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1995-03-16
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January 20th, 1992
Ditek International
2800 John St. Unit 15
Markham, Ontario
L3R 0E2
CANADA
Introduction
============
These four disks contain the DEMO version of DynaCADD. In this
version all save and export related functions have been disabled.
Introduction To DynaCADD
========================
DynaCADD is a complete, integrated, CADD package. It is very powerful
and complex, however, its graphical interface makes it much easier to
use than many other CADD programs.
For assistance feel free to contact our Technical Support Department.
Telephone (416) 479-1991 or Fax (416) 479-1882.
We assume that you have a working knowledge of your computer system and
mouse. If you have any questions relating to these, please refer to
the respective manual supplied with your computer. It is also
important that you understand the use of drawers (sub-directories),
paths, drives and devices.
Hardware Requirements
=====================
DynaCADD requires at minimum an Amiga with 1 Mb of RAM and a hard
drive, or two floppy drives, to operate properly.
Since a screen resolution of at least 640 by 400 is needed, we strongly
recommend either the Commodore 2320 de-interlacer, the MicroWay Flicker
Fixer, or the ICD Flicker Free Video for use with DynaCADD on machines
that don't have these capabilities built in.
Keyboard Conventions
====================
Keys are noted in square brackets, for example:
[Enter] [Tab] [,] [;] [Space] [Esc] [Ctrl-A]
When you see any of the above it means to press the particular key, or,
the combination of keys together.
Semicolon [;] : Used frequently in DynaCADD commands to indicate where
a selection is complete and command execution should continue.
Pressing [;] is equivalent to pressing the right mouse button.
Comma [,] : Shown on the lower icon pad, the comma command is used to
separate data in a command. Do not confuse it with the semicolon.
Alternate [Alt] : Most menu commands can be activated by pressing
either [Alt] or [Amiga] key with another key. The key is shown beside
the menu option with an Amiga symbol. For example: [Alt-S] will save
the current part and drawing.
Control [Ctrl] : You can create your own keyboard macro commands and
assign them to Control key combinations.
Function keys: The function keys have several commonly used [F1] to
[F10] commands preüassigned to them. These assignments cannot be
changed.
Case is not important when you enter commands or layer names.
Everything typed as a command is converted automatically to uppercase.
Mouse Conventions
=================
Click : Press the mouse button once. Unless otherwise noted, this
command refers to the left mouse button. Clicking the right mouse
button is equivalent to pressing [;], most often used to indicate that
the selection process is complete. Click is often used to enter a
command and to select an entity or location.
Double click : Click the left mouse button twice in quick succession.
Drag : Press and hold the left mouse button while you move the mouse.
This "grabs" an object which is moved with the pointer. Release the
mouse button to let go of the object at the new location.
Select : Choosing an option or clicking on a button to turn the feature
on. Many dialog box buttons are toggles; that is if you click them
once, select them, they are turned on. A second click turns them off.
In the File Selector you can click on a file name and then click on OK
to select it, or, you can double click on the file name to achieve the
same result.
The mouse cursor is usually referred to as the "Pointer". Normally it
is in the form of an arrow. However it may also be in the shape of a
clock, indicating that the program is busy.
Editing Dialog Box Text
=======================
In DynaCADD there are several dialogs where text is entered or edited.
DynaCADD uses standard Intuition string gadget editing conventions:
[Right-Amiga X] Clears the entry.
[Right-Amiga Q] Performs an undo on edited text.
[Backspace] Erases the character to the left of the cursor.
[Delete] Erases the character to the right of the cursor.
[Arrow keys] Move the cursor in the indicated direction.
[Enter] Accepts the entry and closes the dialog box.
The Text Editor
===============
The text editor is a basic utility in which you can enter and edit text
for several commands. The maximum size of text allowed is 800
characters or roughly one window. The keys used in the text editor for
editing are:
[Backspace] Erases the character to the left of the cursor.
[Delete] Erases the character to the right of the cursor.
[Up arrow] Moves the cursor to the end of the previous line.
