Monster Media 1996 #15

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≡≡ Printer Plotting (PRNPLOT) Introduction PRNPLOT Plotting Utility ---------------------------- PRNPLOT.EXE is a program that can produce high quality bitmap plots in three of the most common formats: PCL (laser and H-P DeskJet type printers) ESC/P (LQ type dot matrix and inkjet printers) PCX (Paintbrush or word processors) Laser and Hewlett-Packard DeskJet printers use H-P's PCL language (Printer Control Language). PRNPLOT can convert LASI drawings directly into PCL, either as a file, or as a direct drive for a printer from one of a personal computer's parallel ports. PRNPLOT can make both B&W and color prints in PCL. Dot matrix and just about every other inkjet printer that is not from Hewlett-Packard use Epson's ESC/P (Epson Standard Code) or the enhanced ESC/P2 language. The PRNPLOT can convert LASI drawings directly into ESC/P, either as a file, or as a direct drive for a printer from one of a personal computer's parallel ports. PRNPLOT can make B&W and color prints in ESC/P. PRNPLOT supports 360dpi resolution and can also compress the print data into RLE (Run Length Encoded) format. PRNPLOT can produce high quality plots in the common PCX format (originated by ZSoft Corp). PCX is commonly used by many programs that deal with bitmapped images, including the version of Paintbrush that comes with Windows. PCX format can be used by most word processors to insert pictures into written text. It is also a format that is commonly translated into fax formats. Presently PCX is only generated in B&W. This version of PRNPLOT.EXE works with LASI 5.1 drawings that use 32-bit data. It will also use extended memory for drawings containing a large number of objects, and can be called by the LASI's System Mode PLOT command without being limited by conventional memory. PRNPLOT reads BP5 and CL5 internal files directly from the drawing directory. You must be logged into the drawing directory of the cell to be plotted. PRNPLOT remembers what you did last. It keeps the name of the last cell plotted and the name of the last configuration file in the PRNPLOT.SET file. When PRNPLOT starts it comes up with the previous parameters, at that point you can change anything, and the program will try to be "smart" and readjust other parameters. PRNPLOT keeps the setup Page 1 parameters in the PRNPLOT.SET file. The parameters in setup Page 2 are placed in the Configure File. Important: It is not guaranteed that future versions of any plotting programs will have the same SET file or configure file format. If you see obvious errors in the setup values, just erase the old SET or configure file, run the program again, and modify the default values. Running PRNPLOT There are 3 ways to run PRNPLOT: 1. Run by typing "prnplot". This reads in previous parameters including the cell's name and the configuration file. 2. Run by typing "prnplot cellname", where "cellname" is the cell that you want to plot. The plot will be fitted to the full size of the cell. 3. Run by typing "prnplot cellname x-center y-center width layers", where "x-center" and "y-center" are the coordinates of where you want the plot to be centered, and "width" is the horizontal width of the plot window (all in physical units). "Layers" is the text string used to tell PRNPLOT which layers to draw. It is the same as the LASI drawing program uses to set the VIEW layers when the Layer Table is not used. (Read the VIEW command in the main LASI help text for the notation.) This is how LASI passes the drawing window and the layers to be plotted when the PLOT button is pushed in the LASI System Mode menu. The LASI drawing program generates this text string even if the Layer Table is being used. If this string is typed on the DOS command line and it contains spaces, it must be enclosed in double quotes. Page 1 - Plot Control When you start PRNPLOT it comes up in Page 1, the Plot Control page. Before you plot you must set parameters on pages 1 and 2. On Page 1 set the following: ■ Name of the Cell to be plotted. ■ Configure File Name. The program will start with generic defaults for the parameters. To keep your own parameters, you should first enter a file name. This can be any file name such as "PLOT1.PCF". If the configuration file is new, the present parameters become the parameters of the new file. If the file was previously written, the file parameters replace the present parameters. The configuration file is only written when you plot or if you exit the program. ■ Plot File Name or Printer. The plot file name can be any DOS file name, but should have the extension such as ".PCL" to indicate the type of file. To print directly to a printer, enter "LPT1, LPT2, LPT3 or PRN". Entering LPT1 sends data to parallel port 1, etc. "PRN" is equivalent to "LPT1", the first printer port. ■ Plot Windows. These the boundaries of the plotting area and are usually calculated, but can be manually changed. These will be adjusted to the cell being plotted if ALT-F or "Fit" is pressed. ■ (Plot) Size. The maximum size (in multiples of the