MS DOS Archives 1

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ MS DOS Archives 1 / MS-DOS_Archives_Volume_One_Walnut_Creek.iso / msdos / graphics / kd_doc.arc / KD-DOC.9 < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1987-10-18 | 66KB | 1,981 lines

DEFINITIONS AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. Active Layer The active layer is the one in which you are actually drawing and is always SCreen 1. The active layer can also be seen and may be over- laid with the visual layer. ASCII <F6 T a, A> ASCII text files can be imported into a drawing. Position cursor to the line you want the file to start displaying at. <a> will stop at the end of the screen while <A> will continue to the end of the file. Hit <Esc> to stop. Animate <F7 a> Once an object has been copied or erased with <F7> it can be moved about on the screen. Animate allows you to see the object as it moves to aid in proper positioning. Several other functions automatically switch to the animation mode to allow proper object/text placement. Anima- tion can also be used with the Key Macro command to jazz up slide shows. If the animated area is large the object will tend to flash as it is moved. The visual horizon can be set to allow animated objects to disappear below the horizon. Area <F1 c> The area of an object and the center of that area can be calculated based on the color set by <F10>. Calculate works by looking for a color, so to get the area of a circle for example, the circle must be painted in, otherwise you are get- ting something closer to the perimeter than the area. Also see Mass. Arc <F3 a, A> Arcs are drawn using <F3>. First move cursor to center. Then mark the radius and end point followed by the second end point. Arcs are always drawn counterclockwise. Pie shaped arcs can be drawn using <F3 A> and proceeding as with a reg- ular arc. To draw an elliptical arc use <$> to modify the screen aspect ratio just before select- ing the first end point. Be sure to reset the proper aspect ratio after drawing the arc. DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-1 Arrows <F2 a, Alt-a> Arrows at 45 degree increments and almost any size can be added to the screen. The arrow will point p, <d>own, <l>eft, <r>ight, <e> up-right, <f> down right, <g> down-left, and <h> up-left. Set the direction the arrow is to point and use p and <d>own to change the size before saving the arrow. (The amount of size change with each or <d> is a function of the <F9> speed setting.) Arrow color is determined by <F10>. <F2 a> produces an outline of an arrow, while <F2 Alt-a> produces a filled in arrow. An arrow symbol could as be created with <F6> and rotated to any angle. B-Spline <F3 b> Complex curves can be difficult to draw with just the cursor keys, but with <F3 b> you can let the program connect the dots that you enter and create smooth curves. This is a great feature for those, like myself, that are not artistically inclined. It makes complex curves easy from the keyboard. Background <F5 b>, <F5 c>, <F5, C>, The screen background color can be set in medium resolution mode by using the space bar to page through the colors and the <ENTER> to fix the desired color. The background can also be set in high resolution using <F5 C> and <F5 c>. ackground sets the color that is used for the background during many operations. See Spray paint and Fade for more information. BAS File extension for BASICA program. <F7 C>opy can save a screen image as a BASICA subroutine that can be merged into your own program. This is use- ful for including logos or for creating graphic game programs. See BASICA manual for information on merging programs. The subroutine when called will load an array with the data to create the image. Use the PUT command to place the image on the screen. DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-2 BASIC is ideal for working with graphics on a CGA since it contains just about all of the commands you need to manipulate the screen and graphics. Other languages require the use of libraries to get the graphics functions provided in BASIC. Box <F2 r>, <F2 R>, <F2 Alt-r>, <F2 s>, <F2 S> A box is a rectangle or square. Start by positioning one of the corners. Selecting a <r> will display the rectangle as you move the cursor. Position box as desired and mark. <R> displays the box and it is copied into <F7> automatically. <Alt-r> produces a filled in rectangle at the color set by <F10>. <s> produces a rectangular series of dots at the color set by <F10> in light, medium or dark shading. <S> functions the same as <D>. Center animated area <C> Centers the animated object on the screen. Center of area <F1 c>, <F1 Alt-c> The center of an area or the center of mass of an object can be cal- culated. Center of circle <C> The last center of a circle can be located by <C> in the CURSOR MODE. Circle <F3 c> Circles are drawn by first marking the center and then the radius of the circle. Use <$> to match the screen aspect ratio of your moni- tor and/or printer. <$> only effects circles drawn after a change and not already drawn circles. To change a circle once it is drawn use <F1> Flip to compress the screen in the appropriate direction. Circle Center Lines <F3 Ctrl-c>, <F3 Ctrl-e> Center lines for circles and ellipse are automatically drawn using <F3> <Ctrl-c> or <Ctrl-e>. Start by placing cursor at center of circle or ellipse and making selection and then moving cursor to desired size and selecting <ENTER>. DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-3 Color <F5 c>, <F5 C>, <F10> Three color palettes are available with three colors each plus a back- ground color in medium resolution from the standard color board. <F5 c> will toggle between the three. 15 unichrome colors are also available in medium resolution by selecting <C>. 