Legacy Builds and Microsoft Office Formats

Important: In 2022, after 20 years of supporting both 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Manifold products, Manifold dropped support for 32-bit versions. The last base build for Manifold Release 9 that includes a 32-bit version is build 177. The last base build for Manifold Release 8 that includes a 32-bit version is build 8.0.33. Users who require 32-bit versions should use a 32-bit version of build 177 for Release 9 and a 32-bit version of build 8.0.33 for Release 8. Base builds do not expire and are expected to be available as legacy downloads for a reasonable period of time. See the product downloads pages for Release 9, Release 8, and Manifold Viewer for links to legacy downloads.

The following topic is the outdated, legacy version of the Microsoft Office Formats - MDB, XLS and Friends topic that includes instructions for use of legacy builds of Manifold, such as build 177, that are no longer provided but which do provide 32-bit versions of Manifold. A better idea is to run 64-bit Windows and to use modern, 64-bit versions of Manifold, but if you are stuck using 32-bit Windows or for some other reason must use Manifold in 32-bit mode, the following topic may help when using 32-bit legacy versions of Manifold to connect to Microsoft office formats.

Microsoft Office Formats - MDB, XLS and Friends (Legacy Version)

When our Windows system has the required Microsoft components installed, reading and writing Microsoft Office formats like Access MDB or Excel XLS will be effortless in Manifold. The trick is sorting out the Microsoft installation. That is usually very easy, but some thought may be required sometimes because of conflicts between different Microsoft packages that have evolved over time in incompatible ways. If we sort out our Microsoft installation, everything works perfectly, all of the time.

Summary

To link to or import from a Microsoft Office file, launch Manifold in the usual way and try linking to or importing from a Microsoft Office format file, like an .mdb or .xlsx. In most systems it will just work. If it does not work, the following tips will make connecting to Microsoft Office formats easy, depending on what version of Microsoft Office, if any, has been installed.

64-bit Microsoft Office - If you have 64-bit Microsoft Office installed, launch Manifold and you will be able to link to or import from Microsoft Office formats effortlessly.

32-bit Microsoft Office - If you have Microsoft Office installed in a 32-bit Windows System, just launch Manifold to link to or import from Office formats. If you are running 64-bit Windows and you have an old, 32-bit version of Office installed in your 64-bit Windows system, launch 32-bit Manifold to link to or import from Microsoft Office formats. When using 32-bit Manifold in a 64-bit Windows system, once you import the data you want from the Office format, you can save the project, and then open that project in 64-bit Manifold if full 64-bit power is desired.

Office not Installed - If Microsoft Office has not been installed, visit Microsoft's link for the Access Database Engine (see comments below) and install it. When running 64-bit Windows install the 64-bit version of Access Database Engine. When running 32-bit Windows, install the 32-bit Access Database Engine. Manifold will then be able to link to or import from Microsoft Office formats.

When running 64-bit Windows systems, the only time we normally launch Manifold in 32-bit mode is to connect to Office formats when we have an old, 32-bit version of Microsoft Office installed. We do that because 32-bit Microsoft Office conflicts with Microsoft's 64-bit code for connecting to Office formats.

There are tricky ways of installing Microsoft code to enable 64-bit access to Office formats even if 32-bit Office is installed. But those methods are such a hassle it is much easier to just launch Manifold in 32-bit mode if we have 32-bit Office installed.

Manifold Uses Microsoft Facilities

Manifold utilizes Microsoft data access software to connect to Microsoft Office file formats. Using Microsoft's own code ensures that data will be read from and written to those formats as Microsoft intends, and it automatically takes advantage of Microsoft bug fixes and improvements in Microsoft updates. However, when using Microsoft's code we are subject to Microsoft's requirements for compatibility between different Microsoft products.

For connections to Office formats, Manifold can use any of the three data access systems Microsoft has used over the years to support Microsoft Office. Only the last of the three, Access Database Engine, is recommended:

JET - JET is a 32-bit package that was Microsoft's original data access technology for Office, but which is now deprecated in favor of newer technologies. JET can read legacy Microsoft Office files in formats such as .db, .html. .mdb, .xls, and .wkx if they have been created by JET, but might not be able to read them if they were created using newer Microsoft technology like ACE or Access Database Engine. JET cannot read or write newer Office formats such as .xlsx and .accdb. Because JET is 32-bit, to use it we must launch Manifold in 32-bit mode. This applies even if we are using a 64-bit Windows system. If newer Microsoft technologies, like Access Database Engine, are installed in a 64-bit system, JET will not work, not even if we launch Manifold in 32-bit mode to attempt to use it. For all those reasons, JET is not recommended. Instead, we should use Access Database Engine.

