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Fabric Users Manual
Copyright (C) 1991, 1994
by Bjorn Jansson
Bothell, WA USA
Table Of Contents
Introduction.................................................. 2
What's new ?.................................................. 3
Distribution.................................................. 5
License....................................................... 5
System Requirements........................................... 6
Installation.................................................. 7
Menu.......................................................... 8
FILE..................................................... 8
NEW................................................... 8
OPEN.................................................. 8
SAVE.................................................. 8
SAVE AS............................................... 9
ERASE WEB............................................. 9
PUSH TO DOS........................................... 10
QUIT.................................................. 10
SETUP.................................................... 10
WEAVE................................................... 11
ZOOM.................................................... 11
ZOOM ALL.............................................. 12
ZOOM MAXWORK.......................................... 12
ZOOM WINDOW........................................... 12
ZOOM CENTER........................................... 12
ZOOM IN............................................... 12
ZOOM OUT.............................................. 12
BLOCK................................................... 12
ERASE................................................. 13
DELETE................................................ 13
INSERT................................................ 13
MOVE.................................................. 13
COPY.................................................. 13
REPEAT................................................ 14
MIRROR................................................ 14
PRINT................................................... 14
HELP.................................................... 15
PALETTE................................................. 15
Sample Session............................................... 16
Printing .................................................... 19
Command Line Parameters...................................... 20
Technical Details............................................ 21
Questions, Comments.......................................... 21
Acknowledgements............................................. 22
(1)
Introduction
Fabric is a CAD program (Computer Aided Design) that replaces graph
paper and colored pencils used in traditional drawdowns. Drawdown
is a technique used to preview patterns designed to be woven on a
loom. You specify the threading, treadling, and tie-up of the loom
and Fabric "weaves" the pattern in the drawdown area. It is assumed
that the user is familiar with drawdowns.
Fabric is much faster to use than the traditional technique. A
pattern can be designed in a matter of minutes with Fabric. Fabric
encourages "try-it-and-see" whims of the designer. Many designs
that never would have made it down on paper can quickly be tried
out on the screen.
Fabric is written to use a mouse (a handheld pointing device). A
mouse makes Fabric intuitive to use. Just move the upper tip of the
mouse cursor (a miniature shuttle) to the grid square you want to
colorize and click. To escape a screen or a function you have
inadvertently chosen, just click the right mouse.
Fabric can show the design in many levels of magnification. See Zoom
for details.
The largest level useful for design work, Zoom Maxwork, has 197
threads usable for warp and 144 threads for weft (4 shafts, 4
treadles setup). The maximum size design is 640 by 480 threads.
You can set Fabric up to use 2 to 16 shafts, and 2 to 32 treadles.
The color of each thread in both warp and weft can be chosen from
a palette of 15 colors. Each of the 15 palette colors, and the
background, can easily be redefined to have one out of 262,144
colors (VGA monitor), or 64 colors (EGA monitor).
There is an easy to use file system in Fabric. Use the mouse to
retrieve designs from disk. Point at a filename in a list and
click, the pattern is loaded ready to be displayed.
(2)
What's new ?
New for version 3.00 are:
* Redefined menu system. Fabric now uses a pull-down menu
system which may be more familiar to many users.
* Printing capabilities. The threading, treadling and tieup
are printed to aid in loom setup and during weaving.
* New block functions; Insert, Copy and Delete. Improved block
Move and Copy. Move and Copy can now work across threading and
treadling. The old Delete function is renamed Erase.
* Improved and amended Setup screen. The Setup screen is now
more graphical in nature and most selections can be done by
the mouse.
* Support for left handed mouse users.
* More function key assignments. Functions like File Open,
File Save, and Print are assigned to function keys as well
available as menu selections.
* Various improvements to protect the user from loosing the
design. For instance, detecting that the design has changed
since last Save, therefore warning the user before Quitting.
