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1990-02-06
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3,933 lines
PC-Draft II (tm)
User Manual
Release 3.24
Copyright 1986,1987,1988,1989,1990 - All Rights reserved
Natural Software
19 South fifth Street
St. Charles Illinois, 60174
(708) 377-7320
LICENSE
THE PC-Draft II SOFTWARE AND MANUAL IS COPYRIGHTED, ALL RIGHTS ARE RESE-
RVED. YOU HAVE PURCHASED A LICENSE TO USE THIS SOFTWARE ON ONE MACHINE AT A
TIME. YOU ARE AUTHORIZED TO MAKE COPIES OF PC-DRAFT II FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE
OF BACKING UP YOUR SOFTWARE AND PROTECTING YOUR INVESTMENT FROM LOSS.
Note: this copy of PC-Draft II is being distributed as Shareware. This
means that you may copy the disk just as you received it and you may give
it to others for their trial use. You are also permitted and encouraged to
upload this version to electronic bulletin board services. You may not,
however resell or collect any fee for the distribution of PC-Draft without
the permission of Natural Software. (This does not include the normal fees
for using bulletin boards.) If you continue to use PC-Draft II after your
trial use, you must pay the purchase price as detailed below.
WARRANTY
THIS SOFTWARE WILL PERFORM AS DESCRIBED HEREIN ONLY IF PROPERLY APPLIED.
OUR LIABILITY TO YOU IS LIMITED TO REPLACING THE SOFTWARE (FOR REGISTERED
USERS). WE HAVE NO LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGE OR LOSS, INCLUDING
SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL, CAUSED BY THIS SOFTWARE, DIRECTLY OR
INDIRECTLY.
YOU AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE BY YOUR DECISION TO USE THIS
SOFTWARE.
_______
____|__ | (tm)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware
Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware
principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-
related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly,
ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a
dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical
support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at
P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006 or send a Compuserve message via
easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536
i
Table of contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Shareware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
What registered users get . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
MicroSoft Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Other Mice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Files used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
File Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Starting PC-Draft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Cursor Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Cursor Increment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Suspend Cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Change Cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Menu Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Display Menu Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Drawing Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Moving around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Direct Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Using markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Setting markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Jump to marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Clearing the Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Erasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Undo Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Saving Your Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Directory Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Ending PC-Draft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Drawing Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Multi-Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Free Draw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Rectangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Ellipse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Arc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Write . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
ii
Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Drop Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Object Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Transfer to Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Zoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Goodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Just paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
SpraY Can . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Kursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Mouse cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
grId . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Quick view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
sNap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Loading Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Selecting Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Creating and changing Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Saving Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Saving Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Retrieving Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Using Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Creating, changing Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Saving Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Using Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Creating Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Suspend Cursor Increment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Relative [+/-] Cursor Increment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
.MAC file structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Importing text files: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Editing Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Saving Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
loading Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Graph Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Drawing graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Drawing Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Printer resolution modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
IBM dot matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Epson dot matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
iii
HP LaserJet+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
IDS Microprism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
C.Itoh 8510-1550 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
GEM .IMG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Print current screen window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Print full drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Print partial screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Screen Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
The PIX graphics language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Starting PIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Trace mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Exit PIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
PIX Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Assign (LET) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Increment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Decrement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Cursor Movement Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Gotoxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Screen moves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Drawing Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Arc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Non Drawing Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
File Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Program Control Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Other Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
New PIX commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Pause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Getkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Jmp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Popup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Popdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Pgotoxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Tgotoxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
PC-Draft commands not supported . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Summary of PIX commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Summary of Drawing Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
iv
Introduction
PC-Draft II is a high resolution pixel oriented drawing and graphing
utility, which is designed to facilitate a variety of drawing and drafting
needs. Some of PC-Draft II's features:
o You can produce drawings up to 1280 by 700 dots using IBM's color
graphic adaptor high resolution graphics mode (640 x 200 dots per
screen). Such a drawing will more than fill an 8-1/2 x 11 inch
printed output (at 150 dots per inch resolution).
o Built-in functions allow you to draw circles, lines, boxes, arcs
and curves; draw bar, line and pie graphs; create patterns with
which to fill areas; cut and paste objects and save objects to
files for later use.
o PC-Draft is both menu driven and command driven -- all drawing
commands may be selected from the menus or may be entered by a
single keystroke command such as [C] to draw a circle or [L] for
line.
o You can zoom in to precisely edit one pixel at a time.
o You can record graphic keyboard macros saved in files for later
playback and for animation effects.
o You can load and edit fonts.
o You can print your drawings on a variety of printers including
those compatible with IBM and Epson Dot matrix, HP Laserjet+, and
HP DeskJet printers. Also you can save the output to the printer
in a file for later batch printing.
o You can save portions of the screen or full drawings in GEM .IMG
file format. These can then be directly imported into such Desk
Top Publishing programs as Ventura Publisher and WordPerfect 5.0.
o Drawing and Pic files may be saved in compressed format to save
disk space.
o You can set up to ten place markers anywhere in the drawing to
jump to.
o Drawing grids are displayable at any spacing with optional "grid-
lock" (Snap).
o A pop-up status panel shows x and y cursor position, position of
the screen window in respect to the full drawing area, the
current pattern, the current cursor increment value, and more.
Introduction Page 1
o An undo function repairs damage done by your last command.
o A preview function displays the entire drawing on the screen.
o A graphics presentation language called PIX performs all PC-
Draft II commands from a script you write without displaying any
cursor or menu interaction. PIX allows you to create animated
sequences of: loading screens, drawing forms and graphs and
adding text and more.
o Another program: CAPTURE.COM allows you to capture screen images
from other programs (both text and graphic screens), to be loaded
into PC-Draft for enhancement and printing.
o The latest additions to the Font, Macro, and Object libraries are
included.
Shareware
PC-Draft II is copyrighted. It is not a public domain program. It is being
distributed as Shareware, which means that unmodified copies of the soft-
ware and documentation may be freely copied and shared. We ask in return
that should you find PC-Draft II to be useful, you become a registered
user. You become registered by sending $50.00 to:
Natural Software
19 South fifth Street
St. Charles Illinois, 60174
Or call with your VISA or MasterCard number: (708) 377-7320. The file:
ORDER.FRM on the disk can be printed and used as an order form.
What do you get by becoming registered? What registered users get:
o The latest version of the software without the introductory
ShareWare screen.
o Free subscription to Compuserve including: your own private
User ID and Password, $15 introductory usage credit, free sub-
scription to Compuserve's monthly member magazine, Online Today.
o Free telephone support: You can talk directly to the author (Mike
Allen). Many of the features in this latest version of PC-Draft
came directly from suggestions and wishes from users. You can
also communicate with the author via compuserve. Send an EMAIL
message to Mike Allen (PID: 70047,744)
Page 2 PC-Draft II
o FREE!! -- when you register, you are entitled to a free introductory
subscription to CompuServe Invormation Service -- the biggest national
BBS! You will receive: a private user ID number and Password,
a $15 usage credit (up to 2 1/2 hours connect time at 2400 baud),
a complimentary subscrition to CompuServes's monthly computing magazine,
Online Today.
o The latest additions to the Font, Macro, and Object libraries:
They require too much disk space to distribute with the Shareware
version. And, as a registered user you will be notified when new
libraries become available.
o A collection of drawings made with PC-Draft II which you can
incorporate into you own work.
o A typeset quality user manual profusely illustrated with drawings
made with PC-Draft II and full of helpful hints.
o As a registered user you will be informed of new versions of PC-
Draft.
The shareware philosophy is to pay smaller amounts for well crafted and
useful software from developers who cannot spend the millions of dollars on
packaging and marketing necessary to compete with the large software
development companies. You benefit by being able to try a wider variety of
software products to find the ones that suit your particular purpose. And
the trial is free. The shareware developer benefits from being able to
distribute his work to a wider audience than would be possible through
normal channels.
Your share of the responsibility for shareware to continue, and to support
the development of more and better products is to distribute your shareware
programs to others and become a registered user of those products you like
and use.
System Requirements
PC-Draft II is compatible with the IBM PC, XT, and AT and "true compatible"
microcomputers with at least 384k of memory and with MS-DOS or PC-DOS
versions 2.0 or later. An IBM or compatible Color Graphics Display adapter
is required. PC-Draft II performs direct access of the display buffer at
address B8000 hex. PC-Draft II will not work with monochrome displays or
foreign display interface boards such as Hercules. (However, it will work
with one of the shareware CGA emulators such as HGCIBM or SIMCGA. Look for
them on your BBS.)
If you have a problem with your display, you might try pressing the [Ctrl +
F1] key combination to cycle through the different colors. The is par-
ticularly necessary on the PC-Jr.
PC-Draft II is memory hungry. For the sake of speed, an entire bit mapped
drawing is kept in memory, rather than being paged to and from disk. If you
like to load lots of stay resident utilities, you better have a 512k
machine, or unload them before running PC-Draft II. The PC-Draft II
program itself occupies about 85k. As you move the screen window to new
Introduction Page 3
portions of a large drawing more memory is allocated, 16k per screen. If
you start with less than 128k available, you will surely get an error
message: Out of memory!, then all you can do is save your drawing and quit
PC-Draft II.
Terminology
Brackets are used to indicate keystrokes. For instance: [Ctrl + PgUp] means
to press the Control key and the PgUp keys together. Whereas: [F3][P][S]
means to press those keys in sequence. The four arrow keys on the numeric
keypad are indicated as: [v][<][>][v]. Filenames are given in all upper-
case such as: PATTERN1.PAT.
Installation
If you are using a hard disk, create a sub-directory for PC-Draft II with
the following sub-directories: PAT, MAC, FON, OBJ, PIC, DWG, SCR. If you
are using DOS 3.2 or above, simply use the XCOPY command to copy all files
from all sub-directories to your pc-draft sub-directory on your hard disk
as follows:
CD \
MD PC-DRAFT
CD PC-DRAFT
XCOPY A:*.* /S
The sub-directory names correspond to the default filename extensions for
the various files PC-Draft II uses and will help keep things organized.
If yours is a floppy based system, simply make a backup copy of the dis-
tribution floppy for use.
