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- =========================================================
- readme.ase - AutoCAD Release 13 for AutoCAD 386
- =========================================================
-
-
- November 25, 1994
-
-
- CONTENTS
-
- Important Information
-
- Driver-Specific Information
-
- AutoCAD Link API
-
- AutoCAD SQL Interface (ASI)
-
- Manual Corrections and Additions
-
- AutoCAD Developer's Guide, On-line Document
-
-
- IMPORTANT INFORMATION
- =====================
-
- - Installing the AutoCAD SQL Environment (ASE)
-
- Please refer to the last section of this file for up to date
- information on ASE installation, configuration and drivers. This
- section contains chapter 7 of the AutoCAD Installation Guide in
- its entirety and it should be used instead of the corresponding
- chapter in the printed Installation Guide.
-
- - Running the AutoCAD SQL Environment
-
- Under DOS, the DOS Share program (share.exe) must be run before
- starting AutoCAD in order to use ASE.
-
- - Configuring the AutoCAD SQL Environment
-
- There are many components which comprise ASE. These components need
- to be available for ASE to run. The asi.ini file is installed so that
- the character set and collation definition files that ASE requires (as
- well as some sample dBASE III PLUS tables) will be found automatically
- when AutoCAD is started from the directory from which it is installed.
-
- If you want to start AutoCAD from a different directory you will need
- to make the following modifications to the asi.ini file. Edit the
- asi.ini file in a text editor.
-
- Find the Path entry in the [ASI] section. Modify the ase\lang to an
- absolute path. For example, if AutoCAD is installed to c:\acad, the
- entry would be Path = c:\acad\ase\lang. This will allow ASE and the
- drivers to be able to find the character set and collation definition
- files.
-
- Find the [DB3] section. In that section the entry ASE = sample\dbf
- must be changed to an absolute path. For example, if AutoCAD is
- installed in c:\acad then change the entry to ASE = c:\acad\sample\dbf.
-
- If you receive errors from ASE indicating that it cannot find a file,
- you need to check the path entries.
-
- - Editing the asi.ini File
-
- When editing the asi.ini file, make sure your editor saves the
- file as plain ASCII text. An editor such as DOS-Edit or
- MS-Notepad is fine. Some errors have arisen by using the Kedit
- editor.
-
- If you edit the asi.ini file and ASE displays the error "asi.ini
- is corrupt", you must use a different editor.
-
- - Using Drawings with ASE Links
-
- The ASE application (the ase.arx file) MUST first be loaded
- BEFORE you use the Open, Insert, Xref or Dxfin command with any
- files containing ASE link information if you want that data to be
- recognized. This rule also applies to the Dxfout command if you
- want links preserved in the DXF file.
-
- To load the ASE application you may:
- . choose any ASE command which will automatically load the
- application.
- . enter (arxload "ase") at the command line or use the Arx
- command.
- . place an entry for ase.arx in the acad.rx file, which will
- automatically load the ASE application when AutoCAD starts
- (see the documentation on the acad.rx file for further
- details on its use).
-
- - Unloading the AutoCAD SQL Environment
-
- Once a Link Path Name (LPN) has been created, inserted or
- attached to a drawing, the ase.arx file should NOT be unloaded
- while editing that drawing. ASE may be unloaded after entering a
- new, empty drawing. ASE may be unloaded at any time if no ASE
- information (LPNs or links) exist in the drawing. ASE will also
- unload automatically after exiting AutoCAD.
-
- The Aseunload command is not in this release of AutoCAD. To
- unload the ASE application, type (arxunload "ase") at the command
- prompt or use the Arx command to unload the ase.arx file.
-
- - The Undo Command
-
- At the time of this release, the AutoCAD Undo command does not
- always send internal notification to applications. Therefore,
- ASE can't fully support the Undo command in all circumstances.
- These are the known circumstances:
-
- . If you Undo after reloading a Displayable Attribute, you must
- use the Regen command to update the screen.
-
- . If you Undo after either synchronizing or erasing
- Displayable Attributes nested in blocks, you should use the
- Zoom/All command (after the Regen command) to update the
- screen.
