Libris Britannia 4/science library(b).zip/science library(b)/TECHNICA/COMPUTER/2562A.ZIP/README.DOC

Text File | 1992-06-23 | 15KB | 282 lines

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║   TSquare is Copyright(C) HIT Systems Ltd 1984..1991 All rights reserved.    ║
║                                                                              ║
║  For all enquires contact Neil Seaton or Leon Smith at H.I.T Systems Ltd.    ║
║  PO Box 2 Farnborough Hants GU14 0NF       Tel [phone]                   ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

TSQUARE NOTES. 10/02/1991                     Valid till July 1991

REGISTRATION:-

This copy of Tsquare may be registered for £25.00 + VAT @15% + P&P @ £3.50.
For this you get the latest shareware copy with a printed manual and telephone
support for 1 year.

The Full version of Tsquare is available for £99.00 + VAT @15% + P&P @ £3.50
this includes the latest full version with the additional features as listed
below, a security dongle which unlocks the full size drawing database and a
printed copy of the manual with telephone support for 1 year.

The £25.00 is refundable on the £99.00 version if purchased within 12 months.

All registrations are made with HIT Systems Ltd. The Manor House. BADSEY. Nr
EVESHAM. Worcestershire. WR11 5EW. Tel [phone] or FAX [phone].

Payments may be made with order using ACCESS, VISA or AMERICAN EXPRESS,
personal cheques supported with a bankers card are also accepted. Companies
orders should include payment. Discounts are available for multiple copies and
site license.

The full single screen version of Tsquare adds:-

1)Full size Database is 6945 instead of 3450. (One database unit
  equates to one line, a symbol uses 2 units...) 640 Kbytes of system memory
  is required for the full database!.

2)Drag function for group editing.

3)RAM based symbols for increase speed.

4)Text font creation. Create your own font characters or modify the existing.

5)Area calculations. Similar function to hatch except the area is given.

6)Additional Hatching routine for simple shapes.

7)Thick Line drawing for simple PCB artwork drawing.

8)Trim function on Lines and Arcs.

9)Save up to 8 windows for instant recall.

10)Auto insertion of symbols with two nodes into lines. Used for schematics
and diagram type drawings.

HISTORY:-
Tsquare was first published in 1984, it is the result of porting a very
successful but expensive CAD system using Hewlett Packard computers and
SIGMEX graphic screens to the IBM PC platform. In 1984 the graphic
capability of the IBM PC and the power of the processor was very poor, so
the the twin screen system remained. Since then many companies have used
Tsquare to great effect a short list is given below. In 1989 a single
screen version 1.1 was produced as a marketing exercise, this version was
deliberately limited to using only the IBM range of graphic standards ie
CGA, EGA and VGA and a microsoft mouse. The demand for this version
prompted a rewrite of the graphics drivers resulting in this version.

Some household names that use TSQUARE.

 J.S. Sainsbury Ltd :- Used for store layout. If you go into a
                       modern Sainsbury's then the internal layout
                       would have been designed using TSQUARE.

 Savacenter Ltd     :- Savacenter Ltd is the arm of J.S Sainsbury
                       that builds megastores and hypermarkets. The
                       internal layout of these stores are designed
                       using TSQUARE.

 Sony Broadcast     :- A substantial number of electrical drawings
                       were produced by Sony using TSQUARE for the
                       installation of the SKY Television studios.

 King Trailers      :- As you drive around the country if you see
                       the name KING on a trailer, especially the
                       really big ones that the army use then it
                       would have been designed using TSQUARE.

INSTALLATION & UPDATE:-
To install Tsquare or update a version onto your hard drive put the install
floppy [Number 1] in drive A: and then type at the DOS prompt  A:INSTALL
then press the Enter key. Your current directory should be the root of the
drive you want to install TSquare on, this would normally be C: but can be
any drive letter C to Z.

When the installation or update has completed start TSQUARE by typing TSQUARE
and press the Enter Key. You will be prompted for a user number, respond by
typing 1 and again press the Enter Key. A password is then prompted for,
type TSQUARE and press the Enter Key. As you type the password it will not show
on the screen.