Office Access Connectivity Engine (ACE) - Introduced in 32-bit form in 2007, ACE introduced revised versions of old formats such as .mdb and also introduced new Office formats such as .xlsx and .accdb. A 64-bit version of ACE was introduced in 2010 to support 64-bit Office. ACE is basically an old version of Access Database Engine that should be replaced with the latest version.

Access Database Engine - The new name for ACE, as of the present writing the Access Database Engine is available in either a 2010 version or a 2016 version, both versions being available both as 32-bit or as 64-bit products. Access Database Engine is the best way to connect to Microsoft Office formats, when it works. 64-bit Access Database Engine allows 64-bit Manifold to connect to Office formats, including legacy formats like .mdb and newer formats like .xlsx and .accdb. Because of severe flaws in Access Database Engine installation and compatibility with other Microsoft software, Manifold does not automatically install Access Database Engine. We must download it from Microsoft's web site and install it. Access Database Engine is a free download.

Manifold connections to Microsoft file types using any of the above three data access systems are similar, since all three are basically the same "Jet" data access architecture in three similar forms. When describing Manifold dataport capabilities for file database formats, Manifold release notes and documentation will refer to use of all three as "Jet," using terms like Jet XLS, Jet DB, Jet WKx and similar. Those terms include using JET, ACE, or Access Database Engine. So when Manifold documentation writes "Jet DB databases support UUID fields as a native UUID type," that means connections to DB file databases using JET, ACE, or Access Database Engine.

When linking to or importing from Microsoft Office formats, Manifold will automatically try connecting using all of the above, and more technologies, such as OLEDB and ODBC drivers, to use whatever Microsoft code is installed on the computer in use to achieve a connection. The Log Window will report what was tried, with reports such as "tried ACE16, ACE15, ACE14, ACE12, Jet4, Jet3.51, MSDASQL.1" in the case of failure to find any technology that will work or such as "(import) Connected using ACE16" in the case of success. A good strategy for connections is to simply launch 64-bit Manifold and to try to import data from the desired format. If that fails, note the messages in the Log Window, and then launch 32-bit Manifold and try the import again. If that fails, note the messages in the Log Window. The Log Window messages will indicate what Microsoft component should be installed.

If 64-bit Microsoft Office has not been installed, when running 64-bit Manifold on a 64-bit Windows system we should install the latest version of Microsoft's 64-bit Access Database Engine. That will allow 64-bit Manifold to connect to Office formats. If we do not have 32-bit Microsoft Office installed on that same computer, then it is usually easy to install 64-bit Access Database Engine and from then on, everything works OK. When running 32-bit Manifold on a 32-bit Windows system, we should install the latest version of Microsoft's 32-bit Access Database Engine. That will allow 32-bit Manifold to connect to Office formats.

However, due to flaws in Access Database Engine installation and compatibility with other Microsoft applications, we may be unable to install or use Access Database Engine.

If we cannot get Access Database Engine to work, or if we find the procedures to deal with Access Database Engine installation flaws and operational bugs too inconvenient, we can try launching and using a 32-bit instance of Manifold. That will try to use JET and, if other Microsoft software that conflicts with JET is not installed, usually works for the formats JET supports, but does not provide connectivity to newer formats like .xlsx or .accdb.

Installing 64-bit Access Database Engine

There is no sugar-coating it: installation of 64-bit Access Database Engine can be an inconvenient mess. It is not compatible with 32-bit Microsoft Office, and it depends upon Microsoft libraries which might not be on the Windows system and which might not be installed by the Access Database Engine installation. In such cases the installation will not fail in a clean way, but instead operation of the Access Database Engine will be faulty, with failed operations. Other bugs in Access Database Engine may cause crashes in matters entirely unrelated to reading and writing Microsoft formats like .mdb and .xls. It really is a mess, but if we are persistent and go step by step we can usually get it running.

A Microsoft link to download the Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 Redistributable package is: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54920. Microsoft links may change. If so, use your Internet search engine to search for "Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 Redistributable" to find a current download link. The above download provides downloads for an x64 (64-bit) Access Database Engine as well as a 32-bit version. Most people only install the x64 version since 64-bit Manifold is where it is used.

