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MiniDraft v1.10 (c)Oct 1992 This is MiniDraft version 1.10. If you have any criticisms, suggestions, advice etc. etc. please write to me (J.H.Taylor) at:- 12 West Drive, Cleadon, Sunderland, Tyne & Wear, SR6 7SJ UK. MiniDraft is a basic drafting utility which will undergo a continuous process of enhancement. Users are encouraged to send their suggestions to the above address. The most popular and usefull improvements will be included, provided it is within my capabilities. To date my thanks go to:- Joe Connor - Colchester (Help with large screen support, improved icons,) (constructive criticism a encouragement) Lancelot Dow - London (Constructive criticism and encouragement) Plus all those who have shown their appreciation. The library of shapes will constantly be expanded and users who require a new shape should send an outline to me for inclusion. Provide as much info as possible, not forgetting fill styles, write modes etc, etc. - a 10:1 scale screen dump or a .DBD file on disc would be the best idea. Standard shapes in particular disciplines such as architechture, chemistry, engineering etc. etc. would be welcome. You must provide a sae. for the return of info/discs. Please send me examples of your work - the best will be included with later releases. Packing list: Files Description ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MINIDRAF.DOC Version 1.10 of the MiniDraft manual. MINIDRAF.PRG Version 1.10 of MiniDraft program. MINIDRAF.RSC Resource file for MiniDraft. DRAWINGS Folder of example MiniDraft drawings. MiniDraft v1.10 (c)Oct 1992 MiniDraft -- FOR ATARI ST A basic drafting package written in assembler Atari 520 and ST are trademarks of Atari Corporation. GEM is a trademark of Digital Research, Inc. Copyright (c)1992, J.H.Taylor. All rights reserved. MiniDraft v1.10 (c)Oct 1992 Table of Contents Page Disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 PART I -- Description of menu selections. 1 Title Item Desk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 About MiniDraft. . . . . . . 1 File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Clear . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Load Alt/L. . . . . . . 2 Save as.. Alt/S. . . . . . . 2 Save . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Hardcopy Alt/H. . . . . . . 3 Quit Alt/Q. . . . . . . 6 Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Cut . . .F2 . . . . . . . . 7 Copy . . .F3 . . . . . . . . 7 Paste. . .F4 . . . . . . . . 7 Rotate . .F5 . . . . . . . . 8 Vflip. . .F6 . . . . . . . . 8 Hflip. . .F7 . . . . . . . . 8 Scale. . .F8 . . . . . . . . 8 Save (block) .Alt/D. . . . . 8 Load (block) .Alt/I. . . . . 9 Mark (block) .F1 . . . . . . 9 Mouse. . .Alt/M. . . . . . . 9 Keyboard .Alt/K. . . . . . . 10 Import ASCII text. . . . . . 10 Import CADja ASCII . . . . . 10 Export CADja ASCII . . . . . 11 Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Add. . . . .SB . . . . . . . 11 Architec'l .Ctrl/A . . . . . 11 Mechanical .Ctrl/M . . . . . 11 Electrical .Ctrl/E . . . . . 11 Line . . . .Ctrl/L . . . . . 12 Circle . . .Ctrl/C . . . . . 12 Arc. . . . .Ctrl/R . . . . . 13 Text . . . .Ctrl/T . . . . . 13 Box. . . . .Ctrl/B . . . . . 14 Polygon. . .Ctrl/P . . . . . 14 Ellipse. . .Ctrl/I . . . . . 14 Ell arc. . .Ctrl/O . . . . . 15 Pline . . .Ctrl/N . . . . . 15 Regular polygon. . . . . . . 15 Regular polyline . . . . . . 16 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Undo . . . .Undo . . . . . . 16 Uundo. . . .Alt/Undo . . . . 16 MiniDraft v1.10 (c)Oct 1992 Set origin .Ctrl/F . . . . . 16 Last view. .Alt/V. . . . . . 17 Full view. . . . . . . . . . 17 Mark and zoom. . . . . . . . 17 Units. . . . Ctrl/U. . . . . 18 Attributes Alt/A . . . . . 18 Grid . . . . Ctrl/G. . . . . 19 Snap . . . . Ctrl/S. . . . . 20 Drawing edge Alt/J . . . . . 20 Drawing guides . . . . . . . 20 Help . . . . Help. . . . . . 20 MiniDraft v1.10 (c)Oct 1992 The Working Surface Editing . . . . . . . . . . 22 File extension . . . . . . . 22 PART II -- Tutorial . . 23 Getting started A simple drawing . . . . . . . . . 23 Hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 1 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 Disclaimer This program is copyrighted by J.H.Taylor and may not be modified or altered in any way or charged for without the author's express permission. No warranties, either express or implied, are made by the author with respect to the software or its fitness for a particular purpose. The author accepts no responibility for any loss that may result from the use or inability to use this software. Requirements * Atari 520 ST or 1040 ST/E with disc drive(s). * Monochrome monitor (but will run with colour) * Will operate with enhanced screens. * MINIDRAF.PRG, MINIDRAF.RSC on the same directory. * You must know how to operate with GEM. MENU SELECTIONS The menu titles are the names that appear on the menu bar. Menu items refer to the names that drop down when a menu title is selected. TITLE ITEM ---------------- Desk About MiniDraft General information about MiniDraft with a facility with which to review MiniDraft history. File Clear Open a new drawing work area. Any previous work will be lost. Data in the Paste buffer will, however, be retained. Select 'Clear' from the 'File' menu and the screen will be immediately cleared unless editing has taken place and the drawing (file) has not been saved to MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 2 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 disc. If this is the case a warning message will be displayed which will allow the option of cancelling or continuing the action. Load Alt/L Load an old MiniDraft drawing from disk drive into the main buffer. Any drawing already in memory which has been edited in any way will cause a warning to this effect to be displayed; in this event the option can be taken to cancel or continue the operation. In the latter case the existing file in memory will be lost. Select the 'Load' item from the 'File' menu or press Alt/L on the keyboard. If no editing has taken place the file selector box will be produced which will allow a filename and/or pathname to be changed or confirmed. To clear the file/pathname press the Esc or backspace key and type in the new name or select a file/pathname from the list displayed. If the file exists it will be loaded into memory and immediately displyed on screen; otherwise an error message will be displayed. Initially a 'full view' of the drawing will be displayed. This can be changed to a 1:1 view by pressing the Clr Home key. Alternatively click on the magnifier icon (second bottom left on the screen) and a portion of the drawing can be 'marked' out and immediately displayed to fill the entire screen. Save as.. Alt/S Save the whole drawing (complete with header information) onto disk. The menu selector box will be displayed where the file/pathname can be changed or confirmed. Select the 'Save as...' item from the 'File' menu or press Alt/S on the keyboard. The file selector box will be displayed and the file/pathname can be entered in the same way as for 'Load'. Clicking the 'Ok' button or pressing the 'Return' key will cause the file data to be written to disc. Note: The header data contains the following information:- 36 bytes Name and version etc. 2 bytes Origin X position. 2 bytes Origin Y position. MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 3 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 2 bytes Drawing X offset. 2 bytes Drawing Y offset. 1 byte Printer code (Epson: 5=9pin. 39=24pin). 1 byte Printing ratio (1:1, 1:2, 1:3). 2 bytes Columns per page. 2 bytes Dots per graphics line. 2 bytes Unused. 2 bytes Drawing grid size. 2 bytes Drawing width (mm). 2 bytes Drawing height (mm). 2 bytes Unused. 1 byte Drawing size code. 1 byte Port/land mode. (0=port. 1=land). 1 byte Hardcopy X pages. 1 byte Hardcopy Y pages. Save Save the whole drawing (complete with header information) onto disk. No file selector box will be displayed (unless there is a null filename such as when first editing a drawing). Select the 'Save' item from the 'File' menu. Unless there is a null filename the file data will be immediately written to a disc file having the current filename. Hardcopy Alt/H Produce a screen dump of the current drawing. This feature has the unique capability of producing massive printouts by means of pasting up strips of printer dumps. This facility is carried out automatically with the full version of MiniDraft. The screen is merely a window on a drawing 32,767 x 32,767 pixels all of which can be printed out, in one go, on a dot matrix printer. All you need do is determine the number of pages to print in both the X and Y directions across the screen. This will cause the drawing to be printed out in strips on the printer paper. For the best results a tractor feed should be used otherwise registration between strips will be lost. First ensure that the printer is switched on and on-line. Select the 'Hardcopy' item from the 'File' menu. A dialog will be produced which will allow MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 4 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 certain print parameters to be set ie. Portrait/Landscape Landscape orientates the screen dump sideways on the printed sheet. In other words on an A4 sheet the bottom edge of the screen runs down the left hand edge therefore the bottom left hand corner of the screen appears at the top left hand corner of the printed sheet. If a full view of the drawing is invoked, this mode will be indicated by the display of a wide rectangular dotted frame. Portrait orientates the screen dump in the same direction on the printed sheet as seen on the screen. It is important to realise that in this mode the top left hand corner of the screen appears at the top left hand corner of the printed sheet. If a full view of the drawing is invoked, this mode will be indikated by the display of a narrow rectangular dotted frame. [9] [24] pin Selecting one of these buttons sets the output to suit the particular type of printer to be used. [24 pin] [1:3] [1:2] [1:1] This sets the dot scale used on the 24 pin printer. With 1:1 one pixel on screen maps to three pins on the printer head, 1:2 maps to two pins and 1:3 maps to one pin. The result is that using 1:3 will give you a printed graphic one third the size printed by 1:1 and 1:2 will give a graphic half the size of 1:1. Using these settings does not, however, alter the size of sheet that is printed out. Dots/col This sets the number of vertical screen pixels to be printed across the page. On the Epson LX80 (9 pin printer), with 11" paper, the maximum is 574 and on the Epson 1050 (also 9 pin) it is 948. If this value is positive the next Y page will be above the current one and if the value is negative the next Y page will MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 5 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 be below the current one. Columns/page This sets the number of vertical columns to be printed per page. eg. on Epson LX80 with 11" paper length it works out at 100. X pages This is the number of groups of columns/page, in the horizontal direction, to be output to the printer. Y pages This is the number of X page 'strips' in the vertical direction to be output to the printer. This facility is disabled on the PD version. The positions of the 'strips' are indicated by horizontal dotted line/s 'dividing up' the drawing on-screen (visible only on drawings larger than the printer paper being used). Paper Size & Drawing Size The above four settings can be automatically made by using the Paper size & Drawing size buttons. First determine what width paper you wish to print on ie. A4 - The full width (210mm) of an A4 sheet (needs a wide printer). A5 - The full width (148mm) of an A5 sheet. A6 - The full width (105mm) of an A6 sheet. 80 - The max. width (203mm) an 80 column printer will print. 132 - The max. width (335mm) a 132 column printer will print. Then select the (screen) Drawing size you are using, click on 'Auto setup' and the appropriate values will be computed and placed in the various fields. The drawing sizes are:- 2A - 1189mm x 1682mm A0 - 841mm x 1189mm A1 - 594mm x 841mm A2 - 420mm x 594mm A3 - 297mm x 420mm MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 6 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 A4 - 210mm x 297mm A5 - 148mm x 210mm A6 - 105mm x 148mm 80 - 203mm x 279mm (80 cols on 8.5" x 11" fanfold) 80a - 203mm x 297mm (80 cols on A4 paper) 132 - 335mm x 279mm (132 cols on 13.6" x 11" fanfold) These values can be altered to enable a portion of the drawing only to be printed out. Copies If the full version of MiniDraft is being used the total number of complete sets of X & Y pages to be printed. Otherwise (on the PD version) only one X and one Y page will be printed. User Implement user valuse in the User Setup box. This facility was originally a programming aid for myself and has been left in as it may be either interesting or useful to the user. By altering the Dots/col and Cols/page values part of the drawing only can be printed out. Comments on the usefullnes or modification of this facility are encouraged. Print Guides With this button set primitives used as guides will be printed as if they were normal graphics. When you have made your choices select 'Print'. The drawing will be displayed in sections on the screen and the printout will commence. The dump can be aborted at any time by pressing the 'Esc' key. Quit Alt/Q Finish with the program. MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 7 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 If editing has taken place prior to this action and the file has not been saved to disc a warning message will be displayed allowing the option of aborting or continuing. Edit Cut F2 Delete a section from the screen that has been 'Mark'ed. The deleted portion will also be placed into the paste buffer. Select the 'Cut' item from the 'Edit' menu or by pressing F2. Any 'Mark'ed area on the screen will be erased from the screen and the data removed from memory. This removed data however, will be transferred to the paste buffer from where it can be rotated, flipped,scaled and pasted back to screen. It can also be saved to disc (see block 'Save'). Copy F3 Copy a section of the screen that has been 'Mark'ed, into the paste buffer. The existing data in memory and screen remain intact. Select the 'Copy' item from the 'Edit' menu or press F3. The data of any 'Mark'ed area on the screen will be copied to the paste buffer and can be operated on in the same way as with 'Cut'. Paste F4 Copy and position a 'Copy'ed or 'Cut' area of the drawing back onto the drawing. Select the 'Paste' item from the 'Edit menu or press F4. The graphics cursor will be replaced by a copy of the contents of the paste buffer which can be dragged around the screen and fixed in position by pressing the left mouse button (or Alt/insert key). Pressing the left mouse button will also cause a copy of that data, in the new position, to be placed in memory. As many copies as required, of that data can be pasted, memory permitting. Pressing the right mouse button ends the activity. MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 8 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 Rotate F5 Rotate the contents of the paste buffer 90 deg anti-clockwise. Select the 'Rotate' item from the 'Edit' menu or press F5. This will cause any data in the paste buffer to be rotated 90 deg in an anti-clockwise direction. Individual GDP's or composite data can be rotated. Vflip F6 Flip the contents of the paste buffer about the verticle axis. Select the 'Vflip' item from the 'Edit' menu or press F6. This will cause any data in the paste buffer to be flipped or 'mirrored' about the vertical axis. Beware of flipping circles made from arcs with start and end angles of 0 and 360 deg. Both of these angles will be converted to 180 deg and as a result the circle will disappear. To avoid this phenomenon, the start and end angles should be represented as 0 and 359.9 respectively. Hflip F7 Flip the contents of the paste buffer about the horizontal axis. Select the 'Hflip' item from the 'Edit' menu or press F7. This acts in the same way as 'Vflip' but flips