[Down arrow] Moves the cursor to the start of the next line.
[Left arrow] Moves the cursor one character to the left.
[Right arrow] Moves the cursor one character to the right.
[Enter] Inserts a carriage return, ends the line and moves the cursor
to the start of the line below.
[Esc] Cancels the editing and returns to the drawing.
[Ctrl-RETURN] Accepts the entry and closes the text editor.
[Help] Displays help and information about the text editor.
%%nnn : This allows you to enter special characters which cannot be
typed directly or easily through the keyboard. Type %% followed by the
three digit number of the special character. The character number must
be padded with zeros and have a value between 1 and 255. For example:
the hundered and thirty-fourth character of a font is inserted by
typing %%134.
The following special characters used in dimensioning can be entered
using a short hand form:
diameter sign %%c
degree sign %%d
plus/minus sign %%p
Translations
============
DynaCADD has the ability to translate other CADD formats into DynaCADD:
DXF: DXF files, used in AutoCAD and several other CAD programs, can be
read in using the File Transfer menu selection.
DEF: DEF is DynaCADD's own ASCII file format for use with other
programs. DEF files can be read in by using the File Transfer menu
selection.
Note: DXF/DEF export is available in the full version of DynaCADD.
Loading DynaCADD
================
Before loading, DynaCADD needs to be fully installed. Run the
DynaCADD InstallHD utility on disk "DynaCADD 1" to do this.
To load DynaCADD
1. Locate the DynaCADD drawer on your hard disk and open it.
2. Double click on the DynaCADD icon. This will run DynaCADD and
bring you to the DynaCADD system level.
3. Select Activate Part. Choose a part (.PRT) in the Parts
sub-directory.
4. Select Activate Drawing. Choose a drawing (.DWG).
5. Click on OK. This will now bring you into the CADD level.
The first time that you run DynaCADD, you enter the program at the
System level. After that, DynaCADD keeps track of where you left off
the last time a drawing was saved. When DynaCADD is loaded again a
dialog box appears. You can choose to return to the previous session
by clicking on AUTO or start at the System level by clicking on No.
Usage Notes
===========
o CLI/Shell users need to use Stack 16384 before running DynaCADD.
o Keyboard menu alternates use either [Alt] or [Amiga] key with the
respective letter.
o In order for the menus to drop down the mouse pointer needs to be
in the menu bar area, otherwise the right-mouse button is used by
DynaCADD for command completion.
Additions to 2.04
=================
1. Export to Caligari: Caligari Broadcast and Caligari 2 are
supported.
2. PostScript Line Weights dialog: It is now possible to specify
the line thickness for each pen color and weight. Click on the
"Weights" button in the PostScript dialog to see this new dialog.
After making changes, be sure to save the drawing to keep them.
3. Full Crosshairs menu option: This new menu item controls the
size of the drawing and selection cross hairs.
4. Plotting has been retested. As a result of this, we have
discovered the following: If you are using RTS/CTS handshaking
within DynaCADD, your system's Serial Preferences must also be
set to RTS/CTS handshaking. If you are using XON/XOFF handshaking
within DynaCADD, then your system's Serial Preferences must also
be set to XON/XOFF.
5. Fast printing mode under Amiga OS 2.04: Some printers do not
support the fast mode capabilities of Amiga OS 2.04. If your
printer output is garbage, turn fast mode off via the DynaCADD
Preferences dialog.
Additions to 2.00
=================
********************** IMPORTANT *************************
**** Please convert all your old files into DEF format ****
**** in order to transfer them into this new version!! ****
************************************************************
1. The 3-D math has been rewritten using improved algorithms.
As such, old 3-D planar entities converted over using DEF 2.0
may be improperly rotated. We do apologize for this but felt
it was preferable to change now than at a future date, given
the sudden rise in the use of the 3-D mode. To properly align
the GCPs, DEF in the part from the previous version and save it
out. Now create a new 3-D part, merge in the previous part
and recreate your views.