physical size) of the plot will be listed in the "Messages" box. This is the size that will barely fit on the printed area. You can make the size smaller and up to 2 times larger by entering the Plot Size. The Plot Size usually will be set to some convenient size smaller than the maximum size, because some printers will clip the edges of the printing area. ■ (Plot) Rotate (PCL,ESC). Set this to "Y" if you want to rotate the drawing 90 deg. The plot is normally made in "portrait" orientation. If you set this to "Y", plotting will be done in "landscape" orientation. To better fit a drawing that is taller than it is wide on a 8.5"x 11" sheet of paper, you might want to rotate. Note that the Maximum Scale will be different. ■ (Plot) Rotate (PCX). Set this to "N" if you don't want to rotate the drawing. Drawings will normally be made in "portrait" orientation, or just as viewed on the screen. Enter "L" or "R" to rotate 90 deg counter-clockwise or clockwise respectively. Note that the Maximum Scale will be different if rotated. If you change a cellname or if you rotate and you want to make an overall plot, you should do a "Fit" on the cell after you set the Rotate switch. ■ Pause for Messages. If set to "Y", PRNPLOT will pause and wait for a key to be pressed if it gives you any messages. If this is set to "N" the message will be flashed for about a second, and then the program will continue. Page 2 - Plot Parameters Press ALT-P or click "Param" to go to Page 2, the Plot Parameters Page, and set the following: ■ Format (PCL,ESC,PCX). This sets the output format. If you change this parameter, the page redraws and the other parameters may change. ■ Layers to Draw. This is the layer numbers using the dash and space notation. Example: "1-10 20" will print layers 1 through 10 and layer 20. ■ Dots/Inch (PCL). This is 75, 150 or 300 standard laser printer values. ■ Dots/Inch (ESC). This is 90, 180 or 360. 90 uses 90dpi horizontally, 180dpi vertically, and changes the fill and dash pattern aspect ratio, but is fastest. 180 will use 180dpi both vertically and horizontally. 360 switches to high resolution raster scan mode, which is slowest but has the best resolution. 360dpi should normally be used with newer dot matrix and inkjet printers. Note: For 90dpi and 180dpi PRNPLOT uses the bit image code "ESC*" that has been used on most 24-pin dot matrix printers for some time. It uses the new "ESC." raster code for 360dpi printing. It is possible that some old printers may not use the new "ESC." raster code and not print at 360dpi. Check your printer manual if PRNPLOT doesn't print correctly. ■ Dots/Inch (PCX). This can also be set to any integer 60-360. Set this to 200 for drawings to be faxed. When you set this to some number you will find that the PCX raster changes not only resolution but its dimensions when read by a drawing program (Windows's Paintbrush for example). PCX files are generally treated as just a bitmap of pixels, so using a lower DPI causes a smaller coarser image to be made. ■ Resolution. Any object smaller than (drawing width)/ (resolution) is not drawn. Limiting the resolution lets you make faster plots by omitting small details, or prevents the plot from being filled in with indistinguishable small details. ■ Special Units/Inch. If your drawing is not in "um" or "mil" you can set the number to use in the drawing. The special units will be used to calculate the plot area and scales. ■ Colors (PCL). This depends on your printer. The present LaserJets use one color (black, excluding the expensive color ones). DeskJets can use 1,3 or 4 colors (color planes). All Deskjets can print in B&W using a single black cartridge. If you want B&W only, set this to 1. If want color and your printer uses a single color cartridge (HP500C,540,600) set this to 3. If your printer has both a B&W and a color cartridge (HP550C,560C,660C,850,855C) set this to 4. ■ Colors (ESC). This depends on your printer. B&W printers use 1 color, while color printers use 4 colors (color planes). All color printers can print in B&W. If you want B&W only, set this to 1. If want color and your printer has a color cartridge set this to 4. ■ Color Codes (PCL,ESC). This allows you to change the composition of the colors that are printed in halftone. You can redefine colors by entering one or more code numbers separated by commas. The code number is a bit pattern and is determined as follows: color code#= 256*index+128*y+64*m+32*c+16*b+8*Y+4*M+2*C+1*B where B,C,M,Y,b,c,m,y are 1 or 0 and represent the primary and secondary dots of black, cyan, magenta and yellow, and "index" is the usual color index number 0-15, i.e. 0=black,1=blue, ... up to bright white=15. LASI orange is defined as color index 5. This code number is the same as the PCLHCPY.COM or ESCHCPY.COM hardcopy programs use. ■ Page Left in Inches. This is the horizontal distance from the printers printing origin to the left boundary of where you want the plot area to start on the paper. ■ Page Top in Inches. This is the vertical distance from the printers printing origin to the top boundary of where you want