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History

The History tab is the record of your work. Every time a design builds successfully, VirtuCath keeps a copy of its configuration, a snapshot of its computed properties and, later, any Kink Radius results measured on it. The tab lists all of them, so a design you never saved to a file is still there next month, and two builds can be compared side by side.

Everything on this tab is stored only on this computer, in your per-user application data folder. It is never uploaded, is not included in bug reports, survives updates and uninstalls alike (delete the folder yourself if you want it gone). See where VirtuCath keeps your data.

The tab needs no built model, so it is available the moment the application opens (Ctrl+0).

The list​

  • Find searches the design name, your label, notes, the project and the file the design was loaded from.
  • Click a column header to sort, and click it again to reverse: the pin column (pinned first), Name, Last built or Project. Within a tie the newest build comes first. The tab opens with pinned designs at the top, newest first.
  • Project narrows the list to one project, or to designs that have none (Unfiled).
  • The Cmp column is the compare picker: tick two rows and press Compare…. Ticking a third drops the oldest tick.
  • Name shows the label you gave the design, or its own name. Hover for the design name, the source file and the notes.
  • Design summarizes the geometry in the current unit system: sections, total length, largest section OD, smallest section ID.

Identical designs share one entry: rebuilding a design you have not changed updates its row instead of adding one. The newest 500 designs are kept; pinned designs are never pruned.

The selected design​

The card edits its own details in place, with no dialogs:

  • The star on the title line pins the design: it stays at the top of the list and is never pruned.
  • The pencil next to the title gives the design a label for this list. The design's own name is unchanged.
  • Project is a dropdown in the card; type a new name to create a project.
  • Notes are typed straight into the card and saved a moment after you stop typing, or when you click away.
  • Open loads the design into Catheter Setup, exactly like Load Config. Nothing is built until you press Build. Once it is built, Save Config writes it out as a file, and Report writes its PDF, exactly as for any design.
  • Delete removes the history copy only; a file you saved yourself is untouched. Ctrl-click or Shift-click to select several builds and delete them together.

Compare two builds​

Direction only

Arrows and percentages show how B differs from A. VirtuCath does not judge which is better: a stiffer tip or a lower burst pressure may be exactly what a design needs.

Tick two rows and press Compare…. The dialog has two halves.

What Changed in the Design lists every parameter that differs, grouped the way the wizard presents a design (Design, Pull wires, each Section and its Layers, Simulation settings) and shown in the current unit system. A layer or section that exists on one side only is marked as added or removed. Timestamps, the application version and the display units never count as changes, so rebuilding after switching units shows no differences. Only changes hides the groups with nothing to show.

What It Did to the Results puts the two builds' stored snapshots side by side: per-section EI and GJ, burst, crush, tensile and torque limits, linear density, and the first-failure bend radius from Kink Radius. Each row shows A, B and the change as an arrow with a percentage. Nothing is rebuilt; if a build has no snapshot (it was built by an older version) the dialog says so.

Kink Radius is run per section, so a section may have been measured on one build and not the other. Each kink row has three cases: measured on both (a percentage), measured on one side only (A not run or B not run), or on neither (not listed). Pushability is not compared: its result depends on the track and fixture setup of each run, not on the design alone.

Two unrelated designs get a different left half. A change list only makes sense for two builds of one design; between, say, an aspiration catheter and a microcatheter nothing was ever changed. When the two builds share no section, no lineage, no name and no construction, the dialog opens on Side by side instead: one spec sheet with A and B as columns (name, sections, length, diameters, marker bands, pull wires, then each section's label, length and layers, lined up by position). Show as switches between the two views either way.

Swap A / B reverses the comparison and Copy as Text puts both tables on the clipboard.

Moving the history to another computer​

Export History… (in the bar above the list) writes the whole history to a plain zip file: every design's configuration, its notes, pins, labels and project, its computed-property snapshot and its kink results. Import History… merges such a file into the history on another computer. You are told how many designs are new and how many already exist before anything is written. A design present on both sides becomes one entry: the newer build wins, and pins, labels and notes from both are kept. Nothing is ever removed by an import.

Export is unavailable in Viewer Mode; import always works.

Settings​

Settings… (in the bar above the list) holds the history-wide settings.

  • Record every build is on by default. Turn it off and builds are no longer added to the history; the designs already in it stay, and the count above the list says recording off. Turn it back on at any time.
  • Auto open to last build is off by default. Turn it on and VirtuCath starts on the most recent build, when there is one, instead of the default catheter; the status bar says which design and when. After a session that did not close cleanly, or in Safe Mode, VirtuCath offers the last build instead of loading it, so a design that caused the problem cannot bring the app down again.
  • Delete All History… permanently deletes every design in the history, pinned ones included, with their notes, drawing edits and results. It asks twice, and the second question says it cannot be undone. Files you saved yourself are not touched. Use Export History… first if you may want the designs back.