Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

A round-up of the questions that come up most often when installing and using DVDAddin.

Installation & License

1. I finished the install but I don't see the DVD Addin tab on the Excel ribbon?

The installer detects 32-bit/64-bit Excel by itself and registers the add-in in Excel's OPEN list. If the tab still does not appear, enable it by hand:

Open Excel → File → Options → Add-ins → at the bottom, the Manage dropdown → choose Excel Add-ins → click Go → tick the DVDAddin-AddIn64-packed.xll entry. If it is not listed → click Browse and pick the file at:

• 64-bit Excel: C:\DVDAddin\DVDAddin-AddIn64-packed.xll
• 32-bit Excel: C:\DVDAddin\DVDAddin-AddIn-packed.xll

The add-in installs exactly two tabs: DVD Addin (office utilities) and DVD Cons (construction).

→ Details: Installation

2. I installed it and Excel reports "It was not possible to find a compatible framework version for .NET Desktop Runtime 8.0.0"?

The installer detects 32-bit/64-bit Excel by itself and downloads the matching .NET 8 Desktop Runtime. If the error persists → download it manually, matching Excel's bitness (not Windows' bitness):

• x64: windowsdesktop-runtime-8.0.11-win-x64.exe
• x86: windowsdesktop-runtime-8.0.11-win-x86.exe

3. Do I have to close Excel when installing a new version?

Yes, always. Excel keeps the .xll file in memory for the whole session; if any Excel window is still open (including one that Outlook opened in the background), the installer cannot overwrite it and you keep running the old build even though the install "succeeded".

Close every Excel window → check for the EXCEL.EXE process in Task Manager → run setup → reopen Excel.

4. Can one license be used on several machines?

The Buy License window lets you pick a term — 1 year, 2 years (−14%), 3 years (−23%), 🔒 Lifetime, or Other — contact us — and a machine count from 1 to 10, plus a More than 10 machines — contact us entry. Each seat is a separate license, and each license is tied to one sign-in session at a time: signing in on a new machine ends the session running on the old one.

Multiple machines get a tiered discount — the dialog states −18% at 3 machines and −28% at 5 machines. Those tiers are anchor points; counts in between are interpolated linearly, so 2 or 4 machines still come out at a sensible price rather than a straight multiplication.

Prices always come from the server

The add-in does not embed a price list locally: the dialog calls the server for the price table and then shows the current figure for each plan / term / machine-count combination, together with a bank-transfer QR code. So read the price in the dialog itself; do not rely on figures copied into documentation or old posts.

5. I forgot my license password?

The password is issued by the server and only an admin can reset it. Get in touch through the Zalo support group (zalo.me/g/yqzwvk121) or the website dvdaddin.dvdpm.net, quoting the email you bought with → the admin resets it → you receive a temporary password by email and change it after signing in.

6. Can I try it before buying?

It is automatic — the first install starts a 30-day trial with every feature enabled, PRO commands included. The trial start date is anchored both in the registry and on the server, so uninstalling and reinstalling does not reset the clock.

When the trial ends, the commands badged License or PRO lock; the rest of the add-in (most of the text, cell/row, formula and sheet utilities) keeps working as normal.

7. What is the difference between STANDARD and PRO?

PRO unlocks 19 more commands, concentrated in three areas:

• Schedule analysis — Health Check (DCMA), EVM Report, Variance Dashboard, Baseline, Snapshot, Snapshot Trend, 2-Week / 3-Week Lookahead, Schedule (custom range), Manpower, Cash-flow, Constraints, Export/Import XML (P6/MSP), AI Gantt Builder, Schedule Recovery.
• QA/QC records — Test Plan, Acceptance Plan.
• QS — AI Construction Estimate.

STANDARD accounts activated before 01/07/2026 keep the PRO commands until their license expires.

Translation & AI

8. Which AI services does DVDAddin use?

Service	API key	Notes
Google Translate	Not needed	The default for the Translate command and the dvdTranslate function.
Gemini	aistudio.google.com/apikey	The add-in's default AI provider.
ChatGPT (OpenAI)	platform.openai.com/api-keys
Groq	console.groq.com/keys	Fast, generous free tier.
NVIDIA NIM	build.nvidia.com

The Translate window only shows three choices — Google / Gemini / ChatGPT — but the "ChatGPT" entry actually runs through whichever OpenAI-compatible provider is set in Preferences, so if your Service there is Groq or NVIDIA the translation goes through that service.

Recommendation: Google for ordinary text, Gemini for construction terminology — the add-in's translation prompt already pins dozens of domain term pairs (starter bar, lean concrete, jacked-in pile…).

