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ASC-SCR The ASCII to Script File Conversion Utility Version 2.1 USERS' MANUAL Program Developed and Written by: Michael S. Campbell and Douglas A. Pickell, P.E. HydraWare Software 8207 Sugarbush Court Orlando, Florida 32819 USA TABLE OF CONTENTS Section Title Page License Agreement .................................................. 2 1 What Is ASC-SCR .............................................. 4 2 Installing ASC-SCR ........................................... 5 3 Using ASC-SCR ................................................ 6 4 Examples ..................................................... 9 5 Questions or Problems ....................................... 10 Copyright (c) 1991 HydraWare Software (HWS). All rights reserved worldwide. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Documentation by Douglas A. Pickell, P.E. This manual was developed using WordPerfect and the Norton Editor. June 1991 Release ASC-SCR 2.1 Page 1 LICENSE AGREEMENT The ASC-SCR Program is NOT "Public Domain" and it is NOT "Freeware". It is a copyrighted software product developed and owned by HydraWare Software (HWS) located in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A. HWS grants you without charge the right to reproduce, distribute and use copies of this version of our shareware software product, subject to the limitations specified below, and on the express condition that you do not receive any payment, commercial benefit, or other consideration for such reproduction or distribution, or change this license agreement or the following copyright notice which appears in the software, documentation, or other related files: Copyright (c) 1991 HydraWare(R) Software (HWS). All rights reserved worldwide. No unauthorized duplication allowed. Limitations: You may make and keep one (1) back-up copy of the software for your personal use, provided that (i) you have registered, and (ii) you copy all the copyright, name, and other information shown on the initial screen display banner (or on the diskette label, for the registered version disk) onto your backup diskette label. You may distribute copies to other persons, but solely for their evaluation to determine whether to continue using the product and therefore register; said evaluation period to not exceed twenty-one (21) days. ASC-SCR may NOT be sold or otherwise provided as part of any other system, without express written consent and licensing from HWS. The rights to receive any such financial or other benefit, and to modify the product or employ its components in any kind of derivative work, are reserved exclusively by HydraWare Software! Support from users enables us to develop additional features and future versions of ASC-SCR and other HWS products. Registered users benefit from receipt of the latest program version, free minor updates, price discounts for major upgrades, and notice of new products. Also, please feel free to contribute your ideas regarding desired additional product features and functionality. Contact us at: HydraWare Software 8207 Sugarbush Court Orlando, Florida 32819 USA ASC-SCR 2.1 Page 2 BY USING THE ASC-SCR PRODUCT, YOU AGREE THAT NEITHER HYDRAWARE SOFTWARE NOR ANY OTHER RELATED PARTIES WILL BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY USE OF (OR INABILITY TO USE) OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS PRODUCT, OR FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE. HydraWare Software warrants to owners of registered copies of this program that the software will operate in substantial conformance with the description given in the documentation, and that the diskettes will be free of physical defects which interfere with normal use. For a period of 30 days from the date of your purchase, HWS will, at its sole option and subject to the restrictions above and below, replace any defective item(s), if such defect is the fault of HWS and not the result of misuse or abuse. Such a replacement shall be your sole remedy for any defects, program error(s), or documentation error(s). In no event shall HWS be responsible for any other costs or damages whatsoever due to errors in usage or your failure to read, understand, or follow instructions in the documentation. HydraWare Software MAKES NO OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. HWS's warranty is expressly limited to the cost of replacement of any defective diskette. You may not reverse-engineer, disassemble, modify, decompile or create derivative works of this product. You acknowledge that the product includes certain trade secrets and confidential information, all of which is the copyrighted intellectual property of HydraWare Software. AutoCAD is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc. ASC-SCR 2.1 Page 3 SECTION 1 What is ASC-SCR ASC-SCR is an acronym that stands for "ASCII to Script". In other words, this is a utility program that converts an ASCII file to a Script file. Another common name for an ASCII (which stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange) file is a "text" file, which simply means that it has no control or special characters (like