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(tm) DRAFT Choice Version 2 USER'S MANUAL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TRIUS, Inc. P.O. Box 249 N. Andover, MA 01845-0249 Tel. (508) 794-9377 Fax. (508) 688-6312 BBS (508) 794-0762 Copyright 1988 - 1992, TRIUS, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ |This document is for evaluating the Shareware copy of DRAFT Choice!| | Use of the software package and this document beyond a 30-day | | evaluation period requires registration! | | ---------------------------------------- | | Distribution of printed copies of this manual is Prohibited! | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 1 COPYRIGHT NOTICE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DRAFT Choice(tm) is a copyrighted software product developed and owned by TRIUS, Inc. located in North Andover, Massachusetts, U.S.A. You may make and keep back-up copies of the software for your personal use, provided that you copy all the copyright, trademark, and other information indicated on the initial screen display, on each backup copy label. The rights to receive any financial or other benefit, and to modify the product or employ its components in any kind of derivative work, are reserved exclusively by TRIUS, Inc. You may not reverse-engineer, disassemble, modify, decompile or create derivative works of the product. You acknowledge that the product includes certain trade secrets and confidential information, all of which is the copyrighted intellectual property of TRIUS, Inc. DRAFT Choice is a trademark of TRIUS Inc. and the TRIUS Logo is a trademark of TRIUS, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. The DRAFT Choice User's Manual is copyrighted and all rights are reserved. The reproduction of this document, in whole or part, its conversion to electronic medium or its distribution in printed form (hard copy) are prohibited unless prior consent, in writing, has been given by TRIUS, Inc. EPSON is a trademark of Epson America Inc. IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines, Inc. LOTUS 1-2-3 is a trademark of Lotus Development Corporation HERCULES is a trademark of Hercules Corporation MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 2 LIMITED WARRANTY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This program is provided on an "as is" basis without warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to quality and performance of these programs is with you. Should the program prove defective, you (not TRIUS, Inc.) assume the entire cost of all necessary repair, servicing, or correction. In no event will TRIUS, Inc. be liable to you for any damages, including any lost profits, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use these programs, even if TRIUS, Inc. has been advised of the possibility of such damages. This warranty gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state. Some states do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties or exclusion of liability for incidental or consequential damages so the above may not apply to you. You acknowledge that you have read this agreement, understand it, and agree to be bound by its terms and conditions. You further agree that it is the complete and exclusive statement of the agreement between us, which supersedes any proposal or prior agreement, oral or written, and any other communications between us. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ COPYRIGHT NOTICE 2 1 LIMITED WARRANTY 3 2. GETTING STARTED 5 2.1 WHAT'S ON THE DISKETTES 5 2.2 HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS 5 2.2.1 GRAPHICS BOARDS 5 2.2.2 MEMORY 6 2.2.3 MATH CO-PROCESSOR (Not Required) 6 2.3 INSTALLATION 7 3.1 QUICK START 8 3.2 COMMAND LINE SWITCH OPTIONS 9 3.3 CURSOR MOVEMENT 12 3.3.1 KEYBOARD 12 3.3.2 MOUSE 12 3.4 PROGRAM INTERFACES 13 3.4.1 MAIN MENU 13 3.4.2 DROP DOWN MENUS 13 3.4.3 INPUT WINDOW 13 3.4.4 DIALOG BOX 14 3.4.5 REFERENCE MARK 14 3.4.6 ENTERING COORDINATES 14 3.5 FUNCTION KEYS 16 3.6 LEAVING THE PROGRAM 18 4. COMMANDS 19 4.1 FILE 19 4.2 DRAW 29 4.3 EDIT 35 4.4 ALTER 41 4.5 IMAGE COMMANDS 45 4.6 OPTION 48 4.7 PLOT 54 4.8 SYMBOL 56 4.9 MEASURE 60 4.10 LAYER 63 APPENDIX - FILE FORMATS 65 INDEX 72 DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 4 2. GETTING STARTED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You are probably eager to start using DraftChoice. Before you start, you should spend a few minutes and review this section which describes: -- The contents of the program diskette(s) -- The equipment necessary to run DraftChoice -- How to install the program on your system 2.1 WHAT'S ON THE DISKETTES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The READ.ME file, provided on the DraftChoice program diskette, contains last minute news about the program, important information that did not make it into the printed manual, and a brief description of the files on the DraftChoice diskettes. To view the READ.ME file on your screen, use the DOS command TYPE: TYPE READ.ME [ENTER] To print the contents of the READ.ME file, use the command: COPY READ.ME PRN [ENTER] Alternatively, you may view the READ.ME file using your favorite text editor, or word-processor capable of accessing pure ASCII files. 2.2 HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2.2.1 GRAPHICS BOARDS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DraftChoice works extremely well with basic PC systems. All you need is an IBM PC or compatible computer with a graphics board from the following list (and the corresponding monitor). MNEMONIC GRAPHICS BOARD PIXEL RESOLUTION ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CGA Color Graphics Adaptor 640x200--mono EGA Enhanced Graphics Adaptor 640x350--16 colors HGA Hercules Graphics Adaptor 720x348--mono ATT ATT Graphics Board 640x400--mono VGA Video Graphics Array 640x480--16 colors SVGA Super Video Graphics Array 800x600--16 colors DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 5 2.2.2 MEMORY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DraftChoice requires a minimum of 380K to operate. On a 640K machine operating under DOS 3.x, you should have approximately 200K of memory to use for your drawings. This corresponds approximately to a drawing composed of over 6000 individual elements (lines, circles etc). An average B size drawing might be made up of several thousand elements so you should clearly have plenty of room for your drawing(s). DraftChoice will automatically use any expanded memory (EMS) that it finds. PC systems with extended memory (XMS) can use an expanded memory emulator which assigns extended memory as expanded memory. For example on a 386 the following statement could be placed in the DOS config.sys file DEVICE=EMM386.SYS 500 which assigns 500K of EMS memory. MOUSE (Recommended) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you want, you may select to use digitizing tablets or a mouse with DraftChoice. Most such devices connect to a serial I/O (Input/Output) port (usually COM1, i.e., the first communications port). In the current version of the program, a digitizing tablet operates in the same mode as a mouse, therefore only the description of the mouse operation is treated in this section. To attach the mouse to your computer, simply plug the mouse into the serial port (a 25 pin RS232C connector or a 9 pin mini-connector). Next, install the mouse driver. A mouse driver is a small memory-resident program included with your mouse when it was purchased. There are normally two types of mouse drivers. One is loaded as a device through the CONFIG.SYS file, while the other can be installed at any time from the DOS prompt. DraftChoice works with both types of mouse drivers. (Refer to your mouse's operating manual for details on how to install each type of driver). 2.2.3 MATH CO-PROCESSOR (Not Required) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You don't need a math coprocessor to run DraftChoice. DraftChoice has been optimized and avoids floating point calculations wherever possible. However use of a math coprocessor will result in approximately a 10-50% speedup of a drawing update. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 6 2.3 INSTALLATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Before using DraftChoice, you need to install the program either on your hard or on floppy diskettes. An installation program provided on the diskette makes the process simple. It will transfer the necessary files from the original diskette to your working disk/directory. There are no copy protection schemes or hidden files to wrestle with. If you are installing on 360K diskettes, first format two blank diskettes and label them DraftChoice 1 & 2. To make a working copy of the program: 1. Place the DraftChoice program disk in drive A: 2 At the DOS prompt, type A: and press [ENTER] 3. Type INSTALL and press [ENTER]. Next, follow the simple on-screen instructions to specify where to install the program. When the operation is complete, the DOS prompt will reappear on your screen. Place the original diskette in a safe place. If your working diskette later becomes damaged, repeat the above process to make a new working disk. The following files are required to run DraftChoice: DC.EXE DC.LIN DC.PAT DC.FNT The rest of the files do not need to be present in your working disk/directory. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 7 3. QUICK START ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This section shows you the simple steps required to start using DraftChoice. There are many ways to set up your computer so that you can access different programs. Batch files or elaborate menu programs may be used. Because your particular needs dictate how your system is set up, you need to determine how to access and start DraftChoice for your particular setup. If you do not have a batch file or a menuing system, you can use the following basic method to start DraftChoice. Go to the drive and/or subdirectory where DraftChoice is stored. At the DOS prompt type DC followed by any command line switches (see next section), and press [ENTER]. This starts the program. A Menu Bar appears on the top line of the screen, function keys are located on the right along with status information and the center window is the drawing area. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 8 3.2 COMMAND LINE SWITCH OPTIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DraftChoice attempts to identify your hardware and choose an appropriate video mode. However, to take advantage of the higher resolutions and alternate startup options the program may be started with one or more command line switches. DC /Switch1/Switch2.../Switchn [ENTER] The following command line switches are available in DraftChoice: /ATT - AT&T Monitor/Card (640x400) Specifies that your system is equipped with AT&T graphics with 640x400 monochrome. /BM - Bypass Mono This switch overrides the equipment autodetection and is used in combination with /EM. /DCH = FILENAME This switch instructs the program to load the "Filename" drawing file as soon as the program is started. /DEL=NNN - Plotter Buffer Delay Specify the delay, in milliseconds, after each block of data sent to a serial plotter/printer. This is used to avoid overflowing your printer's/plotter's buffer and losing some of the information. The default is set to 200 milliseconds. Note that a three digit number is required; e.g., to specify 50 milliseconds use /DEL=050. /E - EGA Monitor/Card (640x350) Specifies that your system is equipped with an Enhanced Graphics Adapter. Please note that even though your graphics adapter's manufacturer might claim that EGA mode is automatically selected, it has nothing to do with DraftChoice. You may have to specify this command line switch to enable 640x350 16-color graphics. /EM - EGA MONO (640x350) Enables the monochrome EGA mode. This command line switch is used for EGA graphics cards driving a monochrome monitor. (see /BM) /EMV - VGA MONO (640x480) Enables the monochrome VGA graphics mode. This command line switch is used for VGA graphics cards driving a monochrome monitor. /ES = NN - Super VGA Graphics (800x600) Specifies that your computer is equipped with a Super VGA monitor and adapter card, capable of displaying 800x600 16 color graphics. If your system is equipped with such a monitor card combination and the /ES switch is not used, the DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 9 program will attempt to detect the appropriate hardware settings. If it fails, it will most likely start up in EGA or CGA mode. Please note that older mouse drivers sometimes do not recognize this mode and may not operate correctly. We therefore recommend that the keyboard is used for input while in this video mode. NN - The hexadecimal code that sets your monitors VGA mode. The codes for some SVGA Video Adapter boards are listed below: Video Adapter Card Mode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ATI WONDER SVGA 54 DFI VG-2000 5B PARADISE PLUS-16 58 PARADISE PROFESSIONAL 58 ORCHID PRODESIGNER 29 STB EM/16 29 GENOA 29 SIGMA X16 29 VIDEO SEVEN VRAM 62 or 16 VGA 1024i 62 or 16 If your Video Adapter card is not listed, then consult your user's manual for your video card and monitor, and find the appropriate mode. /EV - VGA Card (640x480) Specifies that your computer is equipped with a VGA monitor and adapter card, capable of displaying at a 640x480 pixel resolution. If your system is equipped with such a monitor/card combination and the /EV switch is not used, the program will most likely start up in EGA mode. /FNT=fontname; Start DraftChoice with a specific font file (the font can be later changed from within the program). Note that the semicolon is required after the name. /H - Hercules Card (720x348) Hercules graphic adapters are automatically recognized by the program. Some adapters, however, are not 100% compatible and this switch may be needed to force the program to recognize the graphics/adapter. /H2 - Hercules Card, Page #2 (720x348) This command line switch instructs the program to use the second video page at B000 for graphics when using a Hercules-type card with a monochrome monitor. /MONO - Use only two color B&W mode Used for monitors that do not display all color shades correctly. Also used when capturing screens for use with other software packages. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 10 /N87 - DO NOT use coprocessor Instructs the program not to use the math co-processor, even if the presence of one is detected. /NE - Don't use Expanded Memory Do not use expanded memory even if it is found on your computer. DraftChoice will automatically allocate all unused expanded memory it detects unless this switch is used. /NT - Disable the Turbo Cursor Feature Cursor movement using the keyboard cursor keys defaults to a "turbo" mode. While this feature speeds up cursor movement (in lieu of a mouse), it may not be compatible with some types of computers, such as the PCjr. The turbo feature may be disabled by use of the "non-turbo" /NT switch. /SET=NN - Set color to NN Used only with CGA modes, this command sets the foreground color of DraftChoice. Note that this command line switch has no effect when used with any EGA/VGA modes. /VM=XXX - Use Virtual Memory This command line switch instructs DraftChoice to use a disk drive to emulate EMS RAM. XXX represents the maximum number of 16K pages to use as EMS memory. (i.e. /VM=30 is equivalent to 480K of EMS.) NOTE: XXX is limited to a maximum of 256 pages. This allows for even larger drawings to be created, limited possibly by the size of your hard disk or diskette. /V1 - CGA Mode (640x200) Force a graphic/card combination to operate in CGA mode. This might be necessary for some non-standard VGA monitor and video card combinations. