Resource Manager Help

The ARCHLine.XP Resource Manager is your ONE source of truth for resource localization, a centralized, online solution to search, manage, edit, translate all your language resources through a single and easy to use online platform. It is always up to date and accessible from all around the globe no matter you work from one office or another or from your home office.

Each and every partner can access their respective languages after logging in, to edit or revise existing translations, translate newly introduced ones or find translations that have been changed in the meantime. This help page can be used as a reference for your work with these resources. If you cannot find an answer here, please contact us.

Table of content

How to use the Resource Manager?
Finding resources
Filtering resources
Translating resources
Testing resources
Resource types
Resource statuses
Protected strings
Errors and warnings

Please use this "Table of content" to quick jump to a certain section you are interested in.

1. How to use the Resource Manager?

The Resource manager is very simple to use. The basic steps are the following:

Use the interface to find a resource you would like to edit.
Translate the reference string to your language.
Save the changes.

If you would like to modify an existing translation, the steps are the same.

A few tips and rules to follow, to create the best translation possible:

KISS

Keep It Short & Simple. There's a character counter to help you with this.

ASK

Are you unsure how and where the translation will appear? Use the "Ask for context" button.

HARMONIZE

Be consistent: If you translated a specific term or command already, use the same naming everywhere else.

TEST

Test your translation to make sure it really appears correct, and fits the interface entirely.

2. Finding resources

When you log in to the Resource Manager you can see all resources unfiltered by default. If you look for a specific resource or one that contains specific keys or keywords, you can use the search field and its two options.

Type or paste any string into the Search field.
Hit the Search button to search.

Exact match only

Enable the "Exact match only" option if you would like to find resources that contain the specified string only in the exact same form.

Example:

When you use the search term "single wall" you will end up with different results if you enable or disable the "Exact match only" option. If the option is disabled, you get a free search which will find all strings containing either the word "single" or the word "wall". If you enable the option, you will end up having hit that contain "single wall" in this specific combination only.

Search keys only

Enable the "Search keys only" option if you would like to find resources with the given key. The Key of a resource is usually a number but it can be a string too in specific cases.

Example:

Searching for the word "wall" ends up with two different set of results when the "Search keys only" option is enabled:

And when it is disabled:

No result

In case the search or filtering ended up with no result, you will see a message appearing in the hit list.

3. Filtering resources

You can filter resources based on their status (all, new, existing, approved, not approved) and their types (All, Dialog strings, Messages, Material names, etc...). You can also filter the amount of hits per page.

Select a filter for the resource type.
Select a status filter.
Select a value from the "Show [amount] hits per page" combo.

4. Translating resources

You can decide whether you would like to use an external translator service, translate manually, use the original string as the translation or simply use a blank translation.

Use the resource list to find the resource you would like to work with.
Type / paste a new resource or make changes to an existing one.
Click "Save" to save changes and publish them to the resource manager.

Saving

All saved resources will be used in future releases. Note that if you make changes to a resource, but you do NOT save it, your translation will NOT be published and CANNOT be used in future releases.

Type or paste your translation.
Hit Save to publish changes.
A confirmation message appers soon.

Translator services

You can use certain supported translator services right from the Resource Manager interface. The chosen translator service provider will automatically get the reference string as an input and you will see an offer for a possible translation appearing in a new browser tab. From there you can copy / paste the translation back if you find it good enough. IMPORTANT: No context or any other supporting information is provided to the translator services, thus the abilities of such services to generate a good result are by nature limited. ALWAYS check and cross-reference the automatic translation with your previous translations before using for a high quality result.

Note that not all translator services are available in all languages. (The picture above shows Google Tranlsate and DeepL.) You will see translator services appearing only if your language is supported by these service providers. Do you use any other service? Please let us know and we will check whether a similar integration is possible in your language!