-
- . The command sequence of Xbind/Block, Undo is not supported
- in this release of ASE and should be avoided.
-
- - Drawings with Locked Layers
-
- ASE does not allow links to be edited for objects on locked
- layers. In these cases, ASE displays a Warning dialog box with a
- message that the selected object is on a locked layer. The
- corresponding layer name and object handle are displayed in the
- Diagnostic Parameters list box. The user must unlock the layers
- before editing the links.
-
- If an LPN has a link to an object on a locked layer, ASE dialog
- buttons which manipulate links will be disabled when that LPN is
- being used.
-
- When converting AutoCAD Release 12 drawings with links to Release
- 13 format (with the Open command), a warning will be displayed if
- objects with links are on locked layers. These links will be
- erased. The layer should first be unlocked in the Release 12
- drawing before the conversion if those links are to be
- maintained.
-
- - Partial DXFIN Support
-
- Partial DXFIN of objects with links is supported if ASE is first
- loaded (BEFORE the Dxfin command) and "identical" LPN's already
- exist in the drawing. If the LPN's of the imported objects are
- "duplicate" LPN's or if they do not already exist, then the
- incoming links are considered invalid and will be discarded.
-
- - Selecting Drawing Objects with ASE
-
- Objects may be highlighted and placed into a selection set with
- the Aserows and Aseselect commands. Objects in model space and
- paper space are highlighted and selected depending on the current
- value of the Tilemode variable in conjunction with the CVPORT
- variable. When Tilemode=0 and Cvport=1, only object in paper
- space are selected. At all other times, objects in model space
- are selected.
-
- In the ASEROWS and ASEEXPORT command, it is possible to specify
- selection sets which contain objects from both model and paper
- space.
-
- - Dialogue Boxes
-
- Edit fields have a maximum length of 254 characters in dialog boxes.
- SQL statements entered in dialog boxes cannot exceed this limit.
-
-
- - R12 Link Synchronization
-
- After R12 link synchronization has been completed via the
- Aseadmin command, the user MUST NOT perform the command sequence
- of Undo then Redo. Undo by itself is possible if the user follows
- the Undo with the Zoom/All command.
-
- During the synchronization of an R12 drawing which is attached as
- an external reference to an R13 drawing, certain Link Path Names
- (LPNs), will be stored in the permanent part of the drawing.
- This occurs when an IDENTICAL link path name is detected in the
- external reference. If the xref is reloaded and the content of
- the IDENTICAL LPN has changed, then the links associated with
- this LPN cannot be resolved. The external reference should be
- detached, then reattach to prevent this from happening.
-
-
- DRIVER-SPECIFIC INFORMATION
- ===========================
-
- - Oracle and Informix ASI Drivers
-
- The Oracle and Informix ASI drivers were not available at the time
- of this AutoCAD release. If you wish to convert Release 12 drawings
- that contain links to Oracle or Informix tables to Release 13 format,
- you may still do so without these drivers being available. Refer to
- the information in Chapter 7 of the AutoCAD Installation Guide
- (included at the end of this file) about converting Release 12 ASE
- links to Release 13 ASE links.
-
-
- AUTOCAD LINK API
- ================
-
- - Supported Compilers
-
- This section contains documentation for supported compilers and other
- development tools for ADS and ARX applications accessing AutoCAD links
- with the AutoCAD Link API for the Windows, NT and DOS386 platform.
-
- For more information on how to create ADS or ARX applications see the
- ADS Readme file.
-
- The following files are provided for developing ASE applications:
-
- ase.h - AutoCAD Link API main header file.
- aseclass.h - Class header file if using C++
- aseconst.h - Constant definitions
- asesmp.c - Sample AutoCAD Link program.
-
- Windows and NT Support
- MSVC++ 1.1 is supported for both ADS and ARX applications.
- To create an ADS/ASE application use aseatm80.lib.
- To create an ARX/ASE application use asertm80.lib.
- See the make include file asitm80.mak for compiling.
-
- DOS386 Support
- MSVC++1.1 is supported for both ADS and ARX applications.