2. A new entity type (3-D Face/Solid) has been added. All
appropriate selection and transformation commands have
been upgraded to work with the new entity type. Plotting,
Printing and PostScript output have also been upgraded.
3. Entity Snap: End has been updated to allow snapping to
2-D solid corners and 3-D face corners.
4. Once selected, an entity may be deselected by clicking
the mouse button while the entity selection cursor is
positioned on the entity and the [Shift] key is held down.
5. Hidden line removal has been added. The command icon is
found in the EDITVIEW sub icon pad. Clicking on the
HIDEFACE command will remove the hidden lines from all
selected views.
A new Hidden Line Parameters dialog has been added
to the Set menu.
The options are:
Generate Entities:
Create 2-D lines from the edges of the 3-D Faces after
the hidden portions of the edges have been removed. The
entities are created with the following attributes:
Layer: Active
Weight: #1
Style: Continuous
Color: If inheritance is active the line is
created using the color of the face,
otherwise the active color is used.
Display Entities:
Will display all other entities after the hidden lines
have been generated.
Blended Planes:
If two or more Faces share a common edge and the two
Faces are coplanar, the edge will be removed and the
two Faces blended into one. Note that only the hidden
line is changed, the defining entities remain
unmodified.
Hide Views 1-2-3-4:
Only selected views will have hidden lines removed.
6. DXF import has been upgraded to include the layer color
and style information. A new color transformation dialog
appears during a DXF import requesting the color
transformation preferred. The various transformations
available are:
Dark: Sets color palette to AutoCAD dark background.
Light: Sets color palette to AutoCAD light background,
None: No palette transformation.
In order to set the colors properly without distorting the
colors of the DynaCADD interface, a color translation table
is employed. If no color index translation is desired, use
the "None" option on the transformation dialog.
7. The DXF in translator has been enhanced and improved.
These improvements include:
- Support for 2 1/2-D entities.
- Support for 3-D entities.
- Proper evaluation of $Flatland header variable for 2 1/2-D.
- Proper evalulation of $Fillmode header variable for Trace entities.
- Elevations are supported.
- 3-D Extrusion using 3-D Faces is supported.
- All six AutoCAD text justification modes are supported.
- UCS Tables are converted to DynaCADD GCP's.
- Polyline line bulge factors are now converted to DynaCADD Arcs.
- Translator upgraded to AutoCAD Release 10.
- Insert Block repeat counts are supported.
8. The DXF out translator has also been enhanced and improved.
These improves include:
- Upgraded to compatibility with AutoCAD Release 10
- More detailed DXF Header file.
- Passing of 3-D UCS Table mapped from DynaCADD GCP Table.
- Layer color and style have been added to the Layer Table.
- Bspline and Bézier curve are interpolated using spline fitting.
9. A DXF out 3-D option has been added. When DXF out 3-D has
been selected, all DynaCADD 3-D entities, including the new
3-D face, will be output. Planar entities such as arcs and
text have their coordinate planes converted from DynaCADD
GCP to AutoCAD UCS.
10. DEF export has been upgraded to version 3.00. A quick
summary of enhancements include:
Global Variables:
Version
ColorByLayer
StyleByLayer
WeightByLayer
Mask
Unmask
Viewmask
3-D View Tables
Color Tables
GCP Tables
Image Tables
Layer Tables have been extended to include color, weight
and style information.
Layer Tables output unnamed layers.
Bsplines and Béziers no longer add an extraneous point.
Note: The inclusion of the Version global in DEF 3.00+
files is mandatory and is now required for the
proper importation of DEF.
11. DEF 3.00 documention is in a file called DEF300 in the
DynaCADD drawer on disk "DynaCADD 4".
12. A color PostScript option has been added to the
PostScript parameters dialog. When this button is
selected, color information for each entity is included in
the PostScript file, otherwise a monochromatic file is
generated.
13. A page counter has been added to the set PostScript
parameters dialog. The number of pages (1..99) is
displayed in the page size area of the dialog.
14. When trying to exit DynaCADD or cancel background output,
a dialog has been added requesting confirmation.