Use reference as translation

Sometimes - especially in case of product names, trade marks, years, etc. your translation should match the source reference text. In these cases use the "Use reference as translation" button. It appears next to the translation service providers and it's icon is an arrow pointing from left to right (from the reference to the translation field).

Character count

The character count appears as a number next to both the source and the translated text.

In many cases there's a limited space on the interface where a certain string will appear. A perfect match in the character count in all languages would not be possible. (Statistically speaking, languages using the latin alphapet or an extended version of it are many times expressing sentences in a longer form when compared to English for example.) But it is recommended to keep your translation as close to the length of the source text as possible to guarantee that they are represented in their full extent.

Ask for context

Source text may appear in many different situations and also because how languages treat certain cituations it might be important in several cases to understand how and when exactly your translation would appear. Sometimes it is clear and sometimes a little more context would help a lot. In this case you can actually send a context request by clicking on the "Ask for context" button.

When a resource already has a context (either given by request or by default) you will see a the context icon appearing filled. Just hover your mouse over this icon and read the context.

5. Testing resources in-software

You can test your translations in-software easily by following these steps and using one of the following commands:

Start ARCHLine.XP. (Note: if you are not successful with the following steps, try running ARCHLine.XP with administrative rights.)
Type any of the following two commands. The 1st one imports the current locale, the 2nd one imports all locale:
Wait a few seconds.
Restart the software.
Check your translations.

6. Resource types

Resources are sorted into different types for easier translation and resource management. There are the following types available:

Dialog strings
Message strings
Prompt strings
Menu and interface items
DC content names and properties
DC collection names
DC material names
Style names
Ribbon tooltips
Energetics
Property grid tips

Dialog strings

A dialog string appears all around classic dialogs in the software, should that be a property dialog or an input dialog. A typical example to that:

Message strings

Certain messages and warnings can be translated using this resource type. An example to a typical message:

Prompt strings

Prompt strings appear at the software prompt as a guide for the user to help understanding what step they are in or what sort of input the sorfware is waiting for. A typical prompt string appears as this:

Translat_Int - Menu and interface items

Interface items such as classic menu items and commands of the Ribbon menu can be translated using this resource. An example to the classic and the Ribbon menu items:

DC content names and properties

Design Center content such as names of objects, groups, profiles, doors and windows, etc. can be translated using this resource. In case the item is parametric, you will also find the names of its parameters in this resource. A typical DC content and its parameters looks like this:

DC collection names

Design Center content appears organized into Design Center Categories or Collections. The names of such Collections can be translated using this resource type.

DC material names

Materials are also appearing in the Design Center but their translation is organized into a different resource type for easier translation and management. A typical material name appears like this:

Style names

Style names appear several places in the software, where an item type supports the use of styles (for example: walls, roofs, etc.). This resource type contains those style names. An example for style names appearing on the interface:

Ribbon tooltips

Ribbon tooltips appear when you hover your mouse cursor over a command at the Ribbon bar and leave it there for a short while. These tooltips tipically help understanding the purpose of a command and sometimes describe how to use one:

Energetics

Project properties that are mostly used for energetic calculations can be translated via this resource type.

Property grid tips

Property grid property names and tips can be translated using this resource type but only for a few specific item type such as Lights, Freeform Surface, Dormer roof and Projected roof, Magnifier.

7. Resource statuses

A resource can be in a few specific statuses. These are the following:

New resource
Existing resource
Changed resource
Unchanged resource
Approved resource
Unapproved resource
With context
Without context
Context requested

Resources change their statuses based on how they are translated, accepted, changed or newly created.

New resource

A resource that has been not existing before (or deleted and later recreated) is a new resource. You can easily find new resources by using this filter to focus on translating new resources only.

Existing resource

An existing resource is the counterpart of the new resource. It is not changed, neither new. This filter is very useful for cross-referencing.

Changed resource

When an existing resource changes during development it appears as "Changed resource" for you. This filter is very good to track changes that you need to follow in your translations too.