a word processor would embed in a file) and can be viewed directly with the DOS 'type' command or sent directly to a printer with the DOS 'print' command. ASCII files can be created or modified with a "text editor" or with a word processor in text or ASCII mode. Of course, many programs like spreadsheet, database, and other engineering programs often produce output in ASCII format. A "script" file is a file type used by AutoCAD. It is a series of AutoCAD commands, answers to questions prompted by these commands, and data that is required by these commands. It is very much like a DOS batch file or a spreadsheet macro. The script command is issued from within AutoCAD and the user responds with the script file's name. All of the commands, answers, and data within the script file are then automatically entered into AutoCAD just as if the user had typed the responses at the keyboard! This method can be a very easy and powerful way to transfer large amounts of data into AutoCAD. Consult your AutoCAD reference for more detailed information on script files. ASC-SCR is written in C and compiled with Borland's C++ compiler. Source code is not supplied. The executable itself is not copy protected. On screen help is available at all times by using the "-h" or "-?" option. The program supports CGA (color), MDA (monochrome), EGA (Enhanced Graphics Adapter), VGA (Video Graphics Array) and Hercules graphics adapter displays and has the Borland BGI video drivers compiled into it. We value and welcome user comments and suggestions concerning the software and the documentation. Please feel free to write or use the comment form provided with this documentation to give us your reactions to this product. All user comments are carefully considered in our continuing effort to improve the program and its documentation. Thank you for purchasing ASC-SCR, which we hope you find easy to use and powerful in its abilities. ASC-SCR 2.1 Page 4 SECTION 2 Installing ASC-SCR The files listed below comprise the ASC-SCR package. If it isn't obvious, their functions are listed. You may place your distribution disk in Drive A: and give the "DIR A:" command to see the listing of these files. ASC-SCR.EXE The ASC-SCR program MANUAL.DOC This document EXAMPLE.DAT Example input data file ORDER.DOC An order and comment form INSTALL.BAT Simple batch file to copy files to hard drive README.1ST Pertinent initial info to know RUN1ST.BAT Batch file that lists README.1ST to screen and executes INSTALL.BAT For your ease, we have provided a simple install procedure; however, using it is not required to install ASC-SCR. Since the program is not in any type of compressed format, you may simply copy it from the distribution floppy disk to the desired location on your hard drive. If you plan to use ASC-SCR from a floppy, make a backup/working copy of the program diskette for day-to-day use. Store the original in a safe place. The program consists of a single, stand-alone executable (.EXE file) with no additional files required for the program to run and function properly. Technically, ASC-SCR may be run from any subdirectory of a hard drive or from a floppy drive. The other files that you find on your distribution disk are documentation and an example. While they should be kept with the program file, they are not necessary for its use. ASC-SCR is an AutoCAD utility, so you will probably want to have it available for use with your AutoCAD program. You may accomplish this by locating ASC-SCR with your other AutoCAD utilities somewhere in your Auto- CAD subdirectory hierarchy. Alternatively, you may copy the program to its own subdirectory, or any general purpose utility subdirectory, and then add this subdirectory to your path. ASC-SCR 2.1 Page 5 SECTION 3 Using ASC-SCR ASC-SCR is an AutoCAD utility program that was written to convert any ASCII file ("text" file) of x, y, and optionally z, coordinates into an AutoCAD script file. This ASCII file could have been generated from many different sources. For instance, it may be output from some other program; come from a spreadsheet; been exported from a database program; or simply input by the user with a text editor. Because of all these potential sources, the ASCII file may be in many different formats. The formats that ASC-SCR currently supports are: space delimited (SDF), comma delimited (CDF), and apostrophe (') or quote mark (") delimited. The example data file (EXAMPLE.DAT) included with the distribution files has samples of each of these formats. Although we mixed formats in our example file for purposes of illustration, you would normally only have a single format in the file. ASC-SCR is completely command line driven, meaning that all available options for processing the data must be entered on the command line, including the filename(s) to be processed. If the user types the program name only, a usage screen will be shown (see below for detailed information on usage). If no program options are entered, the defaults are assumed and used to process the input file(s). The defaults are: create a script file(s) that makes a polyline of two dimensional (x & y) coordinates, giving the output