New for version 2.11 (previous release) and 2.10 were:
* Much faster (about 70 times faster) screen redraws have been
implemented.
* Enhanced Zoom functions. The previous four levels have been
replaced by an almost unlimited number of levels. Among
others, a Zoom Window function have been added.
* Panning, a new way to move around the design has been added.
Press the cursor arrow keys anytime and the image will pan
(move sideways or up/down) one half screen-full at the time.
* More shortcut keys have been added. They are the previously
mentioned panning keys, and an assortment of zoom functions
assigned to keys F6, F7, F8, F9, and F10.
(3)
* The context sensitive, on-line help system has been fully
implemented. Press F1 to enter the help system from any
screen, and help for the current topic will be presented.
* In the Setup screen, Fabric can be configured to use either
Sinking or Rising shed. This is useful for instance if you
want to view the back of the weft.
* Fabric will no longer exit when it fails to detect a mouse.
This to enable users to view the demo files without a mouse.
No work can be done without a mouse, though.
The file format of the designs are fully compatible with version
2.00.
New for version 2.00 were:
* Support for VGA monitors. The full color capability of VGA
monitors are supported. A VGA can mix each palette color to 1
out of 262,144 colors, EGA 1 out of 64. Also the vertical
resolution is enhanced for VGA monitors, from 350 picture
elements to 480. EGA monitors are still supported.
* The total width/length of the design has been increased from
approx. 147/75 to 640/480. This is the maximum number of
picture elements a VGA monitor can display at one time.
* A new zoom level has been added, Zoom Full. In Zoom Full the
complete design is displayed. This zoom level is meant for
overview of the complete design, to be able to quickly move
from one extreme corner to the other, and to facilitate the
use of a "screen grabber" program. See "Zoom".
* Block functions have been added. Now you can Repeat, Delete,
Move, and Mirror a selected block of threads in warp or weft.
See "Block".
* If you have more designs than what can be displayed on one
screen (in the "Load" list screen) and you click on <<< or
>>>, the screen moves a screen-full in each direction rather
than one column at a time.
* The color bars in the "Palette" editor go sideways instead of
up and down. This to facilitate VGA's increased number of
color intensities.
(4)
* The sample square in the Palette editing screen is now much
larger to facilitate comparing nuances to a real piece of
yarn.
Fabrics designed with older versions can be read in to newer
versions, but not vice versa. Once the old design is read in to the
new version, it will be converted to the new format.
Distribution
Fabric is shareware. It is not free nor in the public domain.
However, you are free to copy and/or distribute Fabric any way you
want with the following two restrictions:
1. Do not charge a fee for distributing Fabric. You may
charge a reasonable cost for the distribution media (e.g.
diskette).
2. Do not alter Fabric in any way. If you want to give
Fabric to a friend or upload it to a BBS (Bulletin Board
System), please give the original archived file; add nothing,
change nothing, delete nothing. You may repack the content of
the original file with a different packer if you like. I used
LHA v 2.12 and PKZIP 2.04e to pack the files.
Sysops are encouraged to make Fabric available to their callers.
License
You may try Fabric for a period of 60 days without paying for it. If
you after that time find Fabric useful and want to continue using it,
you must send in your registration with a $20 payment to the author
or else delete Fabric from your computer system.
By registering, you personally (and all members of your household)
are entitled to use Fabric as much as you like. You are also entitled
to use all future and past shareware releases of Fabric, provided
that you register before the release date of the new version. If you
have not paid by that date, the conditions of the new version are in
effect. One fee covers all future shareware releases of Fabric.
(5)
To register, send a check or money order to:
Bjorn Jansson
7422 N.E. 145 St.
Bothell, WA 98011
USA
If you like you can print the registration form REGISTER.FRM
delivered with Fabric in the distribution file.