the plot area to start on the paper. ■ Page Right in Inches. This is the horizontal distance from the printers printing origin to the right boundary of where you want the plot area to end on the paper. ■ Page Bottom in Inches. This is vertical distance from the printers printing origin to the bottom boundary of where you want the plot area to end on the paper. Notes: 1. When setting the above boundaries, values are rounded to the nearest 1/20 inch. 2. The scaling of the plot will be determined by the page boundaries and will be indicated by the Maximum Size on the first setup page. ■ Dash Spacing in mils. Dashed lines are printed in patterns of 8 dots. The spacing values are limited to integral multiples of the pattern which depends on the DPI of the printer. ■ Fill Spacing in mils. This is similar to dash spacing. PRNPLOT takes its colors and dash and fill patterns from LASI itself (the CONSTS5.DBD file). There is no need to configure each layer when you make plots. What you see in LASI is what you get plotted, except that PRNPLOT can change the spacing of patterns to take advantage of the better resolution that printers offer. ■ Ref Grid in Phys Units. PRNPLOT can print a dotted reference grid on the plot. If you use the grid, set the spacing to the desired size in physical units. ■ Text Spacing Ratio. This is the space between characters/character field size ratio for any text that will be draw. Set this to 0 to 1, with 0.2 about right. ■ Use Halftone Colors (PCL,ESC). PRNPLOT can make halftone colors by printing a group of four dots (2x2) of different colors. For example, orange is made by printing 2 magenta dots and 4 yellow dots. Using halftone effectively reduces the resolution of your print since it doubles the dots. Only printing at 150dpi and 300dpi is halftone permitted. ■ Dark Background (PCX). A PCX file is like a photograph; you can make a reverse print or negative. The background will usually be white (white paper), but for some uses you might want black as the background with white lines. ■ Add Ref Grid. You can turn the reference grid on and off by setting Add Reference Grid to "Y" or "N". ■ Add Path Center Line. If you want to have Path Center Lines drawn, answer "Y" that question. Paths will be drawn with a double dashed line along their center. ■ Plot Without Fills. This lets you turn off the fills that might be set in the drawing so that you can make quick unobstructed plots without going back to the drawing to remove the fills. ■ Use RLE Comp(ression) (ESC). This turns on the data compressor. For most drawings done using LASI, there are a large number of repeated pixels. Using this will greatly reduce the amount of data in a file or sent to the printer. Your printer may however not support compression. ■ Plot Layers Descending. Set this to "Y" if you want to plot layers in the order 64 to 1. Use this only if you are plotting in color and have solid fills (type 13). On a solid fill, PRNPLOT overwrites previous layers so that the last solid fill color is finally printed. If printing in B&W this switch has no effect. Making a Plot When you are ready to plot, press ALT-G or click "Go". The display will change to the Plot Area and Status display where you can watch the progress of the plotting. When plotting is done or aborted, a message will appear and the program will go back to the Plot Control Page. Make another plot or exit the program by pressing ALT-Q or clicking "Quit". As PRNPLOT runs, it divides the plotted drawing area into many small bands. The percentage done is indicated. If a file is being made, the current size of the file will be indicated. Notes: 1. At 300,360,180 or even 150dpi, particularly in color, you will make large files. You should erase these when done to keep from filling up your hard disk. 2. If you run PRNPLOT on a networked printer, you may have difficulty directly driving the printer. This is because PRNPLOT uses direct printer (int17) BIOS calls to transfer characters as quickly as possible. Try making a print file instead, and copying the file to the printer with the DOS command line: "copy filename printer /b". Other Uses PRNPLOT is a precision plotting program, limited only by the precision of your printer. In addition to making nice pictures for checking layouts or inserting in reports, you can use LASI and this program to make patterns for printed circuit boards. At 300dpi, the resolution is about 3.3 mils, at 360dpi, the resolution is about 3 mils, good enough for many quick PC board applications. PCX has many uses. Most of these are as a convenient format for other drawing systems. Windows Paintbrush can import and export PCX directly, and most word processors can read PCX. Most FAX programs will either transmit PCX directly or can be easily converted. PRNPLOT is primarily intended to produce high quality faxes of LASI drawings for transmission to other sites. This is a precision plotting program and should produce faxes that are as accurate as the fax machine used to receive the picture. HP-GL Plotting (PGLPLOT) Introduction PGLPLOT Plotting Utility -------------------------- LASI drawings can be quite large and complex. It is usually necessary to produce large plots to examine the drawings for errors, or maybe just for office decoration. The most commonly used plotting language is Hewlett- Packard's HP-GL (Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language), which is used by all H-P and many other makes of plotters. Using the PGLPLOT.EXE program, LASI drawings can be converted directly into HP-GL, either as a file, or as a direct drive for a plotter from one of the personal computer's serial ports. This is a new version of PGLPLOT.EXE that works with LASI 5.1 drawings that use 32-bit data. It will also use extended memory for drawings containing a large number of objects, and can be called by the LASI's System Mode PLOT command without being limited by conventional memory. PGLPLOT reads BP5 and CL5 internal files in the drawing directory. You must be logged into the drawing directory of the cell to be plotted. PGLPLOT remembers what you did last. It keeps the name of the last cell plotted and the name of the last configuration file in the PGLPLOT.SET file. When PGLPLOT starts it comes up with the previous parameters, at that point you can change anything, and the program will try to be "smart" and readjust other parameters. PGLPLOT keeps the setup Page 1 parameters in the PGLPLOT.SET file. The parameters in setup Pages 2-5 are placed in the Configure File. Important: It is not guaranteed that future versions of any plotting programs will have the same SET or configure file format. If you see obvious errors in the setup values, just erase the old SET or configure file, run the program again, and modify the default values. Running PGLPLOT There are 3 ways to run PGLPLOT: 1. Run by typing "pglplot". This reads in previous parameters including the cell's name and the configuration file. 2. Run by typing "pglplot cellname", where "cellname" is the cell that you want to plot. The plot will be fitted to the full size of the cell. 3. Run by typing "pglplot cellname x-center y-center width layers", where "x-center" and "y-center" are the coordinates of where you want the plot to be centered, and "width" is the horizontal width of the plot window (all in physical units). "Layers" is the text string used to tell PGLPLOT which layers to draw. It is the same as the LASI drawing program uses to set the VIEW layers when the Layer Table is not used. (Read the VIEW command in the main LASI help text for the notation.) The LASI drawing program generates this text string even if the Layer Table is being used. If this string is typed on the DOS command line and it contains spaces, it must be enclosed in double quotes. This is how LASI passes the drawing window and the layers to be plotted when the PLOT button is pushed in the LASI System Mode menu. Page 1 - Plot Control When you start PGCLPLOT it comes up in Page 1, the Plot Control page. Before you plot you must set parameters on pages 1-5. On Page 1 set the following: ■ Name of the Cell to be plotted. ■ Name of Configure File Name. The program will start with generic defaults for the parameters. To keep your own parameters, you should first enter a file name. This can be any filename such as "PGL.PCF". If the configuration file is new, the present parameters become the parameters of the new file. If the file was previously written, the file parameters replace the present parameters. The configuration file is only written when you plot or if you exit the program. ■ Name of Plot File to Make. If you are not driving a plotter directly, enter the name of the plot file. The plot file name can be any DOS file name, but should have the extension ".PGL" to indicate the type of file. ■ Plot Windows. These the boundaries of the plotting area and are usually calculated, but can be manually changed. These will be adjusted to the cell being plotted if ALT-F is pressed or "Fit" is clicked. ■ (Plot) Size. The maximum size (in multiples of the physical size) of the plot will be listed in the "Messages" box. This is the size that will barely fit on the printed area. You can make the size smaller and up to 2 times larger by entering the Plot Size. The Plot Size usually will be set to some convenient size smaller than the maximum size, because some printers will clip the edges of the printing area. ■ (Plot) Rotate. The rotated maximum size will also be displayed in the Messages box. If rotating gives a better fit to your drawing, set this to "Y". Hint: You might want to give a size slightly smaller than the maximum size indicated. This may prevent some part of a drawing being cut off due to aspect ratio differences between your paper and the area to be drawn. Page 2 - Plot Parameters Press ALT-P or click "Param" to go to Page 2, the Plot Parameters Page, and set the following: ■ Use Port or Make File. If you want to drive a plotter directly from a serial port, set the Plot or File question to "P", else set it to "F". ■ Layers to Draw. Set the Layers that you want to draw by entering them individually separated by spaces, or use the "-" notation. For