15 colors in high resolution are also available with <c>. <F10> will select the active color from a given palette for use. The current color is displayed on the prompt line as a number to the right of the appropriately colored box. Some actions are color specific. If the action does not seem to work it may be that the color is set wrong. <F5> allows color mixes for a total of 29 colors per palette on an RGB monitor. With a composite monitor 16 of the color mixes become distinct colors. For best results set the color palette to palette 0 or 2 (RED GREEN YELLOW). Configure <Ctrl-s> PC-KEY-DRAW must be configured to your particular system and desires. This is done by selecting <Ctrl-s> from the CURSOR MODE and modifying the configuration screen as desired. In particular the disks that you have available must be set. The printer can also be configured for zoom printing. The key macro command is ideal for configuring the program to your personal require- ments. Key macros can be called from DOS when calling the program so that each time you enter PC- KEY-DRAW it can be set just as you like. Copy <F7 c>, <F7 C>, <F7 Ctrl-c> Enclose area is copied into <F7> buffer to be used with smear, move, etc. <C> copies area and allows user to save that portion of the screen on disk. Enter name of file including drive. No extension on the name will result in the program adding a PIC. A FIG extension allows partial screens or even entire screens to be saved in an ASCII file that can be transmitted over telephone lines without modifica- tion. Use <F7 o> to get old or previously copied areas onto the screen from the disk. A PIC exten- sion added to the name will save the enclosed por- DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-4 tion of the drawing in a format compatible with many other graphics programs allowing interchange (the extension must be specified). The PIC exten- sion is the most compact on disk. A BAS extension will save the copied area as a BASICA subroutine for use in user generated graphics programs. A FNT extension saves the copied area a part of a font file under the character specified. <Ctrl-c> copies the same size area as last copied without enclosing it in a box first. Cursor <F6 c> Lines can be drawn with the cursor. The line color can be changed at will during draw- ing. Use <F6 e>nd to end and save to the screen. The entire cursor key pad can be used, thus 45 degree lines are possible. CURSOR MODE Anytime the cursor can be moved around on the screen using the cursor keys or a mouse. Cursor Type <Alt-c> Three cursor types are avail- able and can be readily selected with <Alt-c> from the CURSOR MODE or during configuration. Cursor 0 is a small dot that is the same as early versions. Cursor 1 is a small arrow that points to the active area. Cursor 2 is a full screen cross hair. Which cursor you use depends on a lot of factors. You will find that you switch cursors for different operations. DAT Data file extension containing scale informa- tion for full screen saves. Date <Alt-d> the DOS date can be displayed at the specified location on the screen. (see also Time) Delete File See Kill. Delete Lines <F7 Alt-l> Horizontal lines can be deleted from the cursor position. The number of lines that will be deleted is dependent on the cur- sor speed setting as shown on the prompt line. DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-5 Direct Coordinate Entry <x> the x and y coordinates can be entered directly if desired. Directory <F8 d #>, <F6 o #>, <F6 E #>, <F6 T a #>, <F7 o #>, <F7 C #>, <F8 o #>, <F8 Ctrl-o>, <F8 Alt-o>, <F8 s #>, <F1 Ctrl-z o #>, <Alt-k r #>, <Alt-k c #> Where "#" is the drive letter to see the directory of. The complete disk directory for any drive is found with <F8 d> followed by a single drive letter. Partial directories can be obtained with the other listed functions by entering the drive followed by a <ENTER> when asked for file name. Only those files that pertain to a given directive will be shown. To be able to use the par- tial directory capability be sure to let the pro- gram add the required extension. Disable Workspace Set the update frequency to 0 to disable the updating of the workspace. Display <F8 Alt-o> screens can be loaded in 1 of 5 display forms for use in slide shows. 1. Fade in 4. Pull Left 2. Pull down 5. Pull Right 3. Pull Up Dot <F6 d> Single pixel dots are placed by marking the correct spot with a <ENTER>. <F10> determines the color of the dot. The dot can also be made as large as desired using the width command from the CURSOR MODE. Down <F6 T d> To place text vertically and running down the screen use <F6 T d>. Ellipse <F3 e> As with circles and arcs the ellipse is drawn by first marking its center. The horizon- tal radius and vertical radius must also be marked. The radius is marked by moving the cursor keys over and up. DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-6 End <F6 e>, <F6 E> With the exception of text, all functions in <F6> must be ended. If a line drawing is ended with <E> the drawing is saved as a vector for later use. See Line. Erase <F7 e>, <F7 E>, <F7 Alt-e>, <F7 Ctrl-e> To erase an area enclose it in a box as with copy. With <e> the area will be erased and saved to the <F7> buffer for use with move, animate, etc. With <Alt-e> the area is erased but not saved. <Ctrl-e> will erase a circular portion of the screen. <E> erases an area and switches to animate mode to allow quick and easy movement of a portion of a screen. Exit <F1-F8 n>; <F8 e> A function can be exited with <n>, <Esc>, </>, or <Space Bar>. The program is exited to DOS with F8 <e>. Extension File extensions for the various files used by PC-KEY-DRAW have been predefined, however they can be easily changed to what ever you prefer, by editing the file KD-DRAW.TXT with any text edi- tor. This manual assumes they have been kept as originally defined. See the Section on Libraries for more information. Fade <F4 f>, <F4 Alt-f> Objects can be faded to the background by color using <f> or all colors can be faded using <Alt-f>. Fatbits <F1 Ctrl-z> editing of screens at the pixel level is possible using <F1 Ctrl-z>. Enclosed area to be edited in fixed sized box. If you want to edited a larger area select <Ctrl-z> a second time to display 8 boxes in high resolution or 4 boxes in medium resolution. Select <ENTER> to reach the editing stage. Set the color of each individual pixel by specifying the appropriate number (0,1,2,3). Use <t>race to draw by selecting <t> and then the color to be used. Selecting <t> a sec- ond time turns off the trace. Use <Ctrl-PgUp> and DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-7 <Ctrl-PgDn> to move through multiple screens. Use <Esc> to exit. FIG Figures-see Copy. File is saved in an ASCII format. Fill <F5 f>, <F5 Alt-f> Areas that can be painted can be filled instead. The program comes with 64 patterns on KD-PTRN.PIC. These patterns can be changed or modified as desired and resaved (see section for F7 for handling PIC files). <Alt-f> allows