file(s) the same prefix name as the input file(s) but with an ".scr" extension. The syntax for ASC-SCR is shown below. Details of usage follows. This information is essentially the same as what will be seen on the screen if the user types the program name without any other command line parameters: asc-scr [option(s)] input_file [ [option(s)] input_file ] ... The "[]" indicate non-required information and the "..." indicate the syntax may be repeated indefinitely as required. The listing below shows all the available options to ASC-SCR. When used, the "|" indicates related switches, where one or the other is used; the "<>" indicates other additional data is required with this option; and "/" delimits the allowable choices for an item using the "<>". Although the options are shown with the "-" as the command line delimiter, the "/" is also acceptable (these two being the most universally used). -h = review Help -- you will be able to page through a series of detailed help screens and examples; at the conclusion of help review, you will be returned to the DOS prompt, therefore any other options and filename(s) are ignored -? = review this usage data AND review help -- the most assistance that you can get! See the usage screen and then opt to review the help ASC-SCR 2.1 Page 6 SECTION 3 -i|q = for non-fatal error(s) only you may: i=Ignore the error (you will always get some informational message to the screen) and continue processing the file q=Quit all processing and terminate the program (DEFAULT) -3|2 = process the data in the input file as: 3=3-D points (x,y,z) 2=2-D points (x,y) (DEFAULT) -p|n|b<fn_block> = the output script file will: p=create a Polyline using the coordinates (DEFAULT) n=insert Nodes (points) only at each coordinate b=insert the drawing Block "fn_block" at each coordinate -- "fn_block" may be any existing valid AutoCAD .dwg file and a full path may be specified, but do NOT include the ".dwg" extension -g|x<dap> = the output script file: g=will be Given the AutoCAD script file ".scr" extension (DEFAULT) x=will have its eXtension changed to ".dap" It is also possible to perform some rudimentary arithmetic on the data contained in the input file(s). The "-s" options give you that flexibility. -s<x#/y#/z#> = Scale only the x OR y OR z axis values by the number '#' -- the number provided will be used to multiply just the values of the axis specified, for all points -su<#> = Scale Uniformly all axes values by the number '#' -- the number provided will be used to multiply all values in the file, for 2-D or 3-D as applicable -sa<x/y/z> = Scale Automatically all other axes values by the LARGEST value of axis x OR axis y OR axis z -- commonly called "scale to fit"; this option takes the ratio of the largest value in the data of the specified axis to the largest value in the data of the other axis and multiplies all values in the data of the other axis by this ratio; the values in the data of the specified axis are left unchanged; if 3-D option is specified, this procedure would be performed twice, once for each "other" axis Some general comments: 1. Defaults are automatically in effect unless explicitly overridden by turning on an option. Therefore, if a default is desired, you need not list it as an option. The exception to this occurs when proces- sing multiple files and you wish to return subsequent files to the defaults. If any option is turned on, it remains in effect for all files until "turned off" by either: specifying the default(s) or changing a parameter (in the case of "-b", "-s", and "-x"). See the multiple file examples in Section 4 for further clarification. ASC-SCR 2.1 Page 7 SECTION 3 2. If more than one option is used, list them on the command line in the same order as tabulated above (see examples below). If this is not done, you may get error or warning messages, or results that you did not expect. 3. Input filename(s) may include full path specifications and/or wildcard symbols, allowing you great flexibility. Although the path may be specified for the input file, the output script file will always be sent to the current subdirectory. Wildcard symbols allow you to auto- matically process a group of input data files without having to enter each name separately. Output filename(s) will always have the same prefix as the input filename(s), but the extension will be the standard AutoCAD script file ".scr"; unless specified otherwise with the "-x" option. 4. The options "-b", "-s", or "-x" require additional data for correct processing. The "< >" data may follow the option letter with OR without a space. For example, "-bdwg_blk" and "-b dwg_blk" will both insert the drawing block "dwg_blk". 5. Options may be strung together after a single delimiter (i.e. "-i3su10"), but if options "-b", "-s", or "-x" are followed by another option, there MUST be a space and another delimiter (i.e. "-i3bgadget -su10 -xdap"). 