The executable PC-Draft program consists of the main program: DRAFT2.EXE
and a configuration file: DRAFT2.CFG. This configuration file must both be
on your current directory. If you are using a floppy disk based system, you
must leave the diskette containing DRAFT.CFG in the disk drive when you
exit PC-Draft.
MicroSoft Mouse
If you have a mouse compatible with Microsoft's Mouse driver software, PC-
Draft will automatically use the mouse if the mouse driver is loaded.
Be sure the mouse driver is properly loaded (either with the CONFIG.SYS
DEVICE=MOUSE.SYS command, or from the keyboard (or in your AUTOEXEC.BAT)
run the MOUSE.COM program.
Page 4 PC-Draft II
Mouse movement emulates the arrow keys, the left button simulates the [F2]
key (to pop-up the menus), the right button simulates the [Enter] key (to
terminate drawing commands and to select drawing modes when in zoom mode),
and both mouse buttons pressed together simulates the [Esc] key to exit
from a menu or process.
Other Mice
Most other brands of mice should work as described above if:
1. They can be configured to emulate Microsoft's Mouse driver or:
2. You can setup your mouse to:
a. convert movement into the appropriate arrow key.
b. simulate the [Enter] key with the right button.
c. simulate the [F2] key with the left button.
d. simulate the [Esc] key with both buttons (or the third button?).
Please let us know if you have a problem with your mouse.
If you do not have a mouse and intend to do much work with PC-Draft, it is
strongly recommended that you get one. You'll love the difference. Some
commands described below were specifically designed for mice. They do not
work too well without a mouse.
If you are using the cursor keys instead of a mouse, it is strongly recom-
mended that you use one of the many shareware or public domain keyboard
speedup programs available. This will make cursor movement around the
graphics screen much nicer. If you have an IBM AT, look for SETKEY.COM on
your bulletin boards. If you have and XT or compatible, look for
QUICKEY.COM. Both of these were published in PC Magazine and can be down
loaded from their BBS. Also the shareware programs:
FASTKEY.COM from:
Biologic Corp.
P.O. Box 1267
Manassas, Virginia 22110
and KBFIX2.COM from:
Skip Gilbrech
90 Lexington Ave. #10-G
New York, NY 10016 ( Compuserve: 71445,534 )
Printers
Introduction Page 5
The current version of PC-Draft II will work with several families of
printers for graphics output; Some printers which claim to emulate the IBM
Graphics or Epson dot matrix do not support all resolution modes, so you
will have to experiment to see which is appropriate for your brand.
Refer to the READ.ME file on the disk for information about additional
printer support.
Files used
The only necessary files used by PC-Draft are the main code file:
DRAFT2.EXE and the configuration file: DRAFT2.CFG. all other files are
optional.
File Names
The file naming conventions used are also optional. However, it is recom-
mended that you follow them. When PC-Draft saves a file of a particular
type, say a font file for instance, it uses the appropriate filename
extension unless you override it by entering a different extension. This
helps prevent accidental data loss by overwriting files and by loading the
wrong type of file.
The default filename extensions are:
Screen dump files: filename.PIC
Drawing files: filename.DWG
Pattern files: filename.PAT
Font files: filename.FON
Object files: filename.OBJ
Macro files: filename.MAC
Graph Point files: filename.PTS
PIX program files: filename.SCR
GEM IMG files: filename.IMG
Page 6 PC-Draft II
The Basics
There are a few basic things you must know to start using PC-Draft and
begin making your own drawings. This chapter will give you a quick over-
view. Each drawing command and other parts of the PC-Draft system will be
dealt with in more detail in later chapters.
Starting PC-Draft
To start PC-Draft, type the command: DRAFT2 with the files DRAFT2.EXE and
DRAFT2.CFG on the currently logged drive. The Copyright notice will appear
for a moment, then it will display the graphics screen.
Cursor Movement
The cursor will appear as a small cross in center screen. Press the cursor
movement keys on the numeric keypad (or move the mouse) to move about the
screen.
Initially, the cursor will move 8 dots for each key pressed. As you move
the cursor you will notice that the X and Y location is shown in the
control panel at screen right. Also shown is the current cursor increment
value. With a mouse, the cursor moves smoothly along with the mouse move-
ment. You may find that for precise positioning, the arrow keys give you
more control.
Cursor Increment
The amount the cursor moves (in dots or pixels) is called the cursor incre-
ment. To change the cursor increment value, enter a number (using the top
row of number keys, or press [Num Lock] to use the numeric key pad keys).
For instance, enter 24 to cause the cursor to move 24 dots for each cursor
movement keystroke.
You will quickly get into the habit of adjusting the cursor increment value
to a larger number to quickly move to a new position on the screen, then to
a smaller number (try 1) for detailed work.
Suspend Cursor
Pressing the [S] key Suspends the current cursor increment value, causing
the cursor to move one dot at a time. Pressing [S] again restores the
increment value. This allows you to quickly change from coarse to fine
movements and is also useful when creating graphics keyboard macros as
described below. Note that while in the [W]rite mode, you can suspend
cursor increment by pressing [Alt + S].
Basics Page 7
Change Cursor
There are two cursor types (three if you have a mouse). Initially, the
cursor appears as a small cross. Press [K] ([K]ursor) to change the cursor
to a full screen cross. This cursor type is helpful when positioning lines
and objects in line with other elements in your drawing. Press [K] again to
toggle between the two cursor types. If you have a MicroSoft mouse, you can
change the mouse cross cursor to an arrow by pressing [Alt + C]. Press it
again to return to the cross. You can still use the full screen cursor by
pressing [K].
Menu Selections
Initially, the eight main menu selections are displayed across the top of
the screen. To make a selection, press its corresponding function key. For
instance, press [F2] (or the [/] key) (or left mouse button) to display the
pop-up Draw functions menu.
With the pop-up menu displayed you may now:
1. Press the Escape key: [Esc] (both mouse buttons), to exit from a menu
without making a choice.
2. Select a choice from the menu by:
a. press the [L]etter in brackets for your choice.
b. use the arrow keys: [^] and [v] to move the reverse video cursor
to select your choice. Then press [Enter] (or the mouse right
button) to make your selection.
3. Press the left or right arrow keys: [<] or [>] to move to another menu
(or move the mouse right or left).
For example; press [F2], then press [B] for the [B]ox command, then press
[Enter]. The Draw menu will disappear. Now, move the cursor. A box will
form with its diagonal corners determined by the original cursor position
and the opposing current cursor position. When you are satisfied with the
final position of the box, press [Enter] (right mouse button) to complete
the [B]ox command.
Most of the other menus work the same, press the function key, then up and
down arrows, then [Enter].
Display Menu Bar
By pressing the [F1] key, you can pop-off the menu bar to allow full screen
drawing. When you press [F1] again, the menu bar will pop-up again. The
drawing obscured by the menu, will be untouched, but inaccessible, until
you pop-off the menu.
Page 8 PC-Draft II
The Control Panel
The panel along the right side of the screen shows:
o The current X and Y cursor location,
o The current cursor increment value (C = 8),
o The current drawing mode,
o The status of the suspend (cursor increment) function,
o The status of the snap function,
o The current paint pattern is shown,
o Below the pattern box, is a box that represents the full drawing are-
a. Within is a smaller box representing the current screen window. As
you move the screen window (with [Ctrl + >] for example), the box will
show your current location.
o The number under the drawing box indicates the number of the current
screen window. This is the number you would enter when using the [.]
Move command to jump directly to a new screen window position.
o The amount of free memory is shown at the bottom. As you move the
screen window to new areas of the full drawing, you will notice this
number getting smaller.
You can pop-off the control panel by pressing [Alt + P] for full screen
drawing.
The Drawing Area
+----+----+
Initial | 1 | 2 | +----+----+
Screen ---> +----+----+ | 3 | 4 |
Window | 5 | 6 | +----+----+
+----+----+ | 7 | 8 |
+----+----+----+----+
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
+----+----+----+----+
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
+----+----+----+----+
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
+----+----+----+----+
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
+----+----+----+----+
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
+----+----+----+----+
The Drawing Area
One screen represents 640 pixels or dots horizontally, and 200 dots verti-
cally (with the menu bar and control panel popped-off). All drawing
operations are confined to this screen area. You can draw a line to the
screen edge only. However, the full drawing area available to PC-Draft is
Basics Page 9
1280 dots wide by 700 dots vertically. visualize the monitor screen as a
window positioned over a larger drawing area. You can move this window up,
down, left and right to reach all parts of the drawing. The full drawing
size is two screens wide, and three and one half screens high.
Moving around
Here's how you move the screen window around the full drawing. To move the
screen window down on the larger drawing, press the [Ctrl + PgDn] keys
together. The screen moves one half screen width for each window movement.
To move up, press [Ctrl + PgUp]. [Ctrl + >] moves right, and [Ctrl + <]
moves left. When you reach the edge of the drawing area, you'll know it
(beep).
Direct Move
Pressing the [.] (the period or shifted [>]) key will pop-up a prompt box
asking for a screen window number. You can enter a number from 1 to 28 to
directly move the display window to a new area of the larger drawing.
The full drawing is logically divided into 28 sections. Each section
represents one forth of one screen's area.
When PC-Draft is first started, drawing sections 1, 2, 5 and 6 are display-
ed. To move the screen window to the bottom right of the drawing area;
press [.] and enter 23 to display drawing sections 23, 24, 27 and 28.
Home
Press [H] to move the cursor to center screen.
Using markers
Sometimes you would like to set a marker at one point in your drawing to be
able to return to the same position after performing some other activity.
PC-Draft II provides a facility for up to ten separate markers that you can
set, change, and move to.
Setting markers
First move the cursor to the position you wish to mark. Then: Press [Shift
+ any function key]. For example [Shift + F1].
Jump to marker
Press [Alt + the function key]. For example to jump back to the position
set with [Shift + F1], press [Alt + F1].
Page 10 PC-Draft II
If you have moved the screen window to another area of the full drawing,
from where a marker is set, the screen window will be moved as necessary to
return to where the marker is set. This provides a convenient way to jump
to all parts of a large drawing.
