As a follow up on this Autologic discussion, I recently had an E46 325Ci which had been converted from SMG transmission, to manual gearbox. The engine controller was logging a DTC.....  "No SMG signal via CAN" which would not clear.

Although this DTC was not causing any issues (no MIL) I called Autologic & was put straight through to a BMW team member, who talked me through the procedure that allowed me to edit the vehicle order & thus prevent the DME from looking out for the SMG data & allowing me to clear the DTC.

Whilst chatting to the Autologic support tech, I asked him about an actuation that I had noticed was abscent. On my own 330Ci, I had noticed on GT1 that it was possible to activate the tail pipe flap, yet I couldn't find it amongst the many actuation available on the AL tool. The response was quite interesting.

It was explained that, not all test plans are carried over from GT1 to the Autologic platform. The majority of the commonly used tests & actuations are loaded, but the less often used functions, sometimes are left out. It was also highlighted that, although some functions were not possible with Autologic, there are many area's were the tool can perform tasks that the dealer tool can not! For example, the editing of the "vehicle order" (as previously mentioned). I was told that the "tail pipe actuation" function could be added, but as it was a simple device to test via more conventional methods, then it would most likely, not warrant an addition to the software. To be fair, the guy had a point. 

Returning to Andrews point, he is right of course. The dealer tool, complete with a full understanding of it & the technical things that it is guiding you through, are hard to compete against. However, for the rest of us in the real world Autologic does provide an unparalleled opportunity to "get the job done". The benefit of having a considerable arm around ones shoulder, when venturing into the unknown is something that you just don't get with any other gear, even legitimate dealer level (in my experience anyway)

Sorry to drift off topic, but I thought my recent experiences were kind of relevant.