the data around the horizontal axis. Scale F8 Scale the contents of the paste buffer by the amount shown in the block scale dialogue box. Select the 'Scale' item from the 'Edit' menu or press F8. Set the Mag. and Red. parameters to the desired values. Save (block) Alt/D Any data in the paste buffer will be saved to disc without any header information. The file selector MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 9 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 box will be displayed enabling the block file/pathname to be changed or confirmed. Select the block 'Save' item from the 'Edit' menu or press Alt/D. When the file selector box is displayed the file/pathname can be entered as for File 'Save'. Clicking the 'Ok' button or pressing the 'Return' key will cause any data in the paste buffer to be written to a disc file with the filename and extension (default .BLK) chosen. Load (block) Alt/I Load a block from disk drive into the paste buffer. Select the block 'Load' item from the 'Edit' menu or press Alt/I (Insert). The file selector box will be displayed and a filename can be entered the same as for 'Load'. Clicking the 'Ok' button or pressing the 'Return' key will cause the data to be loaded into the paste buffer. Mark F1 Select a portion of the screen to be 'cut' or 'copy'ed to the paste buffer. This enables a section of a drawing to be 'Mark'ed out for either 'Cut'ing or 'Copy'ing. Select the 'Mark' item from the 'Edit' menu or press F1. Any previously marked area of the screen will be un-marked and the graphics cursor will change to a crosswire. Move the centre of the crosswire to the top left hand corner of an area of drawing that it is desired to mark. Press and hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse so that the dotted rectangle surrounds the desired area. Release the mouse button and the area of screen 'captured' will be highlighted within the block mark. Note that the top LH corner of the block becomes the reference point when positioning the block with the paste function and corresponds with the X & Y values shown at the top of the screen. Mouse Alt/M Shift the screen with the aid of the mouse. Select the 'Mouse' item from the 'Edit' menu or press MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 10 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 Alt/M. The graphics cursor will change to a cross. Place the cursor on a position of interest on the drawing and click the left mouse button once. Move the cursor to another position on the screen and click the left mouse button once more. The screen will then be immediately redrawn with the first mouse position appearing at the second mouse position. Keybd Alt/K Shift the screen with the keyboard by altering the screen offset values. This is usefull when large excursions of the drawing are required. Select the 'Keybd' item from the 'Edit' menu or press Alt/K. A dialog box will be produced where the new screen offsets can be entered. Selection of the 'Ok' button will cause the screen to be redrawn with the new offset. ASCII Import Load text from a pure ASCII file into the paste buffer. Where large amounts of text need to input, it can be written using a wordprocessor, saved in ASCII format and imported to MiniDraft. Before importation, setup the Text and Attributes dialogs with the required text styles/modes etc. Select Import ASCII and load the required file. The text will be placed into the paste buffer from where it can be pasted into the drawing. Do not import too much text as it may become too unwieldy to move around the screen. CADja ASCII Import Load a CADja ASCII text file into the paste buffer. CADja ASCII files are drawing files described in pure ASCII text. ASCII files are the established file format for conversion between different software packages and hardware platforms. ASCII files written by CADja and MiniDraft can be read and manipulated by ST, PC and Mac software! They can be read directly from the desktop, loaded and edited in databases, word processors, programming languages or other post processors. Programmers can further manipulate the ASCII data extracting relevent information suitable MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 11 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 for use in databases, spreadsheets, word processors or (for example, using DASCH) other CAD programs. By editing an ASCII CADja file it is possible to change drawings in ways that are not possible within a CAD program. These file are loaded and actioned in the same way as the text ASCII files described above. NOTE: Any text that was exported using the CADja ASCII export facility will automatically be converted to single line vector text. CADja ASCII Export Save the contents of the paste buffer as a CADja ASCII text file. For the reasons given above, a drawing or part of it may need to be converted to an ASCII format. To achieve this copy all or part of the drawing to the paste buffer and select CADja ASCII Import. A file selector box will be displayed and the filename can be chosen or keyed in. The usual file extention is .ASC and is displayed as default. Graphics The main source of graphics selection. Library shapes and general drawing primitives (GDP's) are selected from this menu. Add SB (Space Bar) Use the mouse to position the selected graphic onto the screen. Architec'l Ctrl/A Mechanical Ctrl/M Electrical Ctrl/E Display a selector box of the required set of library of shapes. Select the particular library item (eg. 