Tech Arsenal 1/Tech Arsenal (Arsenal Computer).ISO/tek-19/gem.zip/READ.ME

Text File | 1992-02-03 | 29KB | 582 lines

February 3, 1992

This diskette contains version 3.92 of GemCad, a computer-aided design
program to assist in designing faceted gem cuts.  This file is meant
to introduce the program, give version details, and give installation
instructions.  This file does NOT give sufficient information to teach
you to use the program, however.  For this you need a copy of the
GemCad Manual.  If you have this diskette but do not have a copy of
the Manual, you must have a second-hand copy of the program.  See the
information below for how to register your copy of the program and
obtain the lastest version of GemCad and the GemCad Manual.

GemCad simulates a faceting machine.  You can specify angles and
indexes, and GemCad will cut facets on the screen, drawing the stone
at each stage.  This is valuable for checking the validity of
published faceting diagrams.  Although GemCad simulates a faceting
machine, its real purpose is to do the "grunt work" of designing new
gem cuts.  GemCad can figure the angle of a facet given two points and
its index, and it can figure the angle and index given three points.
GemCad understands radial and mirror-image symmetry.  If you tell it
to cut one facet, it will automatically cut the other facets on the
tier.  GemCad can scale a stone, adjusting the angles for different
indexes of refraction.  GemCad can stretch a round design into an
elliptical one.  GemCad can produce formatted listings suitable for
use as faceting diagrams.  GemCad can trace rays of light through the
stone to help you find out where light leaks out the pavilion.

GemCad runs on IBM PCompatibles with VGA, EGA, Hercules (TM), CGA, or
IBM 8514 graphics adapter cards.  The IBM 8514 has a resolution of
1024 by 768, but I have not tested this yet!  (The CGA resolution of
640 by 200 is a bit sparse, but is sufficient for many designs.)  An
80x87 numeric coprocessor is recommended but not required.  A hard
disk is also strongly recommended.  Versions 2.0 and later support a
Microsoft or compatible mouse.  The driver supplied with your mouse (a
program called something like MOUSE.COM) must be run before running
GemCad.  This is most commonly done in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, but may
be done anytime at the DOS prompt.

You can copy the executable file GEMCAD.EXE to your hard disk or run
the program directly off a diskette.  (If you run it off a diskette,
the diskette must NOT be write protected since GemCad writes a backup
file called GEMCAD.BAK to the diskette.  There might not be enough
room on this distribution diskette for this file.)

To install the program onto your hard disk, I recommend making a
subdirectory called GEMCAD on your hard disk and then copying all of
the files to that directory.  If your hard drive is C: and your floppy
is A:, do the following at the DOS prompt:

   C:
   CD \
   MD GEMCAD
   CD GEMCAD
   COPY A:\*.*

It is not important where the executable GEMCAD.EXE goes so long as
the directory where it resides is in your PATH (see the PATH command
in your DOS book).  For example if you put GEMCAD.EXE in a directory
called C:\GEMCAD, you should have a line like

   PATH=C:\;C:\DOS;C:\GEMCAD;

in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.  (The PATH will probably also have entries
for other packages you have already installed.)  GEMCAD.EXE is self-
contained: it doesn't need any other configuration files, so it can
reside anywhere.

To run the program, type GEMCAD at the DOS prompt.  The program will
try detect which kind of graphics adapter card you have, but if your
screen is messed up, reboot your computer and run the program again by
typing GEMCAD X where "X" is one of the characters "c" for CGA, "e"
for EGA, "h" for Hercules, "v" for VGA, or "i" for IBM 8514.  This
will bypass the auto-detection software and will get things going in
the right direction.

There are three ways to "drive" GemCad.  The first is with the
function keys, legends for which appear at the left of the screen.
Legends beginning with ">" change to a new menu of functions.  The
second way is with the mouse; you can point at a function key label
with the mouse and click a mouse button to activate it.  The third way
is with the standard alphabetic keys.  The single letter at the right
of the function key labels is equivalent to the corresponding function
key.  The h (help) key (or function key F9) followed by another
function key or alphabetic key will print a short description of what
that command does (without actually performing the command).  You can
print the text file QUICKREF.TXT to make one-page quick reference.  It
shows the the single keystroke commands and a short description of
what each does.