In 32-bit Windows systems our task is simple: download and install 32-bit Access Database Engine. In 64-bit Windows system we may encounter a complication: 64-bit Access Database Engine cannot be installed on a 64-bit Windows system if 32-bit Microsoft Office has been installed. That can be a problem because many people use 32-bit Microsoft Office installations within 64-bit Windows. If we try to install 64-bit Access Database Engine on such a system, we get an error message:

We can fix the above by downloading and installing 32-bit Access Database Engine. We can then launch Manifold in 32-bit mode whenever we want to import from or export to .mdb or other Office formats, like .xls, .xlsx, or .accdb. We can import an .mdb in a 32-bit Manifold session and save the .map project. We can then open that .map project in a 64-bit Manifold session to get the benefits of 64-bit power.

If we must leave data in a linked .mdb file instead of importing it into Manifold, it is no problem to use 32-bit Manifold, because .mdb files are limited to only 2 GB, a small size that can be easily handled by 32-bit Manifold.

Microsoft Library Issue

In both 64-bit and 32-bit versions, Access Database Engine depends upon a Microsoft library called MSVCR100.DLL. However, as of this writing (2020) the Access Database Engine installation package fails to install that library if it is not present on our computer.

If the library is not present, Access Database Engine will not warn us. Instead, it will try to load another DLL that depends on the missing library, which will fail. The operation that called that DLL, which is usually a reading operation, will abort. In export cases, it will keep trying to load the DLL that depends upon the missing MSVCR100.DLL and that will fail repeatedly. That may abort the process or the export might work but only very slowly.

To solve that problem we can search the Microsoft site for the missing DLL and install it. Search for both the 64-bit and 32-bit versions of the DLL and install both. The current names of the missing DLL in 64-bit and 32-bit versions are:

vcredist_x64_vs10sp1_msvcr100.exe
vcredist_x86_vs10sp1_msvcr100.exe

Microsoft's site changes frequently so reliable links to the above cannot be published in this documentation. Instead, use the search feature of the Microsoft site to find them, or use a search engine such as Bing or Google to find them.

It may be impossible to find the above .exe files on the Microsoft site. Another approach is to search for and to install the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 Update 4, which will install MSVCR100.DLL file.

Registry Fix for Access Database Engine Graphics Bug

Crazy as it sounds, the Access Database Engine uses graphics services, and if hardware-acceleration for graphics is turned on within the Access Database Engine it can crash in some versions. This bug has been acknowledged by Microsoft and has been said to be fixed on past occasions but without being fixed in all circumstances. A Microsoft link that discusses the issue: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/access/odbc-administrator-crashes

Although the bug may be fixed in whatever is the current version of the Access Database Engine, the safe plan is to turn off hardware graphics acceleration within Access Database Engine dialogs, just in case. That must be done by editing the Windows registry. Edit the registry to alter this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Graphics

... to this value:

(DWORD) DisableHardwareAcceleration = 1

Editing the Windows registry can cause system problems if done incompetently. We should not edit the registry if we do not know how to do so competently.

Launch Manifold in 32-bit Mode

In a 64-bit Windows system it would be more convenient to simply launch 64-bit Manifold to connect. But if that is not possible due to the presence of 32-bit Office, we can live with having to use 32-bit Manifold when importing from or exporting to .mdb, .accdb, .xls, .xlsx, and other Office formats. That is a minor hassle, but it is less of a hassle than a choice between abandoning Office or buying 64-bit Office. Since a 64-bit Manifold license includes both 64-bit and 32-bit Manifold, we can use 32-bit Manifold to get around the conflict between Microsoft's 32-bit Office and Microsoft's 64-bit Access Database Engine.

To launch Manifold in 32-bit mode in a 64-bit Manifold system, see the Legacy Builds - Launch in 32-bit Mode topic.

Enabling Connections to Office Formats

Access Database Engine already may be installed on our Windows system. The easiest way to find out is to launch Manifold and then to try linking an .xlsx or .accdb file. We try linking an .xlsx or .accdb file, because if we try linking an .mdb the result does not tell us if we have JET or if we have Access Database Engine.

If we have a 64-bit Manifold installation, we try linking an .xlsx or .accdb file twice, first launching Manifold in 64-bit mode to try linking, and then again launching Manifold in 32-bit mode to try linking. That will tell us if we have 64-bit or 32-bit Access Database Engine installed. If we are curious to see if we have JET installed, we can launch Manifold in 32-bit mode and also try linking an .mdb file, to see what happens.

32-bit Windows - If we have 32-bit Windows, Manifold is always 32-bit, just like everything else on our system. We launch Manifold and use File - Link to try linking an .xlsx or .accdb file. If we can link an .xlsx or a .accdb file, that means we have installed either a recent Microsoft Office or Access Database Engine or some other software that installed required Microsoft software. Done! If we cannot link .accdb or .xlsx files, that means we do not have Microsoft Office or Access Database Engine installed. Download 32-bit Access Database Engine from the Microsoft web site and install it.