'Mechanical') required from the 'Graphics' menu or press the appropriate Ctrl/Key combination. This will produce a selector box containing icons which represent various pre-programmed graphic shapes. To invoke a particular library shape first select the desired MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 12 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 icon with the left mouse button and then the 'Ok' button. This will cause the data for that shape to be placed in the paste buffer where it can be rotated, scaled or flipped then pasted onto the screen. Selection of the 'Cancel' button will leave any data in the paste buffer undisturbed. Note: A small dot, usually in the bottom LH corner of the icon, denotes the reference point for positioning the shape with the paste facility and corresponds with the X & Y values shown at the top of the screen. Line Ctrl/L Select a graphic single line GDP. Select 'Line' item in the 'Graphics' menu or press Ctrl/L followed by the 'Add' item in the 'Graphics' menu. You will then be presented with a mouse cursor in the shape of a cross with a small central square. Although the 'legs' of the cursor are masked, the 'hole' in the central square is transparent ie. underlying graphics can be seen through it and enables precise positioning to be achieved. The starting point of a line is set by placing the cursor at the desired position and pressing the left mouse button (or Alt/insert) once. The line will now be drawn and can be moved around the screen with the cursor or keyboard and fixed in position by pressing the left mouse button (or Alt/Insert). If you change your mind about the position of the start point, pressing the right mouse button will cancel the line and return you to the start position. Note that the X & Y position of the current line end relative to the current reference point and angle of the line are displayed at the top of the screen. Circle (filled) Ctrl/C Select a graphic filled circle GDP. A dialog box will be displayed for the input of the required radius. Ensure that the required fill attributes are correct then select 'Circle' item from the 'Graphics' menu or press Ctrl/C. This will produce a dialog box to enable the input of the circle radius. Enter the desired radius and select 'Ok'. Select 'Add' item from the 'Graphics' menu and the cursor will disappear and be replaced by a circle of radius as MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 13 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 input. The circle can then be moved about the screen with the mouse or Alt/graphics keys and fixed in the required place by pressing the left mouse button. Pressing the right mouse button aborts the action. Note that the X & Y position of the current circle centre relative to the current reference point is displayed at the top of the screen. Arc Ctrl/R Select a graphic arc GDP. A dialog box will be displayed for the input of the desired radius, start and end angles. This graphic operates in the same way as 'Circle', however the dialog box includes two extra entries for the starting and ending angles. It should be noted that as regards Arcs 0deg and 360deg are the same. If a circle made from an arc is vertically flipped both these angles will change to 180deg and nothing will be drawn. To get over this enter 0 for the start angle and 359.9 for the end angle. Note that the X & Y position of the current arc centre relative to the current reference point is displayed at the top of the screen. Text Ctrl/T Enter text. A dialog box will be displayed for the input of the required text and text attributes. Select 'Text' item from the 'Graphics' menu or press Ctrl/T. Enter the desired text and attributes in the dialog box displayed and select 'Ok'. Select 'Add' as usual and the text can be moved and placed as with 'Circle'. Note that the X & Y position of the current text reference point (bottom LH corner of the 1st character) relative to the current reference point is displayed at the top of the screen. Due to a limitation of GEM, normal text cannot have a height in excess of 26 pixels. This means that no matter how large the value of Mag is the height of any normal text cannot exceed 26 pixels. However, vector text, which uses a built-in font does not suffer from this limitation. This text can be expanded to any size and can be filled with any of the GEM fill patterns. Another benefit of vector text is its ability to be displayed as a true mirror image - both laterally and vertically. It can also, of course, be rotated, scaled and flipped. MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 14 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 The vector size (%) is merely a percentage of an arbitrary standard size and does not relate to point or pixel sizes. It's probably worth experimenting a bit with this. The [Bk] button switches the 'normal' text from black to white which enables white text on a black background. The four arrows set the orientation of the 'normal' text. GEM only allows these four orientations which is why the orientation of the vector graphics is separate. Vector graphics can be orientated at any angle. There two choices of vector font: a filled style and a single line style mainly intended for CAD work. Please note that the outline attribute only is supported for filled vector text. Box Ctrl/B Select a graphic filled