The files on this diskette are:

   READ.ME       This file
   GEMCAD.EXE    GemCad program
   QUICKREF.TXT  Quick Reference for GemCad

Also included are several sample cuts that I designed or adapted.
These can be read in with the Open command in the File menu.

   TRIBBLE.GEM   Tribble, a triangular brilliant, for quartz.
   OBRIL45.GEM   4:5 oval brilliant for quartz.  On manual cover.
   FORMEE_R.GEM  Rectangle for quartz.
   PEND7Q.GEM    Brilliant Pendeloque for quartz.

Listings of cutting instructions for each of these designs are
provided in the following files:

   TRIBBLE.LST
   OBRIL45.LST
   FORMEE_R.LST
   PEND7Q.LST

The latest version of GemCad and the Manual are available directly
from the author for a registration fee of $50.  You may pay by
personal check or money order.  Registered users who have already paid
their $50 are entitled to updates of the program and manual for a $10
duplication and shipping fee.  (I no longer offer one free update.
Now, the $10 updates are unlimited.)  GemCad is distributed on a
single diskette written in the format of your choice.  Please specify
one of the following disk formats with your order:

   5.25" 360K
   5.25" 1.2M
   3.5"  720K
   3.5"  1.44M

Please add $5 for international orders.  All of the above amounts
are in U.S. dollars.

The program GemCad and the GemCad Manual are Copyright (c) 1990, 1991
by Robert W. Strickland.  Permission is hereby granted to copy and
redistribute the program freely PROVIDED THAT THIS READ.ME FILE IS
INCLUDED WITH EACH COPY AND THAT NO CHARGE IS MADE OTHER THAN FOR THE
COST OF THE MEDIA AND SHIPPING.  You MAY NOT duplicate the GemCad
Manual without the written permission of the author.  If you have a
copy of GemCad, you may use the program for a period of 30 days to
evaluate it.  If you decide to continue to use the program, you must
pay the $50 registration fee.

GemCad comes with a money-back guarantee.  If you have paid the $50
registration fee and are not satisfied with GemCad, please return the
manual and I will refund your resistration fee.  My responsibility
ends there however.  GemCad is distributed without warranty of any
kind, and my liability is limited to the refund of your registration
fee.  I am not liable for any loss of or damage of data on your
computer when using GemCad.  I can accept no responsibility for the
accuracy of the designs you produce with GemCad, nor can I be liable
for damage to a stone cut with design produced with GemCad.  If you
discover a bug in the program and can isolate it, please notify me,
and I will gladly fix the bug, but you must still pay the $10 update
fee to receive an update with the bug fix.

If you have a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet or DeskJet printer, I have a
program called GemJet to make high-quality faceting diagrams from your
GemCad design files.  They look much better than the screen dumps
produced by GemCad.  The program uses the full 300 dpi resolution of
the printer, and the plots it produces are publication-quality.  The
registration fee for GemJet 1.2 is $20 for registered GemCad users
only.  In the future, I plan similar program(s) for 24-pin dot matrix
printers, PostScript-compatible printers, and HPGL-compatible
plotters.  Write me if you are interested.

If you have an Epson or IBM Proprinter 24-pin dot matrix printer (or
one that emulates either), I am working on a program called GemDot to
make high-quality faceting diagrams at the printer resolution of 180
dots per inch.  Its under testing now.

I hope to have my ray-tracing program ready for distribution in a
couple of months.  I no longer distribute the demo version 0.76 of
Raytrace.  The new program will need a a 80x87 math coprocessor to
work at reasonable speed, but will run without one, albeit slowly.
The new version requires a VGA card, but if there is sufficient
interest, I might make it work with EGA also.  When the program is
complete, I will notify registered GemCad users.  The registration fee
for the ray-tracing program will probably also be in the neighborhood
of $50 for registered GemCad users.