Clearing the Screen
To clear the current screen window (not the whole drawing), press the [F9]
key. A warning pop-up will ask if you're sure. Press the [Y] key for
[Y]es, if you are.
To clear the entire drawing, press [Ctrl + F9]. A warning pop-up will ask
if you're sure. Press the [Y] key for [Y]es, if you are.
Erasing
Since this is a pixel (raster) based graphics program, erasing selected
image areas is not as easy as it would be in an object based CAD package
where you can erase selected operations rather than areas of the screen.
Here are a few different ways to erase:
o Use the [E]rase command to remove the image as you move the
cursor. The size of the erase box is controlled by the current
cursor increment value. Make this value larger to erase larger
areas. (The Replace drawing mode must be on.)
Note: if you do not have a mouse, erasing with the cursor keys is
not as smooth an operation. Suspend the cursor increment value
(with the [S] key), then as you move the erase box, you will
remove all pixels in your path.
o Select the Transparent drawing mode (with [F5]), then re-trace
the image to be erased.
o Select an all black pattern (with [F4], usually pattern number
1), then with the [R]ectangle command, surround the area to be
erased. The drawing mode must be set to Replace. (The Replace
drawing mode must be on.)
o Surround the area to be erased with the [W]indow command, then
press [F9] to clear the current window.
Undo Command
Whenever you have performed some drawing operation that changed the drawing
in a way you did not expect (you goofed), you can press [U] to Undo. You
can only undo the previous operation such as [B]ox or [P]aint, you cannot
undo changes made before the last one. This is especially handy when your
[P]aint operation spills outside of a bounded area unexpectedly.
Basics Page 11
Saving Your Work
Once enough of your masterpiece is constructed to make you nervous about
losing your work, you should save it to a file on disk. You can save the
current screen window to a .PIC file or you can save the entire drawing to
a .DWG file.
1. Press the [F3] key to pop-up the File menu.
2. Select [S]creen to save just the current screen window (just what
is currently displayed).
Or, select [D]rawing to save your drawing that may consist of several
screens worth. (Only those screens that you have visited will be saved. If
you have not moved from the initial screen window, the drawing file will be
the same size as a screen ".PIC" file.)
3. Then, select the operation from the next pop-up: [S]ave.
4. you will be asked whether you want to save it in [C]ompressed or
[N]ormal format. If you choose Normal format, the image will be
saved without compression. An un-compressed .PIC file is a
straight byte for byte dump of the high-resolution screen buffer
and is compatible with many other graphics programs. If you
choose Compressed format, the file will take less disk space
(saving an average of 66%).
When you read in a .PIC or .DWG file, PC-Draft will detect whether the file
has been compressed or not and load it properly.
Note: The I/O time is increased for saving and loading compressed
files. You might want to use normal format while you are working
on a drawing to maintain the speed advantage, then save it in
compressed format only when you are finished making changes.
The compression method is very rudimentary. A trade-off had to be made
given code space limitations and permissible I/O delays. You can achieve a
much greater compression and saving of disk space if you use ARC.EXE to
archive your drawings (sometimes greater than 90%).
5. Then, enter a filename in the next pop-up. Enter any valid DOS
file path specification, including drive and sub-directories
unless you want to save the file on the currently logged drive
and path.
You need not enter a filename extension. PC-Draft will automatically add
the appropriate extension for you if you leave it off. Simply enter a
filename such as: "DRAWING1" or "A:SUBDIR1\DRAWING1"
Page 12 PC-Draft II
PC-Draft will save your drawing as: DRAWING1.DWG (or: DRAWING1.PIC if you
selected to save the screen). (See note below for directory searches.)
6. Press [Enter] to complete the operation.
Once you've done this a few times, the operation of saving and retrieving
screen and drawing files should become easy, intuitive and obvious with the
help of the pop-up prompts. The method is the same for other file opera-
tions such as saving and retrieving patterns, fonts, objects.
Directory Search
When entering a filename for any file operation, you can obtain a directory
search by pressing either the up or down arrow keys [^] or [v]. Any exist-
ing files with extensions that match the current default will be displayed
in the file path name window. For example, when you are retrieving a screen
file, press the [^] key in response to the filename prompt, the name of the
first file with a .PIC extension will be shown. Press the [^] to show the
next (if any) .PIC file, and so on. When the file you want to retrieve is
shown, press [Enter] to retrieve it.
To search the directory other than the current one, enter the DOS path
information, for instance to refer to the directory containing pattern
files, enter: "FON\", then press [^] or [v]. (You must have the '\' at the
end.)
Other useful keys to use when entering filenames:
o [<] and [>] move the cursor non-destructively.
o Backspace [<-] moves left destructively.
o The [End] key clears the field from the cursor position to the end.
o The [Esc] key restores the field to its original contents.
Ending PC-Draft
Press [F10] to exit PC-Draft. If you have made changes to your drawing but
not saved it yet, a warning pop-up will ask if you want to. Similarly,
changes to the current font, pattern and/or graph point values, will be
checked and you will be warned before actually exiting to DOS. If everyth-
ing is safely saved, when you press [F10] you will immediately be returned
to the DOS prompt.
Basics Page 13
Drawing Commands
This chapter discusses each drawing command in detail. PC-Draft provides
both a menu based and a command based user interface. When you begin to
learn how PC-Draft works you might find the drawing menu useful in select-
ing the various commands. But as you become more proficient, you will
probably find the single key command method easier and faster.
Each basic drawing operation can be specified in two ways. You can press
[F2] (or mouse left button) to choose from the Draw menu, or you can press
the mnemonic character associated with the command. For example to select
the line command either press [F2] then press [v] enough times to move the
menu selection bar down to the "[L]ine" choice, then press [Enter] or you
can choose from the menu by pressing: [F2][L][Enter] or don't use the menu
at all: simply press [L] (the single key command mode).
Most drawing operations follow the same sequence of operations:
1. Position the cursor to a starting anchor point.
2. Select the drawing command.
3. Move the cursor to the desired ending point.
4. Press any key other than cursor movement or numeric key to complete
the operation.
Remember, at any time while moving the cursor, you can fine tune cursor
movement or speed up cursor movement by pressing the numeric keys to change
the current cursor increment. Also you can press the [S] key to [S]uspend
the cursor increment for fine work, and the [K] key to change cursor type.
Line
The basic element of most of your drawings is the line. The method for
drawing lines is typical of most of the other drawing commands as well,
involving these four steps:
1. Move the cursor to one end of the future line.
2. Press [L] to start the line.
3. Move the cursor to the other end.
4. Press [Enter].
I think you get the idea.
Multi-Line
If you want to draw several connected line segments, use the [M]ulti-line
command. Press [M] to start, move the cursor to the end point, press
[Enter] to anchor that end, move to the next end point, press [Enter], and
so on. Press [Esc] to end the multi-line command.
Page 14 PC-Draft II
Free Draw
The [F]ree draw command lets you draw free form lines. A continuous series
of connected lines are drawn as you move the cursor. The coarseness of the
line is determined by the value of the cursor increment (or how fast you
move the mouse). Set the cursor increment value to 1 (or [S]uspend) to draw
free form lines dot by dot (or move the mouse slower).
Box
Press [B] to begin the [B]ox command. The starting position is one corner
of the box, the ending cursor position is the opposite corner.
Rectangle
This is similar to [B]ox, but the rectangle is filled with the current fill
pattern. The [R]ectangle command is useful for erasing areas of the draw-
ing, by selecting a completely blank pattern as the current fill (and the
[R]eplace drawing mode). See below for how to select patterns.
Circle
Press [C] to draw a circle. The starting position is the center of the
circle. Move the cursor outward to establish the diameter and press
[Enter].
Ellipse
From the keyboard you start the ellipse command with [Alt + E]. As you move
the cursor, the area of the ellipse is indicated by a rectangle. Move the
cursor outward to establish the size of the ellipse and press [Enter]. Why
use the rectangle instead of the ellipse shape? We decided that drawing,
erasing, and re-drawing the actual ellipse shape as you move the cursor was
too slow, interfering with the normal flow of drawing.
Note that from the drawing commands menu, you select the ellipse command
with the [I] key.
Curve
This command works a little differently than the above two-point commands.
You specify a series of points on the screen through which a smooth spline
curve will be drawn. Position the cursor to the starting point for the
curve, then press [V] for cur[V]e. Now, move the cursor to the next point,
press any key to set a new point. A straight line will be temporarily drawn
between points to help you keep track of the shape of your image. Continue
entering points (up to 20 points are allowed) until you have defined the
shape of the curve. To draw the curve, press the [Esc] key.
Drawing Commands Page 15
Paint
Position the cursor within a bounded area on the screen. Press [P] to
[P]aint the area with the current fill pattern. See below for how to select
and edit patterns. Note that the selected area must be tightly bounded by
white dots. A single missing dot provides an escape route for the pattern
to fill adjacent areas.
Arc
Drawing arcs is a two step process:
1. Draw a circle where you want the arc with the correct diameter.
a. Position the cursor to the center of the arc.
b. Press [A] to start the arc command.
c. Move the cursor outward to establish the diameter. (A full circle
will be drawn temporarily.)
d. Press [Enter] to set the diameter.
2. Now draw a box around the portion of the circle you want to retain as
the arc:
a. Position the cursor to one corner of the box.
b. Move to the opposite corner surrounding the selected portion of
the circle.
c. Press [Enter] to complete the arc command.
Text
To add text to your drawing, position the cursor and press [T] to enter
[T]ext mode. The cursor will become an underline and what you type next
will be shown using the built-in IBM graphics font. You can use backspace
and the [<] and [>] arrow keys for simple editing and the [Enter] key to
move to the start of the next line.
To exit text mode, press [Esc].
Note: that this mode always positions the text on an 8 dot boundary both
vertically and horizontally. To position the text between this 8 dot grid,
first type the text, then exit text mode and use the [O]bject and [D]rop
commands to move it to a new location.
As you type, the cursor will wrap to the next line when you reach the right
edge of the current window. You can set a smaller window with the [Alt + W]
key to restrict the text to a selected area.
