About the Lightning database

Lightning uses an SQLite database to store your fastener data. We store the database in a single file called database.db. Storing all data in a single file makes it easy to share this file or put it on a shared network drive.

You cannot edit this file manually, even though it looks like a text file. You can move it or copy it, though, for example to move the database into PDM.

To change your database settings, go to Tools > Lightning > Database management.

Database location

To change the location of your database file, or to use the Registry to set a folder path, check out How to share your database.

Absolute / relative paths

By default, Lightning stores the full file path of each fastener in its database. These are called absolute file paths.

If every user has a unique PDM or fastener folder, but the contents are the same, you want to change this setting to relative file paths. In that case, the first part of the file path is personal and only the remainder of the path is stored in the Lightning database.

For more info, check out Storing absolute or relative file paths.

Reload data

If you, for some reason, want Lightning to refresh its data, click Reload data. We’ll then find the database, read all data and load it into Lightning. This all goes automatically; there are no further manual steps.