If you have a second-hand copy of GemCad and it has been a help to
you, please send $50 and register your copy with me so that I can send
you the latest version of the program and Manual and notify you of
future updates and enhancements.  My enthusiasm for enhancements and
bug fixes will be related to the response I get, but money is not the
object here--designing better gem cuts is!

I am very interested in feedback and suggestions for future releases.
Questions, bug reports, comments, suggestions, and contributions
should be addressed to the author:

Robert W. Strickland
6408 Earlyway Dr.
Austin, TX 78749

512-892-1887

Of course, I can only offer phone support to registered users only.

***********************************************************************

KNOWN BUGS IN 3.92

SYMMETRY AND THE WRITE COMMAND

The W (write) command only works as expected with stones cut with one
type of symmetry.  In many cuts, it is most convenient to cut certain
tiers of facets with a different type of symmetry than the other tiers
of facets.  If the symmetry is changed during the course of cutting,
GemCad gets amnesia.  Only the most recent symmetry command has effect
in the file made by the W command.  The symptom of the problem is,
when the file is read in with the R command, not all of the facets
will be cut, or previous facets will be cut off.  The work-around to
this problem is to edit the file with your favorite text editor and
insert lines such as

   y 8 y

in the file for eight-fold, mirror-image symmetry before the line that
specifies the facet.  The symmetry can be changed in this way as many
times as necessary.

VOLUME

The volume of the stone shown with the l or L (list to screen or file)
commands (version 3.3 or later) is dependent on the actual height of
the girdle you have cut.  This not consistant with the height of the
stone given by GemCad that ignores the actual height of the girdles
and assumes a girdle height of 0.02W.

SILLY FACETS

When one facet cuts off another, the new facet might not be drawn
correctly.  Sometimes a facet might extend past the actual stone (like
a thin sheet of paper glued to the facet).  If this happens, place the
cursor inside the suspiciously drawn facet and use the B (blink)
command to recompute and redraw the tier of facets correctly.  The P
(playback) command will completely recompute the stone and redraw it
and thus will also fix the problem.

MOUSY BUG

If you get too energetic with the mouse clicks, the program can some-
times hang.  If this happens to you, turn the big red switch off and
back on, run GemCad and do the u (undo) command to get back at most
one step before where you were.  If you run across a REPEATABLE way to
hang GemCad, let me know and I will fix it.

***********************************************************************

CHANGES 3.81 TO 3.9, October 22, 1991

BOTTOM LABELS  In version 3.8 and maybe in 3.7, facet labels in the
Bottom View were invisible.

3.91 12/17/91  Might have fixed the "mousy bug" above.

3.92 2/2/92   Cut off facets handled much better.  Playback command
now allows pause between facets.  List commands now make separate
indices with hyphens instead of spaces.  If the degree of radial
symmetry is not an integer divisor of the number of teeth on the index
gear, indices will be rounded off to the nearest tooth.

***********************************************************************

CHANGES 3.7 TO 3.8, August 26, 1991

FILE PICKER    The file picker introduced in version 3.7 (see below)
now works with the M (iMport) command to import Long & Steele files.
By default, it displays the files ending with the .?3D extension.

3.81 9/25/91: highlighted file is also indicated with a pointer for
some obscure graphics adapters that don't support highlighting.

***********************************************************************

CHANGES 3.5 TO 3.7, July 27, 1991 (3.6 was a dud)

SCREEN DUMP    Prior versions of GemCad had problems doinga a screen
dump to certain IBM ProPrinter compatibles (a genuine 9-pin ProPrinter
and the Tandy DMP 134 in particular).  The symptom this problem was
that the printer would only print one row of graphics corresponding to
the top of the screen and then just advance the paper instead of
printing the rest. GemCad now puts both carriage return and linefeed
characters at the end of each line of graphics instead of just a
linefeed.  This will make the screen dump work with a greater range of
printers.