The payment system is based on your honesty. Almost all of Fabric is
functional as is. However, when you register, block-functions (Erase,
Delete, Insert, Move, Copy, Repeat, and Mirror) will be available to
you as an added incentive to register. When I receive your
registration form and payment, I will mail you instructions on how to
make your copy of Fabric registered and give it a serial number.
Your name (as written on the registration sheet) and serial number
will show up every time you start Fabric.
I have spent many late hours developing Fabric. By registering you
will show appreciation for the work already done, and give me
encouragement to continue the development.
I promise that your address will not be given out to anybody else
under any circumstances, unless I have your written consent.
System Requirements
Fabric should run on any IBM PC using a color VGA or EGA monitor
and adapter card, or systems compatible with such. A VGA monitor
will give you a 640 by 480 resolution screen, en EGA 640 by 350.
Furthermore, a VGA monitor will allow mixing each of the 16 palette
colors to 262,144 nuances, while EGA only allows 64. Naturally,
these restrictions also applies to Fabric. Fabric will
automatically detect your screen type and act accordingly.
I have tested the current version of Fabric on DOS version 5.00 and
6.20. The older version of Fabric I tested on DOS 3.10, 3.30, and
5.00. It may work on other versions of DOS as well, try it and see.
A Microsoft Mouse (or compatible) is required. You can not run
Fabric from the keyboard alone. You can, however, view the demo
files without a mouse, but your interactions with the program will
be severely limited.
(6)
Installation
Fabric can be installed over a prior version of Fabric. The old
files will be overwritten, except the files in the DESIGNS sub-
directory.
Follow this procedure to install Fabric:
1. Make a directory on your hard disk or floppy where you want to
run Fabric.
Example: MD C:\FABRIC
2. Make this directory the current directory.
Example: C:
CD\FABRIC
3. Un-archive (unpack) the distribution file into this directory.
In the following examples it is assumed that FABR300 (the
distribution file) is in the root directory of the A: drive.
Substitute as necessary.
If the distribution file has an extension .LZH:
Example: LHA E A:\FABR300
If the distribution file has an extension .ZIP:
Example: PKUNZIP A:\FABR300
Chances are, since you are reading this, that you already have un-
archived the distribution file. Then you may just copy the un-
archived files to the selected directory. Do this only if you know
that nothing has been changed since you un-archived.
4. Run the INSTALL program.
Example: INSTALL
5. If you like you can start a demonstration program at this
time. The demo will show you a number of designs. When done looking
at one design select File Quit from the menu at the top of the
screen, or press the Esc key.
(7)
Menu
This section covers the menu selections on the screen from left to
right.
FILE, NEW (F3)
This menu selection will erase all squares in the threading, tieup,
and treadling grids. The setup and palette remains unchanged.
FILE, OPEN (Ctrl+F4)
Select Open when you want to retrieve an old design. You will be
asked to type a filename or to click the left mouse button to get
a listing.
If you select the listing, a list of designs in alphabetical order
will appear on the monitor. Use the mouse to select a file by
clicking the left mouse button on the filename.
If you have more designs than one screen will hold, a >>> and a <<<
will appear. Click on the appropriate one of these to scroll the
display one screen-full right or left.
The design presently in memory will be overwritten by the newly
selected design. Fabric will detect if you have made any changes to
the design since the last save and ask you if you want to keep the
changes to the design before reading in a new one.
FILE, SAVE (F4)
Save your design to disk. When clicking on "Save" you will be asked
to provide a filename. The filename can contain 1 to 8 characters,
any extension will be ignored. An extension of .FAB will automatically
be added to all design files.
If you only give a filename, the design will be saved in the defult
(8)
designs directory. The default design directory is the sub-directoiry
DESIGNS under the Fabric installation directory, e.g.,
C:\FABRIC\DESIGNS\.
If you specify a path with the filename, the file will be saved in
that directory. For instance B:\MYFABS\CLOTH will save the file CLOTH
in the B:\MYFABS\ directory.
