IMPROVEMENTS TO PC-KEY-DRAW ver. 3.53 over 3.30 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The following list the more major changes. Numerous other minor changes have been made that are not listed. (in particular bug fixes, and speed increases) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 3.3 adds b-spline curves allowing freeform curves to be easily created from the keyboard. Select and the various points to be included. Selecting any function key (1-8) will turn the entered points into a curve. Width of the line is controlled by idth. (I should have added this a long time ago. It makes drawing much easier.) 2. ine has been improved when using line width. Redraw of line is also much faster. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 3.31 improves menu structure, providing more information for arrow, text justify, box shade and key macro. 2. Help menu for novice mode can be shrunk for increased screen space by entering number >1 for Novice mode in Status screen. 3. Width of polygon and box shade is now effected by the idth command. 4. works with width. 5. The TANDY 1000 keyboard is now supported for cursor movement from # pad. 6. The elp screens have been improved with more info and much faster read from disk. 20 help screens are available. 7. The complete user manual is included on a second disk and may be included with the program disk. 8. A High resolution color graphics mode for composite monitors with 16 colors. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 3.32 allows the KD-DRAW.HOT file to be libraried with the macros it calls to take less disk space. Create KD-DRAW.HOT pointer file then run MAKHOTLB.EXE to MAKe HOTkey LiBrary file. KD-DRAW.HOT now supplied on program disk. 2. Other HOT key files can be set as desired from unction. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 3.33 adds a reverse video command for animated objects. During animation select to get a reverse video of the object. 2. The screen origin can be set with . The origin is the 0,0 location of the drawing. (Useful for mechanical drawing.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 3.50 greatly expands the power of the macro command by allowing macros to be run while creating a new macro. This makes creating macros easier and faster. The run macro becomes part of the created macro. 2. The angle from the last measure point to the cursor is now always shown. <[>, <]>, <{>, and <}> can be used to rotate about the measure point for the cursor, line, object, polygon, rectangle, arc, etc. This change may effect some marcos from earlier versions. 3. Use *|3 in macro to speed up circle, sine, rose, rectangle redraw. Use *|4 to speed up line redraw. Certain special effects are lost at higher * numbers. * commands take effect immediately and many may be included for the desired macro effect. 4. Object rotate and object zoom have been sped up and changed. rotates or zooms again aftering toggling from all color to one color action or vice versa. will rotate and zoom at the same time. The last object zoomed or rotated is imported to nimate. 5. FATBITS is now more versatile allowing scrolling by setting Scroll with the key. The area worked on in pixel editing is loaded into the F7 buffer. 6. An unFade command has been added to provide a convenient method filling in small holes in objects. 7. Most Cursor Mode commands are now available via the same menu system used in function key commands. Access via and then move to desired command menu with arrow keys followed by . 8. The display of cursor coordinates can now be turned off if desired to speed the movement of the cursor when using PC-KEY-DRAW as a paint program by using . 9. Screen 1 scrolling has added a "map" to aid maneuvering around the multiple screens. The map is obtained by requesting help with "?", "h", or "H". A. and can be used to jump to the next grid location in the appropriate direction. B. Full path support is now provided. Paths can be set in the status screen or set temporaliy when calling a file. In any complete directory can be viewed or the default "Completed Drawing" drive can be changed by using "=" as in <=c:\pictures> to set the drive and keep it. C. File Names can be directly imported from the desired drive using and when asked for file name. D. Cursor wrap can be toggled on or off with <_>. When off a line appears under the cursor speed number. E. Joystick support is now provided. The joystick trigger equals . The other joystick button is equivalent to the or keys. Joystick motion mimics cursor motion and can be recorded in a macro. Use the key to make the joystick act the same as using the with the cursor keys. F. Mouse support has been significantly improved. And works with in same way as the joystick. Use ump to set the mouse/joystick sensitivity. G. Screen F7 now keeps only the object and not the entire screen after completing a command sequence. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The following are additional improvements that didn't make it before the manual went to print. 1. The layer capability has been changed and greatly improved. In particular has been changed to provide more information and more flexibility. Macros using are not compatible with earlier versions. 2. Jump to layer has been added under . Position cursor over item to worked on, select and the program will find the correct layer. 3. The last text entered in is remembered the next time text is to be entered and taken as the default if is selected without adding new text. If null text was used in a macro, it will have to be changed to a single space for proper operation. 4. The DAT file associated with SCN files has been eliminated. Scale data is now stored in the SCN (screen) file. This offers a significant saving of disk space and provides faster saves and loads. Screens that don't require scale information can just be read as normal. Screens that do require scale scale information should be converted to the new format. Use CNVRTSCL.BAS to find all DAT files on a specified drive, insert scale information into into the associated SCN file, and the delete the DAT file. 5. A complete database system similar to Hypercard for the MacIntosh has been added. This lets you organize pictures, text and macros for easy retrieval in a tree or stack fashion. Screen can be tagged with ag. A tag is an area on the screen that when the cursor is over it and clicked a defined action takes place. The action maybe to run a macro (Tag Type 1), to display another screen (Tag Type 2), or to display a partial screen (Tag Type 3). Additional tag types will be added in the future. Each screen can be tagged to eight other screens. A HOME tag and a BACK tag are auto- matically provided once stacks have be activated. Tag information is saved as part of the screen file. We will be developing some sample examples on using PC-KEY-DRAW as a database. 6. While in the fill pattern screen use and to move through all of the fill pattern files on the program disk (subdirectory) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 3.51 corrects several minor bugs in 3.5. 2. hift has been added to and to complete the possible color combinations. shifts all colors by one so that 0 becomes 1 1 becomes 2, 2 becomes 3, and 3 becomes 0. 3. A file conversion utility has been added to convert SCN files used by PC-KEY-DRAW to IMG format used by GEM and a number of desktop publishing programs, such as Ventura Publisher. SCN2IMG.EXE can be run from DOS. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. In 3.52 the file naming convention for PC-KEY-DRAW has been changed to allow the program to be used on an Optical disk. The "-" has been eliminated from all file names and replaced with "_". For example KD-DRAW becomes KD_DRAW. This change allows PC-KEY-DRAW to be run on a CD-ROM using the High Sierra format. PC-KEY-DRAW and HyperDraw are ideal for handling larges databases on a CD-ROM. 2. MAKHOTLB.EXE has been changed to allow HOT key files of anyname to be created and compiled. 3. Mouse behavior has been improved in menus, espcially on fast machines. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 3.53 adds the ability to insert the default parameter into the command line to be edited. Selecting when asked to "Enter" or for a "File Name" will bring the default value (as displayed between the brackets "[]") to a edit line. The best way to see what it does is to try it. This is especially useful in macros. 2. The <+> (plus) key can be used to modify the last letter of a file name by increasing its ASCII value by one. This can be used with a macro to save a set of pages or layers under a single name. 3. and allow a fade step to be input for faster fading. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------