- To create an ADS/ASE application use aseapm80.lib.
- To create an ARX/ASE application use aserpm80.lib.
- See the make include file asipm80.mak for compiling.
-
- MetaWare High C/C++(TM) is supported for ADS only.
- To create an ADS/ASE application use aseaph30.lib.
- See the sample profile, asiph30.pro.
-
- - ASE AutoLISP API
-
- For the ase_linkcreate function, when specifying Displayable
- Attribute entity parameters (group 8), they should be enclosed
- into a double list. For example:
-
- (ase_linkcreate ... 8 (list '((10 1. 1. 0.) (40 . 1.) (50 . 0.))) ...)
-
- - Connection to Environments
-
- Most API functions don't require an SQL-Environment to be connected
- with the following exceptions:
-
- ase_lp_getPaths()
- ase_lp_getStatus()
- ase_ls_initLpCond()
- ase_ls_initLpDscCond()
-
- - Subentity Selection
-
- Using the API, links may be created to subentities such as a vertex,
- attribute or polyfacerecord. If the linked subentity is selected,
- the corresponding owner object (polyline, insert or polyface) will
- be highlighted and/or added to the selection set.
-
-
- AUTOCAD SQL INTERFACE
- =====================
-
- - Supported Compilers
-
- This section contains documentation for supported compilers and
- other development tools for ADS and ARX applications accessing
- external databases with ASI for the Windows, NT and DOS386
- platform.
-
- For information on how to create ADS or ARX applications see the
- ADS Readme file.
-
- The following files are provided for developing ASI applications:
-
- asiappl.h - Main application include file.
- asi.h - C interface
- asiclass.h - C++ Class interface
- asiconst.h - Constant Definitions
- asiucode.h - Unicode Definitions used in ASI
- asiconf.h - ASI.INI Configuration file access
- asismp.c - ASI sample ADS application.
-
- Windows and NT Support
- MSVC++ 1.1 is supported for both ADS and ARX applications.
- To create an ADS/ASI or ARX/ASI application use asiatm80.lib.
- See the make include file asitm80.mak for compiling.
-
- DOS386 Support
- MSVC++1.1 is supported for both ADS and ARX applications.
- To create an ADS/ASI or ARX/ASI application use asiapm80.lib.
- See the make include file asipm80.mak for compiling.
-
- MetaWare High C/C++(TM) is supported for ADS only.
- To create an ADS/ASI application use asiaph30.lib.
- See the sample profile, asiph30.pro.
-
- - ASILISP
-
- The Customization Guide refers to an application called ASILISP.
- This application makes all of the ASI functions available through
- AutoLISP. ASILISP was not available at the time of this release,
- but will become available in the future.
-
-
- MANUAL CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS
- ================================
-
- AutoCAD Developer's Guide, On-line Document
- -------------------------------------------
-
- Chapter 9, "AutoCAD Link API":
-
- ase_appl_term() - The first sentence of the function description
- should read, "Terminates the established interface with the ASE
- module".
-
-
- ase_dsc_free() - The first line should read:
-
- void ase_dsc_free(ASE_DSC *pDsc);
-
-
- ase_dsc_isInit - The first line should read:
-
- EAsiBoolean ase_dsc_isInit(ASE_DSC dsc);
-
-
- Samples for the following functions may be found in the asesmp.c file:
- ase_link_getDACols, ase_link_getNameSize, ase_lp_cmpDscName,
- ase_lp_cmpName, ase_ls_initLp, ase_ls_initLpDsc.
-
-
- ase_lp_getPathCode() - The table of return codes and database objects
- should be replaced with this table:
-
- Return Code Database Object Path
- ---------------------------------------------------------
- kAseUnknownNameCode empty database object reference
- kAseEnvCode environment reference
- kAseCatCode catalog reference
- kAseSchemaCode schema reference
- kAseTableCode table reference
- kAseLpnCode table reference with the LPN
-
-
- Chapter 11, "SQL2 Overview":
-
- The section titled, "Unsupported SQLSTATE Parameters" should read
- "Unsupported SQL Features".
-