Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr38/homepln2.zip/HOMEPLN.DOC

Text File | 1993-05-26 | 23KB | 477 lines

HomePlan Ver 2.0 is by:      CHUCK HERNDON
18494 Jesus Maria Rd.
Mokelumne Hill, CA 95245
[phone]  CIS 71321,167
          _______
     ____|__     |               (R)
  --|       |    |-------------------
    |   ____|__  |  Association of
    |  |       |_|  Shareware
    |__|   o   |    Professionals
  -----|   |   |---------------------
       |___|___|    MEMBER

"The author of HomePlan Ver 2.0 is a member of the Association of
Shareware Professionals (ASP).  ASP wants to make sure that the
shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a
shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the
member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman
can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member,
but does not provide technical support for members' products.
Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road,
Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message via
CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536."

DEFINITION OF SHAREWARE

Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before
uying it. If you try a Shareware program and continue using it, you
are expected to register.
Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software.
Shareware authors are accomplished programmers, just like commercial
authors, and the programs are of comparable quality. (In both cases,
there are good programs and bad ones!) The main difference is in the
method of distribution. This author specifically grants the right to
copy and distribute the software to all and sundry.

Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. The
Shareware system makes fitting your needs easier, because you can try
before you buy.
Because the overhead is low, prices are low also. Shareware has the
ultimate money-back guarantee -- if you don't use the product, you
don't pay for it.

**********************************************************************
Home Plan Ver 2.0  was written on an IBM compatible in Turbo Pascal 6.0
 to draw and print  floor plan type drawings on  9 & 24 PIN dot matrix &
HP Laser compatible printers.
In order to provide adequate resolution and aspect ratio, this program
requires a Color VGA monitor.
*********************************************************************

Features include:
User defined scale
Adjustable cursor speed
Undo of the last action
Automatic dimensioning
Optional showing of framing  (studs, joists etc)
Rectangles & circles etc
Deletion of user defined screen portions
Selectable line styles
On screen 'odometer' to show horizontal & vertical measurements
Saving & loading plans to & from disk
Deleting plans from disk
Printing the current plan
Insertion of pre-drawn furniture & appliances into your drawing
Square Footage Calculation
Ability to view & delete elements from the plan

*******************************************************************
This was written because I couldn't find a way to do these things
without using a huge program and two hours of manual reading .
*******************************************************************

This Manual is meant to be a reference manual not a constant
companion.  Use the Manual if a command gives you trouble.

I advise you to load the program & start to draw a plan.
Select the first option from the main menu, press F1 to see a list of
commands; 'Esc' to make the list go away.
Just start drawing & using the commands listed while following the
prompts where applicable.
Frequent use of F1, Undo & Del will fix any mistakes.
Load one of the sample .PLN files which came with this program and
modify it. Insert some furniture or appliances into it.

             See below for some hints then:
Just type "HP20".                              F-1 for help.
( there is a Demonstration Screen option on the Main Menu. This walks
you through the line drawing process only.)
********************************************************
Some Hints:
Get used to using the '+' & '-' keys to adjust cursor speed. Zipping around
your plan sometimes requires speed and sometimes, precision.
A  'speedometer'  in the lower right corner will tell you how far the cursor
will go with each press of the NumberPad keys.
Watch this change when the + or - keys are pressed. You can go
many feet in one leap, or as little as 1 inch.

Using SHIFT with the NumberPad Keys will slow the cursor to the
minimum speed for precision placement.
The four Arrow keys on 101 key keyboards also will move at the minimum
speed.
Move quickly using the NumberPad adjusted at a brisk pace, and use the
Shift key when you get near the end of travel for precision cursor placement.
The Automatic Dimensioning procedure might be somewhat less than
intuitive. Just try it a few times. (there is always Undo.)

AutoDimension will not work on distances less than two ft.(default
scale) because of inadequate room. You can draw the lines, & use
Insert Text ('Ins') to enter the appropriate numbers.