example, "1-5" draws layers from 1 to 5. You should NOT include empty layers, otherwise, PGLPLOT will search these layers and will take a long time to run. ■ Text Spacing Ratio. This is the space between characters/character field size ratio for any text that will be draw. Set this to 0 to 1, with 0.2 about right. ■ Pen Thickness. This is used when you do a SOLID fill on your plot. This sets just how closely a plotter will draw parallel lines to make a solid fill. ■ Use Plotter Poly Mode. If you want to use your plotter's polygon commands set this to "Y". The HP-GL commands PM, EP and FP are available on the better plotters (see your plotter manual). These commands allow you to fill closed polygon areas. If this mode is used, paths will be expanded into a closed polygon area. ■ Draw Path Center Lines. If you want paths to have center lines drawn, answer "Y" that question. Paths will be drawn with a dashed line along their center. ■ Fully Draw Outlined Cells and Cell Outline Pen. Any cells that are displayed in LASI Cell Mode as an outline can be drawn as an outline, or they can expand in full detail. Set this switch to whatever you want. Often drawing only an outline make a drawing much easier to read. You may set the pen to be used for outlines. The outline will have the name of the cell in the lower left corner. ■ Plot Resolution. This is similar to the drawing resolution you can set when using LASI. Any object smaller than (drawing width)/ (resolution) is not drawn. This includes path widths. Paths with width less than the minimum size will be drawn as lines. Setting the resolution lets you make quick plots by preventing small details from being drawn, or simply eliminates drawing of tiny details that would be useless. ■ Special Units. If your drawing is not in "um" or "mil" you can set the number of any UNITS PER INCH to use in the drawing. The name of your units (read from LASI's CONSTS5.DBD) will be added to the drawing window displayed, and the special units will be used to calculate the plot area and scales. ■ Pen Velocity. If you are using a plotter, set this fast enough to reduce plotting time, but slow enough to ink properly. ■ Pause for Messages. If set to "Y", PGLPLOT will pause and wait for a key to be pressed if it gives you any messages. If this is set to "N" the message will be flashed for about a second, and then the program will continue. Page 3 - Paper Setup Press ALT-A or click "pAper" to go to Page 3, the Paper Setup Page, and set the following: ■ Plotter Basic Step Unit. The plotter basic step unit may be changed, but for HP plotters it is always .00098 inches per step. Consult your plotter manual. ■ Plot Origin. If your plotter has a center or lower-left (bottom-left) hardware origin, set the origin question to "C" or "L" . Most small plotters have a lower-left origin, while larger plotters use a center origin. Read your plotter manual. ■ Dash and Fill Spacings. If you use dashed lines or fills, set the spacing to something that will look good on the finished plot. This depends on the size of the plot. For a small "A" size plot, use close spacing; on larger plot you can use larger spacing to save plotting time and pen ink. ■ Paper Size. Set this to standard paper sizes "A" to "E", depending on just what your plotter can use. Setting this size sets the border limits for plotting. When you change the paper size, the plot area borders change to the dimensions of that size paper. ■ Paper Borders. Set the borders that the plotter can't use, i.e. roller track, etc. Read your plotter manual for this distance. The size of your paper less these borders is the useful size of your paper. ■ Plot Area Boundaries. Set the location and size of the plotting area on the paper by specifying the left, bottom, right and top boundaries. If you are clever, you can use this to make multiple drawings on a single sheet of paper. Note: If "Overflow!" appears after a plotting area edge, the value will have exceeded +/-32767 plotter units, and will be clipped to that value. Page 4 - Port Setup Press ALT-O or click "pOrt" to go to Page 4, the Port Setup Page. To drive a plotter directly, the plotter must be connected to one of the computer's serial ports, COM1, COM2, COM3 or COM4. You only need to set these parameters if you are using PGLPLOT to drive a plotter directly: ■ Baud Rate, etc. Set the baud rate, data bits, stop bits and parity to whatever works with your hardware. Since a plotter is usually pretty slow, a high baud rate probably isn't needed. ■ Hardware or Xon/Xoff Handshake Parameters. Set as follows: If you use the hardware handshake to keep the plotter buffer from being overflowed by plotting data, you will be asked if you want to use the DSR (data set ready) line or the CTS (clear to send) line to detect that the plotter buffer is full. On an AT type of PC these lines are pins 6 and 8 respectively on a 9-pin serial port. The Hewlett-Packard plotters normally indicate a full buffer by dropping the DTR (pin 20 on the 25-pin RS-232 connector) line. This line can be connected to either CTS or DSR. To make the port work, you