Panorama, like some other popular Windows applications, has adopted an
open-architecture design. This means that the database tables used in Panorama are
accessible by other database programs using an ODBC driver or other conversion
utility. For information about using Panorama
Protel strongly recommends that you do not write information directly to the
tables used by Panorama; use them instead for generating specialized reports for
analysis and decision-making. Also, if hard disk space allows, make a copy of
the tables that you will be using and read from the copies instead of the
originals. The tables can be found in the directory c:\Program
Files\Panorama\Cental and c:\Program Files\Panorama\Local, if you installed Panorama in the
default location.
The tables can be viewed directly using the included Protel Data Inspector,
which was installed with Panorama, and can be found in the Windows Start button
with the Panorama application. Using the Data Inspector, every data table is
listed in the left third of the window (click on the plus symbols to open the
table and display individual fields); the right two-thirds of the window is
controlled by three tabs:
In the Data Inspector over 70 tables are listed; the tables that contain
information pertinent to business operations, though, are considerably fewer.
Following are the tables that are most likely to be needed, with descriptions of
their use and a list of their contents:
Database Table Descriptions