Some operations will cause lines to be partially erased and other
distortions which will be rectified when the plan is redrawn.
The plan is frequently redrawn in the normal course of events. If you
want to force a redrawing, press F1 to bring the command list down,
then 'Esc' to make it go away & redraw the plan.

When you start serious plan drawing, draw a basic structural outline &
save it under 'Basic' or some such.
Now, you can load 'Basic' and do all sorts of things with it, saving
new versions under new names.
Many versions can be saved under many names all starting with 'Basic'
until you settle on one approach.

The pre-drawn furniture & appliances are sized for average sizes of
the items depicted. We can't guarantee that your stuff is the same size.

At scales more than two or at most three times the default, the pre-
drawn stuff is just too small to use. (it's still available if you
want to insert a dot in your drawing.)
********************************************************************
If you use this SHAREWARE program, please print REGISTRA.FRM ("Copy Registra.Frm Prn")
and send the registration fee ($20.00) to me at the address on the form. Credit Cards accepted.
(THE ADDRESS IS ALSO ON THE  OPENING SCREEN IF REGISTRA.TXT GETS LOST)
********************************************************************
Commands: ( For a list of commands & a brief description, press F1 )
                       Edit Commands:
CURSOR MOVEMENT:
The cursor is moved by the Numberpad Keys. (if the NumLock is off,
the program will turn it on while you are drawing)
The Numberpad keys can movethe cursor in 8 directions. in addition,
the '5' key will center the cursor.

CURSOR SPEED:
The cursor speed is adjusted  with the '+' or '-' keys while in the
Drawing Mode. Use of SHIFT with the NumberPad keys slows the cursor
to the minimum speed for precision placement.
The distance that the cursor moves each time is shown at the lower
right corner of the screen.
Using the Default Scale, the minimum cursor movement is one inch.
The next press of '+' increases it to 6 inches.
Subsequent presses of '+' increases movement by 1/2 foot with each
press.
Pressing  '-' reverses the process.
Selecting a larger scale will cause the cursor movement to increase
proportionately. (actually, the cursor moves the same, but the
odometers show larger measurements)

SCALE ADJUSTMENT:
You may adjust the Scale when starting a new Plan.
The on-screen prompts will tell you to press '-' or '+' to adjust the
scale for your new drawing.
The maximum horizontal & vertical screen dimensions will be shown as
you select the optimum scale.
Once a plan has been started, or retrieved from disk, the Scale can
not be changed.  'Esc' cancels & invokes the Default scale

LINE DRAWING:          'L'
Pressing the 'L' key starts the drawing process.
No line is drawn yet, but two 'odometers' will appear at the lower
left corner of your screen.
These 'odometers' will show the cursor movement (one vertical; one
horizontal) in feet & inches.
Pressing the 'L' key again, will draw a line between the two points.
Pressing 'Esc' will cancel the process without drawing the line. (this
is a handy way to move to a measured point without drawing a line)
'Esc' cancels;  'Alt U' will Undo any unwanted lines.

LINE ERASING:         'E'
The Line Erase command works exactly like the Line Draw command, but
uses the 'E' key.

LINE TYPE:            'space'
Three types of line are  available for most operations.
At the bottom center of your screen, is a sample of the current line
type. Pressing the Space Bar will toggle between these line types.

INSERT TEXT:          'Ins'
Text may be inserted into the plan by pressing the 'Ins' key, Typing
the desired text & pressing 'Enter'.
The text will start at the cursor position and the BackSpace key is
functional to make corrections before pressing 'Enter'.
'Esc' cancels; 'Alt U' will Undo unwanted entries.

INSERT FIGURES:       'Alt F'
'Alt F' will bring up a menu of Pre-Drawn figures of furniture &
appliances to insert into your plan.
Select the figure with the NumberPad keys & press enter.
The selected Figure will appear on your plan at the last cursor
position.
You may move the figure using the NumberPad keys & the 'Tab' key will
rotate the figure in 90 deg increments.
Press 'Enter when you have the figure where you want it.
'Esc' cancels. 'Alt U' will Undo mistakes.