If the install procedure finds a file called CONFIG1.DAT in the directory
\TSQUARE\SYSTEM then it assumes that TSquare is already installed and will
ask to overwrite. If this is accepted then the software files are overwritten
but the segments and drawings files are not.

If you wish to completely re-install tsquare then first delete every file in the
following directories:-

                \TSQUARE\SYSTEM
                \TSQUARE\SEGMENTS
                \TSQUARE\USERS\HIT\DEMO

MOUSE:-
Tsquare is designed to work with a Microsoft Mouse, Serial or Bus Type. True
compatibles will also work such as the mouse supplied with Amstrad, Hewlett
Packard and Olivetti computers however this can not be guaranteed. Please note
the mouse driver MOUSE.COM or MOUSE.SYS must be installed before running
Tsquare. If Tsquare starts but the menu at the top of the screen flashes
violently then Tsquare has not found a suitable mouse driver.

Some mouse drivers have been found to use part of the video memory that
Tsquare uses, hence causing a conflict. The problem usually occurs only when
working in VGA mode and displays itself as an untidy mess left on the screen
after a pull down menu has been used. The problem is only a display fault and
does not normally cause any operating difficulty although this depends
entirely on the mouse driver being used. Until we find a permanent fix there
are three things that a user can do. One is to ignore the screen mess, two is
to reconfigure Tsquare to use EGA this usually fixes the problem completely,
alternatively phone HIT Systems (0386 833393) we can provide mouse drivers
that do cause this problem.

SCREEN TYPE:-
This version of Tsquare will only work in CGA (640 x 200) monochrome or EGA
(640 x 350) 8 color, or VGA (640 x 480) 8 color. The install program will
request you to select which screen type to use.

RAM MEMORY REQUIREMENTS:-
This version requires at least 512 Kbytes of system ram, 640Kbyte is better.

MANUAL:-
On screen help is provided but the full manual is not supplied in this
shareware version, it is supplied with registration. A quick manual is
supplied on Disc 1, use the PRINTMAN.BAT file to print this manual.

To operate the on screen help pull down a menu and select a function by using
the right mouse key. This will cause a help window to be opened on the screen.
The PgUp and PgDn keys can be used to scroll through any text and the End key
is used to close the window. Please note that not all menu functions have on
screen help.

DOS VERSIONS:-
TSquare requires MSDOS, PCDOS or DRDOS versions 3.2 or higher. TSQUARE will
run under WINDOWS and GEM but you must install it as an application. Allow
640Kbytes of memory, full screen graphics, and do not let TSQUARE use any
extended memory that WINDOWS or GEM is using. Tsquare will work with DRDOS but
there are two small problems. DRDOS makes Tsquare think its on a network all
the time, consequently when Tsquare is started it creates a new temprory
vector graphics file. Theses files are to be found in the TSQUARE\SYSTEM
directory and are the only file to have the extension .TMP. Since these files
are 512K long disc space can be eaten up very quickly. As a solution to this
problem when using DRDOS add the following command to the TSQUARE Batch Job in
the root directory:-

           DEL \TSQUARE\SYSTEM\*.TMP

This will make the Tsquare start time a little longer but avoids filling up
the hard disc.

At the time of writing the Tsquare PRINT program will not function when using
DRDOS.

NETWORKING:-
TSquare will function on NOVELL and IBM type networks. It is preferable to
load Tsquare on a local hard disc and refer to the network drive using its
drive letter for drawings and symbols. If it is prefered to put Tsquare on the
Network drive then every user must logon to Tsquare with a different user
number. This allows Tsquare to create individual Menu, Recover, Sheet Sizes &
Access files for each user. A users personal files are as listed below, each
file uses the USER number 1 to 99 added to the file name to create a unique
file name. The follow files are for user 12:-

        RECOVR12.DRW     'This is the backup file of the current or last
                         'drawing for this user. The Recover function in the
                         'FILES menu reads this file.

*       CONFIG12.DAT     'Contains the setup information for each user.

*       SHEETS12.DAT     'Contain the sheets sizes in plotter units for each
                         'user.

*        NMENU12.DAT     'ASCII File contains the menu layout for each user.