Another way to add text is to import from an ASCII text file. You do this
by adding two characters to your text file, a 'T' at the beginning and a
Page 16 PC-Draft II
'%' at the end. this makes the file a valid PC-Draft Macro file. Refer to
the Macro section for an example.
Write
Pressing [W] places you in [W]rite mode. The cursor changes to a box the
size of the currently loaded graphics font. When first started PC-Draft
does not have a font loaded. To experiment with [W]rite mode, press
[F3][F][R] to retrieve a font. In the filename pop-up prompt box enter:
FON\EURO and press [Enter]. The eurostyle font will be loaded from the font
sub-directory: FON. Now enter [W]rite mode. You can move the box cursor
with the arrow keys and enter text in your drawing.
While in [W]rite mode you can suspend cursor increment by pressing
[Alt + S], since the [S] key is used to write S's.
Object
By Object, we mean a portion of the drawing, a bit mapped image. The
[O]bject command allows you to grab an area of the drawing from within the
current screen window. Once you have grabbed an area, you've got an object
which can then be [D]ropped (re-drawn) in a new position. Also objects can
be saved in a file (.OBJ files) to create a library of objects. And, of
course, object files can be retrieved to be added to other drawings.
This command works like the [B]ox command. Position the cursor to one
corner of the area to be grabbed. Press [O]. Then move the cursor to the
opposite corner of the area and press [Enter] to grab it.
Note: The [O]bject and [D]rop commands allow for copying areas of the
screen. If you want "Cut and Paste" -- deleting the original object
area, use the "blank pattern" method for erasing as described in the
previous chapter. So, you would: grab an [O]bject, erase it with
[R]ectangle, then [D]rop the object.
Drop Object
When you have an Object currently in memory either by using the [O]bject
command or by retrieving it from an .OBJ file, you use the [D]rop command
to re-draw the object in the current drawing.
When you press [D], the cursor takes the form of a box the size of the
current object. Move the box to the position in your drawing where you want
the image and press [Enter].
Object Functions
When you have an Object in memory as discussed above, you can manipulate it
in several ways. All of the following commands are accessible only by
selecting [O]bject from the Draw menu:
Drawing Commands Page 17
r[O]tate turns the current object 90 degrees clockwise. Rotate
twice to turn the current object upside down,
[R]everse reverses the object from left to right,
[E]nlarge doubles the width of the current object,
[C]ontract halves the width of the object,
[L]arge doubles the height of the current object,
[S]mall halves its height.
Although nothing seems to happen on the screen, the current Object will be
affected in memory, which you can see by [D]roping it.
Note: that for the sake of processing speed, objects are stored and
manipulated on byte boundaries. If you do not get the result you want
with one of the object commands. (Perhaps a part of the object is
truncated.) Try re-grabbing the object with a greater margin (of blank
space) around it. Then the manipulating commands will not affect the
edges.
Transfer to Font
This command ([X]fer) is like the [O]bject command. With [X]fer, you grab
an area of the drawing to be copied to a specific character in the current
graphics font. When you press [X], the cursor becomes a box the size of the
current font. Move the box to the image to be grabbed and press the key for
the character to copy to. For example, to grab an image to use for the A
character, press [A]. You can then move to another area and grab again for
another character. Press [Enter] to exit this mode.
Note: that you cannot [X]fer to numeric characters (0 to 9), or the
[S] key because these keys are used to change the cursor increment
value. First [X]fer the image to another temporary character. Then use
the font copy function: [F10] (from the font editing window) to copy
from the temporary to the one you want.
Zoom
[Z]oom allows you to edit a portion of your drawing at the pixel level
more easily by enlarging the dots. Position the cursor in the center
of the area to zoom and press [Z]. When the box appears, you can move
the cursor with the arrow keys. The [Ins] key (mouse right button)
toggles pixels on or off. When the cursor is over a blank space,
pressing [Ins] will turn on the pixel there. When the cursor is over a
pixel already on, pressing [Ins] will turn it off.
Page 18 PC-Draft II
The [F9] (mouse left button) key lets you cycle through three drawing
modes:
o Press [F9] once to draw pixels as you move.
o Press [F9] again to erase as you move.
o Press [F9] again and you are back to the original state, no change
will be made as you move the cursor.
While in Zoom mode these function keys perform new functions:
[F1] shifts the zoomed image left one pixel.
[F2] shifts the zoomed image right.
[F3] fills the zoomed area (all white).
[F4] clears the zoomed area (all black).
[F5] reverses each pixel in the zoomed area.
[F8] will print the screen with the zoom window.
Goodies
The following additional commands are accessible by menu from the goo[D]ies
sub-menu. To see these selections, press [F2][D].
Just paint
Press the [J] key to begin the Just Paint mode. In this mode, as you move
the cursor, a trail of the current pattern is left. The size of this trail
is determined by the current cursor increment value. Like the Spray Can
command, this works best with a mouse.
To end Just Paint mode press [Esc] or both mouse buttons.
SpraY Can
Each time you press the [Y] key a random spray of pixels is painted within
the bounds of the current cursor increment value using the current pattern.
As the key is repeated, more pixels will be filled in. This command is more
useful (easier to use) if you have a mouse, because you can move the mouse
as you hold down the right button to spray in a continuous line, whereas,
without the mouse, the cursor jumps by the current cursor increment value.
If the current drawing mode is Transparent, the Spray Can command will
always fill approximately 50% of the area (if you hold the [Y] down) since
as new random pixels are drawn they will cancel out existing pixels.
Drawing Commands Page 19
When the drawing mode is set to "replace", blank pixels in the current
pattern also affect (erase) the underlying image. If the drawing mode is
set to "overlay", only "on" pixels in the pattern are painted. You can see
how this works if you:
1. Select the solid pattern (pattern 0).
2. Select the Replace drawing mode.
3. Use the [R]ectangle command to draw a solid box.
4. Select another pattern with some empty space such as lines.
5. Start the Spra[Y] command, and draw the spray across the solid box.
You will notice that the pattern is slowly etched into the solid area.
6. Now, change the drawing mode to Overlay and try step 4 and 5 again.
Kursor
This toggles the cursor shape back and forth from the small x to the full
screen cross.
Mouse cursor
If you are using a MicroSoft compatible mouse, this command changes to the
arrow cursor. From the keyboard press [Alt + C]. Select this command again
to return to the normal cursor.
grId
To aid in positioning the cursor in line with other elements in your
drawing, press [I] to draw a grid. The grid will be spaced horizontally and
vertically according to the current cursor increment value. For example,
before pressing [I], enter [48] to set your cursor increment to 48 pixels,
then when you press [I] a 48 by 48 grid will appear.
Note: When the grid is on, the drawing mode is always set to Transparent.
This is so that the grid does not interfere with the actual drawing.
However, you must be careful when you add drawing elements with the grid
on, that you account for transparent mode. Also, when you grab an object
with the grid on, the grid will be grabbed as well, so again, be careful.
Remember this is a pixel graphics program not an object oriented CAD
package where true layering would be more possible.
The grid is always drawn in relationship to the full drawing area rather
than just the screen. This means that as you move the screen window the
grid is redrawn and adjusted for that window with its starting point
remaining at the upper left corner of the full drawing area.
Page 20 PC-Draft II
Quick view
This displays the full drawing in one screen window to give you an overall
view. From the keyboard press [Q]. Press the [Esc] key to return to the
normal drawing.
sNap
When you press [N] to turn snap on, the cursor will snap into position on a
grid intersection (whether grid is on or not). The grid intersection in
question is determined by the current cursor increment value in relation-
ship to the upper left corner of the full drawing area (as is true for the
grid command above). This means that even if you have grid on, if you then
change the cursor increment, then you turn snap on, the cursor will snap to
the new cursor increment grid, not the grid displayed.
Snap is one command that does not work well with the mouse, use the cursor
keys instead.
Color
This changes the foreground color to one of the possible 15 standard IBM
Color Graphic Adapter colors. From the keyboard press [Ctrl + F1]. Each
time you execute this command, the color is cycled to the next in the list,
eventually repeating.
Window
The [W]indow command allows you to designate a rectangular area of the
screen to contain subsequent drawing operations. Once you have created a
smaller than normal window (normally the drawing window is the full
screen), the cursor will not move outside the borders of your window and
lines and fills will not spill out. You specify the area of the window
similar to the way you draw a box. Position the cursor to a staring corner,
press [Alt + W], move to an opposite corner, press [Enter]. To undo the
window, press [Alt + W] again. This command is not on the menu.
Drawing Commands Page 21
Patterns
Patterns are created as 8 by 8 pixel grids which are repeated to fill
areas. PC-Draft keeps 8 patterns resident in memory at a time which are
used by the [R]ectangle and [P]aint commands to fill areas and by the
spra[Y] and [J]ust paint commands. Patterns are stored in .PAT files in the
PAT sub-directory. You can create your own patterns or edit those that come
with PC-Draft. The Patterns may be seen on the Pattern menu by pressing
[F4].
Loading Patterns
Press the sequence: [F3][P][R] for "File menu, [P]atterns, [R]etrieve".
Then in the filename prompt box, enter: [PAT\], then press [^] or [v] to
step through the directory of patterns. Press [Enter] to retrieve a pat-
tern.
Selecting Patterns
Press [F4] to display the list of current patterns. Either press the number
of the pattern you want, or move the arrow cursor to point to it, then
press [Enter] to make it the current pattern.
Creating and changing Patterns
Once you have selected a pattern as "current", return to the pattern pop-up
by pressing [F4], then press [E] to edit the current pattern. Within the
pattern editing box, you will see happy faces representing pixels that are
"on". The cursor position is shown as a small box when over an "off" pixel
and as a solid face when over an "on" pixel.
You can move with the arrow keys (or mouse) and toggle pixels on and off
with the space bar (mouse left button).
Saving Patterns
If you create your own patterns, you must save them in a .PAT file. Press
[F3][P][S] for: "File menu, [P]atterns, [S]ave". Enter a filename (no
extension, PC-Draft will add .PAT as the default extension).