will usually have to turn on the other line by connecting it to the RTS (request to send) line from the port (pin 7 on a 9-pin and pin 4 on a 25-pin), or to any other line that is constantly high. If you use the Xon/Xoff handshake, some ports will require you to turn on the CTS, DSR, or both CTS and DSR lines, otherwise, the port will not receive characters. If sending does not pause when the plotter buffer is full, indicated by the "Waiting" sign, this might be happening. Data will still be sent slowly because the port will timeout after a second or so. To fix this, connect CTS and DSR to any line that is constantly high. If you use either hardware or Xon/Xoff handshaking, the plotter needs to be sent certain control codes (or instructions). You need to consult your plotter manual for their form and what they do. The program default codes should work properly for most situations. To write in codes simply type the code literally. "ESC" will be translated into 1B(hex) in the output. You can include more that one code on a line and codes can be split over lines. Note: PGLPLOT sends the "ESC.R" (reset) code automatically whenever it starts drawing. It also sends "ESC.K" (abort) if the drawing is aborted. You don't need to include these codes. Page 5 - Layer Setup Press ALT-L or click "Layer" to go to Page 5, the Layer Setup Page Each layer has three attributes, Pen, Dash and Fill. You may assign attributes randomly. To do so, click the mouse or use the keys to go to the Layer box at the bottom of the page. When you set a layer, the attributes for that layer are read into the Pen, Dash and Fill boxes. You can change any attribute and it will be rewritten in the display. ■ Assign a pen to a layer. When assigning a pen note that you may enter one of 8 different pens. Your plotter might not have that many, so assign them accordingly. ■ Assign a Dash type to a layer. The types are numbered 0-6 which correspond to the line types described in the H-P plotter manual that usually comes with a plotter. If a line is to be drawn solid, set the layer's Dash attribute to "-". ■ Assign a Fill to be used on a layer. Fills are presently left, right, horizontal, vertical crosshatches, solid and nothing (indicated by "L", "R", "H", "V", "S" and "-" respectively). Boxes will always be filled, but you MUST use the plotter's polygon mode to fill polygon areas. If a layer has had its Fill set as above, and a line type has also been set, the line type is used as the fill line type. The perimeter of a filled area is drawn solid and not with the line type set for that layer. The spacing of the dashes and fill lines will be calculated from the spacing parameters set on Page 3. Making a Plot When you are ready to plot, press ALT-G or click "Go". The display will change to the Plot Area/Plot Status display where you can watch the progress of the plotting. When plotting is done or aborted, a message will appear and the program will go back to the Plot Control Page. Make another plot or exit the program by pressing ALT-Q or clicking "Quit". If you are driving a plotter directly, the Status will tell you what is happening: "Idle" means that data is not currently available to be sent. "Sending" means that data is being sent to the plotter. "Waiting" means that the plotter buffer is full. "Holding" means that you pressed SPACE and sending is suspended until the space bar is pressed again. Other Uses Since the plot file that PGLPLOT makes is in standard HP-GL language. The file can be changed to other formats using a converter such as HIJAAK or PRINTGL. HP-GL can also be converted directly by WordPerfect 5.1 or 6.0 into figures that can be inserted into WordPerfect (or other DTP) written text. Therefore, drawings made by LASI can be placed directly into reports, theses, dissertations, etc. that are written using any of the common word processors that can do graphics conversion from HP-GL. HP-GL can also be converted into LaserJet format to print high quality diagrams. HP-GL can be converted into PCX or TIFF formats. From these formats, conversion to a fax format is usually possible so that you can send high quality fax diagrams using any of the fax/modems on the market. Parameter Line Editor Parameter Line Editor All programs now use a simple line editor that resembles the editor used with Windows. The editor operates as follows: ■ To move from parameter to parameter, press the UP/DOWN ARROW keys, (SHIFT)TAB, or click the mouse on a parameter. ■ Press PGUP/PGDN to move to the first or last parameter. ■ Press LEFT/RIGHT ARROW to move the text cursor left or right. ■ Press HOME/END to move the cursor to the beginning or end of a line. ■ Press BACKSPACE to erase a character to the left of the cursor. ■ Press DELETE to erase the character to the right of the cursor. ■ Press CTRL-BACKSPACE to completely erase a text line. ■ When you first select a parameter, typing any printable character other than SPACE or LEFT/RIGHT ARROW will replace the whole text line. ■ Press ENTER to return to the main page. ■ If you make a mistake press ESC to restore the original text.