9. Why does Gemini report "RECITATION" / "SAFETY"?

That is the finishReason returned by Gemini itself; the add-in echoes it verbatim on the status line:

• RECITATION — Gemini blocks the output because it duplicates publicly available content (common when you paste standards or contract clauses verbatim).
• SAFETY — the content tripped the safety filter (very rare with technical text).
• MAX_TOKENS — the answer was cut off; split the range into smaller pieces or pick a model with a larger context.

→ The general fix: translate in smaller chunks, or switch to Google / ChatGPT.

10. Why is translation slow when the selection contains many duplicate cells?

With Gemini / ChatGPT it is the other way round — the add-in de-duplicates before calling the API: a batch of 25 cells with identical content sends only 1 string and the result is fanned back out to all 25. The selection is cut into batches of 25 cells, with at most 10 batches running in parallel, so a range of several thousand rows still takes time — do it in waves.

With Google it is quite different: the add-in sends one request per cell, with no de-duplication and no cap on parallel requests. A 500-cell column repeating the same word is still 500 network calls — this is the case where "many duplicate cells" really does mean slow.

What to do:

• A large range with a lot of repetition → choose Gemini or ChatGPT to get the de-duplication, or filter to Unique values first and look the results back up.
• Within the OpenAI-compatible group, Groq usually responds fastest.
• Translate once, then Paste Special → Values; do not leave a whole table depending on live dvdTranslate formulas — that function calls Google Translate for every cell, and each recalculation is another network round trip.

11. Are there worksheet functions that call AI / the network from inside a cell?

Four functions need the Internet: dvdTranslate, dvdStock, DVDFx and dvdAIExplain (this last one also needs a Gemini API key). DVDFx and dvdAIExplain run asynchronously — the cell shows #N/A waiting... and updates itself once the result arrives.

Apart from those four, the other 43 functions run entirely locally.

Printing & Export

12. Excel looks frozen when "Batch print" runs many loops?

A long loop (hundreds of record sets) genuinely takes a few minutes — on every iteration the add-in writes a number into the driver cell, lets Excel recalculate the whole sheet, and only then prints. Excel looking frozen is normal.

Two things make it abnormally slow:

• The workbook has a heavy VBA Worksheet_Change that fires every time the driver cell changes value → add Application.EnableEvents = False at the top of the handler, or move the form into a workbook without VBA.
• Someone types into a cell while the command is running → Excel rejects the add-in's COM calls. Do not touch the worksheet until it has finished.

13. When PDFs are combined, do the record sets come out in the right order?

Yes. When Combine all exported PDFs into 1 file is ticked, every iteration writes a temporary PDF and the add-in merges them in loop order (1, 2, 3…), not sorted by file name.

14. Batch print produces extra blank pages?

Check two things in the Options box of the Batch print window:

• Auto-insert a page break at the signature block — turn it on when the signature block spills over onto the next page, off when the form already fits the page.
• The two options for skipping picture areas / print areas that have a dvdPic formula but no image — enable them if the form has picture cells with no image attached, otherwise those parts still print as blank pages.

15. Merging to Word produces empty files / does not replace the placeholders?

Placeholders in the Word template must be written as [TenCot] — square brackets, not curly braces — and must match the column heading on the sheet EXACTLY, including Vietnamese diacritics and spaces.

Also: the data range you select must include the header row, and placeholders sitting in the template's header/footer/text boxes may not be replaced — test a few rows before running the whole batch.

DVD Cons (construction)

16. Rebar cutting optimization returns a high scrap ratio?

The Rebar cutting preview window shows the scrap ratio in red when it goes over the threshold set in the configuration. Before concluding that the algorithm is poor, check the input data:

• The saw kerf is declared per diameter and steel grade — 4 mm by default; declare it wrong and the whole plan is off.
• The Cho phép nối (splicing allowed, Yes/No) column in sheet 02_NhuCauCat: pieces nearly as long as the 11.7 m stock bar that are left at No will always produce a large offcut.
• Declare your remnant stock as well, so the algorithm reuses part-used bars instead of always cutting fresh ones; each bar's caption in the preview window states "fresh" or "remnant".

Clicking Close in the preview window cancels everything — no sheet is written, so experiment freely.

17. The Gantt chart is drawn but the dates are wrong?

• The Start / Finish cells must be in Date format, not Text.
• Predecessors are written as Activity ID + relationship type, for example MHC1060FS, MHC1090SS, MHC1150FF — exactly as in the GanttChart.xlsx sample file.
• Duration is a whole number of days.
• Turn on Auto Calc (Tự động tính) so the schedule recalculates every time you edit Duration / Start / Finish, and Auto Draw (Tự động vẽ) so the chart follows along.
• The working calendar and the public-holiday list come from the sample file's Input sheet and from Setup — a wrong calendar means wrong finish dates.