rectangle GDP. Ensure the required fill attributes are correct and select the 'Box' menu item or press Ctrl/B. A dialog box will be displayed for the input of the rectangle width and height. Select 'Add' and place the box as before. Note that the current X & Y position of the top LH corner relative to the current reference point is displayed at the top of the screen. Polygon Ctrl/P Select a graphic filled polygon GDP. Ensure the required fill attributes are correct and select 'Polygon' item from the 'Graphics' menu or press Ctrl/P followed by 'Add'. The graphics cursor will change to cross and should be positioned at one point of the desired polygon. Click the left mouse button and move the cursor to the next point and press the left button again. This should be carried out for all points of the polygon. From the second point onward each time a point is marked a line will be draw to indicate the progress of the polygon. There is no need to 'join up' the polygon as this is done automatically. When all the points have been marked press the right mouse button and the polygon will be filled with the chosen fill pattern. Note that the X & Y position of the current point relative to the current reference point is MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 15 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 displayed at the top of the screen. Ellipse,Ell arc Ctrl/I,Ctrl/O Select a graphic filled ellipse/elliptical arc GDP or press the appropriate Ctrl/key combination. A dialog box will be displayed for the input horizontal and vertical radii and in the case of ell arc, start and end angles. These are implemented exactly the same as for Circle and Arc. Pline Ctrl/N Select a graphic polyline GDP. This is basically the same as Line except that a new line is started immediately the left mouse button is pressed. Whenever possible, when 'strings' of lines with the same attributes are required, use this function instead of 'Line' since it is less costly in terms of memory usage. Note that the X & Y position of the current line end relative to the current reference point and angle of the line are displayed at the top of the screen. NOTE: When 'Mark'ing a polyline the complete 'string' of lines most be surrounded by the block mark for the polyline to be 'captured'. Regular poly Generate a regular filled polygon shape. When you select this facility you will be confronted with a dialog box in which to enter the outside diameter, number of sides and angle of orientation required in the polygon shape. The polygon will be filled with the currently set fill attributes. Due to the simple (but fast) trigonometrical routines in Mini Draft some regular shapes may not be 'precise'. However, if you require precision an 'imprecise' shape could be used as a guide. If sufficient number of sides are specified, filled 'circles' can be generated using this facility. These 'circles' will be drawn much more rapidly than true filled circles which may be very advantageous in certain circumstances where there are MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 16 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 a large number of them. Regular pline Generate a regular polyline shape. When you select this facility you will be confronted with a dialog box in which to enter the outside diameter and number of sides required in the polyline shape. The polyline will be drawn using the currently set line attributes. The same comments apply to the Regular polyline as to the Regular polygon. Tools Undo Undo Undo the last primitive entered into the drawing. By pressing this key the last primitive in the drawing will be ignored and the associated graphic erased from the screen. A primitive (circle, line etc.), placed in error can therefore be quickly deleted by pressing the Undo key. This facility is not limited to the last primitive entered and if pressed again the next last primitive will be erased and so on. In this way pasted composite graphics can also be deleted by pressing the Undo a number of times. Uundo Alt/Undo Undo undone primitives. Because an undone primitive is not deleted from memory it can be restored with this facility. Provided no Cut, Add or Paste has taken place since the last Undo sequence Uundo can be used to restore all the previously undone graphics. Set origin Ctrl/F Set the reference point from which all distances are measured. Select the 'Set ref' item from the 'Tools' menu or press Ctrl/F. The graphics cursor will change to a cross and can be placed on a point on screen that is required to be a reference point for measurement and precise placement. Position the cross at the desired reference point and press the left mouse button. This will cause the reference marker to be placed at this position and will stay the same size and in the MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 17 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 same relative position on the drawing no matter what part of the drawing is being viewed or what magnification is in operation. When lines, circles, arcs or ellipses are manipulated on screen, the X and Y distances of the line end or circle/arc/ellipse centre are shown at the top of the screen. Last view Alt/V Cause the previous view to be re-displayed. If a 'wide angle' area of the drawing is being worked on and a small area of this needs detail attention it can be zoomed in on by means of the magnifying glass icon. When this