any PIC file to be called in to act as a pattern file. The file called becomes the default (until program is exited) and will be used the next time <F5 f> is called. Fillet <F3 f> Automatic fillets to 90 degree cor- ners are created by drawing a box around corner to set the radius. Flip <F1 f>, <F1 F> Flip has a variety of uses. Think of it as rotating the screen through an angle. This can be used to compress the image and is useful in matching completed screen to printer. <f> is used to flip a portion of the screen, while <F> is used to flip the entire screen. FNT Font file. This ending must be specified to save part of a screen as a font. A single file con- tains all of the font information for the specified characters. Fonts Two standard fonts are built into the pro- gram. Which one is used depends on which mode the program is operating in (high or medium resolu- tion). The standard text fonts are retrieved with <F6 t>, <F6 T>, <F6 Ctrl-t>. Alternate text fonts can be created, saved and recalled. The fonts can be created using any and all of the program func- tions. To save a font use <F7 C>opy to copy each individual letter. A given font should be saved to the same file with an FNT extension. Fonts are DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-8 recalled as needed with <F6 Alt-t> by typing in the text and specifying the font to use. Figure 3 shows what can be done in minutes using the four supplied fonts combined with other program functions. The "CREATE-A-FONT" title was done in several steps, including <F7 S> and <F1 Ctrl-s>lide. Italics are easily created using <F1 s>lide and a step of 15. <F1 z>oom allows you to set the number of steps in a zoom to produce the "ZOOM STEP" text. Library Disk #3 contains 14 additional text fonts along with several very useful macros for creating BOLD, 3-D text, outlined text and overlaid text quickly and easily from any of the text fonts. Freehand drawing <F6 c> While there are a variety of methods that can be used in the program to do freehand drawing, the most common is to set the cursor to continuous with <F6 c> and to draw with the cursor keys or a mouse. The color of the line can be set with F10 and the drawing can be tempo- rarily suspended with a <Space Bar> or second mouse key, then restarted with an <ENTER> or the first mouse button. FUN Computer graphics are not only very useful, but can be a whole lot of fun. Grid <g>, <G>, <Alt-g> A grid made of dots can be placed or removed with <g> from the cursor mode. A grid made of lines is placed with <Alt-g>. User must specify the spacing between grid points. Color of grid can be changed with <G>. The grids reside on a separate layer and do not become part of the drawing, unless <k>eep or pdate is invoked while the grid is on the screen. Help <h>, <H> Help information is available in the CURSOR MODE or when entering any function. Select- ing <h> or <H> the first time will turn on the pull down menus. Selecting help a second time will dis- play a disk file as appropriate for the section you are in. <H> is used to turn off the pull down DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-9 menus. Hot Keys <Shft-F1 to F8>, <Ctrl-F1 to F10>, <Alt-F1 to F9> 27 hot keys can be defined to customize PC- KEY-DRAW to your own personal needs and desires. KD-DRAW.HOT contains the names of key macros (pre- viously created) that are activated with one of the h o t k e y s . Insert line <F7 l> Horizontal lines can be inserted at the cursor position. The number of lines inserted is determined by the setting of the speed, as displayed on the prompt line. Isometric Drawing Toggles the isometric drawing mode. When activated the cursor moves at a 30 or 60 degree angle instead of a 45 degree angle. Circles are also adjusted accordingly. Jump <Ctrl-J>, <Alt-#> Where # is a number from 0 to 9 inclusive. Allows a screen position to be set ad remembered. First position the cursor as desired, select <Ctrl-j>ump or <Ctrl-ENTER> and then <Alt-#> where # is a number from 0 to 9. The screen positioned is now remembered on disk for future use. At any time select <Alt-#> to jump to the remembered position instantly. For compatibil- ity with past versions keep <Alt-1> as 0,0. (Top left corner) KD-DRAW.JMP is created the first time a jump position is set. Keep <k> While putting a box around an object or drawing a circle the drawing is modified by the box. When the <ENTER> is hit to complete the box the screen is first restored and then the action takes place. Sometimes the effect is desirable. While in the CURSOR MODE selecting <k> keeps the drawing as it is seen at that moment. Using <k> will also keep the grid, help screen, or layer and should be used with care. Key Macro <Alt-k> This is a very powerful feature DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-10 of Version 3 and potentially the most useful. I have yet to fully examine all of the uses, but they include at a minimum, macros, slide shows with ani- mation, and drawing saves. Several commands such as <*>, <Alt-v>isual horizon, <Alt-1>, and <Alt-p>ause have been added specifically for use with key macros. The demo/tutorial supplied with the program is a sample of using a key macro as a slide show. Basically what a key macro does is to remember every key stroke that you make and save them to an ASCII sequential file for later retrieval. The file that is saved consists of the key stroke code followed by the number of times the key is struck. The files produced are very small and offer the maximum use of disk space. A Key Macro is started by selecting <Alt-k> while in the cursor mode and assigning a name to a file to be created. Everything after this is recorded until <Alt-k> is selected a second time. Selecting <Alt-k> a third time allows the just saved key macro to be run. (See the section on the Key Macro command) Kill <F8 k) Unwanted files can be removed from a disk by using kill and specifying the complete name including the drive designation. Layers <l>, <L>, <Ctrl-l>, <Alt-l> Up to 64 layers or overlays can be used to aid in creating draw- ings. Layers can be thought of as drawing on clear sheets. Only the active layer is modified, but other layers can be visual if desired. It takes about 1 meg. of memory to handle 64 layers so it is only practical with a hard disk or better yet a RAM disk. (See RAM Disk) When layers are active scrol- ling of 1/2 pages is disabled. Use <Alt-l> to com- pletely turn off layers. Lines <F6 l> Lines are drawn by marking successive end points with <ENTER>. As the line is drawn its length and angle are displayed on the prompt line. Lines are used to generate vector objects that can DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-11 be saved and retrieved at a later time at any angle or scale. <F6 e>nd will save the line to the screen only. <F6 E>nd will save the line to the screen and to a user specified file as a vector. The object is saved with scaling so that when it is recalled it can be matched to the scale of the drawing in progress. Vectors are useful for flow chart symbols, or for other commonly used line objects where scale and angle are important. Use the <SPACE BAR> to temporarily suspend line drawing and the <Back Space> to back up. Width and color can also be set as desired. Lines can also be drawn with <F6 c>ursor (see Cursor). Mass <F1 C> The mass of an object and the center of mass can be calculated based on user supplied den- sity parameters for each color. See Area. MCR macro file extension. Measure <m>, <M>, <Alt-m> the distance between two points can be measured by marking one end with a <m> and moving the cursor to the second point. The distance is displayed on the prompt line. Measure is always active and gives the radius of circles, the dimensions of boxes, and the length of lines. <M> moves the cursor to the last measured point. (See Scale). Figure 4 is a simple mechanical engi- neering drawing showing the use of measure. <Alt-m> allows you to set the scale on the fly. First mark a point with <m> then move a known distance and with <Alt-m> tell PC-KEY-DRAW what that distance should be. Merge <F7 m> Two screens can be merged together as one. Start by loading <F10 o>ld the first screen into either Page 1 or Page 5. Switch to Page F7 and load the screen to be merged. Switch back to the first screen and put the cursor in the top left hand corner. Select <F7> then <m>, <M> or <Ctrl-m> for the desired result. DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-12 Mirror <F1 m>, <F1 M> Objects can be mirrored using <m>. The entire screen can be mirrored either horizontally or vertically with <M>. Mode <Shft-Tab>, <Alt-r> Two screen modes are available. Mode 2 is the high resolution mode (640X200) and mode 1 is the medium and color mode. (320X200) You can readily switch between the two to achieve desired results. Virtually all of functions available in the color mode are available in the high resolution mode. Each mode has its advantages for different applications and systems. Sometimes when an object is copied with <F7> in one mode and moved into another mode the object will be dis- torted. Use <@> to adjust. <Alt-r> forces the screen mode to high resolution. Modify <F5 m>, <F5 M>, <F5 Ctrl-m>, <F5 Alt-m> Painted areas can be changed or modified to produce additional colors. Set <F10> to the color you wish to modify. Select <F5 m> and define object in box. <M> operates on the entire screen. Set the new color to any of the 29 colors. <Alt-m> allows the 29 colors to be changed to one of the other 29 col- ors. <Ctrl-m> operates as <Alt-m>, but on the entire screen. (A file called KD-PAINT.PIC is on the program disk and can be viewed with <F7 o>.) Money How did you get this? If you have purchased PC-KEY-DRAW from Ed Kidera of OEDWARE then thank you very much!!, but if you are using a copy and have not registered, please take some time and do so. Isn't this worth the registration price? See the section on libraries for a way for you to save some cash or even make some. Mouse Mode Pull down function and command menus can be used either with or without a mouse. When used with a mouse the mouse can be used to click on a function to select it much as with many other graphics programs, but this is a slow and silly way to run any graphics program. PC-KEY-DRAW provides DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-13 a much easier way of using a mouse, by allowing the menu to be brought in with the click of button two. Once in a function select mode, the cursor movement will move you through the menu and not around the screen. Use button 1 to make a selection and return to cursor mode. See the Hardware section for more information on the mouse. Also see Chapter 3. Move <F7 m>, <F7 M>, <F7 Ctrl-m>, <F7 Alt-m> Pre- viously copied or erased areas can be moved to a new location. Use animate to aid in positioning. The four different syntaxes of move will produce different results. The correct one to use depends on the desired result. Experiment with the differ- ent moves to learn and understand the results. The following table applies to smear and replicate as well: Command Logical Effect m XOR Mixed M OR With Ctrl-m AND Over Alt-m PSET Replace Use move after <F7 a>nimate, <F7 s>mear, and <F7 r>eplicate. <Ctrl-m> is very useful in painting odd shaped objects with complex patterns. See Examples in earlier section for tips on using it. Music See Play Old <F1 Ctrl-z o>, <F6 o>, <F6 O>, <F7 o>, <F7 O>, <F8 o>, <F8 O>, <F8 Ctrl-o>, <F8 Alt-o> Previously saved vectors, objects and screens can be retrieved with old. Primarily for slide show use text mode screens can be called into view with <F1 Ctrl-z o>. In F6 vectors drawn with line and saved with <E>nd can be called up later for use. Any angle may be specified as may any scale. A <ENTER> will take the rotation as drawn and will fit the scale of the vector to the scale of the current drawing. <O> takes the last vector and allows the rotation and scale to be changed. After setting the scale the DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-14 vector object can be moved across the screen and left in position with <F7 M>. Objects that where saved with <F7 C> can be recalled with <o>. They will appear at the same size as drawn and so may be out of scale. <F8 o> is used to retrieve entire screens saved in <F8> or saved in some other pro- gram. If a DAT file accompanies the drawing the scale will be changed accordingly. To sequentially bring in the screens from disk use <F8 O> and <PgDn> to page through the screens. Select the screen you want with <ENTER>. This make finding a screen very easy. See Template for information on <F8 Ctrl-o>. <F8 Alt-o> can be used in slide show macros to display the screens in one of five meth- ods. (See Display) Outline <F2 o> objects can be outlined