FILE PICKER    No more typing file names to open an existing project!
The O (Open) command now brings up a ``point and shoot'' file picker.
GemCad will display all of the files in the current directory that end
with an extension matching *.G* (that is, files whose extensions start
with G).  The names of any subdirectories will be also be shown and
can be distinguished by the trailing backslash \ character.  One of
the entries will be lit up.  You can change which entry is highlighted
with the cursor keys or the mouse.  Pressing the Enter key or either
mouse button causes the highlighted entry to be selected and the
project to be opened.  If the highlighted entry is a directory (if it
ends with the \ character), GemCad will change to the selected
directory and display all of the files matching the wildcard.  The
special directory named ..\ is the parent directory of the current
directory.  If there are more than one screenful of entries, you will
notice the special selection <more>.  Selecting <more> causes the next
screenful to be displayed.  The special entry <previous> will then
back up one screenful.  The special entry <file spec> is used to
change drives (A:, B:, C:, ...)  and/or the wildcard (default *.G*).
To Esc key escapes the file picker without making a selection and
aborts the Open command.  Selecting a blank area of screen also
escapes.

GIRDLE LABELS  Gemcad now places girdle facet labels around the peri-
meter of the stone outline in the Bottom view.  GemJet 1.2 also does
the same thing.  You must still place the cursor inside the facet to
be labeled in the Side or End views, but the resulting label will be
placed in the Bottom view.

GIRDLE FACETS  If there are more than 64 girdle facets, the girdle
outline is assumed to be rounded, and girdle facets are not drawn.
The Girdle command of 3.4 and 3.5 to turn on or off the plotting of
girdle facets was eliminated in favor of this automatic approach.

ANGLE          A new command, A (Angle) gets the angle of the facet
surrounding the cursor and enters it just as if you had typed it in.
The analogous function for duplicating the index of an existing facet
is the j (jam) command.  One use of the A command is for cutting step
cuts that have several facets at the same angle but at different
indexes.  After you cut the first tier of a step cut, you can march
around the stone grabbing the angle of the facet just cut with the A
command and then moving the cursor to a facet from the previous tier
and grabbing its index with the j command.  Then just pick the meet
point, and GemCad will cut the new facet.

Z-Axis         A new point command, Z, sets a point at the intersec-
tion of the facet surrounding the cursor and the z (dop) axis.  It is
most useful when cutting several facets to a common center point, as
with a CAM preform.  Another use is for designs that have several
facets cut at the same angle and depth but with indexes not compatible
with the current symmetry (as set by the y command).  You can cut one
of the facets, place the cursor inside the new facet, grab its angle
with the A command (above), and then grab its z-axis intercept with
the Z command.  Then, as soon as you enter the the index, GemCad will
cut the new facet.

***********************************************************************

CHANGES 3.4 TO 3.5, February 15, 1991

MEMORY         GemCad version 3.5 can handle stones with a LOT more
facets.  Previously, a recursive routine was used to free all memory
(such as with the u (undo), N (new), or Q (quit) commands).  This
would cause a stack overflow (but no error message) and cause your
machine to hang if there were more than about 250 facets and you used
one of these commands.  Now, the limit is determined only by your
patience and the amount of available memory in your machine.  As an
experiment, I cut a stone with 1200 facets with no memory problems!

***********************************************************************

CHANGES 3.3 TO 3.4, February 5, 1991

VECTOR         Two new commands have been added but do not yet show up
as function keys.  They are the v and V vector commands.  A vector is
something that has magnitude and direction.  The purpose of the com-
mands is to display the length and direction of the line joining two
points.  The v (vector) command prints the distance between the last
two points and the bearing angle and index of the line joining them.
The delta x, delta y, delta z and true distance are shown.  The two
points are the last two points that were set, whether or not they were
used to cut new facets.  By far the most usual point command to be
used in this context is the m (meet) command.  If you want to mea-
sure the length of an edge, move the pointer near one end point of the
edge, press m, enter n (we don't want to use the point to add a
facet), move the pointer near the second point, press m, enter n, and
press v.  GemCad will then display the delta x, delta y, delta z, and
true (diagonal) distance at the top of the screen.  After you press
enter, GemCad will then print the bearing angle and index of the line
joining the two points.

If the two points lie along the edge joining two facets, and if you
were to try to cut a facet at the angle and index given, it would just
touch the edge, and furthermore, the given angle is the smallest angle
(in absolute magnitude) that could intersect the specified edge.  This
is useful when cutting a facet midway between a pair of existing
facets--like a main between two breaks.