detailed work is completed the original 'wide angle' view can be restored by pressing Alt/V or clicking on the item in the 'Tools' menu. Mark-and-zoom Fill the entire screen with a section of the current part of the drawing on display. To operate this facility, click on the maginfying glass icon (second bottom left icon on screen) and the mouse cursor will change into a pair of crosswires. Place the crosswires at the top LH corner of a rectangle that is required to be viewed. Press and hold down the left mouse button and the crosswires will change into an expandable box. This expandable box can be move to surround the area required and when the left button is released, the area 'marked' will immediately be displayed on the screen. NOTE: A magnification in excess of 99 is not allowed. Full view Display a overall view of the drawing. If it is necessary to view the entire drawing on the screen it can be achieved with the aid of the overall view icon (the all-seeing-eye). Simply click on this icon (bottom LH icon on screen) and the correct magnification and screen offsets will be calculated in order to display the whole drawing in the centre of the screen. The scale of the display in the full view mode will depend on the size of the drawing sheet chosen. MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 18 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 It is therefore a good idea, if this facility is to be used, to set up the drawing size, using the hardcopy dialog box, even if a hardcopy is not required. All drawing functions can be used in this mode, however, accuracy will be reduced owing to the scale of reduction involved. Units Ctrl/U Display a dialog box into which various drawing unit values can be entered. Magnify: Sets the amount by which the display is magnified: it does not affect the actual data values in memory. Reduction: Sets the amount by which the display is reduced: it does not affect the actual data values in memory. Pixels/grid: This sets the vertical and horizontal distance in pixels between successive dots in the grid matrix. This is only true for a Mag value of 1:1, for other values of Mag it will be scaled correspondingly. Attributes Alt/A This produces a dialog/selector box from which all of the drawing attributes such as fill patterns, border, write mode, line styles and sizes etc, etc. are selected. The difference between the top left and bot. right fills is minimal and seems to be a quirk of GEM itself. The top two rows of fills are described in the 'Programmers Reference' as 'DOTTED' (fill type=2) fills and ranges from 0 (top left) to 23 (extreme right middle row) and 'CROSSHATCH' (fill type=3) ranging from 0 (bot right [Wh]) thro 1 (bot. left) to 11 (2nd right bot. row). The top left fill fills the shape with nothing (ie. generates a white circle) whilst the [Wh] fill seems to turn off the perimeter visibility also?? The dotted square in the rectangle is the 'perimeter visibility' switch. Switch this off and your filled shapes will not have a single pixel line surrounding them. As regards Rep, Tr, Xor and Rev these are the write modes for the various graphics objects and determine MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 19 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 how they mix together on the screen. The 'official' explanations are as follows: Rep (Replace Mode): The replace mode sets the points without concern for the existing graphics. new = col AND obj Tr (Transparent Mode): In the transparent mode, the points are only set where no points are yet present. In addition, the points of the graphic at which points are to be set without colour, are cleared. This can better be clarified [and I should think so - Jim] with an example. A filled surface is to be drawn. If the screen area is empty, there is no difference between the replace and tranparent modes. If the screen area already contains graphics, however, the fill pattern would not be recognised in the replace mode. A fill pattern on a screen having a colour of the fill pattern cannot be recognised in the replace mode. [This, to me, isn't much clearer: I suggest you experiment - Jim]. new = (col AND obj) OR (col AND NOT obj) Xor (Xor Mode): In the Xor mode, points are set only where are none are contained in the already existing graphic. All points already set at the new positions are erased. The points of intersection of an old and new line are thereby erased. new = obj XOR old Rev (Reverse Transparent Mode): In this mode all overlapping points for which no colour is assigned in the object remain (such as the gaps in a dashed line). The overlapping points which are assigned a colour in the object are erased. A fill pattern drawn on a black surface in reverse transparent mode is therefore the negative of the corresponding fill pattern in the transparent mode. [Experiment again - Jim]. new = (old AND obj) OR (col AND NOT obj) Bk (Black): This is the line colour switch: switch this off and you can draw a white line on a black background. Line Thickness: This is measured in pixels. Guide: When this button is set, the primitives drawn will be regarded as guides and can be switched off when printing the drawing. Grid Ctrl/G Toggle the dot grid screen display. MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 20 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 Select the 'Grid' item from the 'Tools' menu or press Ctrl/G. The dot grid will appear or