AUTOMATIC DIMENSIONING:  'Alt D'
Press 'Alt D' and the on-screen prompts will direct you to place the
cursor at the place where you want the dimension to start & press
'Enter'.
To find the place where you want the dimension to start, place the
cursor on one edge of the thing that you want to measure. Then, move
the cursor to a clear area while keeping it in line with the starting
point.
Press 'Enter' and you will be prompted to move the cursor to the other
end of the thing to be measured.
The 'odometers' will show the distance moved, & preview the dimension
that will be printed.
It isn't necessary to keep the cursor level or plumb. In fact, it is
easier to actually place the cursor on the line you want to measure to.
The Dimension line will appear level or plumb depending on whether the
cursor was moved MOSTLY horizontally or MOSTLY vertically. So moving
the cursor a short distance at a right angle to the desired direction
of measurement won't make any difference.
'Esc' cancels;  'Alt U' will Undo mistakes.

DRAW RECTANGLES:       'Alt R'...'R'
'Alt R' brings an on-screen prompt to place the cursor at one corner
of the proposed rectangle & then to press 'Enter'.
When you move the cursor, a rectangle is shown in a dotted line.
When you have the desired rectangle, press 'R' to permanently draw the
rectangle.
Rectangles of the appropriate width make nice walls. (see Show Framing
below)
'Esc' cancels;   'Alt U' will Undo mistakes.

SHOW FRAMING:         'Alt R'... 'F'
Terminating the above Rectangle 'Alt R' command with an 'F' instead of
an 'R' will cause two inch framing spaced on 16" centers to be shown.
In the case of narrow rectangles, such as walls, the end view of the
wall studs will be shown. In the case of broader rectangles, perhaps
floors or roofs, the joists or rafters will be shown across the
shortest dimension of the rectangle.
This version has no provision to vary the spacing.
'Esc' cancels;   'Alt U' will Undo mistakes.

DRAW CIRCLE:              'Alt C'
'Alt C' brings an on-screen prompt to place the cursor at the center
of the proposed circle & then to press 'Enter'.
A small circle will be shown with a prompt to move the rim with the
cursor.
Actually, this command draws an Ellipse.
Moving the cursor vertically and horizontally will vary the ellipse
radii.
To draw a circle rather than an oval, keep the two radii equal.
The NumberPad diagonal keys work fine for that purpose. Also, the
'odometers' will show both dimensions as you change them.
'Esc' cancels;   'Alt U' will Undo mistakes.

DELETE SCREEN PORTION    'Del'
Move the cursor to one corner of the screen area that you want to
delete.
Then press the '"Del" Key.
A small dotted rectangle will appear with a prompt to size the
rectangle to the area that you want to delete & to press enter.
The area within the area you defined, will disappear.
'Esc' cancels;  'Alt U' will Undo mistakes.

UNDO             'Alt U'
Pressing 'Alt U' will cancel the most recent command and redraw your
plan without it.
Successive presses of 'Alt U' will continue to delete the previous
commands in reverse of the order they were made.
Caution: Undo cannot be Undone!
Commands deleted by Undo must be redone manually as those commands are
no longer in memory.

SQUARE FOOTAGE CALCULATION   '[ or ]'
Pressing one of the Square Brackets will start the process to calculate
square footage. You will be prompted to place the cursor at one corner
of an area to be calculated. Then press ENTER.
Next, drag the dotted line with the NumberPad keys to cover the desired area,
 & press ENTER again. The area will be covered by a grid & the square footage
will appear at the lower left corner of the screen.
Do this as many times as you want, a running total is kept at the lower left
corner of the screen.
Press Esc to quit & make the grid go away. The running total will stay in the
lower left corner until you start another operation.
Use Insert Text if you want to get the total on the plan before it disappears.