15. Inserting figures now uses the inheritance flag to
determine the color and layer information the figure will
use. If inheritance is turned on, the figure will have the
same color and layer as the parent figure had when it was
created, otherwise the figure will be inserted on the
currently active layer using the current color.
16. A new Layer Attributes dialog has been added to provide
quicker access to all layering information. The dialog
is accessed through the Layer menu item found under
the Set menu title.
17. Color, Style and Weight By Layer toggles have been added
in the layer icon pad. When these switches are turned on,
entities are drawn in the color/style/weight associated
with the entity's layer, otherwise the entity is drawn
using the color/style/weight with which it was created.
Plotting, Printing and PostScript routines have also been
modified to work with the new flags.
18. A Transform: Copy icon has been placed in the top icon bar
The icon and help message toggle with the state of the global
flag. Duplicate entities are created when Transform: Copy is
active, while only one set of entities is shown on the icon
when the flag is deactivated. The command to toggle the
Transform: Copy flag is TRANCOPY.
19. The maximum number of rotation copies has been
increased from 360 to 3600.
20. The maximum number of revolution copies has been
increased from 360 to 3600.
21. Coordinate tracking has been extended from 5 to 6 digits
on the left side of the decimal providing a tracking
range of +/- 999999.99999.
22. The TRIMINTOF command has been changed to TRIMCORNR.
The functionality remains the same.
23. A new command TRIMINTOF has been added. This command is
functionally identical to Trim Corner with one exception.
The second entity selected is used only to determine the
intersection location and is not trimmed or modified in
any manner.
24. The POINTFILE command has been moved from under the
CREATE icon submenu to the OUTPUT icon submenu.
25. The Translate command has had an icon submenu added to
it with 3 entries. Move, Copy and Copy Multiple. The
Transform: Copy flag is no longer evaluated for
translations.
26. The TRANMOVE command functions identical to the
TRANSLATE command with the Transform: Copy flag disabled.
27. The TRANCOPY command functions identical to the
TRANSLATE command with the Transform: Copy flag enabled.
28. The TRANMCOPY flag is similar to the TRANCOPY command
except the original entities selected to be copied are not
deselected once the translation is performed. The first
translation location (the "from" location) is retained.
To deselect the current group of entities, press the right
mouse button before selecting the second translation
location (the "to" location).
29. The TRANSLATE command now has a Translate with 3-D Faces
option. When the 3-D Faces options (found under the
TRANSLATE icon) is selected, all Translated entities are
joined with 3-D Faces. Faces are created only when copies
are done.
30. The PROJECT command now has a Project with 3-D Faces
option. When the 3-D Faces options (found under the
PROJECT icon) is selected, all projected entities are
joined with 3-D Faces, otherwise projection lines are used.
31. The PROJECT command now honours the "inheritance" flag
when constructing projection lines or 3-D Faces.
32. The REVOLVE command now has a Revolve with 3-D Faces
option. When the 3-D Faces options (found under the
REVOLVE icon) is selected, all revolved entities are
joined with 3-D Faces.
33. The SWEEP command now has a Sweep with 3-D Faces option.
When the 3-D Faces options (found under the SWEEP icon) is
selected, all swept entities are joined with 3-D Faces.
34. A new dialog showing the last active part and drawing
has replaced the old Auto-Start dialog. In addition, an
"Exit" button has been added. This button will exit
DynaCADD and return you to the WorkBench.
35. For users of the Calcomp PCI and 907 format drivers the
following settings must be active on the plotter's
intelligent controller:
# of sync chars: 1
Sync character: 2
End of message: 13
Checksum: disabled
Flow control: XON/XOFF
Note: The Calcomp 907 format plotter must be using an
intelligent controller or rotation of a plot will
generate a plotter logic error.
Serial port configurations for most plot drivers
are as follows:
8 bits / character
Stop bit(s): 1
Parity: None
Baud: computer and plotter must match
Flow Control: XON/XOFF
Exception: Users of the Calcomp 960 Extended driver
must set Flow Control to RTS/CTS
36. 3-D Text can be revolved, swept, projected and copied to
create 3-D Faces.