You can also specify a relative path. This may look something like
this: ..\ADIR\FABRNAME. In this case the file FABRNAME is saved in a
directory parallel to the default directory.
Once a file has been succesfully saved in a directory other than the
default design directory, the new directory becomes the default
design directory.
Once Save has been used the filename will appear to the far right on
the menu bar. From now on, each time you select Save the file is
saved without further interaction, preserving the file name.
Tip: Save your design often. It is very fast, especially on a hard
disk. It can be quite frustrating to have been working on a design
and the computer goes down for some reason. If you frequently save
your design while working on it, you can always restart Fabric and
load your design again.
FILE, SAVE AS
In the event that you want to save your design without loosing the
previously saved version, use Save As. Here Fabric will ask you to
provide a new file name. You can also provide new path to the
directory where you want to save the design. See Save for more
details on this.
FILE, ERASE WEB (F2)
Clears the drawdown area of the screen.
(9)
FILE, PUSH TO DOS
This command temporarily suspends the execution of Fabric and gives
you a DOS prompt. Fabric remains dormant in memory and you can return
to it where you left off by typing EXIT at the DOS prompt.
This may be useful if you need to perform some tasks, running
programs, or copying files, for instance, but you don't want to exit
Fabric. The amount of memory available to programs is reduced by
approximately 146K bytes as compared with the usual amount at the DOS
prompt. This is the size of Fabric plus the size of a second instance
of the DOS command interpreter.
FILE, QUIT (Esc)
Select this to end the current Fabric session. Remember to save your
design before you select this item. (See "Save" below.) Should you
not have saved your design before selecting "Quit", Fabric will ask
you if you want to loose the changes to the design and Quit. If you
answer 'Y' or click the left mouse button the program terminates.
Otherwise, you will be returned to Fabric where you can save the
design.
SETUP
Here you define how your loom is configured. You can select how many
shafts (harnesses) you have, you can select how many treadles
(pedals) you have. default for both is 4. You can tell what these
settings are by the white square highlighting the current setting. To
change the setting, click on the desired square.
There are three option button boxes. The first one lets you select
rising or sinking shed. Select the one setting your loom has by
clicking on 'Rising' or 'Sinking' or their associated buttons. The
current setting will show highlighted, the inactive setting will have
the background color. As you select a new setting in an option button
box, the other buttons will turn off.
(10)
The second option button box, Mousehand, lets you swap the operation
of the mouse buttons. Some lefthanded mouse users find this easier to
work with. This change will take effect first when you click on the
OK button. Fabric keeps record of which mouse hand you prefer such
that it can start up with that selection.
The third option button box selects which printer port Fabric will
send the printout to. The three choices are LPT1, LPT2, and LPT3. If
you don't know which port your printer is connected to, try LPT1.
This is the most common one if you only have one printer.
The last configuration option on this screen is the Printer Width
input box. This tells Fabric where to wrap the printout lines. This
number is the number of characters the printer can print in one line
of text. The most common setting is 80, but if your printer is set to
compressed printing, settings in the neighbohood of 134 will take
advantage of the higher density printing. The printer must be
manually set to compressed printing. Fabric will not change the
setting of the printer.
To cancel your changes to the setup, click on the Cancel button. To
save the changes, click on the OK button.
WEAVE
The pattern you have designed will be "woven" on the screen. Before
this selection is useful you should have specified your tie-up,
threading, and treadling (see "Sample Session" below).
If you have erased part of your pattern since you last selected
"Weave" then press the F2 key. This erases the old fabric from the
drawdown area. If you don't use the F2 key, parts of the old design
may remain on screen if they were erased from the grids just before
the Weave.
ZOOM
Zoom lets you take a closer or more distant look at your design.