6. As mentioned above, when using the "-b" option the program checks for existence of the specified block. It takes the block name supplied, including any path, appends the ".dwg" extension, and checks for existence of this file. If not found, the program will exit with a fatal error because under normal circumstances, we assume that the user will have already created the block to be inserted. However, there are circumstances where the drawing block may not exist at all yet, or may be on a different computer or even stored on a floppy. Therefore, to allow the program to run successfully when specifying a block that "doesn't exist", use the "-i" option to ignore this error. That will allow you to build your script file to insert any block. At present, all blocks are inserted at x & y scale both equal to 1 and angle of rotation equal to 0. 7. In the event of some fatal error, the program will terminate proces- sing graciously, even if you are using the "-i" option. The primary fatal errors include errors resulting from file I/O and attempting to overwrite an existing script file. Data processing errors are the only kind that can be ignored by using "-i". This type of non-fatal error primarily includes: most non-numeric data; no y value; no z value when using "-3" option; and non-existent drawing block when using "-b". BE CAREFUL when using the "-i" option because if bad data is encountered, a valid script file will be created, but it will have skipped those coordinates that contained bad data! To assist you in finding the bad data in your input file, a warning message will appear on the screen and the "guilty" data will be echoed to the screen. Although we have consistently used lower case in all of our examples, this program is not case sensitive. You may use upper or lower case. (You may even mix upper and lower case, if you wish). ASC-SCR 2.1 Page 8 SECTION 4 Examples Following are a number of examples to illustrate the basics of the ASC-SCR options. 1. asc-scr myfile.dat The script file "myfile.scr" will be created with 2-D coordinates making a polyline (i.e. the defaults were used). 2. asc-scr myfile1.dat myfile2.txt myfile3.out ..... Gives same result as example 1, but for as many files as there are listed on the command line. To do the same thing, with much less typing, use " asc-scr myfile?.* " and take advantage of wildcards. 3. asc-scr -bwidget -su2 myfile.dat The created script file will insert the block "widget.dwg". Both the x & y values at every coordinate will be multiplied by 2. 4. asc-scr -b widget -su2 myfile1.dat -sx10 myfile2.txt This example creates two script files that will insert the block "widget.dwg". The first scales x & y values by 2 (if there are z values, they will be ignored because the "-3" switch wasn't used). The second scales only x values by 10. 5. asc-scr myfile1.dat -b widget -sx2 myfile2.txt -qn myfile3.out This example creates three script files. The first will have defaults (a 2-D polyline). The second will insert the block "widget.dwg", scaling all x values by 2, and any non-fatal errors would only cause a warning. The third script file will be created with nodes only inserted at the coordinates, but errors would cause processing to abort. Note that x values will also be multiplied by 2 because the switch is still in effect. 6. asc-scr -i3bnewblock -xtmp myfile?.* Script files will be created (with 3-D coordinates, inserting the block "newblock.dwg") from all files which match the wildcard spec. The normal extension of ".scr" would be replaced with ".tmp" for all files created. The "-i" option allows processing to continue since the block doesn't exist yet. 7. asc-scr -i3nx1sc datfile.1 -q2pg datfile.2 Script file "datfile.1sc" will be created with nodes only at 3-D co- ordinates, (and giving a warning, rather than aborting, if any 'z' not found). Then the file "datfile.scr" would be created, using all defaults (quit on error, 2-D points, polyline creation, and ".scr" extension). This example illustrates the instance where the defaults must be listed as options because of what you previously specified. A better way to get the same results would be the following: " asc-scr datfile.2 -i3nx1sc datfile.1 ". ASC-SCR 2.1 Page 9 SECTION 5 Questions or Problems If you have problems with ASC-SCR, please read this manual carefully first to make sure you do understand everything. To the best of our knowledge, we have provided a problem-free product but sometimes things can be missed. If you think you have found a problem, please take the time to contact us and explain your problem. All registered users will be informed of any problems. Errors will be corrected. Make sure that you include the following information to help us evaluate the problem: 1. What version of ASC-SCR you are using 2. The precise command line executed that causes the problem 3. Any error message(s) generated by the program 4. Machine type, memory, monitor type, hardware description 5. Any application executed before ASC-SCR 6. Version of DOS you are using 7. Where, when, and how you obtained ASC-SCR 8. Your address and telephone number (when corresponding) We only maintain the most current release of our products. If you are a registered user, you will automatically receive any error corrections and minor enhancements to the product. This will often take care of the problem. 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