Page 22 PC-Draft II
Objects
Above we discussed Objects and how to grab an area of the drawing as an
object with the [O]bject command and then [D]ropped in a new position.
Objects can also be saved in a file for later retrieval.
Saving Objects
To save your current object (after you have performed an [O]bject command),
press [F3][O][S] for: "File menu, [O]bject, [S]ave". Then enter a filename
(PC-Draft will add the default .OBJ filename extension).
Retrieving Objects
PC-Draft comes with several example object files in the OBJ sub-directory.
Press [F3][O][R] to retrieve an object. In the filename prompt box enter:
[OBJ\] and press [^] or [v] to step through the object directory. Press
[Enter] to retrieve.
Objects Page 23
Fonts
With PC-Draft you can load, edit and create a variety of fonts. Each font
is stored as a file with a .FON extension. Fonts may consist of characters
or may be all symbols.
Using Fonts
You can load an existing font by pressing: [F3][F][R] for: "File menu,
[F]ont, [R]etrieve". In the filename prompt box, enter: "FON\" and press
[^] or [v] to step through the font directory. Press [Enter] to retrieve.
Once you have loaded a font, when you press [W] (for [W]rite) the cursor
becomes a box the size of the font. Some fonts contain only a subset of the
alphabet. So, if nothing happens when you try to type a character in
[W]rite mode, perhaps the current font has no character defined for that
key. Try uppercase. To leave [W]rite mode, press [Enter] or [Esc].
Creating, changing Fonts
Press [F6] to pop-up the font editing window. You will see the filename of
the current font on the top line followed by the current key shown in
brackets (also on the top line). The current range of characters in the
current font is shown on the next two lines in the window as, for instance:
"START: A", "END: Z". This means that this font contains a character for
each keyboard character between uppercase A to Z. It is important to make
the distinction between font characters and keyboard characters. With some
fonts loaded, for example, pressing the [A] key may draw an Apple rather
than an 'A'.
Also shown at the top of the font window is the current font's height and
width. These are expressed in pixels. The maximum character height is 32
pixels. The maximum width is 48.
Warning: you should not change the height and width of an existing font.
Set these values only when you are creating a new font. If you do change
these in an existing font, you will get scrambled images when writing with
that font. The same applies to the range of characters in a font. Do not
change this after the font is defined.
The "SPACE:" field indicates the amount of space needed for the particular
character currently displayed. By varying this from character to character,
you can create proportionally spaced fonts. For instance, in a font whose
size is 32 dots high by 24 dots wide, the 'I' character may need 8 dots of
space, while the 'M' character would need 24 dots. To change this value
press [F6].
Page 24 PC-Draft II
When you press any character key that falls within the range of the current
font, that character will be displayed for editing. You can move the cursor
with the arrow keys. Similar to the [Z]oom command discussed above, the
[F9] key (mouse left button) controls the editing of pixels:
o Press [F9] once to draw pixels as you move.
o Press [F9] again to erase as you move.
o Press [F9] again and you are back to the original state, no change
will be made as you move the cursor. In this mode, the [Ins] (mouse
right button) key will toggle the current pixel.
The usage of the other function keys is shown in the Font window:
[F1] Shifts the current character left one pixel.
[F2] Shifts it right.
[F3] Fills the entire character.
[F4] Clears it.
[F5] Reverses each pixel.
[F6] Allows you to change the character size of the font and/or the space
for the current character.
[F7] Allows you to change the range of characters included in this font.
[F8] Prints the screen, including the font window.
[F9] Toggle the setting or clearing of pixels.
[F10] Allows you to copy the image from another character to the
current one.
Note: that you can copy images drawn on the regular drawing area into
specified characters in the font with the [X]fer command described in
the Drawing Commands section above.
Saving Fonts
To save a font, press: [F3][F][S] for "File menu, [F]ont, [S]ave". And
enter a filename. PC-Draft will automatically add the .FON file extension.
Note: that fonts do not necessarily have to contain characters. They
provide a convenient way to store a group of symbols or objects, so
that they are available in memory all at once. For example the font
file: FLOW.FON contains objects designed to draw flow charts:
Fonts Page 25
Macros
The Macro feature of PC-Draft provides a way to store a sequence of key-
strokes in a .MAC file for later playback. This is another way to create a
library of images. MAC files are stored as normal ASCII text files and can
be edited by your favorite text editor. As well as a way of saving drawing
commands, macros can be used to provide a variety of interesting animation
effects.
Using Macros
To start the playback of a macro (for example use one of the samples
supplied with PC-Draft), press [F3][M][R] and in the filename prompt box
enter: [MAC\] and press [^] or [v] to step through the MAC directory. Press
[Enter] to start. The sequence of keystrokes stored in the selected macro
file will be immediately played back.
By changing the current cursor increment value, and then replaying the
macro, you can redraw a given shape larger or smaller (as long as the
cursor increment value was not changed within the macro itself).
Creating Macros
To start creating a new macro, press [F3][M][S], and enter a filename. When
you press [Enter] to return to the drawing screen, each keystroke from that
point on will be recorded and saved in the specified file.
To end the recording of keys, press [%] (the percent symbol key). The .MAC
file will be closed. You can then replay the macro in different positions,
and with different cursor increment values.
Suspend Cursor Increment
It is useful to be able to move one pixel at a time within a macro without
actually changing the cursor increment value so that the macro can be
replayed for different sized objects. This can be accomplished with the
[S]uspend command to temporarily cause the cursor to move one dot at a
time.
Relative [+/-] Cursor Increment
Similarly, you can use the [+] and [-] keys to increment and decrement the
cursor increment value to make changes relative to the value in effect when
the macro is started.
Page 26 PC-Draft II
.MAC file structure
Macro files are created as standard ASCII text files and may be edited with
your ASCII text editor (even EDLIN!). .MAC files simply consist of each
keystroke as entered during their creation. Control keys are represented by
their keyboard scan value as an ASCII character preceded by a "^" charac-
ter.
The common PC-Draft keystrokes are as follows:
[F1] = ^; [^] = ^H [Ctrl + PgUp] = ^(value 132)
[F2] = ^< [v] = ^P [Ctrl + PgDn] = ^v
[F3] = ^= [<] = ^K [Ctrl + <] = ^s
[F4] = ^> [>] = ^M [Ctrl + >] = ^t
[F5] = ^? [Home] = ^G
[F6] = ^@ [End] = ^O [Enter] = (value 13)
[F7] = ^A [PgUp] = ^I [Esc] = ^[
[F8] = ^B [PgDn] = ^Q
[F9] = ^C
[F10] = ^D
For example the shadow box macro: SHADOW.MAC is:
B^Q^M^M^M^HS^P^P^P^P^MR^M^M^M^M^M^MS^PR^K^K^K^KS^H^ H^HS^H%
Note that the macro file must end with the "%" terminator character.
Importing text files:
You can import text from a standard ASCII text file into the graphic
screen. To do so, you must do three things:
1. Add the character "t" as the first character in the file. This will
tell PC-Draft II to enter text mode.
2. Add the character "%" to the end of the file. This tells the macro
function that the end of the macro has been reached.
3. Rename the file so that its extension is .MAC.
Actually what you do is convert the text file into a PC-Draft II macro
file. Now, to import the text:
1. Set the window size as appropriate for the text in the position you
want within the graphic screen area with the [Alt + W] command.
Macros Page 27
2. Position the cursor to the upper left corner of the window.
3. Load the macro by pressing: [F3][M][R] and entering the name of your
text file.
That's it. The text will be imported into the window area, wrapping around
as necessary. If your text file is too long for the window size, you will
have to put up with a lot of beeping as the macro tries to write characters
at the end of the window.
Page 28 PC-Draft II
Graphs
PC-Draft's graphing function allows you to automatically create line, bar
and pie charts. While this function is not as sophisticated as you might
find in business graphics programs dedicated to that purpose, PC-Draft
provides the means to enhance your graphs with labels, pattern fills, etc.
in a much more flexible and free form way. You are the artist. PC-Draft is
the tool.
Creating graphs involves three steps:
1. Enter a set of value pairs (for X and Y graph axis).
2. Select the type of graph: Bar, Line, Points, or Pie.
3. Draw the graph (similar to the [B]ox command or the [C]ircle command
for pie charts).
Editing Points
Press [F7] to pop-up the graph menu. Then press [E] to edit points. Enter
values for each element in your graph. Normally the values on the X axis
would be equal for equally sized Bars in a Bar graph for example. So, enter
a 1 for each element down the X column. The first X axis entry of zero
signals the end. If your graph has 8 elements, the ninth entry in the X
column should be zero. If your Y values are decimal, enter them without the
decimal point. For instance, enter 12.34 as 1234, and then 56.00 as 5600.
Saving Points
You can save your graph data to a .PTS file by pressing: [F7][S] and sp-
ecifying a filename.
loading Points
Similarly, you load previously saved graph data with: [F7][L].
Graph Type
Specify the type of graph you want to draw by pressing [F7][T]. Then select
either [B]ar, [L]ine, [D]ots, or [P]ie.
Drawing graphs
Once you have entered or loaded point values and selected a graph type, you
can draw your graph anywhere in your drawing. For graph types other than
Pie, position the cursor at one corner of a rectangular area, press [G],
then move the cursor to the opposite corner and press [Enter].
PC-Draft automatically scales the graph to fill the rectangular area
specified. To overlay two or more sets of graph point values:
Graphs Page 29
1. Draw a bar graph for the first set of points.
2. Turn off the Graph s[C]ale by pressing: [F7][C] so that the scale
indicator shows: [OFF]. This will cause PC-Draft to use the same scale
established from the previous graph.
3. Load the second set of point values.
4. Select the drawing mode: [F5][O]verlay (see below).
5. Draw the graph for the second set of points in the same location as
the first.
For the Pie graph type, move the cursor to the center of a circular area,
press [G], and move the cursor outward to size the pie chart.
Page 30 PC-Draft II
Drawing Mode
The drawing mode determines what happens pixel by pixel when you draw over
existing (set) pixels. When first started PC-Draft is in [R]eplace drawing
mode.