So, in what units are the distances given?  The purpose of the V
(Vector set) command is to set the scale of the measuring stick used
by the v command.  It will start off by doing exactly the same thing
as the v command, but then GemCad will ask you which of the given
distances to which you want to set your measuring stick.  Acceptible
choices are x, y, z, or r for delta x, delta y, delta z, or delta r
(diagonal distance), respectively.  GemCad will then ask you how long
this distance should be in the new units.

The measuring capability previously provided with the construction
line command has been removed.

***********************************************************************

CHANGES 3.2 TO 3.3, January 20, 1991

DISK FULL      The commands that write to the disk now do error
checking.  Previous versions would corrupt files silently if the disk
filled up.  Now you will get the error message, "DISK FULL?  File xxx
corrupt" if GemCad encounters an error writing file xxx.  This change
applies to the s, S, W, and L commands, as well as to the backup file
gemcad.bak that GemCad uses for the u (undo) command.

VOLUME         The volume of the stone is now computed and displayed
with the l and L (list) comands.  The volume is displayed as a
fraction of the cube of the width, W, of the stone.  For example,

   Vol./W^3 = 0.279

This number can be used to estimate the carat yield of a finished cut.
To do this, measure W with a caliper in centimeters (mm/10), compute W
cubed (W times W times W), and multiply the result by the specific
gravity of the material in g/cc times the number for Vol/W^3 given by
GemCad.  The result will be the estimated weight of the stone in
grams.  Multiply by 5 to get the weight in carats.

As an exercise, let's compute the weight of a 12 mm wide stone of
quartz with Vol./W^3 = 0.279.  Noting that quartz has a specific
gravity of 2.65 g/cc, and 12mm = 1.2cm,

   Weight = 1.2*1.2*1.2*2.65*0.279 = 1.28 grams * 5 = 6.39 carats

See the bug report above.

MISSING FACETS  In versions prior to 3.3, the first facet cut with no
symmetry (symmetry 1-n) might not be drawn on the screen.  A similar
problem with a symmetry of 2-n existed where if two parallel facets
were cut to start a design, neither would be visible.  This has been
mostly fixed.  If GemCad is not drawing facets that you think you have
already cut, try the d (draw) command to redraw the screen.  If that
doesn't work, try using the B (Blink) command to recompute and redraw
adjacent facets.

INDEX OFFSET   The W (write) command now takes into account the index
offset (the index location at the bottom of the screen).

DEMO           The D (demo) command is new for version 3.3.  The demo
command will repeatedly playback the cut until interrupted with the
Escape key.  It is a good way to demonstrate GemCad at a gem show.

COMMAD LINE    GemCad will now accept a design file name on the
command line.  For instance,

   gemcad design.gem

will run gemcad and then open the file design.gem.  Many DOS shells
such as DOSSHELL with DOS 4.0 or the shell that comes with PC Tools
can "launch" an application by clicking on the name of a data file.
When configuring the shell, you can associate the gemcad.exe program
with data files that end in the .gem extension.  Clicking on a the
name of a design file ending in .gem will then run GemCad and open the
indicated design file.  This can save you some typing (and a few
synapses in remembering file names).

MISCELANEOUS   I also made numerous other small changes.  The prompts
that GemCad give are now a bit more descriptive of what it wants.  The
P (playback) command cleans up the display after the playback.  I
fixed a bug in the retier code (see the X scale command).

***********************************************************************

CHANGES 3.1 TO 3.2, September 6, 1990

LIST TO FILE   The L (list to file) command will now skip lines and
indent columns for the GemJet program, the publication-quality
companion program to GemCad for the HP LaserJet and DeskJet printers.
The first time you use the L command, GemCad will ask you for the
number of columns to indent.  A value of -8 is suggested for GemJet.
Most of the file will be indented 8 columns, but the header at the top
will be indented more.  Blank lines at the top of the file will leave
room for the picture to be overlaid by GemJet.  (Positive values will
work as before, i.e. will not skip lines at the start of the file or
indent to leave room for the picture.)  The basic idea is to list the
design to a file with the L command, edit the file with your favorite
text editor or word processor to add cutting instructions for each
tier, print the file on your HP DeskJet or LaserJet printer, reinsert
the page, and then run GemJet to print the design.  The result is a
publication-quality diagram of your design.