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 11 3.3 CURSOR MOVEMENT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2.6.1 KEYBOARD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The keyboard cursor keys can be used to easily move the pointing cursor around the screen. Choose a menu or command by pressing the first letter of the command or by moving the pointer on top of the command and pressing the ENTER key. The following keys may be used to manipulate the cursor. UP - move the cursor one step upwards DOWN - move the cursor one step downwards LEFT - move the cursor one step to the left RIGHT - move the cursor one step to the right PGUP - Increase the step size by 10 pixels PGDN - Restore the step size to 1 pixel of movement ENTER - Select a command, or indicate a reference point ESC - Cancel a command, or exit the selection mode Keeping the UP, DOWN, LEFT, or RIGHT cursor keys depressed will cause the cursor to accelerate in the desired direction (Turbo mode only). Tapping the keys will move the cursor one step at a time. 3.3.2 MOUSE ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Some mice have three buttons. DraftChoice, however, only uses two buttons on the mouse. They are the LEFT button which is functionally equivalent to the [ENTER] key on the keyboard (see above key explanation) and the MIDDLE or RIGHT mouse buttons which both represent the [ESC] key (see above). You can use either the keyboard or the mouse equivalents interchangeably. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 12 3.4 PROGRAM INTERFACES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3.4.1 MAIN MENU ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The DraftChoice interface consists of a line of main menu selections across the top line of the screen. A menu item may be selected by either typing the first letter of the menu item or by moving the pointer up to the top line, highlighting the item, and then pressing ENTER. The main menu items have the following names: FILE - File handling (Load, Save, Import, Xport...) DRAW - Drawing objects (Line, Circles...) EDIT - Editing features (Copy, Move ...) ALTER - Modify attributes of entities IMAGE - Image zooming features (Update, Window, Half...) OPTION - Global defaults (Grid, Toggles, Fill, Style...) PLOT - Print drawing/picture (Go, Image...) SYMBOL - Group and name objects and use as symbols MEASURE - Determine lengths, angles, areas LAYER - Select active layer, set colors, protection, etc. 3.4.2 DROP DOWN MENUS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When a menu item has been selected, a drop-down menu appears. You will notice that the first option in the drop-down menu is highlighted. Any option in the menu can be selected by typing the highlight letter of that option, or by selecting it using the mouse or cursor keys and pressing [ENTER]. For example, to begin drawing a BOX which is one option in the DRAW menu, press "D" to select the DRAW menu, and then press "B" to select the box. Note: Menu items which display a right pointing triangle indicate the presence of a sub-menu. It is possible to return back through any menu or option by pressing the [ESC] key. 3.4.3 INPUT WINDOW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An input window presents a prompt for a single piece of information, i.e. a name, dimension or typed coordinate. Note that the current contents of an input window can be erased by pressing either the [ESC] key or the right button on your mouse. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 13 3.4.4 DIALOG BOX ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A dialog box is a window which presents multiple choices which can be selected or modified. To select a choice with the keyboard, just type the first letter of the choice, i.e. to turn on the GRID press the letter G. The highlight will move to the choice with matching letter. Highlight the desired choice with the cursor and press [ENTER]. To select a choice with the mouse, move the mouse pointer. As the pointer passes over a choice the choice will be highlighted. To select that choice press the left button or enter key. 3.4.5 REFERENCE MARK ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each drawing object created by DraftChoice has a reference MARK which is represented by a small identifier such as a cross (X). This feature is used by editing commands to aid in selection of an object for copying, moving or other manipulations. The reference mark will not be plotted or printed on your hard copy. The display of marks on the screen can be toggled on or off by selecting the command OPTION, TOGGLE, MARK. A check mark next to the word MARK in the dialog box indicates the reference marks will be displayed the next time the screen is updated. When disabled, reference marks will not be removed until after the next screen update. 3.4.6 ENTERING COORDINATES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Drawings produced on DraftChoice use a floating point cartesian coordinate system with the following limits of accuracy (X is measured horizontally and Y vertically). 1.0 E-37 <= | X or Y | <= 1.0 E+37 NOTE: Although the magnitude of representable numbers is very large, only 11 significant digits of precision are provided. Realistically, if you try to draw a map of a city, and you want accuracy down to 1/1000 inch, the maximum range would be: +/- 99,999,999.999 inches (or 1,578 miles) IMPORTANT! In addition to using the crosshair cursor when drawing, coordinates can be entered accurately from the keyboard using one of four methods below. The first letter of each method identifies the type of coordinate. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 14 ABSOLUTE: Type A5,5 and press [ENTER]. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Coordinate with respect to origin at a coordinate of 0,0. The first value represents X units and the second Y units. The cursor will be placed at location X=5, Y=5. NOTE: This is the default coordinate type if a letter is not specified, i.e., 5,5 is the same as typing A5,5. RELATIVE: R6,7 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Similar to Absolute, but measured with respect to last X and Y coordinates entered. HINT, use this command to create objects with exact dimensions. POLAR: P20,30 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Coordinate with respect to origin at absolute coordinate 0,0. The first value represents a RADIUS of 20 units projected at an angle of 30 degrees. All angles are measured positive counter clockwise from the horizontal (i.e. 3 o'clock). BEARING: B300,25 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Similar to Polar but measured with respect to last coordinate. Note: Angles may also be entered with reference to NORTH and compass directions, i.e. B300,25 = B300,N65E B300,120 = B300,N30W TRAVERSE: T20,160 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Length = 20 and angle = 160 degrees Similar to Polar & Bearing but angle is measured clockwise from the last direction. For example, if your last point was at 100,50, the following would result for each type of coordinate method used: A1000,200 Absolute coordinate, means the new coordinate is located at 1000 units X and 200 units Y. R200,300 Relative coordinate, means add 200 units X and 300 units Y to the last coordinate. (Equivalent to A300,350). DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 15 P100,45 Polar coordinate, means radius is 100 units from the origin and the angle is 45 degrees from the horizontal. Equivalent to A70.71,70.71. B200,30 Bearing coordinate, means relative radius is 200 units at an angle of 30 degrees from the horizontal. Equivalent to A273.2, 150. 3.5 FUNCTION KEYS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The right side of the DraftChoice screen displays the identification of the function keys. F1 [HELP] - Pressing F1 while in the ready mode of the program (not when a secondary menu or command is displayed), invokes the help mode. The help screen contains a column of topics on the left hand side and a description of the highlighted topic on the right portion of the screen. To choose among the help topics, press the up/down cursor keys to move the highlight to the desired topic. Pressing [HOME] highlights the first topic in the list and [END] highlights the last topic. [PGUP] and [PGDN] allows you to move to the first and last displayed topics in the current screen. To search quickly for a topic, press the corresponding first letter. (i.e. press "D" for draw) Pressing [ENTER] selects the topic and the cursor moves to the description on the right side of the screen. Pressing [ENTER] again, moves the cursor back to the index list portion of the screen. To exit the help menu, press the [ESC] key. F2 [CORD] - Press this function key to enable or disable on- screen echo of drawing cursor position. F3 [CALC] - Invoke the formula calculator. The operators and functions available in the calculator are defined below: OPERATORS ~~~~~~~~~ + - Addition - - Subtraction * - Multiplication / - Division ^ - Raise to Power DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 16 FUNCTIONS ~~~~~~~~~ EXP(X) - Exponential SIN(X) - Sine of X (X in degrees) COS(X) - Cosine of X (X in degrees) ABS(X) - Absolute value of X TAN(X) - Tangent of X (X in degrees) ACOS(X) - Arc Cosine of X (Result in degrees) ASIN(X) - Arc Sine of X (Result in degrees) ATAN(X) - Arc Tangent of X (Result in degrees) INT(X) - Integer Portion of X LOG(X) - Logarithm (base 10) of X LN(X) - Natural logarithm of X MOD(X,Y) - Modulo division; return the remainder of X divided by Y. PI - Return constant value 3.14159265 SQRT(X) - Square root of X IF(X,A,B)- Returns A if x>1, B if X=0 NOTE: You may enter a formula when a numeric value is requested by any dialog window or input box. The above operators and functions may be combined for complex calculations, e.g.: SQRT(36) * LOG(100) + 10 will result in the value of 22 F4 [WIND/PICK] - Toggle between the WINDOW and PICK selection methods, (see OBJECT SELECTION METHODS). F5 [ADD/SUB] - Toggles selection mode to either add objects to editing selection list or remove objects from the list. F6 [GRID] - On-screen grid is immediately drawn or erased depending on previous status. F7 [ISO] - Permits drawing in vertical and 30-degree angles (six directions) to produce isometric drawings. This mode can be adjusted at any time while drawing an object. (See File Config Default for where to modify ISOANGLE) F8 [ORTH] - Toggles the ORTHO option on and off. When turned on, all line segments are drawn either horizontal or vertical (four directions). This mode can be adjusted while drawing an object. F9 [SNAP] - Toggle the SNAP option ON and OFF. The snap spacing is set using the Option, Snap command. When snap is active the draw cursor is forced to the nearest snap point. This mode can be adjusted while drawing an object. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 17 F10 [ATT] - Toggles ATTACH option ON and OFF. When active and a point is indicated, DraftChoice will search for the nearest object within the pick window distance (default is 8 pixels). If an object is found, DraftChoice will determine the closest reference point on the object (Endpoints or Middle) and the cursor will be repositioned at that point. This mode can be adjusted at any time while drawing an object. Shift - F1 [UNDO] - Undo cancels any elements created by the last editing operation and restores any previous objects that were modified. Shift - F2 [PERP] - Toggles perpendicular mode ON/OFF. This mode constrains line objects to be oriented perpendicular to the last line created. Shift - F3 [ARC DIR] - Changes the direction for drawing arcs, clockwise/counterclockwise. During a drawing operation the end points of the arc are also exchanged. 3.6 LEAVING THE PROGRAM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You just completed your first masterpiece and are ready to quit for the day. MAKE SURE THAT YOU SAVE THE LATEST VERSION OF YOUR DRAWING. Select the FILE option from the main menu, then the SAVE option. When SAVE is selected, the file will be saved into the current data drive and subdirectory. Access the QUIT command by again selecting the FILE option, then press Q on the keyboard or highlight the QUIT command with your cursor keys or mouse. Once QUIT is selected, you will be given a second chance to change your mind when DraftChoice asks you to confirm your selection. If you performed the above by accident, or changed your mind about quitting the program, select the CANCEL response and press [ENTER]. You will be returned to the DraftChoice work screen with your drawing intact. To exit completely, select the YES response and press [ENTER]. The program will now return you to DOS. Once the QUIT command is confirmed, all drawing information not saved will be lost. Remember to save your drawing before you QUIT! DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 18 4. COMMANDS ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This section describes the powerful commands that are available within DraftChoice through the drop-down menus. 