  FILE COMMANDS

ABANDON the CURRENT PLAN         'Alt A'
Pressing 'Alt A' will prompt you to save the current plan and then
allow you to select a Scale for a new plan.
'Esc' cancels.

SAVE a PLAN to DISK             'Alt S'
Pressing 'Alt S' will show you a list of .PLN files in the current
directory, and ask you for a name for the file you want to save.
If the name you type already exists, you will be asked if you want to
overwrite it. If not, type in another name.
It is not necessary to type the file name extension. If you type a
period (.) or press 'Enter' it will be assumed the file name is
complete.
You will be returned to the current plan.
( This version  provides cursor selectable file names )

LOAD a PLAN from Disk             'Alt L'
If this command is invoked while a plan is current, you will be
prompted to save it before loading another. Just follow the prompts.
Pressing 'Alt L' will show you a list of .PLN files in the current
directory, and ask you for the name of the file to load.
If the name that you type doesn't exist, you will be so informed. Type
in a name that does exist.
It is not necessary to type the file name extension. If you type a
period (.) or press 'Enter' it will be assumed the file name is
complete.
( This version  provides cursor selectable file names )

DELETE a FILE from DISK       'Ctrl D'
Unused & unwanted .PLN files tend to pile up, wasting disk space and
filling up the File List window.
Pressing 'Ctrl D' will show you a list of .PLN files and ask for the
name of the file to Delete from disk.
If the name you type doesn't exist, you will be so notified. Re-type
the name.
You will be asked to verify the name of the file to Delete. Answer Y or N.
Caution: This program cannot bring back files deleted from disk!
We recommend that you first load the file and make sure that you don't
want it before deleting it.
( This version  provides cursor selectable file names )

PRINT the CURRENT PLAN           'Alt P'
Pressing 'Alt P' will print the current plan.
If your printer is off line, out of paper, turned off, or some other
mysterious malady occurs, you will be so notified. Fix the problem &
press 'Enter' as per the prompt, or press 'Esc' to cancel.
The plan will print in the 'landscape' mode (sideways) so as to retain
the 1 to 1 screen to printer aspect ratio.

Version 2.0 now supports 24 pin & 9 pin dot matrix & compatibles as well as
HPLaser Jet compatibles.

When you  print a plan, you will be shown the current selected printer
configuration and asked to confirm it. Press 'N' to change the printer options.
You should only have to do this once.
Laser Jet compatibles can choose between 75 dpi and 150 dpi.

After selecting the printer data, You will see a menu to select the printing
Scale

"Actual Screen Size" is the default.

"1/8" per ft." (at the default scale; Actual distance per ft will vary inversely
with the drawing scale)
Use this when you want to be able to pull dimensions off the plan with a rule.
This scale is also handy for enlarging 100% to get a 1/4" per ft. scale plan.
(you will need a copier for that)
"Actual Size" fills the paper & looks like what you drew. APPROX 1/5" per ft.

All printers are not alike! If yours doesn't print to the proper scale, All is
not lost!
If your computer operating system is Dos 3.1 or newer, A fourth Item will appear
on the printing Scale Menu.
"Adjust the Scale to Your Printer" will allow you to adjust the printing ratios
so that you can get accurate scaled print-outs.
NOTE: this option will probably not be needed. Only if your print-outs at the
1/8" scale are Not accurate, or if the vertical & horizontal dimensions of a
square differ, should you change the printing ratios.
If you elect to change the printing ratios, select Item 4 and follow the prompts
closely.
NOTE: On systems operating on Dos versions earlier than Dos 3.1, this option
will not appear on the Print Scale Menu.

VIEWING & EDITING the Plan:
There may be reasons for you to delete elements from a plan.
HomePlan Ver 2.0 Ver 2.0 supports a large number of elements in each plan,
However, it is theoretically possible to exceed that limit in a complex plan,
by many repeated overdrawings & erasures.
Removal of duplications will reduce the size of a plan.
It may also be desirable to delete some elements after it is too late to
use Undo.