The following zoom functions are available:
(11)
Zoom All:
The complete design will be shown on screen. No grids can appear at
this level. When Zoom All is complete it waits for you to click any
mouse-button or type any key. This to facilitate the use of a
"screen grabber", a program delivered with some printers and word
processors to "grab" the image on screen and send it to the
printer. (DOS also provides means to print the screen, see Printing
below.) When you click the mouse, the mouse cursor will be visible
again. Now specify a 'window' to zoom in on, see 'Zoom Window'
below.
Zoom Maxwork: (F10)
This is the largest zoom level any work can be done at. When you
select Zoom Maxwork, the current center of the image will be
maintained if possible.
Zoom In: (F7)
The image is magnified by a factor of two at the current center.
Zoom Out: (F8)
The magnification of the image is reduced by a factor of two. The
current center of the image is maintained.
Zoom Window: (F9)
Click the mouse and a 'window frame' will be drawn on screen. One
corner of the window is fixed where you clicked the mouse. Now
frame the area you want to zoom in on. click the mouse button
again, and the zoom is performed. At any time, click right to abort
the function.
Zoom Center: (F6)
The image is centered at where you click the mouse. When using F6,
no click is necessary.
BLOCK
There are six block-functions; Erase, Delete, Insert, Move, Copy,
Repeat, and Mirror. They have in common that they work with a
contiguous block of threads. The functions work identically for warp
and weft. Block-functions will be enabled when you register your copy
of Fabric, see "License".
(12)
After selecting your choice of block-function, Fabric will prompt you
to mark the first thread in the block you want to work with. Move the
mouse to a thread at one end of the desired block and click. The
thread position is marked by a crosshatched pattern.
Next you are prompted to mark the last thread of the block. It does
not matter in which order you select your first and last thread.
All thread positions in between and including the two threads you
indicated are marked by a crosshatch pattern.
The operation now depends on the selected block-function.
Erase:
The threads in the block will be erased. The places previosly
occupied by the threads will be left blank.
Delete:
The threads in the block will be erased but, unlike the Erase
command, the sequence of threads is adjusted such that all threads to the
right of the block (or below if in the treadling sequence) will be
moved such that they overlay the space previously occupied by the
block.
Insert:
This is the opposite of the Delete command. The threads in the block
will be made vacant by pushing to the right on threads in the block
and all threads to the right of the block. Caution: If there are
threads at the extreme right of the design (thread number 640), they
will be pushed out of the design and lost. If this is the case, you
may want to move the whole design to the left before performing
Insert. This can be accomplished by using the Delete command on an
unused section to the left of the insertion point.
Move: After marking the block, you will be prompted to indicate the
destination of the move. The marked block will then be moved to have
its lowest numbered thread at the destination point. The block
originally selected will then automatically be erased.
The block can be moved to another location either in the same grid or
to the other grid (threading versus treadling.)
Copy:
Copy works like Move, but the block will not be erased.
(13)
Repeat:
The marked block will be repeated a number of times in either
direction.
First indicate in which direction you want to repeat the block.
Simply click the left mouse button on the desired side of the
block.
Next a new menu will appear on the top line where you can select the
number of repetitions you want (max 18 at a time). Remember that the
block you selected is not counted as a repetition. Example; if you
want a total of 10 identical sections of a pattern, then first draw
the pattern, mark it, and repeat it 9 times.
Mirror:
The marked block is mirrored to either side of the block.
You are prompted to indicate which side to mirror to. Click the
left mouse button on the desired side of the block. The block will
then be mirrored to that side. The thread that will end up in the
center of the completed image will not be repeated, it serves as
the center axis of the mirror operation.
Example; if you mark 4 threads to be mirrored to the right, only
the 3 left-most threads will be mirrored over to the right side.
The right-most thread in the marked block will not be mirrored.
At any time during the Block operations you can use the arrow keys
and functin keys to pan and zoom the image. This is especially useful
when the blocks are large, or when the destination is far away.
PRINT
The Print command produces a printout of the tieup, threading, and
treadling sequences. This is useful for setting up the loom and for
actually weaving the design.