        SYSERR12.DAT     'ASCII File logs any Tsquare errors. May be deleted

          USER12.LOG     'ASCII File logs a users activity. Records Logon/Logoff
                         'which drawings have been accessed and for how long.
                         'may be deleted at any time.

*       ACCESS12.SYS     'Coded file containing the access rights to drawing
                         'directories that the user is allowed to use.

Files marked with a * must exist in the TSQUARE\SYSTEM directory for each
user. They are automaticaly copied from user 1 files when the PASSWORD program
is used to create new users. New users must be created by user 1. Logon to
TSQUARE as user 1 but use the password MANAGER. This allows new users to be
added and existing passwords to be changed. It also allows access to drawing
directories to be added for each user. User 1 has automaticaly full access to
all drawing directories, all other users only have access to the default
drawing directory HIT\DEMO. This access must not be removed neither must the
directory be deleted. The procedure for giving new users access rights to
drawing directories is for user 1 to first create the directories, then use
the PASSWORD program to create the user and add the access rights. Drawing
directories are created by using the CHANGE DIRECTORY function in the FILES
menu and giving the name [Up to 8 Characters] of the new directory. Tsquare
will prompt user 1 to create it.

Tsquare does not require any network features other than to be able to refer
to the network as a addition drive such as F:. It maintains its own file
locking system which works in the following way. When a drawing is read the
directory is checked to see if it is booked out to another user. If it is not
already in use then the Tsquare drawing directory is flaged to say this
drawing is in use. Any other users that subsequently try to read the same
drawing are informed that the drawing is already in use and that they may read
the drawing but will not be able to save the drawing with the same name (Over
write). This hold true even if the user who booked the drawing out first shuts
down and goes home. Consequently a drawing can be booked out, worked on and
saved without other users over writing the work.


OUTPUT:-

Output is primarily with HPGL [Hewlett Packard Graphics Language]. The menu
provides options for sending this output directly to LPT1 (Plot Drawing) or to
a file (Make HPGL).

The output has been tailered to suit DTP packages in particular VENTURA,
PAGEMAKER and WordPerfect 5.1. In such cases use the Make HPGL function and
give a DOS file name. The resulting file will be created in the TSQUARE\PLOTS
directory and have the extension PLT. The extention PLT helps some DTP
packages in identifying that the file is an HPGL file.

Direct plotting output is made to the LPT1 port which is fine if your plotter
or HPGL printer has a Centronics interface. If this is not the case and your
plotter has an RS232 interface then it is necessary to add two command to the
TSQUARE.BAT file. The two commands give below use the DOS Mode function to
redirect any output from the LPT1 port to the COM1 port. The first command
sets up the communication parameters for COM1 which must match the plotters.
The second command redirects the output.

        MODE COM1:96,N,8,1,P
        MODE LPT1:=COM1:

The MODE in the command above is an external DOS command and must be
available. Usually the file MODE.COM or MODE.EXE will have been copied from
the DOS installation discs to the directory where all the DOS files have been
placed. If this was the root directory of your hard disc (Bad Practice) then
there is nothing to do otherwise the dos directory should be include in the
PATH command. ie in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file there should be a line similar to
the PATH C:\DOS

The RS232 set up parameters (96,N,8,1,P) as given above are examples your
configuration may be different. The values given are the commonest and mean:-

      COM1      = Refers to the first RS232 port COM2 would be the Second.
        96      = 9600 BAUD Rate
         N      = No Parity [O = Odd, E = Even]
         8      = 8 Data Bits
         1      = 1 Stop Bit
         P      = Keep retrying on timeout (Important on Slow plotters)

The MODE LPT1:=COM1: redirects the output to the first RS232 port, if you
wanted to use the second RS232 then the command would be MODE LPT1:=COM2:


╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║   TSquare is Copyright(C) HIT Systems Ltd 1984..1991 All rights reserved.    ║
║                                                                              ║
║  For all enquires contact Neil Seaton or Leon Smith at H.I.T Systems Ltd.    ║
║  The Manor House. BADSEY. Worcs. WR11 5EW. Tel [phone] Fax [phone]   ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