How it works
You reach the DataManager from the Windows Start menu (DigiPara → DigiPara Liftdesigner → DigiPara Liftdesigner Datamanager), once your data pool is configured.
It's a separate application from Liftdesigner itself, built specifically for editing database content rather than designing elevator projects.
Ribbon
Ribbon commands are documented individually: click a ribbon item and press F1 to open the matching Help content for it.
Home tab
The Home tab is the DataManager's default tab, grouping the tools you use most while editing table data:
Edit Database Settings — the pool and module selectors: choose which data pool is active (shown as
<pool name> [<path to .mdf file>]) and which manufacturer module you're editing (e.g. "1: Common components"), with a Sort modules by description option.Grid Rows — filter the table data, a lock/edit data toggle icon, and Copy BIM Components dialog.
Grid Cells — Fill Down (copies the active cell's value down through the selected rows), Fill Down +1 (fills down while incrementing by one per row), and Find and Replace dialog.
View Grid — Band expand (expands/collapses grouped bands of columns), Text Size Plus (increases the grid's text/row size), and Column autosize (resizes columns to fit their content). Filter, for activation of the filter function for the visible rows.
Window — toggles for the DataManager's docking windows: Table view, Memo Editor, Status bar, and Tabledata Editor.
Help — Quick Help, Contents, About — the same three commands as the Options tab's Help group, below.
Options tab
The Options tab groups the DataManager's cross-cutting tools:
Export Data — export manufacturer modules.
Translation — export/import message texts for translation, primarily for sheet templates.
Excel — export/import component tables via Excel.
Annotate records — show or hide the Annotate window, pick the annotation language, the Automatically maintained toggle, per-language document status icons, and Hide Grid Columns.
Hide Grid Columns — hides data grid columns according to the column type.
Software Activation — enter authorization codes; opens the shared DigiPara Licensing dialog.
Help — Quick Help, Contents, About.
Program Options
Open via the Menu button → Options. Five groups matter most:
Logging — where the log file is written, and how much detail it captures (the max output value; higher means more detailed logs). The default is preset by your user group.
User settings — controls which component properties are visible and which UI style is shown, via four user groups: Standard (classic UI, standard property set), Developer (classic UI, extended property set), Inventor Implementation (ribbon UI for the Autodesk Inventor version), Ribbon (ribbon UI, extended property set).
Environment — toolbar style, whether data grid windows open tabbed or as separate document windows, docking window positions, and a layout reset back to defaults.
Language — program language (restart required after changing it), Help language (with a fallback language if your preferred one has no Help content), and drawing/project language settings.
Global Settings — the shared file paths the Datamanager reads and writes: All Users Application Data, User Application Data, and the System pool.
Docking Windows
Table view
The Table view docking window (Home tab → Window group) lists every editable database table, organized into seven top-level groups, each with its own sub-tree:
General Data — tables not tied to a specific elevator, escalator, or BIM domain: Basic Tables (manufacturers, module files), Drawing Related (layer configurations, plot styles, global dimension chain settings), and Program Extensions (.NET application extensions).
Lift Data — the elevator-specific component tables: Car (frames, guide shoes, doors and door drives, platforms, safety gears, governors, tension weights, operating panels, buffers, guide rails, balustrades), Cabin Design Wall Components (car walls and wall panels, mirrors, handrails, bumper rails, emergency doors, seats, kick plates), Cabin Design Floor and Ceiling (ceilings, ceiling and floor panels, trap doors, floors, lights), Entrances (landing doors, jambs, sill supports, fixing elements, hall button locations), Hydraulic Units (jacks, jack supports, yoke guides, tanks), Traction Units (counterweights, traction machines, machine beds, gear data, pulley beams, sheaves, ropes, traveling cables, bearing blocks), Fixing Units (rail brackets, separator beams, rope wall fixings, load hooks), Machine Room Components (switch gear cabinets, lamps, fans, duct holes, machine room doors), Other Components (surfaces, pit base units, anchor rails, pit ladders, materials, render properties, predefined profiles, steel shafts), User-defined Components, Standard Lifts (tables for loading standard/complete elevator models), and Geometry Groups (the profile group tables — profiles, points, rules, dimensions, properties, point codes, CAD files).
Escalator Data — the escalator equivalent of Lift Data: Components (balustrades, guards, handrail entry boxes, lifting points, operating panels, skirt deflectors, trusses), Standard Escalators (tables for loading complete escalator models), and XML Mapping (parameter mapping for XML import/export).
Sheet Template Data — drawing sheet and template tables: Internet Tables (for Reference Models) (country, language, and server-object reference tables for internet-hosted reference models), Dynamic Sheet Templates (sheet frame/group/item tables), and 3D Visualization.
BIM Configuration Settings → BIM Settings, split into BIM Properties, BIM Family Templates, and BIM Units Settings — the tables behind a project's BIM property definitions and rules.
Translation & Help — Translations (message/text tables, shown grouped vertically or horizontally), User Interface Translations, and Help (the underlying tables for F1/Quick Help content).
Program Configurations — internal tables that drive the Liftdesigner/DataManager applications themselves rather than component data: LDX Settings, LD User Interface, LD Product Props, LD Navigator Configs, LD Column Configs, LD Dialogs, DM User Interface, Error Handling.
Tabledata Editor
The Tabledata Editor docking window is a form view of the current table — one record at a time, laid out as labeled fields instead of a wide grid row.
Fields are organized into named, numbered, collapsible groups that mirror the table's logical structure rather than raw left-to-right column order.
Memo Editor
The Memo Editor isn't a general notes field — it's the editing surface for a record's dynamic rule, and it fills in when a Profile Group Rules row is open in Table view. It shows:
Matrix rule
Rule source
Add a Rule button
Annotate
The Annotate docking window lets you attach a comment to any data row — useful for documenting why a value is set the way it is, or leaving notes for the next editor. Comments are stored as Microsoft Word documents, one per language, and a commented row's header shows in green.
Quick Help
Click a table cell to see its description in the Quick Help docking window. Press F1 on a cell to jump straight to the reference article for that table — this is the fastest way to get from a value you're looking at to its column definition in Component Data Reference.
