==================================================================== README.TXT -- AutoCAD Release 13c3 AutoCAD WHIP Display Driver ==================================================================== CONTENTS ======== - AutoCAD WHIP Display Driver Installation - WinG Installation - Interactive Pan & Zoom Features - Driver Specific Problems -------------------------------------------------------------------- After installing/configuring the AutoCAD WHIP display list driver, refer to the Online Help file accessed from the driver configuration dialog for additional details concerning the functionality of the driver. The WHIP driver is designed to work with the c2 and c3 versions of AutoCAD Release 13 for Windows and Windows NT. In addition, this driver should also work with the c0 and c1 releases, however it has not been tested. Release 13 for DOS, UNIX and Alpha NT or AutoCAD Release 12 is not supported by this driver. The WHIP driver has been optimized for performance with 256 color display devices. While performance should still be quite good with 16 or greater than 256 color devices, it is recommended that a 256 color configuration be used with the WHIP driver. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The WHIP driver's performance improvements are partly the result of an off-screen bitmap. This bitmap requires approximately 1 megabyte of additional RAM. Therefore, it is recommended that you increase system memory in order to accommodate drawings that exceed 1 megabyte. Because of the off-screen buffer used by the WHIP driver to improve performance, AutoCAD applications which write directly to the frame buffer may produce unexpected results when used with the WHIP driver. Similarly, applications that send ADI packets directly to the driver may encounter problems. Softdesk's CAD Overlay is one product that is known to be incompatible with the WHIP driver. If you have an application that does not appear to be working correctly with the WHIP driver, it is recommended that you reconfigure AutoCAD to use the Accelerated Display Driver configuration option (Rasterex driver), or use an independently developed accelerated driver. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- AutoCAD WHIP Display List Driver Installation ------------------------------------------------------------------ If you received a c3 or later release of AutoCAD, the WHIP driver is included with the AutoCAD installation. Therefore, you can proceed to the "WinG Installation" section of this readme. If you received the WHIP driver separately from AutoCAD (e.g. on a floppy or through an online service), use the following procedure to install and configure the driver. To install the WHIP display driver: 1. Add the driver files to your AutoCAD root directory. 2. Copy the driver files from the floppy disk into the AutoCAD directory. If your AutoCAD path is c:\r13\win use the following example to copy the files. cd c:\r13\win copy a:*.* 3. If you do not have Microsoft WinG installed, use the procedure in the following "WinG Installation" readme section to install it before running the WHIP driver. 4. Reconfigure AutoCAD to use the new driver. Use the following procedure to reconfigure the new driver. - Start AutoCAD - From the Configuration menu, choose option 3, Configure Video Display - Follow the prompts to configure the AutoCAD WHIP Driver NOTE: For optimum performance of the WHIP driver, your video display should be configured for 256 color mode. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Microsoft WinG Installation --------------------------- To use the WHIP display list driver with Microsoft Windows or Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, you must first install WinG. WinG version 1.0, included with the WHIP driver, is a performance enhancement from Microsoft that provides faster display access in a Microsoft Windows or Windows for Workgroups environment. The AutoCAD WHIP driver does not require WinG if you are using Microsoft Windows NT 3.5. Installation of WinG under NT is allowed, but is not used by the WHIP driver. To install WinG: 1. Insert the WHIP driver diskette, the AutoCAD c3 CD or the diskette labeled Microsoft WinG into the appropriate drive. 2. From the Windows Program Manager, choose the File menu. 3. Choose Run, and enter the following (specifying the appropriate drive letter): a: \wing\setup.exe 4. Follow the prompts to complete the installation. NOTE: The first time you install/configure a new video display driver, WinG runs a performance test to determine the fastest way to transfer a Bitmap to the display. This test takes a few minutes, and only happens once (unless you change your video mode). Interactive Pan & Zoom ---------------------- The c3 patch to AutoCAD R13 provides two commands, RTPAN and RTZOOM, to perform interactive panning and zooming. These pan and zoom features are only intended for use with the c3 version of Release 13, and the WHIP display driver or a high performance independently developed display driver. A slow display driver will impact the performance of these features. When the RTPAN and RTZOOM commands are active, no other AutoCAD commands can be executed. NOTE: RTPAN and RTZOOM are provided specifically for Release c3. These commands do not exist in the c2 or earlier versions of AutoCAD Release 13. Future compatibility with these commands is not guaranteed. For example in AutoCAD Release 14, this functionality may be merged into improved versions of previously existing commands. MENU CONFIGURATION To interact with RTPAN and RTZOOM, you must load the .mnu file rtpanzm.mnu to add these features to the toolbar. Use the following procedure to add the RTPAN/RTZOOM toolbar menu. 1. From the Tools menu, choose Customize Menus. 