Unchanged resource

A resource that has not been changed is in unchanged status. This filter is very useful for cross-referencing.

Approved resource

The administrator has the right to accept or reject translations. If a translation is accepted it appears as an "Approved resource".

Unapproved resource

The administrator has the right for specific reasons to reject a translation. If a translation is rejected by the administrator, it gets the "Not approved" status and you need to change its translation.

With context

All resources having a context provided are in the "With context" status. Once a context request is answered it automatically appears here.

Without context

All resources having no context are listed using the "Without context" status.

Context requested

All resources having a context requested and not answered yet are listed using the "Context requested" status. This is an excellent status filter to use when you would like to find out whether your request is still open or not.

8. Protected strings

Strings that are used by the software to dinamically fill up with content based on the context often appear in the resources and are easy to recognize as they contain specific characters. Those strings are called protected strings and should not be translated or removed. You are free to translate the surrounding text or even change the location of such protected string to naturally match the way it would be used in your language, but otherwise should be left untouched. Here's an example for the protected string "%s" that is used by the software to fill up with data bound to the user's hardware environment:

You may see the following protected strings appearing in source texts:

%c
%d
%lf
%s
{0}
{1}
{2}
etc...

ALT characters

ALT characters are the ones that may appear in the menu while holding the ALT key on your keyboard and are used as shortcuts. For example pressing ALT and then pressing F will open the File menu. However this is intuitive only if your language calls files similar to the English source. Because of this, you can freely reposition the ALT character marker in a translation before another letter if in your language that is most intuitive. The ALT character marker is: "&".

An example in the Italian translation:

&Disegno attuale

Amount of protected strings

The amount of protected strings in your translation must match the amount of protected strings in the source. Removing a protected text may result in crashes thus the Resource Manager won't allow such translations without an error message.

Order of protected strings

The order of protected stings are important especially when you see it appearing several times in the source. In such cases these may look the same but actually are used in a specific sequence and expected to be in a specific order. Do not change the order of protected strings. If the translation feels unnatural this way, please send us a message and we will help you.

Example: In the picture above the resource will be first filled up with the (1.) Name of the Graphics card, (2.) the Date of the Driver and (3.) the Version info of the driver respectively in this specific order at where the %s protected strings appear. Changing the translation in a way that it represents a different order would not change the filling order and this way it would only lead to seemingly misrepresented data.

9. Errors and warnings

The Resource Manager can warn you for smaller issues and / or show you error messages, depending on the content of your translation.

Warnings

Warnings may appear next to your translation if your translation does not match certain minor criteria. Certain languages handle these criteria different from the other, so you can ignore these warnings if your language is like that. These criteria are the following:

Punctuations do no match. - If your translation does not match the source punctuation, such as full stop (.), semicolon (:), comma (,), question mark(?) or exclamation mark (!) for example, the Resource Manager will show a warning. However the use of punctuation may be fundamentally different in certain languages. For example: the exclamation mark (!) is rarely used in English to highlight the importance of a message, but other languages may use it like that.
First letter casing do not match. - Many languages use a CAPITAL LETTER when used for starting a sentence.
Source text starts with space. - A few strings may intentionally start with a space character because of the way they are represented on the interface.
Source text ends with space. - A few strings may intentionally end with a space character because of the way they are represented on the interface.
The translation contains at least 1.5 times more characters than the source. - In many cases there's a limited space on the interface where a certain string will appear. A perfect match in the character count in all languages would not be possible. (Statistically speaking, languages using the latin alphapet or an extended version of it are many times expressing sentences using more characters when compared to English for example.) But it is recommended to keep your translation as close to the length of the source text as possible to guarantee that they are represented in their full extent.

Errors

Errors appear when there's something fundamentally wrong with the translation which may also break the user experience seriously or even lead to software crashes. This is why when there's an error, the translated text cannot be used at all. Errors are the following:

The translation contains less protected strings than the source text.
The order of protected strings in the translated text does not match the source.

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