disappear from the screen. Snap Ctrl/S Activate or deactivate the positioning 'snap' facility. When active, objects positioned on the screen will be fixed at the grid point nearest the mouse position. Drawing edge Alt/J Display the edges of the drawing sheet size. With this switch 'on' (default) the edges of the drawing sheet will be displayed and can be seen if the all-seeing-eye icon is clicked. Guide Allocate the 'Guide' function to a primitive. Any primitive can be used as a drawing guide. When the guide switch is 'on' any primitive drawn is labelled within the drawing database as being a guide. Such primitives can be 'switched off' and will not be displayed and will not be printed out on a hardcopy. This is a simple form of drawing level control. A full 32 level implementation will be supported by MiniDraft v1.20. Help Help Display a dialog box which contains some usefull, handy information. Select the 'Help' item from the 'Edit' menu or press the 'Help' key. A dialog box will be produced containing the information ie. Alt/Insert simulates the left mouse button Alt/Clr-Home simulates the right mouse button MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 21 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 Alt/^,v,>,< moves the cursor 8 pixels Alt+Shift/^,v,>,< moves the cursor 1 pixel <,>,^,v page left, right, up, down (90%) Shift/<,>,^,v page left, right, up, down (10%) Z Zoom in (increases Magnify by 1 or reduces Reduction by 1) Alt/Z Zoom out (decreases Magnify by 1 or increases Reduction by 1) Help Produces the Help dialog Clr Home If, through moving, zooming etc. you lose track of where you are within a drawing, pressing the Clr Home key will quickly restore the display to the base position and with a magnification of 1:1. MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 22 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 THE WORKING SURFACE The working surface for graphics drawing is 32,767 x 32,7676 pixels all of which can be output on a dot matrix printer (see 'Hardcopy'). All movement on the screen can be carried out either by means of the mouse or by means of the Alt and/or shift-graphics keys. Using Alt/graphics key will move the graphics cursor or shape 8 pixels up, down, left or right; Alt+shift-graphics key will move it 1 pixel up, down, left or right. Also the mouse buttons can be simulated on the keyboard. Alt/insert simulates the left mouse button and Alt/Clr Home simulates the right. In all cases a particular action is aborted by pressing the right mouse button (or Alt/Clr Home). Editing Any old MiniDraft drawings can be loaded, displayed, modified or converted into new drawings. Sections can be 'cut' out, saved on disc and later 'inserted' into new drawings. File extensions File extensions can be anything you like. I have used .DBD for complete drawings and .BLK for blocks. MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 23 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 PART II - Tutorial getting started Double click on MINIDRAF.PRG to start up the program. If you inspect the 'Graphics' menu you will see that the item 'Line' has a tick mark next to it. This means that this function is active and will be brought into play when the 'Add' item in the same menu is selected. So to begin with we shall leave this function selected and click once on 'Add' with the left mouse button. The arrow cursor is now changed into a cross with a central square and can be moved to any desired position on the screen. Chose a position and click once on the left mouse button. An 'elastic' line is now drawn between the original position chosen and the current mouse position. Chose another position for the other end of the line and click once on the left mouse button again. The line will now be fixed in position and the cursor ready to draw another line. Maneouver the cursor so that it is exactly over one end of the line already drawn and press the left mouse button. The 'elastic' line will once more appear. If, however, you are not happy with the new line, press the right mouse button and the line will disappear and the cursor will once more be ready for a new line. Draw a few more lines, construct some shapes to get the hang of it. To end the session press the right mouse button an extra once after a line has been fixed, or aborted and the arrow cursor will reappear ready for another menu selection. Hints Identical objects superimposed will cancel on marking due to xor drawing mode used in this function. Circles with thick outlines can be obtained using the Arc graphic and with the line thickness set to the required value. Boxes with thick outlines can be obtained by using the Polygon graphic with a Black fill. Draw the inner and outer shapes of the thick box by going around the outer and inner corners of your box with the polygon function. When you finally click the right mouse button (after clicking the left button 10 times) the thick black box will appear. You can, of course, fill your box outline with any of the other patterns. To get the best out of this program (or any other similar CAD package) you should try and think a MiniDraft v1.10 user manual Page 24 By Jim Taylor Oct 1992 little more about the construction of your drawing. Try and break it down into repeatable units; then you have to draw it in detail only once, copy it, then paste it around the drawing as many times as you like. Use the Block Save to build up your own library.