When I read "There are always some problems when I use the ISV file to restore my work state", I hope that you are reporting bugs to 'techsupport@ittvis.com'. ISV files should be the correct method for storing the complete state of an iTools visualization session. I know we have had some bugs about this since iTools was first introduced ~4 years ago, that some ISV files (depending on their specific contents) saved on the original version(s) of iTools were not compatible with newer IDL versions. Now after 5 versions of evolution, however, I believe that the ISV files produced by IDL 6.4 and 7.0 are quite robust. If you are experiencing otherwise, details that would helps us observe the bug(s) ourselves would be very welcome. That said, the other option to ISV files are "iTools Macros". In the 'Search' tab page of IDL Online Help do a search for the topic "Working with Macros", which will take you to the beginning of an 8-page tutorial on this utility which is triggered through the iTools 'Operations' menu. James Jones ITT Technical Support