To change drawing mode, press [F5] to pop-up the drawing mode menu. Then
press the letter in brackets for the mode you want, or press [^] or [v] to
move the pointer and press [Enter] to make your selection.
The effect of each drawing mode is as follows:
[R]eplace: The resulting pixel equals the drawing pixel.
[O]verlay: The resulting pixel is changed only if the drawing pixel is
"on".
[T]ransparent: The resulting Pixel is made the opposite of the drawing
pixel. This is "XOR" mode.
You might want to experiment with the drawing mode to see how it affects
other operations such as spra[Y] can, [J]ust paint and [P]aint.
Drawing Mode Page 31
Printing
PC-Draft will print your drawing using a variety of IBM or Epson compat-
ible dot matrix printers or a laser printers compatible with the Hewlett
Packard LaserJet+ (Note that this includes HP's DeskJet printer).
You can print a portion of the current screen window, the whole screen or
the entire drawing. The printing function is evoked by pressing the [F8]
key. If you press [F8] with a pop-up menu "up", you will print the screen
with the menu pop-up included. Otherwise, the menu bar and control panel
will not be printed.
When printing, you will be asked for a filename (after specifying printer
type and resolution mode). If you wish to dump the printer control bytes to
a file for later printing, enter the filename to use. You may include the
optional drive and path designations. If you wish to immediately print,
simply press the Enter key. You can later print the file created by this
method from outside of PC-Draft by the DOS command:
COPY /B PRTFILE PRN
Note: that you must use the /B option since the file is a binary file. For
the same reason, do not use the DOS print command, since the file is a
binary file containing byte values which may be interpreted by the Print
program as tabs.
This feature was added to enable you to incorporate PC-Draft images into
word processors that allow sending files to the printer in the middle of
the word processor document. It is also handy if you want to print several
items at a time but do not want to wait on the slow speed of the printer.
You can save all the images to files with a common extension (such as
.PRT). Then later print them all with:
COPY /B *.PRT PRN
Printer resolution modes
It is not always possible to get dot matrix printer output to exactly
represent the same aspect ratio as the graphics screen.
The monitor's (in high resolution 640 by 200 dot mode) aspect ratio is 2:1.
It takes two horizontal dots to equal one vertical dot. A box that is 100
pixels wide by 50 pixels high will appear square.
Printers compatible with either the IBM Graphic dot matrix or the Epson dot
matrix printers always print with a vertical resolution of 72 dots per inch
(this is the spacing between the pins in the print head). So the perfect
horizontal resolution to match the screen appearance is 144 dots per inch
Page 32 PC-Draft II
horizontally (144:72 ratio). The Epson FX+ series printers have this
resolution, the IBM dot matrix printer (and many compatibles) does not.
The 60 dots per inch modes print two vertical dots for each one in your
original drawing in an attempt to get as close as possible to the 2:1
aspect ratio. 60:36 is close but not perfect. This mode fits one screen
window on eight inch wide paper.
The 240 dots per inch modes print one vertical dot for every two in your
original drawing. The pixels in alternate lines are combined. This 240:144
aspect ratio is better than the normal 240:72, but still does not produce
perfectly round circles.
Each printer has different graphics resolution modes. The current version
of PC-Draft supports up to four modes for each printer supported.
IBM dot matrix
(Same as Okidata Microline 290 series)
Mode [1] prints at 60 dots per inch. (480 dots/8 inch line.)
Mode [2] prints at 120 dots per inch. (960 dots/8 inch line.)
Mode [3] prints at 120 dots per inch. (draft mode is faster, prints
every other dot.)
Mode [4] prints at 240 dots per inch (1920 dots/8 inch line.) this
fits two screens wide in 5-5/16 inches.)
There is no mode for this printer that will print round circles.
Epson dot matrix
Mode [1] prints at 72 dots per inch. (4576 dots/8 inch line.)
Mode [2] prints at 120 dots per inch. (960 dots/8 inch line.)
Mode [3] prints at 144 dots per inch. (1152 dots/8 inch line.) This
is best for round circles. However, you lose 128 dots from
the far right of your drawing unless you have a wide car-
riage printer.
Mode [4] prints at 240 dots per inch (1920 dots/8 inch line.) this
fits two screens wide in 5-5/16 inches.)
HP LaserJet+
(Also for HP DeskJet)
Mode [1] prints at 75 dots per inch. (600 dots/8 inch line.)
Mode [2] prints at 100 dots per inch. (800 dots/8 inch line.)
Mode [3] prints at 150 dots per inch. (1200 dots/8 inch line.) This
fills an 8-1/2 by 11 inch size printout.
Mode [4] prints at 300 dots per inch (2400 dots/8 inch line.) this
fits two screens wide in 4.26 inches.)
Printing Page 33
All modes for the LaserJet print double the number of pixels vertically to
more closely match the proportions of the screen, so that squares and
circles are printed square and round.
If your drawing is the equivalent of two screens wide, you should use the
high density modes to fit on 8 1/2 inch wide paper.
If you have a printer that you would like PC-Draft to support, please send
a copy of the dot graphics section of your printer manual and we will
supply you with a printer driver for your printer and add it to our collec-
tion.
IDS Microprism
This has only one graphics resolution mode, so we made an attempt to allow
two adjustments:
Mode [1] prints at normal mode.
Mode [2] prints at one half vertical.
C.Itoh 8510-1550
(same as NEC 8023A/B and SONY SMI-720)
Mode [1] prints at 80 dots per inch. (640 dots/8 inch line.)
Mode [2] prints at 96 dots per inch. (768 dots/8 inch line.)
Mode [3] prints at 136 dots per inch. (1088 dots/8 inch line.)
Mode [4] prints at 160 dots per inch (1280 dots/8 inch line.)
GEM .IMG
Of great importance to users of DeskTop publishing programs like Ventura
Publisher, is the ability to export portions of the screen, full screens,
and/or full drawings in GEM .IMG file format. This allows inclusion of
graphics created (or captured) with PC-Draft directly into DTP documents.
(Also works with WordPerfect v 5.0!) Simply print (box, screen or drawing)
using the GEM IMG choice on the printer menu as your printer choice -- you
must give a filename (the filename should have an ".IMG" extension).
This manual was created using WordPerfect 5.0. The illustrations of PC-
Draft screens were made using this method.
Print current screen window
Press [F8] to pop-up the print menu and select [S] for [S]creen. Then
select a printer type. Then select a printer resolution mode: [1] - [4]
from low to high density. Then (if you want to save the printer codes in a
file for later printing), enter the path and filename of the file to save
Page 34 PC-Draft II
the printer data. Or, (if you wish to print immediately), press the [Enter]
key without any filename.
These steps are typical for the other two printing options: [A]ll and
[B]ox.
Print full drawing
Press [F8] to pop-up the print menu and select [A] for [A]ll. Then select a
printer type and resolution mode.
Print partial screen
First position the cursor to one corner of a rectangular area of the screen
to print. Press [F8] to pop-up the print menu and select [B] for [B]ox.
After selecting the printer type, you then must position the cursor to the
opposite corner of the area to print as if you were drawing a box. Then
select a printer resolution mode: [1] -[4] from low to high density and
press [Enter] (mouse right button) to start printing.
Printing Page 35
Screen Capture
A program called CAPTURE.COM on the distribution diskette, allows you to
capture screen images from other programs, save them in separate files, and
later load them into PC-Draft. This is useful when writing software docu-
mentation. You can add boarders around the screen and print them for later
paste up.
CAPTURE uses a the hot-key combination: [Alt]+[.]
Capture is a Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) program. When you run it
from the DOS command line, it will announce its presence and quietly sink
into the background and wait to be called into action (when its "hot key"
is pressed).
When you run Capture, you must provide it with the location and starting
file name to use to store the screen images it captures. For example, if
you have installed PC-Draft on your hard disk in a sub-directory called
DRAFT, you might start Capture with this command:
CAPTURE C:\DRAFT\PIC\SCREENA.PIC
Now Capture will store its screens in the PIC sub-directory. The first
screen it saves will be called SCREENA.PIC, the second will be called
SCREENB.PIC. Each subsequent .PIC file will increment the character in the
filename just before the extension. These files are graphic pic files com-
patible with PC-Draft regardless of whether the original screen was in text
mode or graphics mode.
To activate Capture and save the current screen to a .PIC file, you press
the [Alt + left Shift] ([Alt + .] for Capture2) keys together. You will
hear a beep when Capture is called. Three beeps means it successfully wrote
a unique file to the specified directory. Only one beep means it was unable
to create the file (could not find the directory?). Only two beeps means it
created the file, but could not write the full 16k screen buffer, (disk
full?).
Capture will detect the current video mode and adjust. It converts text
mode screens into bit mapped graphics suitable for PC-Draft II.
Like any other TSR, Capture may have compatibility problems with other
software, especially other TSR's. If you have trouble, try installing
Capture by itself and adding your other TSR utilities one at a time after
you get Capture to work.
We strongly recommend the shareware utilities MARK and RELEASE. They will
allow you to de-install Capture (and other TSR's). Look for them on your
bulletin board.
Page 36 PC-Draft II
The PIX graphics language
The PIX.COM program is actually a special version of PC-Draft which reads
its input from a script file of graphic commands instead of responding to
the keyboard. By creating such a file with your favorite text editor, you
are in fact writing a graphics program that will be played out as an
animated sequence of steps as PIX reads the file. PIX allows you to:
o Create a script of graphic commands to be played out in
animation for presentations.
o You can load and display screens and whole drawings created
by PC-Draft.
o You can use (and create) PC-Draft objects and macros.
o You can create new macros with PIX's procedures and looping
for use in PC-Draft.
o PIX has repeat looping and Procedures (subroutines).
o In place of literal values used for the drawing commands,
you can substitute variables.
o You can run PIX in trace mode for debugging.
We have provided some sample PIX programs on your distribution disk. These
files all have the filename extension: .SCR. To get a feel for what PIX is
and its versatility run the demo program as follows. To start a PIX demon-
stration, with the file PIX.COM on the current drive and DEMO.SCR in the
SCR directory, enter the command:
PIX SCR\DEMO
at the DOS command prompt, and sit back and watch.