in the color set by F10. Outline searches for the change between the background color and the other colors and draws a line at the edge. Page <Ctrl-Home> 64 pages are available for Screen 1. Select <Ctrl-Home> followed by the pan direc- tion. <Down Arrow> scrolls the screen by 1/2 down. <Up Arrow> scrolls the screen by 1/2 up. <Right Arrow> scrolls the screen by 1/2 to the right. <Left Arrow> scrolls the screen by 1/2 to the left. <PgUp> scrolls a full screen up. <PgDn> scrolls a full screen down. <Home> returns to PAGE 00. <End> goes to the last screen that has been created. Pages are stored in quarter screen files. To use all of the files (not very likely) you must be operating from a subdirectory for the workspace. The files are created on the disk only when a par- ticular page is accessed. <Ctrl-HOME> twice returns to PAGE 00 without first saving the page you are on. Paint <F5 p>, <F5 P>, <F5 Alt-p> Objects can be painted with one of the four colors from the pal- ette in the color mode or one of two colors in high resolution using . The border color and the fill DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-15 color must be specified. An incorrect border color or gaps in the border will cause the paint to leak out. If this happens be sure to respond no to the "Correct (y/n)?" prompt. is identical in oper- ation to only it allows you to repeat the oper- ation any number of times with the same fill and border color simply by moving to the appropriate location and selecting <ENTER>. 29 colors/ shades can be used to paint with using <Alt-p>. See also Shading and Modify. Paintbrush See Smear and Replicate for one type of paintbrush. Many of the other functions of PC-KEY- DRAW can also be used as a paintbrush by properly setting the ackground so that when the object is moved around the screen an image is left behind in the color set by ackground. Parallel <F6 p> Parallel lines can be drawn at any angle by first marking one of the lines and then only marking one end point on all subsequent lines. Use <F6 e> to end the drawing of parallel lines and save the lines to the screen. All features of nor- mal line drawing apply to parallel line drawing. PATH The compiler used for PC-KEY-DRAW does not recognize paths. If you have DOS 3.? you can used SUBST to represent paths, see the DOS manual. Any drive letter A-Z can be used. Patterns <F5 f>, <F5 Alt-f> 64 patterns are held in one pattern screen. One pattern screen is supplied with the PC-KEY-DRAW program disk, but you can create as many as you would like. Figure 5 shows the patterns that I have created. Some are rather useful, while others are rather strange. Note the size and complexity that is possible with PC-KEY- DRAW as compared to other graphics programs. Library Disk #2 contains nine additional pattern screens for a total of 640 patterns. See section on Fill for how to use patterns. DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-16 Pause <Alt-p>, <F8 O Alt-p> Key macros normally play back at full speed. Occasionally it is desir- able to momentarily stop the execution of the macro with a pause statement. Set the number of seconds desired to pause before continuing. PIC Extension used to specify format of partial screen save in F7. This is the preferred extension for partial screens since it uses the least amount of disk space and is therefore the default exten- sion. Screens saved with a PIC extension can be called into a BASICA program by adding the follow- ing lines to your program: 10 DIM ARRAY%(500):'dimension array large enough to handle image 1000 BLOAD "FILENAME.PIC",VARPTR(ARRAY%(0)) 1010 PUT(0,0),ARRAY%:'puts image onto graphics screen To save an image in BASICA that can be called up in PC-KEY-DRAW add the following lines to your pro- gram: 10 DIM ARRAY%(500) 1000 'load image into array with the GET function 1010 N%=(4+((ARRAY%(0)+7)\8)*ARRAY%(1))\2 1020 BSAVE "FILENAME.PIC",VARPTR(ARRAY%(0)),N% See BAS for an alternate way to include an image in a BASICA program that doesn't require an external file of the image to be on the disk with the pro- gram. Play <Ctrl-p> music can be played for fun or as part of a macro. The music syntax follows that of BASICA exactly. See the BASICA manual for more information. DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-17 Playback <Alt-k> Previously recorded keyboard sequences can be played back from disk. See Key Macro. If you are creating a slide show to play- back then it is a good idea to disable the printing of the prompt line by setting <*> to 1 or 2 during recording. Polygon <F2 p> Regular polygons of any number of sides can be dynamically drawn. The polygon can be rotated as it is being drawn by using the <[> and <]> keys. Print <F8 p> If a graphics screen dump program is loaded the screen can be dumped to a dot matrix printer using <PrtSc>. The print routine allows the 25th line to be positioned before printing with a title as desired. If you have an Okidata 92 be sure to set the configuration printer to 1. The configu- ration screen also allows you to alter the printout size for an Okidata printer. Printer Support The zoom printer feature of PC-KEY- DRAW allows you to configure it to virtually any printer that can take continuous paper. Single sheet printing is currently limited to most Okidata 92, 93s or Epson/IBM graphics compatibles. If you would like to donate a printer to OEDWARE we would be happy to write a driver to go with the program for that particular printer. Quality <Q> The quality of the cursor movement can be toggled with <Q>. A "Q" will appear on the prompt line indicating that the quality is turned on. With the quality turned off the cursor moves quicker by skipping an occasional step. With the quality turned on the cursor moves slightly slower, but does not skip steps. When the key board macro is set the quality is automatically turned on. If it is turned backed off during recording the play- back of the macro will not faithfully reproduce the original. DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-18 RAM disk PC-KEY-DRAW is written to make significant use of a RAM disk. A 40K RAM disk is the smallest that can be used, while the maximum is over 1Meg! Some may be wondering how such a large RAM disk is possible with a standard PC. I strongly recommend the use of an extended memory card such as the JRAM-2 by Tall Tree Associates which allows up to 2megs per expansion