4.1 FILE ~~~~~~~~~ This menu allows you to access your drawings, perform file interchange between DraftChoice and other file formats and set the system defaults. NEW ~~~ This command clears memory of the previous drawing including symbols, and prepares DraftChoice for a new drawing while allowing you to specify drawing scale factors and paper sizes. SCALE SETTINGS - A scale factor is assigned to the drawing and is determined by the ratio of the values contained in the REAL input box and the PAPER input box. For example, a REAL value of 10 ft and a DWG value of 1 inch would have a 120:1 scale factor. This means that on paper a distance of 2 inches would be equivalent to a dimension of 20 ft. The Real units may be cycled through the available choices by toggling the down arrow button next to REAL. Available unit types are mm, m, km, inch, feet and inches, foot, yards, mile, and none. Drawing units may be alternated from metric (mm) to inches (in) by selecting the down arrow button next to the PAPER input box. DRAWING SIZE - Paper size may be chosen from the following: IMPERIAL METRIC ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A) 8.5" X 11" A) 210 X 297 mm B) 11" X 17" B) 297 X 420 mm C) 17" X 22" C) 420 X 594 mm D) 22" X 34" D) 594 X 841 mm E) NONE E) NONE NOTE: The default drawing size when File, New is selected is set by the drawing size which was active when the confi- guration file was saved, (File, Config command) and becomes the default size for the current DraftChoice session. When File, New, Ok is executed, DraftChoice will automatically draw a frame (box) on the screen. The box dimensions correspond to the selected paper size (minus a half inch margins on all sides). You can verify that by using the Measure, Query, Length command. For example, for a 1" Real = 1" Drawing scale, and 8.5" x 11" paper, the rectangle would measure 7.5" X 10". DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 19 CAUTION: This rectangle is the basis for the specified scale. DO NOT erase it. Make certain that all elements you draw are within this rectangle, if you want the drawing to be printed to scale. If, for some reason, you do not wish for this scaling rectangle to appear in the printout, instead of erasing it, use the Alter, Style, None command to make it non-printable (invisible). LOAD ~~~~ This command prompts for a file name by presenting a dialog window which lists drawing files, subdirectories and drives names in the current directory. To select a name from the name list, move the cursor to highlight that name and press ENTER. The name will be transferred into the FILE box at the top of the dialog. The UP and DN indicators may be used to scroll the list of file names up or down. You could also directly type a different filename into the FILE box. To load the file, select LOAD or to return to the file menu without loading, select CANCEL. The current path is displayed in the PATH box. To change the subdirectory (used to indicate where your drawing files are located), select PATH and then type in the new path. When ENTER is pressed, the subdirectory will be read and a new list of names will be displayed. Subdirectory names and destination drives will also appear in the file list box but when selected will be transfered to the PATH input box. Once LOAD has been selected, the drawing currently in RAM is cleared (including all symbols currently in memory) and the specified file is retrieved and placed in memory. The current file name will be displayed in the center top of the window frame. If you want to retrieve a drawing file, without erasing the current drawing or symbols from memory, you need to use the File, Import command. SAVE ~~~~ This command prompts for a file name to be assigned to the current drawing in memory. A dialog window is displayed and the same general options, as for the Load command, are available. If you loaded a file from disk, that file name and subdirectory will appear as the default FILE and PATH. You may select PATH and change the subdirectory, highlight one of the displayed files and press enter, or select FILE and DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 20 enter the name. Then, select SAVE to store the data onto your disk. If the file already exists, you will be given a chance to overwrite it, or cancel the SAVE operation. Note that once you select to overwrite the file, any data stored on your disk under that name will be overwritten with the data currently in RAM. XTRACT ~~~~~~ This command allows you to extract a portion of your current drawing and save it in one of several formats: DWG - The drawing is saved in native DraftChoice format (*.DCH). PIC - The image is saved using the PIC file format used to store spreadsheet graphics. This file format can be used to import drawings to programs that support PIC files. (*.PIC) BSAVE - The image is saved as a monochrome binary byte image. The first two integers in the output file represent the width and height of the image respectively. The remaining data in the file is the byte image saved row by row. (*.BIN) SYMBOLS - Save only the symbols defined in the current drawing to a special symbol file. (*.SYM) PCX - The image is saved in PCX file format used by many paint graphic programs. (*.PCX). If BWON is on, only a monochrome image will be created. FONT - Used to save the primary font file after modification. (*.FNT) WPG - Uses DrawPerfect format for clip art used by DrawPerfect and WordPerfect. (*.WPG) NOTE: Extracting your drawing to an HP Graphics Language file is not achieved through the XTRACT command. It is done by following these steps: 1) Set PLOT, DEVICE to HP7470 2) Set PLOT, OUTPUT to a filename. e.g. TEST.PLT 3) Use PLOT, GO or PLOT, CLIP to create the file. If PLOT CLIP is selected you are prompted to place a window around the objects to be extracted. DraftChoice will display the number of objects found in the top right corner of the screen. Press [ESC] when all objects have been selected. You will now be prompted for the reference point. This point will establish the origin (x=0, y=0) of the new drawing. Select the reference point and press [ENTER]. If a file with the DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 21 requested name exists, you will be asked if you wish to replace it with the new file. IMPORT ~~~~~~ This command allows you to import text, portions of drawings, or interchange data with other drawing file formats. The following options are supported: DWG - Import a DraftChoice DCH file into the current drawing. All symbols defined in the imported drawing will be included/added to the main drawing. (Note that up to a total of 100 symbols are supported in a single symbol library). PIC - The file must conform to PIC file format used to store spreadsheet graphics. TEXT - Each ASCII line creates a TEXT object which is placed into the drawing starting at the indicated reference point. The text is assigned the current text height, width and orientation. Each new line is offset by an amount equal to the text vertical spacing. VALUE - This is an ASCII file which has XY absolute coordinate pairs separated by commas, one pair per line. A continuous set of coordinate pairs would create a continuous complex line. Blank lines terminate the sequence and await the start of a new line. For example, the following would define two separate straight lines: line 1: 100,0 line 2: 100,100 line 3: line 4: 200,200 line 5: 300,200 NOTE: The units of the value file are assumed to be meters, regardless of the units setting of DraftChoice at the time of importing. For example, if your DraftChoice units setting is ft and you import a value file containing the two lines. 1,1 2,1 A line will be drawn from the point x = 3.28 ft., y = 3.28 ft. to the point x = 6.56 ft., y = 3.28 ft. HPGL - Import a text file containing the HP Graphics Language format. The following commands are supported. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 22 PU Raise Pen PD Lower Pen PA x,y Move Pen Absolute SP # Select Pen LB text #3 Place Text At Last Coordinate IP xmin,ymin,xmax,ymax;Set Scaling Points SC xmin,xmax,ymin,ymax;Sets Scale Window SI width, height; Set Text Width & Height SR width, height; Set Relative Width And Height As Function Of Scaling Points (see IP) SYMBOL - Import a DraftChoice symbol file with extension SYM. Note that if you type a .DCH file name, only the symbols contained within the DCH file will be imported. The imported symbols are appended to the symbols already in RAM. Any symbols with the same name are overwritten by the newly loaded symbols. PCX - The file must conform to PCX file format. NOTE: The image is superimposed on the screen and does NOT become a part of the drawing. This feature is used when performing manual digitization by using DraftChoice to trace over the image. If the PCX image is a monochrome image, it will be assigned the color of the current active layer. SPCX - The file must conform to PCX file format. The PCX image is imported into the drawing as a scaleable scanline object. NOTE: No pixel editing of the image can be performed. If you require changes to the image perform them with a bit mapped paint program prior to importing the image. FONTS - Replace primary or secondary font. PRIMARY Replace the current primary font. Text that was entered using the primary font will now use the new imported primary font. SECONDARY Replace the current secondary font. WPG - The file must conform to WordPerfect WPG file format. ERASE ~~~~~ This command erases a specified file from your disk. A dialog will appear and you may select the file to be erased. NOTE: Wild card characters CANNOT be used with ERASE. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 23 CONFIG ~~~~~~ SAVE CONFIG - This command saves DraftChoice default settings into a file called DRAFTC.CFG. When DraftChoice is executed from DOS, the settings contained in the CONFIG file will be automatically set. - Status of Toggle switches; COORD, WHITE, MARK, TEXT, VERIFY, BWON, AUTO, FILL, STYLE, DEPTH - GRID/SNAP status, grid and snap spacing - Text Options; justification, height, width, angle, and spacing - Corner Options; type, radius, chamfer lengths - Circle; type, aspect ratio - Arrow; type, size - Complex; type - Dimensions; type, arrows, leaders - Unit of measurement - Polygon sides - Array; type, copies, scale, angle, counter rotate angle, - Plot; device, output, plotter aspect ratios, orientation - Drawing size, Scale Factors - Colors; Menus, Highlights, Letters, Screen, etc. - Refresh rate, mouse and keyboard sensitivity, video aspect ratio - Default fill pattern and line style and dash spacing NOTE: If you use a CONFIG file from an older version of DraftChoice, unpredictable settings may result. Erase the old DRAFTC.CFG file from the DraftChoice working disk or directory and redefine and save your new settings. PRINTER - This command will display a pick list which allows you to select the print device. The list may vary, but listed below are some common drivers. HP7470 Produces a plot using the Hewlett Packard Graphics Language (HPGL) which is sent to the selected serial port or file. This option can be used with any plotter device that supports HPGL or sent to a plot file. NOTE: WordPerfect 5.0 and 5.1 can import HPGL files directly into documents. If you want to create a file that you can later import to WordPerfect, select HP7470 and set Output (below) to FILE. EPSON-FX80 Use Epson FX-series compatible graphics commands. EPSON-LQ2500 Use Epson 24-pin graphics commands. CITOH Use C.Itoh, 8-pin printer commands. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 24 OKIDATA Use Okidata, 9 pin printer commands including the 182+ series of 9-PIN Dot Matrix printers. LASERJET Use HP LaserJet, PCL graphics commands. POSTSCRIPT Use Encapsulated Postscript commands. May be used to direct output to a Postscript printer. OUTPUT - Select either the parallel port, serial port, or a file name to send the output to when GO is selected: LPT1 - Parallel Printer Port #1 LPT2 - Parallel Printer Port #2 COM1 - Serial Communications Port #1 COM2 - Serial Communications Port #2 FILE - Specify a file name used to store printer/plotter output NOTE: If a file name is selected for output, the drawing information will be written to the file using the selected device format. This option is used to produce graphics files to be imported to other programs. i.e., WordPerfect 5.1, PCWRITE, etc. (Also see FILE XPORT) COLORS - Customize the screen colors. MENU - Color of pull-down menu. LETTER - Color of first letter in each menu option. HILITE - Color of menu highlight bar. PROMPT - Color of the input prompt line. SCREEN - Color of all objects, text, etc., drawn on the screen when BWON is active. ACTIVE - Color of button or choice highlighted in dialog window. INACTIVE - Buttons and Toggles not highlighted in dialog windows. BACKGND - Background color of dialog window. CODES - Customize the graphic control codes used to print on a dot matrix or laser printer. The default control codes correspond to 9-pin and 24-pin Epson, and Raster printers (includes HP LaserJet). DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 25 If your printer cannot emulate a default printer, you need to edit the setup codes (refer to your printer manual for the correct codes). This command modifies the control codes only. It has nothing to do with selecting the printer driver, which is done with the CONFIG, PRINTER command. Control codes may be specified either by the ASCII code or by the ASCII character equivalent (only for ascii codes greater than 32). When ASCII codes are used, each code must be three digits long and preceded with a backslash "\". For example, the code sequence ESC "E" may be specified as \027E or \027\045. The following commands select the type of printer driver to modify. RASTER Modify codes corresponding to the HP LaserJet (or deskjet) 9-Pin Modify codes corresponding to generic 9 pin printer. 24-Pin Modify codes corresponding to generic 24 pin printer. Oki182 Modify Okidata (non-IBM compatible) printer codes. CITOH Modify C.Itoh (non-IBM compatible) printer codes. Select control sequence currently active in EDIT box: HIGH Set printer to high resolution graphics mode. MED Set printer to medium resolutions graphics mode. LOW Set printer to low resolution graphics mode. BGFD Line feed printer the distance equivalent to the dots contained in a complete pass of the print head. Normally this is equal to 1/6". SMFD Line feed printer a single dot. RES Reset the printer to text mode. HPI Specify Horizontal dots/inch VPI Specify Vertical dots/inch associated with line feed command. This command permits changes to the currently selected code sequence. EDIT Change the contents of the control codes and select [ACCEPT]. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 26 BAUD - This command allows you to define serial port communication parameters used by the COM ports. Make sure that parameters selected in this menu correspond to the configuration of your printer/plotter. 110 to 9600 Select baud rate transmission speed. ODD, EVEN, NONE Select type of Parity. 1-BIT, 2-BIT Number of Stop Bits 7-BIT, 8-BIT Number of Data Bits DELAY An integer representing milliseconds (default = 200 ms). The Delay variable is used to make sure information sent to your serial plotter/printer does not overflow the data buffer. The delay value should be increased if you notice objects in your drawing do not appear correctly in your output (e.g. partial drawings). DEFAULT - The following parameters control the response of the screen to keyboard or mouse input and the screen updating process. The DEFAULT dialog window appears on the screen. See FILE CONFIG to make these settings permanent. ASPECT - Set the video aspect ratio, so a circle looks correct and does not appear oval. The aspect ratios differ for CGA, EGA and HGA cards and may vary depending on your graphics monitor. MOUSE - Set the mouse sensitivity to movement. The smaller the number the more sensitive the mouse (default is 12). RATE - With BWON is active, objects are drawn into a special video buffer to increase redraw speed. The buffer is transferred to the screen after a set number of objects have been drawn. For very large complex drawings with many objects it is faster to transfer bigger blocks of objects. The default rate of 7 means that 1/7 of the total number of objects in the drawing must be drawn in the screen buffer before the visible video screen is updated. A rate of 1 means that the entire drawing will be drawn in the screen buffer before the visible screen is updated. Experiment with refresh rates of 1, 7, or pick an even larger refresh rate to find the greatest overall drawing speed. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 27 SPDUP - Set the sensitivity of the keyboard cursor keys when used to navigate the cursor around the screen. Keeping a keyboard cursor key depressed will cause the pointing cursor to accelerate in the desired direction. The default value of SPDUP is 2. A value of 0 results in no acceleration and moves the cursor one pixel at a time no matter how long the cursor key is kept depressed. The larger the value, the greater the acceleration rate. Experiment until you find a value which is acceptable to you. NOTE: No matter what the value of SPDUP, tapping the keyboard cursor keys once will result in cursor movement of one pixel at a time. COLOR - Set background color of the screen for CGA video devices only. PICK - Modify the size (in pixels) of the pick window used to select objects when editing (default is 8 pixels). LEVEL - Sets the degree of curve smoothness for spline, circle and arc objects (See DRAW COMPLEX SPLINE for the effects of various values of LEVEL.) ISOAGL - The user can set their own Isometric angle under the Options, Default menu. This allows for a more accurate design. The isoangle is turned on and off, by toggling the ISO mode. If an isoangle is not specified, than the isoangle defaults to 30.00. 1: FONT - If a secondary font file has not been loaded, only one font file selection option is available to the user. NOTE: The selected font here has no effect on text that is already drawn. If, however, text was drawn using the primary font, let's say ROMAN, and a new primary font is loaded using the Symbol, Font command, then all text that was written in ROMAN font will change to the new one. 2: FONT - Load a secondary font SAVE CONFIG - Saves the defaults into a file called DRAFTC.CFG. When DraftChoice is started it loads the CFG file located in the startup directory. If not found, it uses the factory set defaults. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 28 GET INFO - Displays general settings. This includes the printer type, detected video mode, undo stack, symbols, elements, DOS and EMS memory, math coprocessor if present, and the current time. OSHELL - Temporarily shell to the operating system, (DOS). To return to DraftChoice, type EXIT and press [ENTER] at the DOS prompt. Shelling to DOS is achieved by executing another copy of COMMAND.COM. The user may change the command processor by simply editing the shell prompt when prompted to do so. QUIT - Exits DraftChoice and return to DOS. Remember to save any changes to your drawing prior to exiting as they will otherwise be lost. 4.2 DRAW ~~~~~~~~~ This menu contains all the drawing commands available in DraftChoice. During drawing modes the cursor position will be echoed only when OPTION TOGGLE COORD is active. The X-Y coordinates are displayed on the bottom screen line with delta X (dX) and delta Y (dY) distances also displayed after a reference point has been entered. The coordinates may also be toggled on/off by pressing [F2]. LINE ~~~~ Draws a continuous sequence of end point connected lines until the mode is exited. Each time the [ENTER] key is pressed (or the left mouse button), a new line will be drawn from the last entered point. The sequence continues until [ESC] key or the right mouse button has been pressed. NOTE: You can have snap mode active or enter coordinates at any time in order to precisely locate reference points for any object. (See section on Entering Coordinates) BOX ~~~ Draw a horizontally-aligned box between two points which locate opposite corners of the box. Locate the first point by positioning the cursor and pressing [ENTER]. Next move the cursor to the point defining the opposite corner of the box and press [ENTER]. If a fill pattern has been selected, the box is automatically filled. NOTE: Have snap mode active or type coordinates to precisely locate opposite corners of the box. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 29 CIRCLE ~~~~~~ Draw circles or ellipses using the default type selected under SETUP. When the circle command is invoked, the user is presented with the Place and Setup commands. PLACE - Draw a circle according to the default settings. You will be prompted according to the type of circle selected under the SETUP menu. SETUP - Specify circle types and aspect ratio in a dialog window. The default circle type is RADIUS with an ASPECT ratio of 1. RADIUS Require a center point and point on circumference. DIAMETER Require two points on circumference. POINTS Require three points on circumference. ELLIPSE Require a center point and point defining radius of major and minor axes. ASPECT Aspect ratio of circle used by RADIUS, DIAMETER and POINTS type circles. This is the ratio of the horizontal to the vertical diameter of the circle (default = 1.0). TEXT ~~~~ PLACE - Text can be placed anywhere on the screen. Text is aligned with respect to reference point according to type selected under SETUP. SETUP - Specify the height, width, angle and spacing of the text from the SETUP menu. The unit of measurement displayed is the same as the REAL scale settings (see FILE, NEW). Set sizes and orientations: HEIGHT Height of text in current units. (Default = 0.25) WIDTH Width of text in current units. (Default = 0.25) ANGLE Specify the orientation angle of the text. The angle is specified in degrees, counterclockwise from the horizontal axis. (Default = 0.0) SPACE Sets the spacing between lines of text as a multiple of text height. (Default = 1.2) Set type of text alignment (Default = Left): DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 30 LEFT Specify left justification. The left edge of the string you enter will be placed on the selected point. CENTER Specify center justification. The text you enter will be centered around the selected point. RIGHT Specify right justification. The right edge of the text you enter will be placed on the selected point. FIT Adjust text size so text will fit between two reference points. Select font to use, either primary or secondary: 1: FONT Use primary font for new text. 2: FONT Use secondary font for new text. If a secondary font file has not been loaded, only one font file selection option is available to the user, i.e. the 2: FONT field will be blank. NOTE: See FILE IMPORT FONT to change font globally or to load a new font file. ARC ~~~ Draw an arc by indicating the center of the arc, the starting point on the circumference, and then the ending point on the circumference, either clockwise or clockwise from the first point. The clockwise/counterclockwise direction is indicated by a mode button on the right side of the screen [+] indicates the arc will be drawn in a clockwise direction [-] indicates a counterclockwise direction. The direction can be toggled while drawing (end points of the arc are exchanged), by pressing [SHIFT] - [F3] or by selecting the button with the mouse cursor and pressing the left mouse button. The arc is drawn according to the current circle aspect ratio. See DRAW CIRCLE SETUP ASPECT for information on adjusting the circle aspect ratio. If a fill pattern is selected, the ARC will be automatically filled. POLYGON ~~~~~~~ A polygon is a regular-sided closed shape; i.e., all sides and all angles are equal. Polygons are centered on the first reference point specified and the location of the first vertex is set by the second point. The number of polygon sides is defined in the SETUP dialog. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 31 PLACE - Locate point 1 (the center of the polygon) and press [ENTER]. The size of the polygon floats until fixed by point 2, press [ENTER], (See also OPTION FILL). SETUP - Select the type of polygon and the number of sides to the polygon. TRIANGLE A three-sided polygon SQUARE A four-sided polygon PENTAGON A five-sided polygon SIDES Toggle the arrow up/down keys to increase/decrease the number of sides of the polygon or enter the value manually. ACCEPT Accept all settings. CANCEL Exit the dialog window. BEZIER ~~~~~~ Draw a bezier curve (a special quadratic curve) using 3 control points. Locate end points 1 and 2 of the curve by pressing the [ENTER] key. Point 3 is dynamically used to flex the shape of the quadratic curve. To fix the bezier curve to its final position press the [ENTER] key. Pressing [ESC] cancels the object. (See also OPTION FILL) The bezier curve has the characteristic that the slope of the curve at the end points (1 and 2) is tangent to imaginary lines drawn to point 3 and that the shape of the curve is always concave to the controlling reference points. COMPLEX ~~~~~~~ A complex object is a multi-sided shape composed of straight or curved lines. Control points defining the shape are specified in a manner similar to the LINE command. The complex line will be filled with the default fill pattern if one is selected and fills are active. (See Alter Fill, Option Fill and Toggle Fill) PLACE - The first point is chosen by positioning the cursor and pressing [ENTER]. Specifying subsequent points will result in a point to point connection of the complex line. The last point can be made to close the shape by typing "C" and [ENTER]. Pressing [ESCAPE] terminates the input of control points. SETUP - Select type of complex line: line, spline, freehand or tape. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 32 LINE Connect control points with straight lines. SPLINE Use control points to create smooth curve tangent with mid-points and tangent to end points. Curve smoothness is controlled by the value specified by LEVEL under the FILE, CONFIG, DEFAULT menus. A LEVEL value of 1 results in the same shape as COMPLEX LINES. A LEVEL value of 3 results in a smooth curved shape. FREE A freehand curve allows you to draw on the screen using the cursor. This allows you to enter information, like your signature, directly into the drawing. However, a maximum of 100 points may be stored per object. The faster you move the cursor, the bigger the step size and more coverage you can get with the 100 points. After 100 points a new line is automatically created. Pressing ENTER toggles the drawing pen up or down. ESCAPE exits the mode. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 33 TAPE This command is similar to LINE except all segments are composed of a parallel set of lines mirrored at all control point corners. Before you start drawing the tape, a prompt will be made for the desired tape thickness. The parallel line will be drawn to the left of the control line, relative to the first segment's begin/end points. ACCEPT Confirm dialog selections. CANCEL Exit the dialog menu. PARAMETRIC ~~~~~~~~~~ This powerful command can be used to create complex shapes based on parametric equations. A menu will be displayed which permits you to independently define the X- and Y-coordinates as a function of t. The start and end parameters are required to define the shape: X(t) Formula defining X coordinate as function of t. Y(t) Formula defining Y coordinate as function of t. START - Specify location for parametric process to begin. END - Specify location for parametric process to end. ITERATE - Iterate will repeat the process as many times as specified. ACCEPT - Confirm settings and place object. CANCEL - Exit without creating object. The equation is used to generate a continuous sequence of points. The points will be used to create a complex line object placed relative to a point you specify. For example, a parametric equation: X(t) = t X(t) = 2*t with START = 0 END = 2 and ITERATE = 2 DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 34 will produce a straight line defined by the data points: ITERATION# t X(t) Y(t) ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 4 and if the starting point (position of shape) is x=1, y=1, then the line drawn would be 1,1 to x=3, y=5. As an additional example, the following equations produce a circle of radius 10 located at the origin: X(t) = 10*Sin(t) Y(t) = 10*Cos(t) with START = 0 END = 360 and ITERATE = 36 The following equations create a spiral complex line. X(t) = 10*Sin(t)*exp(-t/10) Y(t) = 10*Cos(t)*exp(-t/10) with START = 0 END = 720 and ITERATE = 36 NOTE: Angles passed to SIN, COS, and TAN functions are in degree units. 4.3 EDIT ~~~~~~~~~ Edit commands act upon objects, allowing them to be erased, duplicated, translated, rotated, mirrored, or combinations thereof. NOTE: EDIT commands operate on all unprotected layers. To protect objects from editing operations see LAYER PROTECT. OBJECT SELECTION METHODS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Two methods are available for selecting an object(s) for editing, the Window method and the Pick method. A status button on the right side of the screen indicates which mode is active. WINDOW - Select objects by enclosing the reference mark associated with the object in a window. You will be prompted to establish one corner of the window. Move the cursor near the DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 35 reference mark(s) of the object(s) you wish to edit and hit [ENTER]. Move the cursor diagonally creating a window which captures the reference mark(s) and hit [ENTER] again. To continue with the editing command, you must press [ESC] to halt the window selection mode. All objects selected by the window will be modified by the selected EDIT command. PICK - The Pick mode is preferred if reference marks are clustered and you wish to edit only one object. To select the Pick mode, press the [F4] function key. A small box will appear on the screen in place of the cursor. Position the box over a line associated with the object to be edited and hit [ENTER]. If found, the object is added to the list of object(s) selected. To halt the selection mode, press [ESC], otherwise continue selecting objects. NOTE: Switch between WIND and PICK modes by pressing [F4] at any time or by clicking on the status button with the mouse. Normally selected objects are added to the selection list, however it is possible to deselect an object by pressing function key [F5]. This causes the selection mode to become SUB, as indicated by a status button on the right side of the screen, and objects will be removed from the selection list. Pressing [F5] again restores the selection mode to ADD. The selection mode may also be toggled by clicking the mouse on the status button. COPY ~~~~ Selected object(s) will be copied based on two or more points. The first point, or FROM position, is any point at or near the selected object which is used as a reference point. Subsequent TO points indicated are used to determine the translation distance and subsequent direction of the copy. Object copies occur dynamically, i.e., the block of objects moves as the cursor is moved. Pressing [ENTER] places a duplicate of the block onto the drawing at the cursor position. You can continue to move and place a number of duplicates anywhere on the screen. To terminate this mode, press the [ESC] key. MOVE ~~~~ Translate the selected object(s) into a new position. Dynamic positioning occurs with the movement of the cursor. Press [ENTER] to indicate the final position. NOTE: Position can be specified by typing coordinates. (See Entering Coordinates in Section 2.) DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 