Therefore:
While in the drawing screen & with a plan loaded, pressing < Ctrl / F-10 >
will show the plan and list the number of plan elements in the lower left
corner of the screen. ( where the "odometers" are normally shown )

Pressing < Home > will show the first plan element and show "1" in the
lower left corner.
Pressing <End >  will again show the complete plan.
Pressing < + > and < - >  will step through the plan element by element.
Pressing <PgUp> and <PgDn> will step through the plan ten elements at a time.

Pressing < Del > will delete the last element displayed.

Pressing <Esc > will terminate the process.
**********************************************************
CAUTION:  SAVE the Plan before deleting plan elements!
**********************************************************
Hints:

It is easy to ruin a plan by deleting the wrong elements by mistake, so Save
the plan first.

It is easier to determine the element that will be deleted, if you are stepping
forward through the plan, rather that backwards.

If you wish to delete an element which was later erased during drawing, find
the erasing element first. Delete it. Then go back and delete the drawn element.
It is hard to find an erasure when you have already deleted the element which
was erased!

REMOVING ON_SCREEN PROMPTS:
Usually, the On Screen prompts for drawing operations do not interfere
unduly with the operation.
Sometimes, however, a prompt will obscure the exact part of the plan that
you want to alter.
Press Esc to go back to the drawing board, Then pressing
Ctrl-BackSpace will hide the On-Screen prompts until Ctrl-BackSpace is pressed
once again.
Ctrl-BackSpace only operates from the drawing board, and toggles the prompts
on & off.
NOTE: The On Screen prompts are useful. Even if you are an experienced user,
it is sometimes difficult to remember what you are doing without the prompts
I recomend leaving the prompts on unless absolutely necessary, and then
turning them back on as soon as the operation is done.

LICENSE AGREEMENT:
Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try softwarebefore buying it.
If you try a Shareware program and continue using it, you are expected to
register. Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software.
Shareware authors are accomplished programmers, just like commercial authors,
and the programs are of comparable quality. (In both cases, there are good
programs and bad ones!) The main difference is in the method of distribution.
This author specifically grants the right to copy and distribute the software to
all and sundry.
DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT
Users of HOME PLAN must accept this disclaimer of warranty:
"HOME PLAN is supplied as is.  The author disclaims all warranties, expressed
or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and
of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct
or consequential, which may result from the use of HOMEPLAN."
HOME PLAN is a "shareware program" and is provided at no charge to the user
for evaluation. Feel free to share it with your friends, but please do not give
it away altered or as part of another system.
The essence of "user-supported" software is to provide personal
computer users with quality software without high prices, and yet to
provide incentive for programmers to continue to develop new products.

 If you find this program useful and find that you are using
HOME PLAN and continue to use it after a reasonable trial period,
you must make a registration payment of $20.00 to CHUCK HERNDON.

The $20.00 registration fee will license one copy for use on any one computer
at any one time.  You must treat this software just like a book.  An example is
that this software may be used by any number of people and may be freely
moved from one computer location to another, so long as there is no possibility
of it being used at one location while it's being used at another. Just as a
book cannot be read by two different persons at the same time.
Anyone distributing HOME PLAN for any kind of remuneration must
first contact CHUCK HERNDON at the address below for authorization.
This authorization will be automatically granted to shareware distributors, and
such distributors may begin offering HOME PLAN immediately
(However CHUCK HERNDON must still be advised so that the distributor can
be kept up-to-date with the latest version of HOME PLAN).
You are encouraged to pass a copy of HOME PLAN along to your friends for
evaluation.  Please encourage them to register their copy if they find that they
can use it.  All registered users will receive a copy of the latest version of
the HOMEPLAN system.
Print REGISTRA.FRM ("Copy Registra.Frm Prn"...or send your name & address)
with $20.00 to:
CHUCK HERNDON
18494 Jesus Maria Rd.
Mokelumne Hill, CA 95245