HeroLab character imports

[drakir]

Hi folks,
New to FG, trying to get a campaign off the ground. Well actually, we had a good session last Friday just using FG as a dice roller. But it looks so much more powerful in all the things I've seen elsewhere. But I'm having trouble parsing out what I can and cannot do. There are dozens of videos for how to accomplish various things, but half of them apply to FGU, half of them apply to old versions of the UI, half of them presume more competence than I have, and all of them have left me lost.
A simple first question: Can someone point me to a straightforward way to transfer Pathfinder 1e characters created in HeroLab into simple Fantasy Grounds? My apologies if this is a simplistic, noob question that gets answered often. I usually try to be self-sufficient in software matters, but after 2 days of dead ends I feel like I've accomplished absolutely nothing and I'm hoping someone will give me the December 2020 version of "how to".
Thanks all

[Blahness98]

Depends on what version of FG you have. If you have FGC, there was a converter in the utilities folder which converts a .hlfg file into .xml which can then be imported. The converter has since been depreciated and is no longer installed with FGU. So, if you have FGU, then it is manual entry or drag and drop entry from the sources you have. Granted, if you can get ahold of the converter utility, it should still work to import into FGU.

The file you are looking for is the CharacterConverter.exe. I think someone may have posted it on the forums previously for those that have FGU, but I didn't do a good search.

[drakir]

Thanks Blahness98
That was exactly what I needed.
Some followup questions, and I apologize if you cannot answer.
1) Why the extra step? I would generally expect that if program A says "export to program B" then the exported file should immediately be importable by program B. Perhaps this is a question best asked of Wolf's Lair?
2) Is FGU the only supported version any longer? I'd hate to think support for the program my group all bought into at the beginning of the pandemic has been abandoned shortly before we got up the gumption to learn to use it.
3) What are the advantages of Unity? Should we be considering the switch, regardless of the answer to question 2?

[Moon Wizard]

We do not support import of character data from any third party applications. We recommend creating the characters directly within the application using the current drag and drop character creation that exists for those game systems.

(The helper application in FGC was retired, because we didn't have the resources to keep it up to date with both HL as well as our own changes. As it is now, it has some items which are not imported correctly.)

All new development will be done on FGU, as it is the next generation of our software platform. FGC will only be getting maintenance updates/fixes, until it is retired. There is no set retirement date, as it depends on usage. Even after being retired, the only difference will be that maintenance updates will cease, and new store products after that point will only be available on FGU.

Regards,
JPG

[drakir]

Thanks for the info Moon Wizard. Guess we'll be reinvesting!

[Moon Wizard]

There's no rush right now, unless you want to take advantage of new image creation and LoS features in FGU. All the ruleset updates will be in both until retirement.

I'm just saying that you can wait to upgrade when you feel like it's the right time (or when a sale is going). :)

Cheers,
JPG