PIX is a special purpose language with a few simple rules:
o The PIX source file must be created as a standard ASCII text file by
your own text editor. EDLIN (shudder) will work if you don't have any
other.
o Each PIX program statement must be on a line by itself.
o Numbers are always enclosed by parentheses and separated by commas,
such as: (12,34,56,78).
o Numbers are integers (usually used to represent X and Y locations,
Pattern, Color, or Repeat loop index.)
PIX Language Page 37
o Key words such as LINE and CIRCLE can be abbreviated to their first
three characters (LIN and CIR).
o Upper and lower case is not significant. The commands; LINE, line,
Line, and LiN are all equivalent.
o White space (space character) is generally ignored, so lines can be
indented for readability. The exception is around numbers within
parentheses: ( 12, 34, 56 ) is not legal.
o Any text on a line following a command is ignored, perfect for com-
ments.
o Any line beginning with a semi-colon is considered a comment.
o A number or variable on a line by itself is considered as a change to
the cursor increment value, just as if you had typed in a number while
using PC-Draft.
o Values used to refer to cursor positions are always in relation to the
current screen window, not the entire drawing.
Starting PIX
To run PIX simply type PIX at the DOS command prompt followed by the file
name of your script (program). If you do not specify a script file, PIX
will search the current directory for a script file named AUTO.SCR. If this
file is not found, PIX will ask you for a script filename. Once a valid
script file is found, PIX immediately begins its performance. When the
script has finished, press the [Enter] key to return to DOS.
Trace mode
To run PIX in trace (single step) mode, evoke PIX with a [T] command line
argument. For example, to trace through the demo script type:
PIX T DEMO
In this mode PIX will display each command line of your script file and
wait for you to press [Enter] before executing it.
Exit PIX
To exit PIX before the script is completed, press any key to interrupt. PIX
will display a pop-up window asking if you wish to exit. Enter a [Y] to
exit or any other character to continue.
Page 38 PC-Draft II
PIX Commands
Each line in your PIX program represents a PIX command. For instance the
following command line draws a box 20 pixels wide by 40 pixels high start-
ing at X location 120 and Y location 10:
Box (120,10,140,50)
You could draw the same box with a series of cursor movement commands which
emulate the way you would draw it with PC-Draft:
10 Set cursor increment = 10
Gotoxy (120,10) goto starting position
Box Start the box
down Go down 10 pixels
down 10 more = 20
dright 10 down and 10 right
dright Now we're at X=140,
Y=50
end This ends the box command.
Quit Exit PIX
Note that the above is a complete PIX program. The text following each
command is treated as a comment.
Variables
Pix allows you to substitute an integer variable in place of numbers used
in the various drawing commands. A variable is identified by one of the 26
alpha characters [A..Z]. For instance the same box described above can be
drawn using variable substitution:
Let A = (120)
Let B = (10)
Let C = (50)
Box (a,b,140,c)
Note that variables can be mixed with numeric values and that upper and
lower case character identifiers are treated as identical.
Assign (LET)
PIX Language Page 39
You assign values to variables with the Let statement as shown:
Let A = (#)
(The equal sign is optional for readability, you could say:
Let A (#)
with the same result.
Increment
The following statements increment (by one) the variable B:
Increment B
Inc B
Decrement
The following statements decrement (by one) the variable C:
Decrement C
Dec C
Cursor Movement Commands
These cause the graphics cursor to move in the specified direction relative
to the current position. How far the cursor moves is determined by the
current cursor increment value.
Right, Left, Up, Down, are the vertical and horizontal moves.
URight, ULeft, DRight, DLeft, are the diagonal moves. For instance to move
the cursor Down and to the right use the command: DRight.
Gotoxy
Use Gotoxy (x,y) for absolute cursor positioning. This moves the
graphics cursor to X location 140 and Y location 86:
Gotoxy (140,86)
Page 40 PC-Draft II
Screen moves
These commands allow you to move around the drawing (like [Ctrl + >] in PC-
Draft:
>up corresponds to: [Ctrl + PgUp]
>down corresponds to: [Ctrl + PgDn]
>left corresponds to: [Ctrl + <]
>right corresponds to: [Ctrl + >]
Or, you can move directly to a screen window number:
Move (#) # must be between [1..28]
Drawing Commands
The following drawing commands perform functions as you might expect
similar to PC-Draft. You can use them with the corner positions specified
as parameters such as:
Box (a,b,140,c)
Or, you can use them as you would with PC-Draft with relative cursor
movements to specify the opposite corner. Such as:
Box
DRight
DRight
DRight
End
These commands are:
Box (x1,y1,x2,y2)
Line (x1,y1,x2,y2)
Circle (x1,y1,x2,y2)
Rectangle (x1,y1,x2,y2)
Object (x1,y1,x2,y2)
Graph (x1,y1,x2,y2)
Window (x1,y1,x2,y2)
PIX Language Page 41
The Curve, Erase, Multi-line and Free-draw commands work a little
differently. You specify a starting cursor position, then the command key-
word, then a series of points, with the GOTOXY command. Then end the
sequence of points with the END command. For example to draw a curve:
gotoxy (50,20)
Curve
gotoxy (150,20)
gotoxy (250,120)
gotoxy (350,20)
gotoxy (450,120)
gotoxy (550,20)
gotoxy (550,120)
gotoxy (600,80)
end
or to draw multi-lines:
gotoxy (10,10)
Multi-line
gotoxy (10,20)
gotoxy (25,100)
gotoxy (150,20)
gotoxy (250,100)
gotoxy (300,180)
end
You can Erase in a free form manner described above or in a straight line,
for example:
Erase (3,100,300,10)
Arc
The Arc command requires two sets of points. The first set establishes the
full circle from which the desired arc will be taken. The second set of
points describes the rectangular area which sets the boundaries for the
arc. For example this draws a quarter circle arc:
Page 42 PC-Draft II
Arc (300,100,300,10)(300,100,600,9)
These next commands are single key commands which perform similarly to
their counterparts in PC-Draft. You would first position the cursor, then
call the command. For instance, with the Paint command, paint a circle:
Circle (135,28,135,95) Draw a circle
Gotoxy (135,28) Return to its center
Paint Fill with current pat-
tern
They are:
Paint
Drop (Object)
Reverse (Object)
Expand (Object) ( double size vertically )
Contract (Object) ( halve size vertically )
Enlarge (Object) ( double size horizontally )
Small (Object) ( halve size horizontally )
Home (Move cursor to center screen)
Kursor (Toggle cursor between small x and large x)
Undo (Undo previous drawing command)
Tog (Toggle chart scale off/on)
The following commands write strings of characters on the screen. They must
be followed by the character string to write, and therefor cannot have a
comment on the same line.
Write <string> (Write "string" using the currently loaded font)
Text <string> (Write "string" using the IBM regular font)
For example:
Gotoxy (135,28) Position the cursor
Write This is my message
Non Drawing Commands
Pattern (#) (Select pattern number [0..9] )
Mode <MODE> (Select Drawing Mode:
"Replace,Overlay,Transparent")
PIX Language Page 43
Type <MODE> (Select Graph type: "Bar,Line,Dots,Pie")
Clear (Erase screen)
Quit (Exit PIX)
Color (#) (Select screen color. Colors are as follows:
0: Black 8: Dark Gray
1: Blue 9: Light Blue
2: Green 10: Light Green
3: Cyan 11: Light Cyan
4: Red 12: Light Red
5: Magenta 13: Light Magenta
6: Brown 14: Yellow
7: Light Grey 15: White )
File Commands
Load or Save followed by: ("Screen A:PIC\SAMPLE.PIC")
Load Screen <FilePath>
Save Screen <FilePath>
Load Drawing <FilePath>
Save Drawing <FilePath>
Load Pattern <FilePath>
Load Font <FilePath>
Load Object <FilePath>
Save Object <FilePath>
Load Macro <FilePath>
Save Macro <FilePath>
Load GraphPnts <FilePath>
Program Control Statements
Procedure <name>
.
. ( Pix commands )
.
Endp ( end proc. )
Procedures must be declared before they are called (at the beginning of
your PIX script). You are limited to a total of 50 named procedures. The
number of command lines within each procedure is limited by memory.
Procedures may contain any PIX commands including Repeat statements. You
must end the procedure declaration with the Endp statement.
Repeat (#) ( loop # times )
.
. ( Pix commands )
.
Endr ( end repeat )
Page 44 PC-Draft II
The Repeat statement causes a series of commands to repeat a given number
of times. There is a limit of 50 command lines within a repeat loop. You
must end the repeat loop with the Endr statement.
Other Commands
End( terminate a series of cursor moves )
Wait (#) ( # = 1/4 second pause )
Cursor ( toggle visible cursor off/on )
% ( end Record Macro )
; ( comment )
To see how the various PIX commands can be used look at the example .SCR
files provided on the distribution disk.
New PIX commands
The PIX program has been upgraded. It now supports several new commands:
Pause
This command causes program execution to stop, and wait for a keystroke
before continuing.
Getkey
The Getkey command allows for more interactive PIX programs. With Getkey,
you can input a keystroke into a program variable (A to Z). You can then
use the Case command described below to conditionally branch based on the
key pressed. For example the command:
Getkey A
causes the PIX program to pause, wait for a keystroke, and when the user
presses a key, places the key value in the variable: A.
Case
The Case command allows conditional branching within a PIX program. The
case statement consists of a selector based on a program variable [A to Z]
and a list of statements preceded by a case label. The expression deter-
mines which statement in the list to execute. For example:
PIX Language Page 45
Getkey A
Case A
1 box (10,5,150,80)
2 circle (10,5,150,80)
3 rectangle (10,5,150,80)
Endc
PIX waits for the user to press a key, then assigns the value to the
variable A, then executes one of the statements in the list depending on
the value of A (1, 2, or 3).
Note that the Case statement is ended by the key word: Endc.
Jmp
This allows an unconditional branch in a PIX program. The jump command must
specify a target label. For example:
.
Jmp LABELA
.
