:

1. Edit sheetoptions.ini.
2. Find the header for the sheet you'd like to configure this way (e.g. [{...}\gurps character assistant 4\sheets\phoenix.gcs]).
3. Replace everything after the sheet header, leaving the header itself intact, up to the next sheet header with the options below.
4. Save and close sheetoptions.ini.

If you have trouble with any of this let me know and I'll see what I can do to help.

Phoenix (1.31) Combat Oriented Options, Style A:

PhoenixVersion=1.31
PrintBlocks=534773755
PositionBlocks=Wound/Usage Recording|Ancillary Statistics Blocks|Lifting Feats|Encumbrance Table|Defenses|Melee Attacks|Ranged Attacks|Spell Grimoire|Size and Speed/Range Table|Humanoid Hit Location Table|Skills|Techniques|Ritual Magic Paths|Spells|Reaction Modifiers|Cultural Familiarities|Languages|Templates & Meta-Traits|Advantages|Perks|Disadvantages|Quirks|Point Summary|Portrait|Description|Notes|Scratch Pad|Equipment|Load-Out|Campaign Log
ForceBlockToP1C2Top=4
ForceBlocksToEnd=3
PageBreaks=536870912
ColumnSwitch=0
WoundUsagePrintCheckboxes=3
DefensesPrintExpandedInfo=3
FootnotesPrintTraitBonuses=2040
FootnotesPrintTraitConditionals=2047

Note 1: As the title suggests, these are made to work with Phoenix 1.31 and later. They will not work correctly with older releases because of changes to some of the variable names. I could create options for older releases, if there was a need, but you really should be using Phoenix 1.31 or later.

Note 2: Yes, you'll probably be replacing a large amount of options with the small amount here. That's because GCA saves all options to the sheetoptions.ini file, not just the ones that aren't at their default values. I, on the other hand, have only included here the ones that I changed from default. This won't cause any problems.

[Onkl]

Thank you so much! This helped A LOT!

Three cheers for Phoenix and its creator!

:)