slot. A RAM disk is not only useful for this program, but you will find many other uses. Minimum PC RAM should be about 2Megs for maximum use of your machine. Recording <Alt-k> Every key stroke hit can be recorded and saved to an ASCII sequential file for later playback. See Key Macro for more informa- tion. Registration Registered users get support, low cost updates, printed manual, extra library disks, sup- port programs and a good feeling. See Shareware. Rename <F8 K> disk files can be renamed. Enter the file to be renamed and the new name of the file. Include the drive of the file. It is not possible to rename to a different disk. Replicate <F7 r>, <F7 R>, <F7 Ctrl-r>, <F7 Alt-r> Once an object is copied it can be moved and repli- cated. Each touch of the cursor will step the size of the object until moved with <F7 M>. This can be used for a variety of applications. The syntax of replicate is the same as smear and move. Resolution Set <Alt-r> The screen resolution can be set to 640X200. Use <Shft-Tab> to toggle between 640X200 and 320X200. See Mode. Retrieve file See Old. DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-19 Revolve <F1 R> Three dimensional appearing objects can be created as objects of revolution by first drawing the cross section then revolving it. User sets number of steps and view angle. This can be a very powerful command. Figure 6 is a Christmas card. The Christmas tree was created by drawing one side of the tree outline and then by revolving the outline about the center. Reverse video See Video. Rose curves <F3 r> Sine and cosine rose curves of any number of leaves are drawn to size of circle set with cursors. Rotate <F1 r>, <F1 Alt-r>, <F1 Ctrl-r>, <F6 o>, <F6 O> <F1> can be used to rotate any object on the screen. The object may be rotated once or a mul- tiple of times (steps). *C*-In the color mode <r> will rotate only the current active color as selected by <F10>, while <Alt-r> will rotate all colors within the defined region. Use <F1 a> to rotate an object again, without redefining it. <F1 Ctrl-r> will rotate the entire left portion of the screen 90 degrees, but beware there is a size limit to rotate and not all of the picture may be rotated. In F6 vector objects can be created and saved. Using <F6 o> or <F6 O> they can be called back and rotated to any angle. Save <F6 E>, <F7 Ctrl-e> <F7 C>, <F8 s> There are five different ways to save objects and screens. <F6 E>nds & saves objects drawn with line as vec- tors (VCT) to the disk for later use. <F6 Ctrl-e> saves a previously created line. <F7 C> saves objects or entire screens to the disk in one of three ways. See Copy for use. <F8 s> is the common way to save a complete screen for later use. The screens are given a SCN extension and are retrieved with <F8 o>. A second file is saved with a screen that gives its scaling, if other then the default, and has a DAT extension. Each screen, page, layer DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-20 must be saved independently. Scale <Alt-m> The scale of the drawing is normally set when the program is entered or following a fresh screen. When setting the scale on entering PC-KEY-DRAW or after a fresh screen you should set the effect size of the screen, not the actual size of the screen, ie. you might set the screen to 40 ft. to draw a house, 20 in. to draw a small part, or 50 miles to draw a map. The scale can also be set by matching a measured distance to a desired distance. Select <m> at one point, move cursor to desired position, select <Alt-m> and enter in the desired value of the distance. Scale Factor <F1 z>, <F1 Z>, <F1 Alt-z>, <F6 o>, <F6 O> When zooming you must enter the scale fac- tor. A scale factor greater than 1 shrinks the object or screen, while a scale factor less then 1 expands the screen. Select </>, <Space Bar>, or second mouse button to enter the zoom factor instead of the scale factor. SCN Screen-see Save and Old. This is the default extension and indicates a full graphics screen save. This is compatible with screens saved in BASICA using a BSAVE command. To call a screen into BASICA that was saved with <F8 s> add the fol- lowing lines to your BASICA program: 1000 'set screen to graphics mode 1010 DEF SEG=&HB800:'sets segment to color graphics screen memory 1020 BLOAD "FILENAME.SCN",0 1030 DEF SEG:'returns segment to BASICS stack DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-21 To save a screen in BASICA that can be later called into PC-KEY-DRAW add the following lines to your BASICA program: 1000 'with drawing on screen 1010 DEF SEG=&HB800 1020 BSAVE "FILENAME.SCN",0,16384 1030 DEF SEG See BAS for an alternate way of including a screen image in a BASICA program. Screen <Ctrl-Home>, <Ctrl-End>, <Ctrl-PgUp>, <Ctrl- PgDn> Multiple screens are available. They can be used to draw objects larger than the screen or to use as temporary workspaces. There are two primary screens and two secondary screens. The primary screens are "connected" and can be scrolled using <Ctrl-PgUp> and <Ctrl-PgDn> in quarter screen increments. <Ctrl-Home> and <Ctrl-End> toggle between the two screens. The last object copied can be viewed on page F7 by selecting <Ctrl-PgDn> from page #5. <F1 Z>oom will not change the drawing scale if used in Screen F7. The 25th line or title line is available to be viewed or modified by selecting <Ctrl-PgDn> one more time. Screen 1 can actually be one of 64 different pages. The extra pages are stored on the workspace disk. Pages are stored in quarter screen blocks allowing horizontal and vertical scrolling. 