August 2026 - Model Exchanger V2.1

Release notes – August 2026

The MasterShip Model Exchanger converts a MasterShip 3D model to a another file-format (like JT) with metadata still attached to it. Version 2.1 changes how you run it, adds a new option for the solids in the JT, and makes scheduled exports a great deal simpler.

Everything below is backwards compatible. Existing convert.bat files and the scheduled tasks that use them keep working unchanged.

Here below the most important changes are listed.

1. A UI-window instead of a batch file

Until now, a conversion was set up by editing convert.bat in a text editor and getting every SET line right. That is no longer necessary

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Figure 1: User Interface (UI) of the MasterShip Model Exchanger

The new Model Exchanger window is in the start menu. You fill the settings in on screen and save them as a job: one project with its output and its settings, under a name of your choosing. Open the job next week and everything is as you left it.

While a conversion runs, the window shows the log as it happens, and the progress bar and the Windows task bar button show how far it is. The task bar button blinks when the run finishes or fails – useful on a large model, where a conversion takes several minutes and does not need watching.

The window also does a few things:

• It reads the columns available in your project database and lets you pick the extra metadata from a list.
• Logging in the same window.
• A button to go directly towards the output-folder.
• Cancel actually stops the run, including the AutoCAD processes it started.

2. Faceted solids in the JT

A new option under Conversion settings, Solid output:

Maximum deviation is the largest distance in millimetres between the original arc and the facets replacing it. Smaller means finer facets and a larger file. 1 mm is a sensible starting point.

This was built for yards whose recipients prefer or require faceted geometry. The important part: it affects the exported model (the JT-output) only. The input model, the production parts and the solid-only DWG that SHIPBINDSOLIDMODEL writes are untouched and stay smooth. The JT can be faceted while the parts you cut steel from stay exact.

3. Scheduled exports & multiple jobs at once

A job made in the UI-window can be run without the window via the command window (CMD):

[Path to ShipConverter.exe] -job "Nightly export"

Point a Windows Task Scheduler action straight at ShipConverter.exe with that argument. Several projects in one run is a matter of repeating the option:

[Path to ShipConverter.exe] -job "Hull" -job "Superstructure"

The program reports the result as an exit code, which the Task Scheduler shows as the last run result: 0 finished, 1 a conversion failed, 2 a job could not be started, 3 no license. A failed nightly export is visible without opening a single log file.

Jobs are stored per Windows user. A scheduled task that runs under a different account will not find them. Either run the task as the user who made the job, or save the job to a shared location with Save as... and give the task the full path to the .msxjob file. The second is the better choice on a server.

4. Smaller improvements

• Timestamps are correct. The old batch file dropped leading zeros from the time, so a run at 09:05 produced 9 05. Output names are now always yyyyMMddHHmm.
• Jobs and settings survive an upgrade and an uninstall. They live under %APPDATA%\MasterShip\Model Exchanger, not in the installation folder. Worth adding to your backup.
• Duplicate properties on parts in the JT no longer occur when a picked column is also one of the standard ones.

Upgrading

Run the new installer over the existing installation. Nothing else is needed; your jobs and settings are not touched.

convert.bat keeps working exactly as before, so there is no rush to change anything. When you are ready to move a scheduled export over, build the same export as a job in the window, run it once to check the result matches, and then point the scheduled task at ShipConverter.exe -job "<name>".

Documentation

The full user manual is in the Downloads section of this knowledge platform: User Manual - MasterShip Model Exchanger.

Questions or trouble? Contact MasterShip Support and include the log file of the run and the .msxjob file. Together they say exactly what was run and what happened.