2. From the Menu Customization dialog box, enter rtpanzm.mnu in the File Name edit box. 3. Choose LOAD. 4. Choose CLOSE. You can also enter MENULOAD from the command line to access the Menu Customization dialog box. The following sections describe the functionality of interactive panning and zooming. PANNING To pan, enter RTPAN or select the hand icon from the RTPAN/RTZOOM toolbar. The cursor changes to a hand cursor. By holding the pick button down, the cursor is locked to its current location relative to the drawing viewport display coordinate system. Graphics within the window are moved in the same direction along with the cursor. When you have reached a logical extent (edge of the drawing space), a bar appears on the cursor indicating the side where the extent has been reached. Depending upon whether the logical extent reached is at the top, bottom, or side of the drawing, the bar that appears is either horizontal (top or bottom), or vertical (left or right side). When you release the pick button, panning is discontinued. You can release the pick button, move the cursor to another location in the drawing, then press the pick button again and continue to pan the display from that location. To exit panning at the new position, press RETURN or ESC. ZOOMING To zoom, enter RTZOOM or select the magnifying glass icon from the RTPAN/RTZOOM toolbar. The cursor changes to a magnifying glass with a + and - symbol. The current drawing window is used to determine the zooming factor. The RTZOOM command uses half of the window height to move to a zoom factor of 100%. Holding the pick button down at the mid-point of the window and moving vertically to the top of the window, zooms in to 100%. Conversely, holding the pick button down at the mid-point of the window and moving vertically to the bottom of the window, zooms out by 100%. NOTE: If the cursor is placed at the bottom of the window, and the pick button is pressed down and moved vertically to the top of the window, the zoom in factor would be 200%. When you have reached the zoom in limit, the cursor changes to a - symbol, indicating that you can no longer zoom in. When you have reached the zoom out limit, the cursor changes to a + symbol, indicating that you no longer zoom out. When you release the pick button, zooming is discontinued. You can release the pick button, move the cursor to another location in the drawing, then press the pick button again and continue to zoom the display from that location. To exit zooming at the new position, press RETURN or ESC. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WinG/WHIP Driver-Specific Problems ---------------------------------- WinG depends on Windows display drivers written by independent hardware manufacturers for much of its speed. Bugs or performance problems in independently developed display drivers may cause problems with WinG. In many cases, the video card manufacturer has already fixed the bug, and upgrading your display driver will often clear away problems. The following is a list of known bugs related to specific display drivers by manufacturer. This list is not intended to slight the manufacturer or any particular card or driver. A list of stress-tested configurations is available on the CompuServe WINMM forum and also on ftp.microsoft.com. - Early drivers for Diamond Viper cards included a "Power-Palette" option that is no longer supported by Diamond. Diamond recommends that you upgrade your drivers if you have this option. WinG may be slower when the power palette is enabled. - IBM no longer supports the IBM ThinkPad 720c. There are some problems using WinG with the ThinkPad 720c display drivers. - Cirrus drivers prior to version 1.43 have many known bugs that have been fixed in more recent drivers. Be sure to upgrade your drivers to at least version 1.43 or later. - Some ATI drivers offer a "Crystal Fonts" option. Turning Crystal Fonts on in an 8-bit mode sets up a non-palettized driver that can significantly slow the performance of WinG. - The ATI Mach 8 Radical drivers cause a number of problems in both WinG and in Windows when used with some versions of the ATI chipset. - The ATI VGA Wonder drivers (W31-*.drv) will crash during a call to StretchDIBits in the profiler. Users can run the SVGA256.DRV driver that shipped with Windows. Many micro Crystal drivers have problems with StretchDIBits, and may crash during profiling. - Early ATI Mach 32 PCI cards have a hardware timing problem and will hang while blting. ATI will replace these cards at no cost. - WinG is incompatible with the #9GXE "TurboCopy" mode. Use the #9 control panel to disable TurboCopy. This mode is off by default. - WinG uses a GetPixel to synchronize with display hardware when writing directly to the screen. The ATI Mach 32 driver's GetPixel does not work properly, so it is possible to use GDI to draw to the screen. Then use WinG to blt to the screen and have them overwrite each other. Be careful mixing GDI drawing commands and WinG blts to the display. - The Orchid mmtllo.drv driver for the Prodesigner IIs has duplicate system colors which prevents applications from getting an identity palette, and greatly reduces the WinG blt speed. A workaround is to set SYSPAL_NOSTATIC mode or use the standard Tseng ET4000 drivers instead of the mmtllo drivers. - When Windows is configured for greater than 256 colors, you may encounter anomalies using the WHIP driver in conjunction with AutoCAD Render. It is recommended that you configure your Windows video display driver for 256 colors if you should encounter any odd behavior.