The colors of the palette are represented by the letters 'a' to 'o',
'a' being the first color of the palette, 'o' being the last.
(14)
HELP
The "Help" selection on some menus starts the on-line help system.
This function is also available at any time when pressing F1.
Help is context sensitive, that is, it knows what functions you are
working on and show the appropriate help page.
Select an alternative topic from the top menu, from the list
presented at the main help screen, or by pressing a function- or
arrow-key.
To exit the help system, keep pressing the right button or the Esc
key.
PALETTE
"Palette" lets you redefine the colors of the palette. It is
analogous to the painting artist mixing up different nuances on his
palette. There are 15 colors on the palette plus the background
color, each which can be given 1 out of 262,144 colors with a VGA
monitor, or one out of 64 colors with an EGA monitor.
The colors in a VGA or EGA system are made up of 3 basic colors;
red, blue, and green. By mixing different intensities of these 3
base colors, different color nuances can be obtained. Your task in
the palette editing screen is to increase or decrease the
intensities of the 3 base colors for each palette color you want to
change. A VGA monitor has 64 different intensities of each of the
3 base colors, while an EGA only has 4 different intensities.
When you have selected "Palette" you will be placed in the palette
editing screen. By default the current color is selected to be
edited first.
Chose the color you want to edit from the palette. The selected
color is indicated by a triangle directly to its left.
You can also edit the background color. Click the left button on
"Background".
(15)
To increase the base color intensity in the selected color, click
the left mouse button on the bar that represents that base color,
or where that bar would have been if it was extended all the way.
The corresponding base color is called out directly to the left of
the 3 bars. To decrease the intensity click the right button
instead.
Notice how the selected bar gets longer or shorter to reflect the
new intensity. Notice also how the sample square below the bars
change to show the new nuance. The sample square has been made
extra big so you can easily hold up a piece of yarn and compare the
colors. The selected color in the palette also changes.
When you are done changing the colors, click the left button on the
"OK" button in the bottom right corner. To cancel all changes click
the "Cancel" button instead.
I have decided to give the user full access to all the colors
available in the palette. From this follows that you can redefine
the colors of the menus, text, and the grids. The bottom two colors
of the palette are used for this purpose. You should be careful
when redefining these colors and the background color. It is
possible to give the background the same color as the menus or the
grids. The effect is that the menus or grids become invisible. It
is then difficult to do most anything in Fabric.
Sample Session
Different people use different methods and in a different order to
do a drawdown. Therefore the following is intended only as a
guideline to how to use Fabric.
Invoke Fabric, that is, in the directory where you installed Fabric,
type FABRIC at the DOS command line.
A copyright message will be shown at the top of the screen for 2.5
seconds. You can make this message go away earlier by pressing any
key.
(16)
If your loom has a different configuration than 4 shafts and 4
treadles, you need to select "Setup" from the menu. Click the left
mouse button while the upper tip of the mouse cursor is on "Setup".
Click the left mouse button on the item you want to change, for
instance shafts. The square you clicked on will become highlighted to
show your selection. To verify your change, click the left mouse
button on the "OK" button in the bottom right of the screen. You are
now back to the design screen. The number of rows in the warp grid
should reflect your change in number of shafts. The number of columns
in the weft grid will match the number of treadles.
The default zoom level is difficult to work in so select "Zoom" and
"In" from the menu. Do this by clicking on Zoom, then as the pulldown
menu appears click on In. You could also have pressed the F7 key
instead wich is assigned to Zoom In.
Select a color from the palette over to the far right by clicking
the mouse on the color you like. Notice how a triangle to the
immediate left of the palette indicates your choice. This color has
become the current color. All colorizing will be done in this color
until you select another one.
Now move the mouse to the warp grid (horizontal). Here is defined
to which shaft each warp thread is connected (on a real loom
connected by means of heddles). Each horizontal row of squares
represent a shaft with positions for heddles. Click the left mouse
button on a square you want to define. The square is colorized,
which means that a thread of that color goes through that heddle.