32-bit Windows, running JET - If we can link an .mdb within Manifold but not an .accdb or .xlsx, that means we have JET or other legacy software installed but not Access Database Engine. JET is so ubiquitous that most older Windows systems, or older Windows systems that were automatically upgraded to Windows 10, have JET installed. If JET is installed, Manifold will happily use it to import legacy .mdb and other legacy Office files that JET can handle. Many Manifold users are running on JET without realizing it: they launch 32-bit Manifold to import an .mdb and it works, so no need to get into why it works. However, it is unwise to run on very old, deprecated Microsoft data access software like JET. The right move is to forget about JET and to download and to install Access Database Engine.

64-bit Windows - Launch Manifold in 64-bit mode and use File - Link to try linking an .xlsx or .accdb file. If we can link an .xlsx or a .accdb file, that means we have 64-bit Microsoft Office or 64-bit Access Database Engine installed. Done! If that does not work, launch Manifold in 32-bit mode and again use File - Link to try linking an .xlsx or .accdb file. If that works, we have 32-bit Microsoft Office or 32-bit Access Database Engine installed. If neither 64-bit nor 32-bit Manifold can link an .xlsx or an .accdb file, we do not have Access Database Engine installed. Download the 64-bit Access Database Engine from the Microsoft web site and install it. If an error message appears saying 64-bit Access Database Engine cannot be installed due to the presence of 32-bit software, download and install the 32-bit Access Database Engine, and then use Manifold in 32-bit mode to connect to Office files.

It must be emphasized that the above integration issues arise from conflicts various Microsoft packages have with other Microsoft packages. Manifold is happy to use whatever Microsoft facilities we have installed.

Legacy Manifold MFD/MDB Format

Early Manifold releases, such as Manifold System Release 4.50, utilized Microsoft .mdb format as an integral part of Manifold's vector storage format. Manifold mfd/mdb format utilizes two files, a Manifold .mfd file to store geometry and a Microsoft .mdb file to store attributes. Early Manifold releases that utilized mfd/mdb format automatically installed a copy of Microsoft JET to provide data access to the .mdb file. Modern Manifold releases do not install JET, and depend on the installation of Microsoft data access facilities as discussed in this topic.

If we do not have .mdb capability installed in our Windows system as discussed in this topic, for example, by installing Access Database Engine, Manifold System will not be able to import the .mdb portion of legacy Manifold mfd/mdb format. Drawings in mfd/mdb format will be imported with only object geometry, but without attributes, that is, without the data fields for each object.

Notes

Can't install 32-bit Access Database Engine - In 64-bit Windows systems that have 32-bit Office installed, Microsoft will not allow installation of 64-bit Access Database Engine. The usual workaround is to install 32-bit Access Database Engine. However, that sometimes fails, with mysterious error messages about "64-bit Office products" being installed. A diligent Internet search will usually produce a solution. For an example, see this thread on Microsoft's site.

Does Manifold include JET? - No. Early versions of Manifold, such as Release 4.50, included JET to support Manifold's own mfd/mdb format. Manifold later dropped JET and shifted to Manifold's own 64-bit DBMS format, relying on Microsoft installations of JET to support data access to .mdb and other Office formats.

Why doesn't Manifold automatically install Access Database Engine? - Three reasons: First, Access Database Engine would increase the size of the Manifold installation by over 160 MB, which would be unfair to people who do not intend to connect to Office formats or who already have Access Database Engine installed. Second, integration issues between Access Database Engine and other Microsoft software are potentially too complicated to be handled by a Manifold installation script. If Access Database Engine is not already installed in a Windows system, it is a very simple matter to get it from the Microsoft web site and install it, for those users who want to connect to Office formats. Finally, despite the replacement of JET by Access Database Engine, many people already have JET installed on their systems and are happy using JET for Manifold connections to .mdb and similar.

Access connecting to Manifold - When linking Manifold tables into Access using the Manifold ODBC driver, please review the notes on Access in the DBMS Data Sources - Notes topic.

Microsoft is not Manifold - As convenient as it is to be able to use Microsoft's own code to connect to Microsoft's products, when using facilities like Access Database Engine we should keep in mind we are running Microsoft code. Although Microsoft code has a good reputation, in general it is not as bulletproof as the Radian technology used within Manifold. Connections using Access Database Engine fall outside of Manifold's reputation for never crashing.

UUID fields - Jet DB, Jet WKx, Jet XLS, and ADO.NET databases support UUID fields as a native UUID type.

Booleans - Jet XLS databases support boolean fields.