***********************************************************************

CHANGES 3.0 TO 3.1, August 1, 1990

COMMAND ECHO   The alphanumeric key equivalent of the current command
is displayed in the upper-left-hand corner.

***********************************************************************

CHANGES 2.5 TO 3.0, June 29, 1990

NEW MANUAL     A new version of the manual is now available and will
be distributed with GemCad 3.X.

TURBO C++      The source was recompiled with the new Turbo C++ 1.0
compiler (in its C mode).  IBM 8514 1024x768 support was added, but
has not been tested yet.  This also fixed a bug (in Turbo C) where
facets at index 10 were listed as index 1.

RE-TIER        The X (scale) command re-tiers the stone when stretched
in the x or y directions.  In pre-2.6 versions, this was done by
seeing which facets are related by symmetry.  Now, after the re-tier,
all facets cut at the same bearing angle and depth will be grouped
together on a tier regardless of how they are related by symmetry.
This breaks the trick described starting at the last paragraph of 12
of the reference manual of March 1990 for version 2.0.  (The trick was
to have made each facet a separate tier.)

BUG FIX        The L (list to file) failed to close PRN, causing DOS
to run out of files.  This has been fixed.

WAYTWACE       Rays are now drawn in complement mode.  Shooting the
same ray twice will draw and then erase the ray.

PRINT SCREEN   A capital H in response to the question asked when the
F10 (print screen) command will capture a screen image and dump it to
a file in HP format.  (The lower-case h dumps straight to LPT1.)  To
print such a file (here, named FILE) from DOS, do

     COPY /B FILE PRN

The /B switch is because the file is a binary file and might contain
the DOS 2.x end-of-file character ^Z.

***********************************************************************

CHANGES 2.4 TO 2.5, May 25, 1990

LIST           The L list to file now has a default margin of 8
spaces.  GemCad will prompt you the first time you execute the L
command for the number of columns (spaces) to indent.  Pressing ENTER
will set the default 8 spaces.  GemCad will not ask you the next time
through.

***********************************************************************

MOUSE NOTES    If you have a mouse and the pointer jumps more than one
pixel at a time in one direction and/or seems very sluggish in the
other, there are two environment variables MXDIV and MYDIV.  For
instance, if you type the line

     SET MXDIV=2

at the DOS prompt before running GemCad, gemcad will divide the ticks
your mouse driver generates by two and make the mouse more sensitive
in the X direction.  The number should be a small integer like 2 or 3.
If you make it too big, your arm might be too short or your desk top
might be too small to allow you to move the pointer across the screen.
If you enter the above command and DOS reports the error message "Out
of environment space," you need to put the command near the top of
your autoexec.bat file and reboot or use the /E switch on the SHELL=
command in your config.sys file to increase your environment space.
See your DOS manual for details on the SHELL= command.

***********************************************************************

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to express my gratitude to Walter Carss for his encouragement
and suggestions.  Most of the features added in the upgrade from 1.0
to 2.0 were Walt's ideas.  Walt deserves credit for helping to
introduce GemCad to the faceting community.

I thank Greg Thompson for his suggestions for improvements to the
Manual.

I thank Robert Long for his suggestions, for pinning down several
bugs, for his suggestions about the import/export facility from/to his
and Norman Steele's programs, for introducing GemCad to many others.
I wish to thank Long & Steele for their many contributions to the art
and science of gemstone design.  Thanks to both for publicizing GemCad
in the "Seattle Facetor Design."

I thank Phil Stonebrook for encouraging me to add the print screen
command, helping me test it, for helping me squash a bug, and for in-
troducing GemCad to the American Society of Gemcutters.

I thank Jerry Wycoff of the American Society of Gemcutters for his
very favorable review of GemCad in the "Gemcutter."

***********************************************************************