36 ERASE ~~~~~ Erase the selected object(s) from the drawing. NOTE: See UNDO to restore the last ERASE command. Previous erasures cannot be restored. SCALE ~~~~~ Scale the selected object(s) according to parameters specified in the dialog window. The current horizontal and vertical dimensions of the object(s) will be multiplied by the X and Y scale factors. You must specify a reference point about which to scale the objects. When Scale is selected a dialog window will appear which allows the following parameters to be modified. X Set Horizontal scaling factor Y Set Vertical scaling factor [uparrow] Increase X or Y scale factor by 0.1 [downarrow] Decrease X or Y scale factor by 0.1 HALF Reduce current X and Y scale factors by 1/2. DOUBLE Increase current X and Y scale factors by 2. INVERT X and Y scale factors become 1/current scale factors. RESET Set X and Y scale factors to 1.0. ACCEPT Confirm selections and proceed to next step of scaling. CANCEL Abort scaling operation. The following flags are optional when scaling. LOCAL - When active, scale all objects about local reference points and NOT a global reference point. In both cases, top row and bottom row, the same scale factor was specified. However, in the top row example, the LOCAL scaling option was not toggled on. In the bottom row, the LOCAL flag was ON, so you can see that the distance between the reference points of the original boxes (left) is the same as the scaled copies (right), even though the box sizes were scaled by the specified scaling factor(s). FIT - FIT is used to expand/contract selected entities so they will fit a specified area. The user is first asked to select the desired entities and then to define the envelope the entities are to fit in. (Similar to the Scale Command). DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 37 Note that the reference point used for fit scaling, is always the same, i.e. the original reference points of the selected entities. ROTATE ~~~~~~ Rotates the selected elements by a specified angle about a point of rotation. Positive (+) angles are rotated in a counter- clockwise direction, negative (-) angles are rotated in a clockwise direction. Angle Value of angle rotation in degrees. The following buttons permit convenient preset angles to be entered in the angle box. 0 Set angle to zero degrees. 90 Set angle to 90 degrees. 180 Set angle to 180 degrees. 270 Set angle to 270 degrees. SGN Reverse direction of rotation ACCEPT Confirm settings and rotate object. CANCEL Exit without rotating selected objects. XTEND ~~~~~ This command will extend one or more selected lines to intercept with a boundary object. As an example, first identify the boundary object (1) to which the line segment is to be extended. Next select the line object (2) to be extended. Following object selection a dialog will be presented requesting the type of extension to be performed; INNER Only the lines that will physically intersect the boundary line segment will be extended. ANYWHERE All lines including those that would intercept an imaginary line defined by the extend boundary line will be extended. NOTES: 1. No action will occur if the line which is extended will not meet the intersecting line and INNER is selected. 2. When extending to complex entities, the extension is up to the first boundary of the complex entity. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 38 ARRAY ~~~~~ This command combines a COPY operation with a ROTATION, TRANSLATION, SCALING and surface REVOLUTION. After selecting one or more objects the ARRAY dialog window will permit specification of COPY type, and number. The following action modifiers may be selected from the dialog window. LINEAR - The copies will be positioned in a line. You will be prompted to position the first copy. Subsequent copies will be positioned the same distance away from the line established between the original and first copy. Each element can still be rotated on its own axis. CIRCLE - The object will be rotated from a center point in a circular rotation. You will be prompted to specify the center of rotation. Copies will be positioned in a circle about a specified point. VOLUME - Specifies a volume rotation. Select the location of the vertical axis line about which to perform the revolution. The entire object will be revolved through the angle specified. PATH - Creates equally distributed copies of the selected objects using the path of a single object (such as a line, bezier, or spline). The following value parameters may be modified. TOTAL Specify the number of times the object is copied. Changes to this value will automatically recalculate the ANGLE value based on a 360 degree sweep of the objects. ANGLE Copies can be rotated or revolved about a reference point in a circular fashion. The effective radius of the circle is equal to the distance between each object and the reference point. ANGLE defaults to 360/(number of copies plus 1.) SCALE The scale defaults to 1. A scale of less than 1 will result in subsequent copies getting smaller. A scale of greater than 1 will result in subsequent copies getting larger. ROTATE This value may be used to additionally rotate each object. The ROTATE value is added to the ANGLE value to determine the total angle of rotation. If set equal to, but with the opposite sign of the ANGLE value, the object will maintain its original orientation and only be translated. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 39 Negative ROTATE values are subtracted from the ANGLE value. OK Confirm your selections and perform the array copy. ESC Cancel array copy. For example, to ARRAY a triangle (a 3 sided POLYGON) with 3 copies, the angle of rotation estimated by DraftChoice will be 360 degrees divided by (3+1) = 90 degrees. MIRROR ~~~~~~ Place cursor around the object to be mirrored. After selecting object, you will be asked if you want to flip or mirror the object. FLIP - Selected objects will be mirrored about vertical line. Objects are removed from previous orientation and placed in new location. HINT: To flip an object vertically (across the horizontal axis), use the ROTATE command first, perform the MIRROR command, and then ROTATE back to the original angle. MIRROR - This command will cause the selected objects to be mirrored across the vertical axis creating new objects and leaving the original objects intact. CANCEL - Abort operation without action. Return to menu. TRIM ~~~~ Trim line objects that extend beyond a specified boundary. First, select the trim boundary. Next position the cursor on a line on the side of the boundary which is to be trimmed. NOTE: Complex objects must be exploded first before they can be trimmed. BREAK ~~~~~ This command removes a portion of an object between two specified points. First, select the object to break. Next specify the first break point by positioning the cursor on the object and press [ENTER]. Finally, position the cursor at the second break point, and press [ENTER]. Note that cutting off the end of a line can be performed by positioning the cursor outside the line end point on the portion of the line to be deleted. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 40 The entity will be broken into two segments with the segment defined by the two break points deleted. This command is very useful when you have one object intersecting another and you wish to selectively erase part of one of the objects. NOTE: Breaking a CIRCLE creates an ARC object. The direction of the break is clockwise from the first break point. 4.4 ALTER ~~~~~~~~~~ This powerful menu contains commands that are required to change certain attributes for entities that are already drawn, and allows editing of special-type entities. TEXT ~~~~ The Alter, Text command allows you to edit one or more text string that has already been typed in your drawing. When selected, the text strings are placed on the edit line (top of screen) and the Arrow, Delete and Insert keys are active. Press [ENTER] to confirm any modifications and proceed to the next selected text string. Note that the EDIT menu commands are used to copy, move, scale and other operations consider a character string as a single entity. STYLE ~~~~~ This command permits you to change the line style of selected objects. After selecting objects a pick list of styles is presented. Place the cursor on your selection and press [ENTER]. Line styles are defined in the external text file DC.LIN. (See Appendix on how to develop your own line styles). Finally a dialog window will be displayed with the following options. NONE Prevent the display of line or object outline. SLIM Represent each line with 1 dot width. THICK Represent each line with 3 dot width. FAT Represent each line with 5 dot width. SPACE Set the spacing of dots and dashes for various line styles. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 41 ACCEPT Confirm new settings and apply to selected object. CANCEL Do not perform change. FILL ~~~~ Similar to the Style command, above, this command is used to alter the fill pattern of already drawn complex entities. A dialog menu will be presented which permits the user to select from a list of visible patterns. (see Appendix on developing your own fill patterns) The following dialog button modifiers may be selected; NONE Only the outline of the main object appears so any object will be visible. OPAQUE Creates a solid fill pattern of the type selected. Objects underneath the pattern will not show through. SEETHRU Allows fill patterns from overlayed filled objects to show through. [UP] Advance to next set of patterns. [DN] Backup to last set of patterns. CANCEL Revert back to original settings. Highlighting a pattern and pressing [ENTER] will cause the pattern to be selected for use and the dialog will be exited. HATCH ~~~~~ A hatch pattern is constructed from line entities and will replace an assigned fill pattern. Hatching is preferred for use with a pen plotter. Hatch patterns are selected by name from a pick list. An asterisk (*) next to the hatch pattern name indicates the current selection Hatches are defined in the external text file DC.PAT (see Appendix on how to develop your own hatch patterns). UNITS ~~~~~ This command is used to alter the units of an already drawn dimension entity. After the element(s) to be re-dimensioned are specified, the user is presented with a pick list containing the following unit types; mm, meter, km, inch, ft.in, feet, yard, mile, none. A check mark next to the unit type indicates which option type active. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 42 CORNER ~~~~~~ The CORNER command modifies the intersection of two lines with either a Fillet, a Chamfer or an exact Meet. First select two intersecting lines. Press [ESCAPE] to confirm your selections. Next confirm or change the parameters in the dialog menu. The following corner options may be selected. FILLET Extends or trims two lines until they are tangent to an arc of specified radius. The two lines must intersect at a point within the drawing. DraftChoice will not FILLET parallel lines. If such an operation is attempted, an error message will be displayed. A- LEN and B-LEN parameters have no effect on FILLET operations. RADIUS Select radius of arc applied to corner. CHAMFER Chamfer will cut off the corner or edge of an object at the specified distance and join the ends with a line. The RADIUS parameter has no effect on CHAMFER operations. A-LEN Distance from intersecting point on line one. B-LEN Distance from intersecting point on line two. MEET The two lines will be extended until they intersect. EXPLODE ~~~~~~~ This command converts COMPLEX objects such as bezier curves and circles into equivalent objects composed only of straight line segments. RUBBER ~~~~~~ Move end point of LINE and BEZIER objects into new positions. Objects totally enclosed in the rubber window will be moved. Objects crossing the window boundary will be stretched. First, select those objects with end points you dynamically wish to move. Next, specify a "from" position. After the from position is identified, move the cursor until the collection of objects is stretched into the desired shape. Finally specify the "TO" position by pressing [ENTER] or cancel the operation and restore the original shape by pressing [ESC]. NOTE: Rubber will not expand complex objects, but will move the object according to its reference point. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 43 WARP ~~~~ Permits dynamic skewing, shearing and scaling of objects. Selected objects will be exploded and surrounded by a four point control envelop. One or Two control points at a time may be selected and dragged into a new position with the mouse. To select a single control point, position the mouse pointer inside the small control point box. Depress the left mouse button and drag into the new position. Release the button to release control point. To move two adjacent control points at a time, position the mouse pointer on top of the control line connecting two control points. Press the left button and drag to new position. Release button to release control points. All objects will be redrawn and distorted according to the control envelope. To convert final placement press the [ESCAPE] key. NOTE: Text objects must be exploded prior to WARP. COMPLEX ~~~~~~~ Allow changes to complex entities. This command only operates on complex entities; an appropriate error message is displayed if a simple entity is selected. Note that only a single entity may be modified at a time. The following menu options are available. MODIFY The modify command is used to change the position of control points on a complex object. First place a window around the complex object you wish to modify and press [ENTER]. Next, place a window around the active control points. Press [ENTER] to indicate the "FROM" position and [ENTER] to specify the "TO" position. The box on the left side was modified by relocating its top left corner as shown in the right portion of the figure. DOUBLE This command is used to create border lines (doubles) around complex entities. You are asked to specify how far from the original you want these border lines to be. One of the benefits of creating a DOUBLE-type entity is that the new entity is complex and can therefore, be filled with one of the available fill patterns to create unique border-type entities! JOIN The Alter, Complex, Join command is used to connect lines or complex entities into a single object. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 44 Please, note that the joining of lines requires that the entity selection is done using the pick mode or the window mode picking one line at a time. This is because joining will occur in the order entities are selected, and this order is ambiguous when the general window selection is used. CONTROL This command is used to alter a complex object. Place a window around the complex object and press [ENTER] to confirm your selections or [ESCAPE] to exit. An envelope will appear around the object. Click on the control points of the envelope to modify the envelope as you wish. Press [ESCAPE] to exit and the object will be redrawn. TWEEN ~~~~~ This command creates intermediate objects by blending two different control objects. The control objects can not be symbols. For example, TWEEN could be used to create intermediate contour lines for a topographic map, a centerline between river banks on a map, or create a series of shapes morphing between a circle and a triangle. The number of copies and the smoothness of fit are set through a dialog window which presents the following commands. TOTAL Set number of intermediate blended objects to be created. DIVISIONS Set number of points which subdivide the complex line created by blending two control objects. 