SQL Server shared network database

You can use SQL Server for your network database. This gives better performance and reliability for your network database.

Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Express is a free edition of SQL Server that you may use to host the tools and materials database used by FeatureCAM. It is available in 32-bit and 64-bit editions and in these languages:

Chinese (simplified)

Chinese (traditional)

English

French

German

Italian

Japanese

Korean

Portuguese (Brazil)

Russian

Spanish

When using Microsoft SQL Express to host your FeatureCAM tools and materials you need a server computer to host the SQL Server software and the tools/materials database. This server computer should be a different computer from the client workstations where users are running FeatureCAM.

Note: The database server can host tools and materials databases from different versions of FeatureCAM, or different parts of your organization.

Installation

  1. Pick a computer at your facility that you want to host the FeatureCAM tools and materials database. We'll call this the database server. The database server must meet these criteria:
    • It must be running Microsoft Windows.
    • It must be connected to your network.
    • It must be able to run Microsoft SQL Server Express 2014.
    • You can see system requirements at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143506.aspx
  2. Find out the hostname of the database server.
  3. Download either the Express (Database Only) or Express with Tools from http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=42299. If your database server is a 32-bit Windows, then you'll need to download the 32-bit version of SQL Server Express. If 64-bit, then download the 64-bit version instead.
    4. Note: The bitness of your download must match the bitness of the database server computer, and has nothing to do with the bitness of your client workstations. You may download the language of your choice.
  4. Install Microsoft SQL Server Express on your database server.
  5. From any client workstation using FeatureCAM 2018, find INITDB in the Start menu and run it.
  6. In the Tool and Material Setup dialog, select On a SQL Server and enter the hostname of the database server computer as the Server Name.
  7. After entering the Server Name, you can select an existing database on the database server in the Database Name menu, or create a new one.
  8. The first time you run INITDB you can do one of the following:
    • Initialize a new database with all the default tools.
    • Import tools from another database elsewhere on your network
    • Upgrade an existing database to the latest version of FeatureCAM and load it with all of the default tooling.

    Subsequent client installations default to this choice.

Parent topic: Tool and Material Setup