Do not trigger the draw command while the cursor is blinking inside a cell (in-cell edit mode) — Excel will reject the operation.

18. What is the difference between a starter bar and a dowel bar?

• Starter bar (thép chờ) = reinforcement left protruding from a foundation, column or slab so the next construction stage can lap onto it.
• Dowel bar (thanh chốt) = a bar tying two elements together across a settlement or expansion joint.

They serve completely different purposes, and machine translation confuses them constantly — which is why DVDAddin's translation prompt writes this rule straight into the head of the prompt, together with "bê tông lót = lean/blinding concrete", "mạch ngừng = construction joint", "cọc ép = jacked-in pile"… See the Glossary.

Configuration & Performance

19. My workbook is slow after installing DVDAddin?

The usual culprits are the volatile functions (recalculated on every Excel recalculation): dvdAutoHide, dvdMCLookup, dvdMVLookup, dvdSumVisible, dvdUniqueV. A few hundred such cells is enough to make every keystroke stutter.

What to do:

• Limit how many cells use volatile functions; in many cases dvdXlookup or SUBTOTAL will do instead.
• Once the figures are final, convert the results to static values (Ctrl+C → Paste Special → Values).
• Switch Excel to Manual calculation while you are editing a large sheet.
• Avoid filling dvdTranslate / dvdAIExplain down hundreds of rows — they make a network call for every cell.

20. How do I make Gemini the permanent default for translation?

Open Preferences → the Text & Number section → pick the default translation engine (Google, ChatGPT or Gemini) → save. The API key is declared in the AI Assistant section.

Settings are stored per Windows user profile (HKCU\Software\DVD\DVDAddin), not inside the Excel file — copy the workbook to another machine and that machine uses its own preferences.

21. Does the add-in still work without an Internet connection?

Yes. After you sign in, the add-in holds a JWT valid for 7 days, plus roughly 1 day of slack for intermittent network trouble — that is about 8 days of fully offline use from the last online check. Past that you have to reconnect once to refresh it.

The AI, translation, exchange-rate and stock-price commands and the network functions are the exception: they always need the Internet at the moment they run.

Security & Privacy

22. Where does DVDAddin send my data?

• Text you deliberately translate or ask the AI about → to exactly the service you chose (Google Translate, Gemini, OpenAI, Groq or NVIDIA).
• License heartbeat → DVDAddin's Cloudflare Worker, at intervals while Excel is open. Payload: machine ID (a hardware hash), the current session JWT, the add-in version.
• Exchange rates / stock prices → only the currency code or the ticker symbol is sent.

Not sent: workbook content (beyond the text you deliberately translate or ask the AI about), file names, folder paths.

23. Is the license easy to crack?

There are several layers, and the crucial point is that the server is the one that decides:

• The session token is a JWT signed RS256 on the server side; the client verifies the signature against an embedded public key and rejects invalid tokens.
• license.dat (in %LocalAppData%\DVDAddin) is JSON with an HMAC-SHA256, with a backup copy in the HKCU registry — that guards against hand-editing, not against reverse engineering.
• The trial start date is anchored in both the registry and the server, so an uninstall-reinstall cannot buy another 30 days.
• The server revokes (kicks) a sign-in session when the account signs in on another machine.

Because the decisive part sits on the server, cracking the client is not enough to keep using it long term. A legitimate license also gets you support and updates.

24. Does DVDAddin contain malware or a backdoor?

The installer is packaged with Inno Setup and published openly through GitHub Releases (github.com/dangdvd/DVDAddin/releases) — the Check Update command inside the add-in downloads from that very source, so you can compare the files yourself.

The add-in needs administrator rights at install time because it installs into C:\DVDAddin (a folder shared by every user on the machine) and writes Excel's OPEN key so it loads automatically.

Support

25. Where do I report a bug or request a feature?

All the contact channels are in the DVD Addin → About (Tác giả) window:

• Zalo support group: zalo.me/g/yqzwvk121 — the fastest.
• Phone: +84 988 909 382.
• Website: dvdaddin.dvdpm.net
• GitHub Issues: github.com/dangdvd/DVDAddin/issues
• YouTube: @DVD-18

When reporting a bug, include:

• The add-in version number — open DVD Addin → About; that window shows both the version and the license type, so a screenshot is enough.
• Your Excel version (32/64-bit) and Windows version.
• A description of the bug plus the steps to reproduce it.
• A screenshot if it is a UI problem.

When requesting a feature, describe a concrete use case and how you currently do the job by hand — that is what decides whether the feature gets prioritised.

Related

• Installation guide
• License activation
• Detailed troubleshooting
• Full command reference — 186 ribbon commands.
• UDF functions — 47 custom Excel functions.