.
.
LABELA
.
.
This will cause a jump to the label: LABELA skipping the statements between
the Jmp and the label. Labels can be anything other than PIX key words.
Jumps can only be forward. Pix cannot go in reverse, it reads the script
file one line at time.
The Jmp statement is most useful within a Case list. For example:
Page 46 PC-Draft II
Getkey A
Case A
1 jmp labela
2 jmp labelb
3 jmp labelc
Endc
labela
box (10,5,120.80)
jmp the_end
labelb
circle (10,5,120.80)
jmp the_end
labelc
rectangle (10,5,120.80)
the_end
Popup
This allows you to open a popup window. PIX now supports up to ten such
windows open at one time. Each window is referred to by its number (between
1 and to). The proper syntax for Popup is: Popup (window number) (coo-
rdinates). The window coordinates specify the upper left and lower right
corners of the window in text coordinates (based on 25 lines of 80 charac-
ters).
Popdown
This removes (pops down) a popup window. Its syntax is: Popdown (window
number).
Pgotoxy
This positions the cursor in text coordinates relative to the specified
popup window. The upper left corner of the window (in the box outline is
coordinate: 0,0).
For example the following code opens a window and displays two lines of
text, waits for a keystroke from the user then removes the window (resto-
ring the graphic screen below the window).
Popup (1) (20,12,60,15)
Pgotoxy (5,1)
Text This is line one
Text This is line two
Pause
Popdown (1)
PIX Language Page 47
Tgotoxy
This positions the cursor in text coordinates relative to the entire screen
based on 25 lines of 80 characters. The command: Tgotoxy (10,10) accomp-
lishes the same as the command: Gotoxy (80,80) since each character
occupies an 8 by 8 pixel grid.
Print
This allows printing of the drawing created with PIX. Simply place the
command PRINT in your PIX script file at the point you wish to print. PIX
will pause at that point and present a menu of printer choices:
Select Printer
1 - IBM graphic
2 - generic Epson
3 - HP-LaserJet+
When you select the printer type a second window appears with printer
resolution selections:
Select Printer mode
1 - 120 dots/in.
2 - 240 dots/in.
press [1] for low resolution (120 dpi for dot matrix printers, 150 dpi for
LaserJet), [2] for high resolution (240 dpi for dot matrix, 300 dpi for
LaserJet),to abort printing, press any other key. After printing starts,
you can abort by pressing [Esc] and then [Y] to the prompt: [ Abort
printing [Y/N]? ].
You can have PIX print to a file by adding the filename as a parameter. For
example the command:
PRINT C:\TEMP\PRINT.DMP
sends the printer control codes to the file PRINT.DMP in the TEMP sub-
directory on the C: drive.
The PIX script file: CASE.SCR illustrates the above new commands.
Page 48 PC-Draft II
PC-Draft commands not supported
If you thought something was missing, you're right. Some PC-Draft commands
didn't seem to make much sense to include within the PIX language. These
are:
Grid Snap Print
Xfer Font Zoom Just Paint
spraY can Quick View
Edit Font Edit Pattern Edit Graph points
Save Font Save Pattern Save Graph points
PIX Language Page 49
Summary of PIX commands
Cursor Movement:
right left up down
uright uleft dright dleft gotoxy (x,y)
Screen moves:
>up >down >left >right
Move (#) [1..28]
Functions:
Pattern (#) [0..9] ( pattern number )
Mode {Replace|Overlay|Transparent}
Type {Bar|Line|Dots|Pie}
Clear
Color (#) 0: Black 8: Dark Gray
1: Blue 9: Light Blue
2: Green 10: Light Green
3: Cyan 11: Light Cyan
4: Red 12: Light Red
5: Magenta 13: Light Magenta
6: Brown 14: Yellow
7: Light Grey 15: White
Drawing:
Arc (x1,y1,x2,y2)(x1,y1,x2,y2)
Box (x1,y1,x2,y2)
Circle (x1,y1,x2,y2)
Curve (x1,y1,x2,y2)
Erase (x1,y1,x2,y2)
Free-Draw {gotoxy(x,y)..gotoxy(x,y)..end}
Line (x1,y1,x2,y2)
Multi-line {gotoxy(x,y)..gotoxy(x,y)..end}
Rectangle (x1,y1,x2,y2)
Graph (x1,y1,x2,y2)
Window (x1,y1,x2,y2)
Paint
Home
Kursor
Undo
Write <string>
Text <string>
Tog (chart scale)
Page 50 PC-Draft II
Object Manipulation:
Object (x1,y1,x2,y2)
Drop
Reverse
Expand
Enlarge
Contract
Small
File: (Load or Save followed by: "Screen A:PIC\SAMPLE.PIC")
Load Screen <FilePath>
Save Screen <FilePath>
Load Drawing <FilePath>
Save Drawing <FilePath>
Load Pattern <FilePath>
Load Font <FilePath>
Load Object <FilePath>
Save Object <FilePath>
Load Macro <FilePath>
Save Macro <FilePath>
Load Points <FilePath> ( graph points )
Other:
Wait (#) ( # = 1/4 second pause )
% ( end Record Macro )
; comment
Program Control:
Procedure <name>
.
.
End
Repeat (#) ( loop # times )
.
.
End
Quit ( end PIX )
Variables: 26 integer vars: [A..Z] can be used for any parm.
Let X = # ( assign value )
Inc X ( increment )
Dec X ( decrement )
PIX Language Page 51
Summary of Drawing Commands
A - Arc N - sNap on/off Object Manipulation
B - Box O - Object grab E - Enlarge Object
C - Circle P - Paint C - Contract Object
D - Drop Object Q - Quick View L - Large Object
E - Erase mode R - Rectangle O - rOtate Object
F - Free Draw S - Suspend S - Small Object
G - Graph T - Text mode Alt-E - Ellipse
H - Home U - Undo Alt-P - Control
Panel on/off
I - grId on/off V - curVe
J - Just Paint W - Write - (minus) - decre-
ment cursor inc-
K - Kursor change X - Xfer font rement value
L - Line Y - spraY can + (plus) -
increment cursor
M - Multi-line Z - Zoom increment value
F1 - F Key menu . (period) - Direct
F2 - Drawing menuon/offMove
F4 - PatternsF3 - File menu
Shift F1-F10 - Set
F6 - Font EditorF5 - Drawing modeMarker
menu
F8 - Print Alt F1-F10 - Move
F7 - Graphs menu to Marker
F10 - Exit
F9 - Erase Screen Alt W - Window
Ctrl-F1 - change Off/On
colorAlt-F9 - Erase Draw-
ing
Page 52 PC-Draft II
Index
Arc 16, 43 SpraY Can 19
Bar Graph 29 Text 16
Box 15, 41 Transfer to Font 18
Printing 35 Window 21
CAPTURE.COM 36 Write (Graphic Font)
Circle 15, 41 17
Clearing the Screen 11 Zoom 18
Color 21, 44 Drawing mode 20, 31
Compressed Files 12 Drop 43
CONFIG.SYS 4 Drop Object 17
Contract 43 DWG file 12
Contract Object 18 Ellipse 15
Control Panel 9 Ending PC-Draft 13
Cursor Enlarge 43
Command 20 Enlarge Object 18
Increment 7 Epson 33
Mouse 8, 20 Erase 42
PIX Command 45 Erasing 11
PIX Commands 40 Exit 13
suspend 17, 26 Ending Macros 26
Type 8 PIX 38
Curve 15, 42 Expand 43
Direct Move 10 Features 1
Directory 13 File Names 6
Installation 4 Files 6
Drawing .FON 24
Printing 35 .MAC 26
Drawing Area 9 .OBJ 23
Drawing Commands .PAT 22
Arc 16 .PIC & .DWG 12
Box 15 .PTS 29
Circle 15 .SCR. 37
Color 21 Compressed 12
Curve 15 CONFIG.SYS 4
Drop Object 17 DRAFT2.CFG 4
Ellipse 15 GEM format 34
Free Draw 15 Import ASCII 16
Graph 29 Importing ASCII 27
grId 20 Installation 4
Just paint 19 Naming conventions
Kursor 20 6
Line 14 printing to 34
Multi-Line 14 FON file 25
Object 17 Fonts 24
Paint 16 Write command 17
Quick view 21 Free Draw 15
Rectangle 15 GEM 34
sNap 21 Gotoxy 40
Index Page 53
Graph 41 IDS Microprism 34
Points 29 LaserJet 33
Type 29 Okidata 33
Graphic Macros 26 resolution modes 32
Graphs 29 Printing 32
GrId 20 Procedure 44
Hercules 3 PTS file 29
Home 10, 43 Quick view 21
HP LaserJet+ 33 Rectangle 15, 41
Import text 27 Relative Cursor Increment
Installation 4 26
Just paint 19 Repeat 44
Kursor 20, 43 Replace Drawing Mode 31
Large Object 18 Reverse 43
Laser printer 32 Reverse Object 18
Line 14, 41 Rotate Object 18
Line Graph 29 SCR file 37
MAC file 26 Screen
Structure 27 Capture 36
Macros 26 Printing 34
Markers 10 Search directory 13
Menus 8 Small 43
MicroSoft 4 Small Object 18
Mode 31, 43 SNap 21
Mouse SpraY Can 19
buttons 5 Suspend
cursor 8, 20 Cursor 26
driver 4 Text 16, 43
Move Tog 43
direct 10 Trace (PIX) 38
screen 10 Transfer to Font 18
to marker 10 Transparent Drawing Mode
Multi-Line 14, 42 31
OBJ file 23 Undo 11, 43
Object 17, 23, 41 Window 21, 41
Object Manipulation 17 Write 43
Overlay Drawing Mode 31 Write (Graphic Font) 17
Paint 16, 43 Xfer 18
PAT file 22 Zoom 18
Pattern 22, 43 [K]ursor 8
PIC file 12
Capture 36
Pie Graph 29
PIX graphics language 37
Printers 5
C.Itoh 34
DeskJet 33
Epson 33
GEM .IMG files 34
IBM dot matrix 33
Page 54 PC-Draft II
Index Page 55