37. Export of 3-D Faces to rendering packages has been added to
the File Transfer dialog. Imagine, Sculpt, LightWave and
VideoScape are currently supported.
3-D Faces are converted to triangles for Imagine and Sculpt.
Grouped Faces are maintained as an object in Imagine files.
If rendering of an object in LightWave does not quite come
out the way it should, check for surface normals pointing
in the proper direction.
38. And minor bug fixes and enhancements too numerous to list...
Additions to 1.84
=================
Network Support
See the file "Networks" on disk "DynaCADD 4" for details.
New Commands
Since the printing of the DynaCADD manual, four new commands have
been added. For more information on these commands, point to the
appropriate icon and press [Help].
o Under the INSERT CIRCLE command:
- CIRRADLOC has been added.
o Under the INSERT ARC command:
- ARCRADLOC has been added.
o Under the OUTPUT icon:
- POINTFILE has been added.
o Under TRANSFORM:
- ALIGN has been added.
Printer and Plotter Support .. Appendix D
The following new plotter driver has been added:
GRX-400.PLT - Roland GRX-400
The following new printer drivers have been added:
ILBM072.PNT - IFF ILBM 72 DPI
ILBM150.PNT - IFF ILBM 150 DPI
ILBM300.PNT - IFF ILBM 300 DPI
IMG072.PNT - GEM image 72 DPI
IMG300.PNT - GEM image 300 DPI
LASRJETF.PNT - HP LaserJet 300 DPI
LQ-510.PNT - Epson LQ-510
New DEF Commands
The following four new commands have been added to the
DynaCADD Exchange Format (DEF):
Origin_X - set X co-ordinate of page origin
Origin_Y - set Y co-ordinate of page origin
2D_Figure - load a 2-D figure
3D_Figure - load a 3-D figure
Examples:
In the DEF file header:
Origin_X
5.50000000
Origin_Y
4.00000000
In the body of the DEF file
2D_Figure
filename
X location
Y location
X scale
Y scale
rotation
End
3D_Figure
filename
X location
Y location
Z location
X scale
Y scale
Z scale
plane rotation about X axis
plane rotation about Y axis
plane rotation about Z axis
rotation
End
Set buttons in Pen Indexes Dialog
The "Set" buttons are only active during TRANSFORM MODIFY CHAPEN.
They enable selective transformation of pen color, line weight, or
line style depending on their selected states. For example, if the
Set buttons beside pen color and line weight are selected, only the
color and weight attributes will be changed while retaining the
previous line style.
New UNDO Capabilities
You can now UNDO layer, pen color, line style and line weight
changes, as well as other TRANSFORM MODIFY commands.
Command History
It is possible to clear the command history buffer. Press the
[Del] key while the Command History window is visible.
DynaCADD Font Support
=====================
We are very pleased to announce that through an agreement with
AGFA Compugraphic, we have included at NO CHARGE the following
Compugraphic fonts with DynaCADD:
o CG Times, CG Triumvirate, Park Avenue, Revue Light, Brush, Zapf
Chancery, Architecture 1 & 2, Dom Casual and Old English.
We have also included four of our own fonts and over ten hatch styles.
New hatch styles can be created with the Vector Font Editor.
Special CAMM-1 versions of these fonts are available to registered
owners upon request.
Bug Reports
===========
We have tested DynaCADD 2.04 and its functions very thoroughly,
although it is impossible, in this kind of application, to cover all
possibilities. In the event that you discover functions that are not
working as they should, please advise us as soon as possible.
When you call or write, please give as much detail as possible and
the steps that led to the problem. This will greatly assist our
development team in tracking down and fixing any remaining oversights.
Bug reports and any other feedback can also be sent electronically
via CompuServe, GEnie and BIX to the following accounts:
CompuServe 76004,2246
GEnie ISD or DITEK
Good luck and thank you for your support!
*******************************************************************
Company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks
of their respective holders.
*******************************************************************