1 megabyte of Disk is needed to use a full 64 pages and this is where a RAM disk can really pay off. You should set up a subdirectory for the workspace. Screen Aspect Ratio <$> The screen aspect ratio can be varied for a variety of results. The main use of the setting the aspect ratio is to get a circle that looks round on your monitor or you may want to adjust the aspect ratio so that the screen dump is round. <r>otation and <Z>oom of <F1> are cleanest if an aspect ratio of 1.0 in color or 2.0 in high resolution is used. DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-22 Shade <F2 s>, <F2 S>, <F4 l>, <F4 m>, <F4 d>, <F4 s>, <F4 Alt-s> Various methods of shading the draw- ing are available. <F2> <s> or <S> produces a rec- tangular pattern (see Box). <F4> will fill an irregular area with dots of the color set by <F10>. It may take several times to fill a very irregular area. <F4 s> spray paints (see Spray paint). Shareware is the form of distribution being used with PC-KEY-DRAW. Shareware is commercial software with a difference. Shareware can be legally copied and shared with others, provided it is distributed in its entirety and not modified. Users that find the program to be of use to them are requested to register. Registration provides many benefits to the user. If you register PC-KEY-DRAW you will receive: . Printed Users Manual in IBM size binder with information on getting the most out of PC-KEY- DRAW, (it looks nice on your self too). . Second library disk (see Appendix H) with 640+ fill patterns, several library pictures and many very useful macros. . Third library disk with 14 extra fonts and text oriented macros. . Fourth library disk with more fonts and flow chart symbols. . HP LaserJet printer support. . Registered version of the program with name in the program code. . Telephone or mail support when you need help, for one year after registration. Phone support is available from 8:00 am to 9:00 pm seven days a week. . Notification of updates and the ability to update for only $10 for the latest disk. Registration helps you in other ways: . You are supporting the shareware concept. 1. You can try the software before you buy it. DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-23 2. You pay a reasonable price for you software. 3. You avoid the frustration of copy protec- tion. 4. You encourage others to develop shareware. . You are also supporting new OEDWARE develop- ments. PC-KEY-DRAW is constantly being improved, your support is needed and appreci- ated. Like public television, shareware is supported by those who find it valuable. Shift <F5 s> The foreground colors are each shifted up by one. The background is not affected. Shift Cursor Using the <Shift> key while drawing rectangles allow you to move the fixed corner. If the <Shift> key is used while drawing circles or ellipses the center of the circle is moved. Try doing this with other graphics programs. Show <s>, <S> The cursor and prompt line can be removed from the screen. This can be used when taking pictures of the screen with a 35mm camera. Selecting <s> shows only the active screen, while <S> shows both the active screen and a visual layer if layering is turned on. If show is used as part of a macro the macro will pause indefinitely until a key is hit. During macro execution a "_" will appear in the bottom right corner of the screen indicating that the macro is waiting for a key to be hit. Sine curve <F3 t> Trigonometric sine curves of desired period and amplitude are shaped by moving the cursor. Slide <F1 s>, <F1 S>, <F1 Ctrl-s> <s>-slides an area of the screen either horizontally or verti- cally. This is very useful for creating a variety of effects, including italics (use a step of 15 for italics). <S> slides the entire screen. <Ctrl-s> DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-24 slides the entire screen to the power set, either 2,3, or 4. Slide Show The key macro command can be used to create a very powerful slide show quickly and easily. See Key Macro for details. Smear <F7 s>, <F7 S>, <F7 Ctrl-s>, <F7 Alt-s> Pre- viously copied or erased objects can be smeared across the screen in one of four syntaxes. Among other uses this allows the creation of a paintbrush of sorts. The cursor speed determines the step of the smear. Like replicate the smear will continue until the object is moved with <F7 M>. Speed <F9>, <+>, <-> Cursor speed, smear size, and animation speed are controlled by <F9>. The speed is can be toggled between one for fine movement and any value as set by using the <+> and <-> keys. Cursor speed is displayed on the prompt line. The speed can be forced to 1 using <Shft-F9>, no matter what it is currently. This is useful in creating certain key macros. Spirals <F3 s> Automatic spiral generation is pos- sible using <F3 s> by marking the center and the size of the first coil and then the number. Spoke <F6 s> Spoked lines from a common center can be generated quickly, since the center is only marked once. Spoked lines can be combined with lines, dots and parallel lines. Use <F6 e> to end drawing spoked lines. Spray paint <F4 s>, <F4 Alt-s> Previously drawn and painted areas can be spray painted to produce 3D type shading. With the screen aspect ratio set to its normal values the spray painting will produce a circular pattern. If <$> is selected and set to 0 (zero) the spraying directive can be used to shade a vertical column. Figure 7 was created in a short period of time by making extensive use of spray- DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-25 paint. Setting the background color to something other than 0 can be very useful and effective when used with spray paint. Status <Ctrl-s> See Configure. Strip <F5 S> All of the foreground colors, except the one set by <F10> are set to the background. This can be useful for printing or photographing the screen. Be sure to save the screen before you strip it, if you want it back whole later. Suspend <Space Bar> During line drawing and cursor drawing under F6 it is often desirable to tempo- rarily suspend drawing to reposition the cursor. Use the <Space Bar> or second mouse button to stop drawing and display the cursor. When ready to con- tinue hit the <ENTER>. Template <F6 o>, <F7 o>, <F8 Ctrl-o> See Old, Lines, Copy, and End for discussion on the use of vectors and figures for template purposes. <F8 Ctrl-o> allows another method of templating. Pre- viously saved screens of symbols can be called onto the screen with template in much the same fashion as calling old screens. In the template mode the updating of the workspace is disabled. Objects on the template can be manipulated at will and then copied and moved with <F7>. Selecting <F8> <w> or <W> returns updating of workspace. If no name is specified for the template file the present screen or a fresh one may be used to create part of a drawing to be added to the working drawing. Text <F6 t>, <F6 T>, <F6 Ctrl-t>, <F6 Alt-t> <t> allows text to be entered directly on the drawing. <T> justifies the text to the left, right, or cen- ter. <T> also allows ASCII text to be imported and text to be displayed up or down. <Ctrl-t> copies the text and animates it to aid placement as desired. Two sizes of text are available directly for <t>, <T>, and <Ctrl-t>. The size is determined DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-26 by the screen mode. <Alt-t> allows the user to write with bitmapped text fonts. Fonts can be created by the user using all features of the pro- gram and saved with <F7 C>, by specifying a "FNT" ending to the file name. A very wide variety of text sizes and forms can be created quickly and easily with <F1 z> and <F7> <c>, <S>, and <M>. Text Scrolling <F6 T L>, <F6 T R>, <F6 T C> When entering text it is possible to have the entire screen scroll. This is useful for slide show macros, but not of much use for general drawing. Time <Alt-t> the DOS time can be displayed on the screen at a specified location. Some operations may capture the time into the drawing. This is intended primarily for use in macros that are set to run continuously in a store or at a show where it might be nice to keep the views informed of the time. (see also Date) Translation Macro files consist of a key stroke code followed by | (vertical bar) followed by the number of repetitions. While MaCRo files can be edited with most word processors it is a little tricky because key stroke codes are difficult to read and interpret. KD-TRANS.EXE is provided to translate a MaCRo file into a TeXT file where the key stroke codes are replaced with the actual name of the key, such as "RIGHT" for right cursor key. The resulting TeXT file is easily edited. Use KD- TRANS.EXE to take the TeXT file and translate it back into a MaCRo file. TeXT files are much larger than MaCRo files. KEYTBL.DAT is used by KD-TRANS. Up <F6 T u> Runs text up vertically from the cur- rent cursor position. Update , Updates the appropriate workspace with the current screen (see Workspace). Beware that updates to screen 1 and updates to screen two, no matter what screen you are currently DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-27 in. This means that the previous contents of the screen will be lost. Update Frequency is set in the Status screen and determines how often the workspace will be automat- ically written to. If the update frequency is set to zero the use of workspaces is disabled. Disab- ling the workspace is ideal for slide show macros. VCT Vectors-see Lines. Video <F1 v>, <F1 V>, <F1 Ctrl-v> A reversed video image is produced. Useful in printing certain screens. The following table indicates how the col- ors are switched. <v> <V> <Ctrl-v> 0 becomes 3 0 becomes 1 0 becomes 2 1 becomes 2 1 becomes 0 1 becomes 3 2 becomes 1 2 becomes 3 2 becomes 0 3 becomes 0 3 becomes 2 3 becomes 1 Visual Horizon <Alt-v> Sets the lowest point on the screen that the cursor can be moved. This is most useful during animation. The animated object can be made to disappear behind a screen object or rise up from behind the horizon. Visual Layer When using layers only one is active but many can be visual, ie can be seen while draw- ing on the active layer. The visual layer consists of all of the visual layers combined into one and resides in SCreen 2. When layers are on Screen 2 is laid over SCreen 1. Width <w> The width for lines, dots, boxes, and circles can be set to any number of pixels from 1 to 32. The width can be set greater than 32, but it won't be properly used by lines, but will be used by circles and rectangles. DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-28 Workspace <F8 w>, <F8 W> Two separate workspaces are available to save screens while working (see Update). <w> corresponds to screen #1 and <W> corresponds to screen #2. The workspace has sev- eral uses. Originally it was added to retain the drawing in the event of program crash and while that is no longer a concern it can be useful in the event of a power failure. The workspace can also be used as temporary storage. This would let you back up in the event of a change of mind or let you preform multiple operations on a single screen. The workspace is stored on the drive specified in the configuration/status screen. The program will periodically save to the workspace depending on the update frequency. The update can be forced at any time from the Cursor Mode with pdate to take the screen you are looking at and save it as Screen 1 and pdate to take the visual screen and save it to Screen 2. WRKSPC1.SCN corresponds to Screen 1, while WRKSPC2.SCN corresponds to Screen 2. XOR <F1 Alt-v> The entire screen can be XORed with a number from 1 to 255. An XOR of 255 produces a reverse video image (see Video). The program will assign a random number to use or the user may select any value between 1 and 255. Zoom <F1 z>, <F1 Z>, <F6 o>, <F6 O> Sizes of objects can be changed in three different ways. <F1 z> is used to either enlarge or shrink a defined object. <F1 Z> will reduce the entire screen by any amount or expand the top left corner of the screen. Screen scaling is changed accordingly, if the screen is set to 1 or 2, but it will leave the present scale when used in Screen F7. <F6 O>, <o> will allow a vector to be sized to fit the drawing or as desired (see Old and Line). All three use the same convention of scaling. A number greater than one will shrink the object or screen. For example a factor of two will cut the object in half. A number less than one will enlarge objects. Figure 6 shows the use of <Z>oom. The main drawing was first DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-29 completed, then zoomed down a factor of 4, and placed back on the screen to produce the painting on the fireplace. Zoom Factor <F1 z>, <F1 Z>, <F1 Alt-z>, <F6 o>, <F6 O> normally you are asked to enter the scale factor when zooming. By selecting the </> or <Space Bar> or second mouse button you can specify the zoom factor instead of the scale factor. A zoom factor greater than 1 enlarges the object or screen, while a zoom factor less then 1 shrinks the screen or object. For example a zoom factor of 2 would double the size of the object. Zoom Print <F8 P>, <F8 Ctrl-p>, <Ctrl-p> prints partial screens to a printer. prints the entire screen to the printer. Printing is done by charac- ters and not graphics so virtually any printer can be used, provided a printer table is first created for that printer. The print size is set before printing to a number between 1 and 41. Beware that the printed result can be very large. Start with low numbers and work your way up. This is very useful for printing banners and the like. DEFINITIONS & INFO 9-30