Move the mouse one square to the right. Select a square in the
vertical column of squares and click the left mouse button. Another
square is colorized. Repeat this procedure a few times, selecting
squares on a varying vertical position as you go. Select another
color from the palette if you like during this operation. Notice
that if you click on two squares in the same vertical column, that
the first square is erased. This because there can only be one warp
thread at each heddle location.
You can erase a colored square by clicking the right button on it,
although, this is rarely needed because you can just select a new
square and the old one disappears.
Move the mouse over to the yellow grid. This is the tie-up area
which defines how the treadles are connected to the shafts.
(17)
Fabric can work with both a rising or a sinking shed. That means that
when you step on a treadle it will either lift or sink those shafts
indicated in the tie-up area. By default the shed is rising. Click
the mouse on the squares to define a tie-up you know works, or just
randomly select squares (OK, it might not be weavable but just to
practice.) Notice that Fabric won't allow you to select all the
squares in a vertical column. Doing so would mean that a treadle lifts
all the shafts, clearly a violation of weaving good sense, right?
Now select a color from the palette that has not been used much in
the warp. Colorize squares in the weft grid (vertical) as you did
for the warp grid. The rules are the same, only the grid is rotated
a quarter turn.
When you are ready to try your design, select "Weave" from the
menu. You should see your pattern drawn in the drawdown area.
To make a larger design, select "Zoom" from the menu. Select "Out"
from the pull-down menu. Now select "Zoom" again, and then
"Window". Click the left mouse at a point immediately to the left
and above the area you want to work on. A 'window frame' is drawn
on screen. Notice that when you move the mouse around, the window
expands and contracts, pivoting around the point you clicked at.
Now move the mouse so that the area you want to work on is framed
by the window and click the left button. The area is magnified to
cover as much of the screen as possible.
Continue to colorize as many squares as you like. Then use the zoom
functions to see more of the result.
When you are done designing for this time you may want to save your
work. Click the mouse on the "File", then "Save" menu items. Now type
in a name you want to give the file, max 8 characters. Press Enter
and your design is saved. Notice that, as a reminder, the filename
will appear inside brackets to the far right on the menu line.
From now on, each time you select File and Save, your design will be
saved overwriting the old design. Try it. If you want to give the
design a different name, you must select File and Save As from the
menu.
The next time you start up Fabric you can retrieve your design
complete with the setup and palette you used the previous time
(provided that you saved it of course.) Select the File and Open
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items from the menu. You can now either type the filename, if you
remember it, or you can click the left mouse button and get a list of
all saved designs. On the list click the mouse on the filename you
want and you are ready to design some more again. A faster way to
start fabric with the design you want is to specify your design on
the DOS command line as you invoke Fabric. Example:
FABRIC mydesign
where mydesign is a fabric design previously saved.
You can also specify another directory for Fabric to search for your
design. Example:
FABRIC B:\fabs\mydesign
Printing
Fabric can print the tieup, threading, and treadling sequences. See
PRINT for more information on this.
Fabric has no built-in print function to graphically print the web.
There are other ways to do this, though. You can use DOS' Print
Screen if you want to print out your design. Before starting Fabric,
execute the DOS command GRAPHICS. This will add graphics printing
capability to Print Screen.
Then display the section of your design that you want to print and
press Shift-PrintScreen.
On black-and-white printers, DOS tries to adjust the gray scale to
simulate different colors. For instance, it simulates yellow as white,
that is, it will not print anything where the design is yellow. The
default for the menu and tie-up grid is yellow. To print these areas,
temporarily re-define yellow to a different color.
You can experiment with how different colors print by changing the
palette to the colors you want, and print the screen. The palette
will show up on the print-out as would any threads drawn in those
colors.
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Your printer or word processor could have been delivered with a
screen grabber program. It may prove superior to the DOS' Print
Screen function.
Command Line Parameters
This is the format of the command line (the command you type at the
DOS prompt) to start Fabric:
FABRIC [/options] [path][design] [/options]
All parameters are optional. This is indicated by square brackets.
Either upper or lower case is accepted.
Options are preceded by / or -.
Only one option is useful to the unregistered user;
/EGA
This option will force EGA mode if FABRIC wrongfully detects a VGA
monitor.
Example: FABRIC /ega
In the "design" field you can specify which design to load without
having to go through the menus. Do not specify a file extension. If
you do it will be ignored. The extension .FAB is assumed. The DESIGNS
sub-directory is assumed as a location of designs. If relative
directory references are to be used, they must be given with relation
to DESIGNS. Example: "FABRIC mydesign" will load the design
mydesign.fab from the default design directory. You can also specify
another disk drive as a source for files.
Example: "fabric B:\adir\myfile" will load the design file myfile.fab
from the directory B:\adir\.
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Technical Details
It is not necessary to understand the following technical details
to successfully operate Fabric, they are provided for the
interested user.
Explanation of zoom levels: Fabric uses an integer number of pixels
to represent a thread, the same in the x and y direction. At "Zoom
All" there is only one pixel per thread, therefore it is impossible
to provide a grid at this level. At "Zoom Maxwork" there are three
pixels per thread, a grid is useful first at this level. When using
the zoom functions, any integer numbers of pixels per thread can be
used by Fabric to accommodate your desired zoom level, up to where
only one thread occupies the entire drawdown area. Further, Fabric
displays only whole threads on screen. When "Zoom Window" is executed,
Fabric calculates the zoom level such that it shows the threads
completely framed by the window, then the number of pixels per thread
is rounded down to the nearest integer.
Fast screen redraws: The drawdown, "Weave", has been implemented in
assembly language, hence the dramatic increase in speed. It has been
timed to 70 - 100 times faster than the previous high level language
function. The speed increase made it feasible to implement the many
zoom-levels, and still have snappy screen redraws.
Fabric keeps an initialization file, FABRIC.INI, in the installation
directory. By reading this file on startup, Fabric can always start
up with the same, user specified, settings. The initialization file
is updated every time the OK button is clicked in the Setup screen.
The moushand preference, printer port number, and printer width is
specified in this file.
Questions, Comments
Should you have questions about Fabric, or just want to make a
comment, please do so. I want to hear from you - especially the
nice comments. :)
If you want to contact me, there are several ways to do this.
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1. You can write a letter to the address below.
Bjorn and Lisa Jansson
7422 N.E. 145 St.
Bothell, WA 98011
U.S.A.
2. You can leave a message on a BBS that I frequent.
A good, fiber-oriented BBS I call is:
FIBERNET: (218) 583-4337 in Henning, MN, U.S.A.
8N1, 24 hrs, 365 days, all computer types.
Fibernet accomodates high speed modem users.
3. Leave me a message on Internet. My Internet address is:
bjornj@uencoder.MHS.COMPUSERVE.COM
This is probably the quickest way.
Acknowledgements
The project of writing Fabric was undertaken to join my hobby/work
with my wife's. Lisa has been a weaver and spinner for years and I
have been tinkering with computers, both for fun and at work.
Lisa taught me all I know about weaving. She also put up with me
spending months at the computer writing, tweaking, and adjusting
Fabric.
I was first inspired to write Fabric when Lisa showed me an issue
of Weavers magazine (#6 '89) where a computer was used for just
this purpose; computerized drawdowns. The cover featured an
intricate pattern made on a computer. This is the 13 shafts, 32
treadles pattern I used in the DEMO3V design.
There may be other patterns in the DEMO files that I am not the
creator of. Be aware that someone may hold a copyright on them.
(Can a pattern be copyrighted? I don't know.)
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