4.5 IMAGE COMMANDS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Imagine that you are looking through a magnifying window at a very large and detailed picture. At high magnification, you can only see that portion of the picture which is directly under the viewing window. To see more of the picture (but less detail), you must decrease the image scale factor. To zoom in on a specific detail, you increase the image scale factor (but see less of the picture). When DraftChoice is started, the default image scale factor is set to 1.00 and the coordinate of the lower corner of the screen is set at 0,0. This is called the origin. The image scale factor (ISF) is displayed in the lower left of the DraftChoice screen. You can modify the ISF by using the IMAGE menu commands to adjust the position of the viewing window with respect to the drawing and the overall size of the drawing displayed on the screen. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 45 UPDATE ~~~~~~ Redraw the entire screen at the current image scale and option settings. UPDATE will remove remnants of objects that have been ERASED or MOVED. Note that the speed of screen updates can be enhanced in those drawings that contain FILL patterns, TEXT objects and LINE styles if their associated OPTION TOGGLES are disabled. WINDOW ~~~~~~ Zoom in on a portion of the current display. You select a portion of the drawing which will be enlarged to fill the screen, by enclosing the area with a flexible window. The size of the window will be used to determine the new image scale factor. LAST ~~~~ Swap between the last image/scale factor/position displayed and the current image settings. This is very useful when working on a very large drawing. It allows you to zoom in on a small work area, make your changes, and then returns you to the original scale which shows the entire drawing. PAN ~~~ Dynamically reposition the viewing window on the current display (with BWON mode active). After the "FROM" point is selected (by pressing [ENTER]) you will discover that movement of the cursor (with mouse or cursor keys) will result in the image on the screen moving instantly! (Hint: use a "FROM" point near the center of the screen to permit the greatest range of movement). Fix the new location of the viewing window by pressing [ENTER]. Once the new location is fixed, the drawing is redrawn at the specified position. DOUBLE ~~~~~~ Double the image scale factor and reposition the viewing window about the center of the screen. Objects displayed in the drawing appear larger by a factor of two. HALF ~~~~ Halve the image scale factor and reposition the viewing window about the center of the screen. Objects displayed in the drawing appear smaller by a factor of two. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 46 ZOOM ~~~~ This command allows you to manually change the image scale factor and the location of the lower left screen coordinate (screen origin). A dialog window presenting the choices will be displayed. XOFS The X offset coordinate is used to position the origin of the drawing (lower left corner) to coordinate X. YOFS The Y offset coordinate is used to position the origin of the drawing (lower left corner) to coordinate Y. ORIGIN Return the drawing to the default image origin setting. SCALE Entering a scale factor of 1.0 will return the drawing to the default image scale setting. The horizontal and vertical dimensions will be multiplied by the entered scale factor. ACCEPT Press [ACCEPT] to confirm your selection and redraw screen according to new settings. CANCEL Abort ZOOM operation. ALL ~~~ DraftChoice scans all objects in the drawing to determine the maximum and minimum X-Y coordinates of the drawing. DraftChoice then determines an image scale factor and a viewing window which will display the entire drawing on the screen at the largest scale possible while still fitting all objects on the screen. SET ~~~ Assign a name to a specific view (image, scale factor and viewing window) of the drawing. The user can later pick that name from a selection list to redisplay the same view. Up to 8 different views may be defined for each drawing. Each view may be assigned a unique name up to 10 characters long. The default view names, VIEW-1 through VIEW-8, correspond to the IMAGE, ALL created view. To create a view, select SET, and choose a view name. You can either accept the name or enter your own unique name. Finally, specify the window that will be used for the view, similar to the IMAGE, WINDOW command. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 47 To modify either the name or window of a selected view, select SET, choose the view name, enter a new name or accept the current name, and reselect the window. VIEW ~~~~ Select one of the predefined views from the pick list presented. 4.6 OPTION ~~~~~~~~~~~ The OPTION menu allows you to change parameters that effect the entire drawing. The changes will remain in effect until the next time a parameter is changed or DraftChoice is restarted from DOS. To save any changed parameters as new defaults for future sessions, see File, Config, Save. GRID ~~~~ The GRID command allows you to select from two options GRID and SNAP. After selecting OPTION GRID, a dialog menu will appear with the following options. GRID Create a construction grid at the specified x and y grid spacing in the displayed units. The grid is visibly represented by a dot at each XY intersection coordinate. Grids are preset to correspond to a 1 inch paper distance. (The physical grid will not be displayed until the GRID menu has been exited.) The grid can be toggled on and off by typing "G" or selecting GRID. From the drawing screen, the grid may be toggled on/off by pressing the [F5] function key or by toggling thru GRID button on the right side of the screen with the mouse. SNAP Constrain movement of the cursor to exactly the spacing of the snap grid. The snap grid is similar to the construction grid, but is not visible. When drawing an object, physical coordinates are forced to the nearest snap point. The snap grid can be toggled on and off by selecting SNAP from the dialog window or toggling the SNAP button on the right side of the screen with the mouse. While drawing press the [F9] Function Key. A change in color of the SNAP button on the DraftChoice screen indicates the snap option is active. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 48 X, Y Sets the horizontal and vertical grid spacing. H, V Sets the horizontal and vertical snap spacing. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 49 TOGGLE ~~~~~~ Toggle switches are features that can be enabled or disabled. A dialog window appears. A check mark next to each switch indicates the switch is active. The switches are listed below along with their default settings in brackets: COORD Dynamically display the X-Y coordinate position of the cursor at the bottom of the screen in the current units. Changes in x and y values (dx and dy), radius, and angle are also displayed while drawing or editing as appropriate. [OFF] WHITE Sets the background color to white. Intended for use with monochrome LCD screens. [OFF] MARK Display the object reference mark (X). This toggle switch is useful when fine editing of entities is desired. [ON] TEXT Display TEXT objects completely. If disabled, represent text with a solid line to speed up screen redrawing. [ON] VERIFY Force the user to confirm an erase action. [ON] BWON When enabled use monochrome color and a video buffer for all drawing operations to increase speed of display update. When disabled draw directly to screen using assigned layer colors. [ON] AUTO Automatically play animation sequence ( if defined) in drawing file immediately after it is loaded. [OFF] FILL Fill shapes with assigned patterns. If disabled, only boundary of drawn. Disabling fill may be used to speed drawing update time (see OPTION FILL or OPTION HATCH ) STYLE Permit use of line styles. If disabled, show each line with a thickness of SLIM (see OPTION STYLE). [ON] DEPTH Toggles the 3-D display of menus dialog windows, and buttons ON and OFF. [ON] ATTACH ~~~~~~ DraftChoice has the ability to "attach" an object being drawn with an existing object. Attach allows you to specify the attach point as the end point or middle of the existing object when active. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 50 Attach may be toggled on/off by pressing the [F10] function key, or by clicking the mouse on the ATTACH button on the right side of the screen. END-PT Attach to either end of the existing object. The end point closest to the cursor will be selected. MID-PT Attach a point to the middle. ACCEPT Select enter to accept the point. CANCEL Select escape to delete the point. NOTE: The cursor must be positioned with in a specified number of pixels of the existing object for attach to function. This value is specified by File, Config, Default, pick. For entities that have no start or middle (e.g. circles), newly drawn objects will attach to the nearest vertex point. FILL ~~~~ The OPTION FILL command uses the selected bit mapped fill pattern as the default which is assigned to any complex shape capable of being filled. It overrides any hatch pattern previously assigned. The following objects can be assigned a fill (or hatch) pattern when drawn: BOX ARC BEZIER CIRCLE COMPLEX POLYGON COMPLEX ARROW SPLINE FREEHAND An object having a fill pattern can be changed to another pattern with the ALTER FILL command. (See ALTER FILL for description) HATCH ~~~~~ The OPTION HATCH command uses the selected hatch pattern as the default which is assigned to any complex shape capable of being filled. It overrides any bit mapped fill pattern previously assigned as the default. A hatch pattern is created by combining different types of line styles and is recommended when plotting will be done on a pen plotter. (See ALTER HATCH for description). DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 51 STYLE ~~~~~ The OPTION STYLE command selects the line style to be used as the default for any new objects. The current line style is indicated in the Option, Menu. To change the default style place the cursor on a line style and press [ENTER]. The currently select line style is highlighted on the list. The line style may be further modified as None, Slim, Thick, or Fat. (See ALTER STYLE for description) UNITS ~~~~~ Indicate the current units to use when mapping screen coordinates. Choices include mm, meter, km, inch, ft.in, feet, yard, mile, or none. The desired unit may be selected from a pick list that appears. A check mark beside one of the units indicates the current default setting which will be used by all new dimension operations and by the coordinate position indicator displayed in the center of the bottom line of the screen. It does not have any effect on previous units that were already embedded in the drawing. (See ALTER UNITS to change previous units.) MACROS ~~~~~~ A macro is a sequence of keystrokes that are automatically played back to perform desired operations. Up to five different macros may be defined in DraftChoice identified by the letters A through E. Macros are executed by simply holding down the Alt key and pressing the corresponding key-letter, A through E. Macros are composed of letters corresponding to DraftChoice command selections and a set of special keywords. Macro keywords must be enclosed in curly brackets {}. The following keywords are available: ~ - Equivalent to pressing [ENTER] {ESC} - Equivalent to pressing [ESC] {LT} - Move cursor one increment left {RT} - Move cursor one increment right {UP} - Move cursor one increment up {DN} - Move cursor one increment down {PGUP} - Increase cursor movement step by 10 pixels {PGDN} - Decrease cursor movement step by 10 pixels {WIND} - Toggles the windowing selection mode ON {POINT} - Toggles pointing selection mode ON {ISON} - Toggles Isometric mode ON {ISOFF} - Toggles Isometric mode OFF {ORTHON} - Toggles Orthogonal mode ON DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 52 {ORTHOFF} - Toggles Orthogonal mode OFF {SNAPON} - Toggles Snap mode ON {SNAPOFF} - Toggles Snap mode OFF {CDON} - Toggles Coordinate display ON {CDOFF} - Toggles Coordinate display OFF {PERPON} - Toggles Perpendicular mode ON {PERPOFF} - Toggles Perpendicular mode OFF {CPOS} - Clockwise drawing of ARCS {CNEG} - Counterclockwise drawing of ARCS {ELADD} - Toggle ADD element mode ON {ELSUB} - Toggle SUBTRACT element mode ON {GRIDON} - Toggle GRID mode ON {GRIDOFF} - Toggle GRID mode OFF {GETXY} - Execution of the macro is suspended and the user is permitted to move the cross-hair cursor using the mouse. Macro execution is continued once the left/right mouse button has been pressed. {GETKEY} - Execution of the macro is suspended and the user is permitted to enter X,Y coordinate values. ACCEPT Accept the macro definition for the currently selected macro (A-E). CANCEL Cancel the macro definition dialog window and return to the Options menu. REFS ~~~~ Each object in the drawing is assigned one or more reference points. A visible reference point makes it easier to select objects using the WINDOW selection mode. The dialog menu presented allows you to select your own reference mark type. A check mark indicates the reference mark which will be used. (Also See OPTION TOGGLE MARK) Cross - The object will be marked with a large CROSS. cross - The object will be marked with an small cross. Plus - The object will be marked with a plus. Box - The object will be marked with a large Box. box - The object will be marked with a small box. Hour - The object will be marked with an hourglass-shaped mark. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 53 4.7 PLOT ~~~~~~~~~ This menu permits you to print, or plot, your drawing. The default plot settings are for a Epson compatible 9-pin dot matrix printer connected to LPT1. You can change the device and output port to which data is sent. (See FILE, CONFIG, PRINTER/OUTPUT). GO ~~ Before printing, make sure the printer paper is adjusted to the top of form and then select the command PLOT, GO. The size of drawing sent to the printer is set by the scale factor selected under FILE NEW in combination with the PLOT IMAGE WIDTH setting. To achieve accurate scaling, the PLOT IMAGE FIT flag must be enabled. Otherwise only the visible portion of the drawing displayed on the screen will be printed within the specified width and it will most probably not be to scale. PRINT Commence printing. The drawing is created in horizontal strips and then sent to the printer. Creating each strip of the drawing results in a short delay before the graphics information is sent to the printer. The higher the selected print density (see PLOT IMAGE ) the greater the amount of time required to process and print the drawing because of the increased quantity of graphic data. Plotting progress is displayed as a percent status bar on the screen. When finished, DraftChoice will give a short beep. See the EJECT command below, if you are using a laserjet printer. CANCEL Do not proceed with printing process. Return to menu. If the selected output is a plotter, an additional dialog window will appear displaying a plot scaling factor and x and y offset values. X,Y, Offset Horizontal and vertical offset at which the origin of the drawing (0,0) is to be located on the paper (default is 0,0). X and Y offset values may be used to plot an image somewhere in the middle of a large sheet of paper. Factor Plot scaling adjustment factor for use with non- standard plotting devices. The default value of 1.023 will result in plots being scaled properly according to the pre-selected drawing on HP-7470 and compatible plotters. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 54 CLIP ~~~~ The CLIP command permits you to selectively print only a portion of the drawing. You will be prompted to place a window around the view you wish to print. Press [ENTER] to confirm your selection. Next you will be asked to print or cancel your drawing. Note that the clipped portion of the drawing is printed at the same scale the drawing was created. PRINT - Send clipped portion of drawing to the printer. CANCEL - Do not proceed with printing. Return to menu. EJECT - The EJECT command issues a form feed to the printer and causes the paper to advance to the top of the next page. The EJECT command does not function when the print device is a plotter. Note that because of the way laserjet printers operate (complete page info is required to process a page), it may be necessary to use the EJECT command to force your printer to print the drawing. IMAGE ~~~~~ The IMAGE command will display a dialog window which allows you to modify the resolution, size, orientation, and aspect ratio of the drawing sent to the print device. The V-aspect ratio may be used to adjust for printer driver differences so that a plotted circle appears round. Three print density options are available: High, Medium, and Low. HI Results in best possible quality drawing, but slowest output speed. MED Mixture of moderate quality and moderate output speed. LOW Results in fastest output speed, but lowest print quality. Two drawing orientations are permitted, Portrait and Landscape. PORTRAIT Horizontal drawing direction is matched to the narrow paper direction. LANDSCAPE Horizontal drawing direction is matched to the long paper direction. Note that due to the relation of the paper sizes and the monitor aspect ratios, the default orientation for printing drawings to scale is LANDSCAPE. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 55 If the orientation is changed to PORTRAIT, then the printed dimensions are controlled by the paper width (in the 8.5"x11" case, it is controlled by the 8.5" size), and will not be at the selected scale. The following options are used to map the drawing onto the paper. FIT Scales the maximum/minimum drawing dimensions to exactly fit the WIDTH setting. ENHANCE Draw emphasized, enhanced (lines) by using 4 pixels (dots) for each original pixel. This mode should be used only to enhance lines in high resolution modes. Please note that the time required to print an enhanced image is significantly longer than a non- enhanced image! WIDTH Specify the width of the printed drawing in inches. When the FIT flag is set, the maximum and minimum dimensions of the drawing will be scaled to fit the width exactly. V-ASPECT Used to compensate vertical resolution for print devices not directly supported by DraftChoice. The larger V-ASPECT, the smaller the vertical dimension of the plot. WARNING: V-ASPECT should be used only if paper vertical scaling requires adjustment. 4.8 SYMBOL ~~~~~~~~~~~ This menu allows you to group a number of drawn objects and assign a symbol name to that group. For example, an electrical designer might have a set of symbol definitions for common objects like resistors and capacitors. Each symbol might be composed of one or more base objects like lines, circles, and boxes. By defining the symbol once, and then using it by name many times, the designer will save time, effort, and computer memory in creating the drawing. Symbols are saved with drawings that use them. When DraftChoice is started, it looks for a symbol library file AUTOLOAD.SYM. If found, the symbol library file is loaded automatically. NOTE: If you use the FILE NEW command, all named symbols will be cleared from memory. Importing a drawing file that contains symbols will merge any symbols currently in memory with the imported file. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 56 Caution must be used when importing symbols. A symbol being imported with the same name (but defined differently) will not be loaded as the existing symbol takes precedence. CAUTION: To save any additions to the symbol library currently in RAM for later use by other drawings, use the FILE, XTRACT, SYMBOLS command, which creates a file with the extension .SYM. USE ~~~ When the SYMBOL, USE command is selected, a dialog menu displaying icons of the available symbols is presented. Move the cursor to highlight the desired symbol and press [ENTER]. A second dialog menu will appear which allows you to modify the orientation and size of the symbol prior to placing it in your drawing. SCALE Set the size of the symbol based upon the original size of the symbol at the time it was defined. ROTATE This option will rotate the object at a user- specified angle. 0, 90, 180, 270 Predefined angles of rotation (degrees). ACCEPT Confirm settings and proceed to place symbol. CANCEL Do not place symbol. Return to menu. Finally tell DraftChoice where to place the symbol. Move your cursor to the desired spot (or enter the destination coordinate) and press [ENTER]. The symbol will be placed with the symbol reference point aligned with the indicated destination. NOTE: Any modifications (scale, rotate, etc.) you make to a symbol stay in effect until you either change them or you re- load the library. MAKE ~~~~ Define a symbol by selecting a group of objects, assign a symbol name and then indicate a point at or near the objects which will be used as the symbol reference point. For example, to make the circle/box combination shown below into a symbol, select Symbol, Make, and use the window mode to select both objects and press ESC. When prompted, enter a DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 57 symbol name (SAMPLE) and then specify the lower left corner of the box as a reference point. Now when you select Symbol, Use, the circle/box combination will appear as one of the available symbols. NOTE: Remember to save your new symbols. (See FILE, XTRACT, SYMBOLS). DELETE ~~~~~~ To remove ONE symbol definition, select the name from the dialog menu. EXPLODE ~~~~~~~ This command takes a symbol in the drawing and replaces it with its component parts (i.e. lines, circles, arcs). An excellent use of this command is to permit you to make modification to an existing symbol library. For example, take a symbol, SYMBOL EXPLODE it, define some new lines, delete some old lines, and then make a new symbol with the same name. WARNING: Do not confuse this command with EDIT, EXPLODE which will decompose an object to a collection of only line objects. RESET ~~~~~ Discard all symbols in the Library and release all memory assigned to it. FONT ~~~~ The character font used to DRAW TEXT belongs to its own special category of symbols. To perform changes to a font letter, perform the following steps: 1. Perform a file NEW, Set Real units to Meters and select drawing NONE. 2. Set the Snap H&V spacing to 1, Grid X & Y spacing to 8 meters. 3. Set the text height and width equal to 256. 4. Place a letter on screen and note position of base line, top of character and descender line. 5. Use SYMBOL, FONT command to assign the objects to a specific letter. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 58 6. After redefining letters, save new font file ( FILE, XTRACT, FONT). For example, the capital letter A can be constructed with three straight lines. NOTE: Circles and other complex shapes will automatically be converted to LINE objects before they are used to define a font character. A new definition assigned to a font letter will not become permanent unless the font has been saved. ANIMATE ~~~~~~~ ANIMATE allows you to create an animated display of images. Any portion of the screen can be captured, providing it has an object in it. When a sequence of images has been captured, they can be played back in an animation sequence, forwards or backwards. The duration of display for each frame can be set in milliseconds. HINT: It helps to use a rectangular frame to blank out the last image placed on the screen, i.e. enclose the area you will be capturing with a box (Draw, Box) and include the box in your capture window. WARNING: Animation screens are stored in conventional memory. The total number of slides, therefore, depends on the amount of available RAM and the screen resolution. GET Capture selected objects as a rectangular block of Binary Bits. The size of the block is determined by the maximum and minimum boundary of the selected objects. Once an image has been captured, you are prompted for the image display time in milliseconds. PLAY Play back sequence of recorded slides. Note that if a single slide has been captured, this command has no visible effect. The following keys affect the play back display speed: [UP] Speeds up the display sequence rate [DN] Slows down the display sequence rate [LEFT] Causes the display to rotate in a "forward" direction [RIGHT] Causes the display to rotate in a "reverse" direction STEP This command permits you to view each slide individually. Press the right cursor to advance to the next slide, and the left cursor to backup. Press [ENTER] to modify the display duration assigned to the slide. Hit [ESC] to exit from the step mode. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 59 RESET Release memory assigned to all slides. CAUTION: Captured slides are lost unless the file has already been saved to disk! NOTE: Only conventional memory is used to store slides. 4.9 MEASURE ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This menu allows you to create dimension objects and query the distance, included angle, and area of existing objects. DIMENSION ~~~~~~~~~ Create an object complete with dimension leader lines which echoes distance between its end points. This type of object will update the echoed distance if any changes result from scaling occur. The DIMENSION command has two options, Place and Setup. PLACE Place a dimension line on the screen complete with end point arrow heads and a text string representing the distance between the end points. The orientation of the text string is controlled by the order in which the end points are indicated. The text is always placed from the first point to the last point. If the space between the leader lines is greater than the length of the dimension text the distance text will be centered between end points. Otherwise, text overflows to the left. SETUP This choice presents the user with a dialog menu which permits changes to alignment and arrow options. The following options determine dimension text orientation; PARALLEL Dimension text will be placed parallel to the dimension line. 3.5 FT ___________________ HORIZON Dimension text will always be horizontal. ----- 3.5 FT ------ The following options control type of arrows used at end points of dimension lines: DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 60 ARROW Arrows will be used to define the end of the dimension lines. 3.5 FT <----------------> SLASH Small lines oriented at 45 degrees to the direction of the dimension line, will be used to signify the precise end of the line. 3.5 FT /-----------------/ NOTE: Cycle through arrow style choices by pressing the down triangle. COORDINATE ~~~~~~~~~~ Creates an object which echoes the X,Y coordinate as text associated with the reference point. Please, note that dimension text is not a text-type entity. It is a different object type and cannot be modified with the MODIFY, TEXT command. RADIUS ~~~~~~ Draw a dimension line from a center point to a point on a circumference. Horizontal and vertical crossed lines are placed at the first point and are used to indicate the center of the circle. An arrow is placed on the circumference point. DIAMETER ~~~~~~~~ Draws a dimension line with arrow heads at both ends of the line. Use to dimension the diameter of circle objects. ANGLE ~~~~~ Draws an arc dimension with arrow heads and two leader lines. You specify the center, point 1 on the arc and point 2 clockwise from point 1. A dimension line and the size of the angles in degrees are automatically inserted in the drawing. LEADER ~~~~~~ Leader lines are used to logically connect a descriptive text object with a drawing object and are commonly used for notes. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 61 Two points define the leader line. The leader consists of a line angled at 60 degrees from the vertical connected to a horizontal line. The first point indicated is identified with an arrow. It is commonly used in conjunction with text to place notes on a drawing. ARROW ~~~~~ This command is used to place an arrow at a specified point. PLACE Define position of arrow and press [ENTER]. Subsequent movement of the cursor controls the direction of the arrow until orientation is fixed by pressing [ENTER] a second time. SETUP Select the size and type of the arrow. MARK ~~~~ This object is used to place a construction mark on the drawing for reference purposes only. It will not be plotted. Pressing [ENTER] continues to create object MARKS until [ESCAPE] is pressed. BOUNDARY ~~~~~~~~ This command determines the maximum, minimum, horizontal, and vertical dimensions of a collection of one or more objects and places a dimension line to the right and below the objects. To use select objects using pick or window modes and then press [ESCAPE]. Dimension lines will be placed around the collection of objects, to the right (vertically) and below (horizontally). If the object does not possess a horizontal or vertical dimension (as in a line object) then that dimension will be omitted. QUERY ~~~~~ Reports attributes, characteristics, and parameters for selected object(s). LENGTH Report length between two points. The calculated length will be displayed in a dialog window. ANGLE Report interior and exterior angle between three points defining the intersection of two lines. First specify the intersecting point and then, respectively a distant point on each line segment of interest. The calculated angle will be displayed in a dialog window. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 62 AREA Report area enclosed by points representing the perimeter. To terminate the operation press the [ESC] key and the total area will be displayed in a dialog window but will not be inserted in the drawing. OBJECT Report parameters associated with a selected object including Type, Line Style, Fill Type, Layer and Position. LAYER Reports the layer assigned to the object. STYLE Reports the line style of the object. FILL Reports the fill pattern associated with the object. WIDTH Reports the line width of the object. PTS Reports the number of points associated with the object. (Complex line only) XC Reports the X-coordinate horizontally. YC Reports the Y-coordinate vertically. NOTE: Other objects display different information 4.10 LAYER ~~~~~~~~~~~ DraftChoice permits you to work on multiple layers which can be thought of as transparent overlays. Layers permit you to organize objects in your drawing into logical groupings. The maximum number of layers supported in DraftChoice is 256. The maximum number of characters used for the layer name is limited to 8. ACTIVE ~~~~~~ Specify the layer upon which new objects will be placed. When selected, you are presented with a dialog/pick window. Only one layer can be active at a time. The currently selected layer is indicated by a checkmark. DISPLAY ~~~~~~~ Display is used to indicate those layers which will be visible when the screen is redrawn. The pick list represents all visible layers with an asterisk (*). Highlight the layer name and press enter to change the status from visible to invisible. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 63 NOTE: Although a layer may not be visible, EDIT commands will operate on all layers. To ensure objects are not mistakenly selected, make sure all layers are DISPLAYED when performing EDIT commands or turn on PROTECT for those layers which are also invisible. PROTECT ~~~~~~~ Prevent objects on specific layers from being modified during editing operations. Select protected layers from the pick list presented. A checkmark indicates protection is active. You may protect as many layers as you wish. Protecting all layers would disable editing of the whole drawing until protection was reset. COLOR ~~~~~ Colors may be individually assigned to each layer. First select the layer from the layer pick list. Next a dialog menu presenting the available colors is displayed. Select a color by highlighting the corresponding button and pressing enter. NOTE: Layer colors will be visible only when BWON is disabled (see OPTION, TOGGLE, BWON). Changes to layer colors will take effect after IMAGE, UPDATE is performed. MOVE ~~~~ This command permits you to move one or more objects to another layer selected from a pick list. CREATE ~~~~~~ Permits the user to name a new layer and add it to the pick list. The default number of layers is 16 and has been preassigned layer names as follows; LAYER-1, LAYER-2 .... LAYER-16. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 64 APPENDIX - FILE FORMATS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This section describes the various file types and formats that are used by DraftChoice. *.DCH Native, Binary DraftChoice format. All drawing and symbol files created by DraftChoice are of this format. Please, note that DCH files created by versions of the program earlier that Version 1.5, probably will not be loaded by this version of DraftChoice. *.PLT HPGL (Hewlett Packard Graphics Language) format. ASCII file containing HPGL commands. Files of this type may be sent directly to a plotter or can be imported by a large number of software applications (word processors, graphics, etc.). HPGL files can be both created and imported by DraftChoice These files do not always have a PLT extension. If such a file is created using DraftChoice, the user may assign their own extension to the file name. *.DXF A file format created by Autodesk (developers of AutoCAD), to transfer drawing information between programs. DXF files are pure ASCII files. The structure of the files is detailed in most AutoCAD books. *.PCX PC-Publisher binary graphics format file. Imported by most popular software applications (word processing, graphics, desktop publishing, etc.) *.WPG WordPerfect binary graphics format files. The format of these files is explained in detail in the WordPerfect Developer's package. Value Files Pure ASCII files containing numbers that may be imported as text, or as coordinates, into a DraftChoice drawing. Please note that this should not be in the format created by your favorite word processor, UNLESS your word processor produces pure ASCII (text) files. The structure of the file is very simple with a pair of values, separated by comma, on each line. Each set of values denotes absolute X and Y coordinates. A blank line signifies a break in the line continuity. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 65 For example, the lines: 10,10 15,15 20,20 30,30 will produce a continuous line with three segments. from X=10, Y=10 to X=15, Y=15 from X=15, Y=15 to X=20, Y=20 from X=20, Y=20 to X=30, Y=30 while the lines (with a blank line inserted): 10,10 15,15 20,20 30,30 will produce two line segments, from X=10, Y=10 to X=15, Y=15 and from X=20, Y=20 to X=30, Y=30 Text Files Pure ASCII files that may be imported as text into a DraftChoice drawing. Please note that this should not be in the format created by your favorite word processor, UNLESS your word processor produces pure ASCII (text) files. BSAVE A special binary file format that may be used with BASIC. Consult your BASIC language user's manual for details on using the BASIC BLOAD command to load a file created using the BSAVE format in DraftChoice. The following is a simple BASIC program to display a file TEST.SCR on a CGA monitor. DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 66 5 REM ******************************************************* 10 REM ** Demonstrates Simple routine to get * 15 REM ** DraftChoice file created using the BSAVE option * 20 REM ** and display it on your CGA Monitor * 25 REM ******************************************************* 30 REM *** Clear screen and set 640x200 CGA graphics 35 CLS 40 SCREEN 2 45 DIM A%(1000) 50 REM *** Set data segment and offset address to point 55 REM *** to storage area. 60 DEF SEG 65 AD=VARPTR(A%(0)) 70 REM *** File must reside in current directory 75 BLOAD "TEST.SCR",AD 80 REM *** Place image on screen at location X,Y 85 PUT (100,10),A%,PRESET 90 END DC.LIN This file contains the line type definitions that are used by DraftChoice. A maximum of 20 line styles may be defined and stored in the DC.LIN file which is an ASCII file and may be edited using your favorite text editor. The format of the file is simple. One line contains the name of the line type, preceded by an asterisk, and the next line contains the line type definition, as a repeatable pattern of short line segments, or characters, preceded by an upper case A. All length segments are in REAL units (i.e., the Real units specified in the File, New command. The size of the repeating pattern depends on the SPACE value in Option, Style. *LineName A,R1,R2,R3,.... R1,R2,R3 are real values, or special characters, as follows: Positive = length of continuous line segment. Negative = length of blank line segment Zero = dot / = right slanted short line \ = left slanted short line # = small box outline | = placement of the piping character DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 67 Examples: *DASHED A,0.5,-0.25 A repeated pattern that consists of a solid line segment of 0.5 units, followed by a blank line segment of 0.25 units. *CROSS A,0.5,/,\ A repeated pattern consisting of a solid line segment of 0.5 units, followed by a short right slanted line and a short left slanted line (both at zero displacement, forming a cross). DC.PAT This file contains the hatch pattern and bitmapped pattern definitions that are used by DraftChoice. The format of the file is very simple. The first portion contains the hatch pattern definition, followed by the bitmapped pattern definition. HATCH PATTERN DEFINITION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A maximum of 20 hatch patterns may be defined by the user. One line contains the name of the hatch pattern, preceded by an asterisk. This line is followed by one or more pairs of lines that contain the pattern orientation (degrees), X and Y basepoint coordinates, parallel displacement and vertical displacement, and the line type definition consistent with the requirement given for the DC.LIN file. *HatchPatternName Or,Bx,By,Dp,Dv A,R1,R2,R3,.... where Or = Orientation of the line type that follows (in degrees). Bx = Basepoint (start) X-coordinate By = Basepoint (start) Y-coordinate Dp = Parallel displacement Dv = Vertical displacement DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 68 R1,R2,R3 are real values, or special characters, as follows: Positive = length of continuous line segment. Negative = length of blank line segment Zero = dot / = right slanted short line \ = left slanted short line # = small box outline | = placement of the piping character Examples: ~~~~~~~~~ *HORIZON 0,0,0,0,0.5 A,1 Where: Or = 0 (i.e., 0 degrees horizontal) Bx,By = 0 (start at leftmost boundary) Dp = 0 (no horizontal displacement) Dv = 0.5 (horizontal lines will be spaced 0.5 units apart) A single line will be used to create the pattern. The line will consist of a repeated solid line segment of 1.0 (i.e., a solid line). A second example: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *PLUS 90,0.5,0,0,1.0 A,-0.25,0.5,-0.25 0,0,0.5,0,1.0 A,-0.25,0.5,-0.25 Two line definitions are used to define this particular hatch pattern. First Line Or = 90 (vertical) Bx,By = 0.5,0 (start 0.5 units from left boundary) Dp = 0.0 (no parallel displacement) Dv = 1.0 (horizontal lines will be spaced 1.0 units apart) The line will be made up of three segments. A blank (0.25 units long) segment, a solid segment (0.5 units long), and another blank segment (0.25 units long). DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 69 Second Line Or = 0 (horizontal) Bx,By = 0,0.5 (start 0.5 units from bottom boundary) Dp = 0.0 (no parallel displacement) Dv = 1.0 (horizontal lines will be spaced 1.0 units apart) The line will be made up of three segments. A blank (0.25 units long) segment, a solid segment (0.5 units long), and another blank segment (0.25 units long). BIT MAPPED PATTERN DEFINITION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The second portion of the DC.PAT file contains the bit mapped pattern definitions in the format described below. A maximum of 50 bit mapped patterns may be defined by the user. Each pattern is defined by two lines. The first line contains the pattern name preceded by the percent (%) sign signifying that it is a bit mapped pattern. The second line contains 8 groups of bytes, preceded by the dollar sign signifying that they are hexadecimal values. The byte values are based on a pixel grid as shown below: 01230123 1 -------- 2 -------- 3 -------- 4 -------- 5 -------- 6 -------- 7 -------- 8 -------- For example, the bit mapped pattern 01230123 1 --█---█- 2 --█---█- 3 --█---█- 4 --█---█- 5 --█---█- 6 --█---█- 7 --█---█- 8 --█---█- which would result in vertical lines displayed on the screen, would correspond to the lines, DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 70 %VERTICAL $44,$44,$44,$44,$44,$44,$44,$44 in the DC.PAT file. On the other hand, the DC.PAT line, %HORIZON $FF,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00 would result in the bit mapped pattern, 01230123 1 ████████ 2 -------- 3 -------- 4 -------- 5 -------- 6 -------- 7 -------- 8 -------- Contents of DC.LIN *DASHED A,0.5,-0.25 *CROSS A,0.5,/,\ Contents of DC.PAT *HORIZON 0,0,0,0,0.5 A,1 *PLUS 90,0.5,0,0,1.0 A,-0.25,0.5,-0.25 0,0,0.5,0,1.0 A,-0.25,0.5,-0.25 %VERTICAL $44,$44,$44,$44,$44,$44,$44,$44 %HORIZON $FF,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00 DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 71 INDEX ~~~~~ 24-PIN PRINTERS 26 9-PIN PRINTERS 26 ABSOLUTE COORDINATES 15 ACCURACY 14 ACTIVE LAYER 63 ALTER COMMAND 41 ALTER COMMAND 41 ALTER CORNER 43 ALTER FILL 42 ALTER LINESTYLE 41 ALTER STYLE 41 ALTER UNITS 42 ANIMATING 59 ANIMATION 50 ARC DRAW 31 ARRAY CIRCLE 39 ARRAY COMMAND 39 ARRAY LINEAR 39 ARRAY PATH 39 ARRAY VOLUME 39 ASPECT RATIO 27 ASPECT RATIO 30 AT&T MONITOR/CARD (640X400) 9 ATT GRAPHICS BOARD 5 ATTACH 18 ATTACH MODE 50 AUTOFILL 50 AUTOPLAY 50 B&W MODE 50 BEARING COORDINATES 15 BEZIER DRAW 32 BOX DRAW 29 BREAK COMMAND 40 BYPASS MONO 9 CALCULATOR 16 CGA MODE (640X200) 11 CHAMFER 43 CIRCLE DRAW 30 CIRCULAR ARRAY 39 CITOH PRINTERS 24 CLIP COMMAND 55 COLOR - CGA 28 COLOR GRAPHICS ADAPTOR 5 COLOR MODE 50 COLORS 25 COMMAND ALTER 41 COMMAND ALTER 41 COMMAND ARRAY 39 COMMAND BREAK 40 DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 72 COMMAND CHAMFER 43 COMMAND COPY 36 COMMAND ERASE 37 COMMAND EXPLODE 43 COMMAND EXTEND 38 COMMAND FILL 42 COMMAND FILLET 43 COMMAND MIRROR 40 COMMAND MOVE 36 COMMAND PLOT 54 COMMAND ROTATE 38 COMMAND RUBBER 43 COMMAND SCALE 37 COMMAND SYMBOL 56 COMMAND TRIM 40 COMMAND UPDATE 46 COMMAND WARP 44 COMPLEX COMMANDS 44 COMPLEX CONTROL COMMAND 45 COMPLEX DOUBLE COMMAND 44 COMPLEX DRAW 32 COMPLEX JOIN COMMAND 44 COMPLEX MODIFY COMMAND 44 CONFIG.SYS 6 CONFIGURATION FILE 24 CONFIGURATION FILE 28 CONTROL CODES 25 CONTROL COMMAND 45 COORDINATE DISPLAY 50 COORDINATE PLACING 61 COORDINATE SYSTEM 14 COORDINATES ABSOLUTE 15 COORDINATES BEARING 15 COORDINATES POLAR 15 COORDINATES RELATIVE 15 COORDINATES TRAVERSE 15 COPY COMMAND 36 CORNER COMMAND 43 CREATING FONTS 58 CREATING LAYERS 64 CURSOR KEYS 12 DEFAULT SETTINGS 24 DIALOG BOX 14 DIGITIZING TABLET 6 DIMENSION ANGLE 61 DIMENSION LINE TYPES 60 DIMENSION LINES 60 DIMENSION PLACE 60 DIMENSIONING 60 DISABLE THE TURBO CURSOR 11 DISPLAYING LAYERS 63 DO NOT USE COPROCESSOR 11 DON'T USE EXPANDED MEMORY 11 DOUBLE COMMAND 44 DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 73 DOUBLE IMAGE 46 DRAW ARC 31 DRAW BEZIER 32 DRAW BOX 29 DRAW CIRCLE 30 DRAW COMPLEX 32 DRAW FREEHAND 33 DRAW LINE 29 DRAW PARAMETRIC 34 DRAW POLYGON 31 DRAW SPLINE 33 DRAW TAPE 34 EDIT ARRAY 39 EDIT BREAK 40 EDIT COMMAND 35 EDIT COPY 36 EDIT ERASE 37 EDIT ETEND 38 EDIT MIRROR 40 EDIT MOVE 36 EDIT ROTATE 38 EDIT SCALE 37 EDIT TRIM 40 EGA MONITOR/CARD (640X350) 9 EGA MONO (640X350) 9 ELLIPSE 30 EMM386.SYS 6 ENHANCED GRAPHICS ADAPTOR 5 EPSON PRINTERS 24 ERASE COMMAND 37 EXPANDED MEMORY 6 EXPLODE COMMAND 43 EXPLODING SYMBOLS 58 EXTEND ANYWHERE 38 EXTEND COMMAND 38 EXTEND INNER 38 FILE COMMAND 19 FILE CONFIG 24 FILE CONFIGURATION 28 FILE ERASE 23 FILE FORMATS 65 FILE IMPORT 22 FILE LOAD 20 FILE OUTPUT 25 FILE SAVE 20 FILE XTRACT 21 FILL COMMAND 42 FILL PATTERNS 51 FILLET 43 FONT CREATION 58 FONT FILE 10 FONTS 23 FREEHAND DRAW 33 DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 74 FUNCTION KEYS 16 FUNCTIONS 17 GRID 48 HALF IMAGE 46 HATCH 42 HATCH PATTERNS 51 HATCHING 42 HELP MODE 16 HELP TOPICS 16 HERCULES CARD (720X348) 10 HERCULES CARD,PG #2 (720X348) 10 HERCULES GRAPHICS ADAPTOR 5 HP PLOTTERS 24 IMAGE DOUBLE 46 IMAGE HALF 46 IMAGE LAST 46 IMAGE PAN 46 IMAGE WINDOW 46 IMAGE ZOOM 47 IMPERIAL UNITS 19 IMPORT FONTS 23 INDEX 72 INPUT WINDOW 13 INSTALLATION 7 ISOMETRIC ANGLES 28 ISOMETRIC MODE 17 JOIN COMMAND 44 LANDSCAPE PRINTING 55 LASERJET PRINTERS 25 LAYER COLOR 64 LCD MONITORS 50 LEADER LINES 62 LINE 29 LINE TYPES 41 LINEAR ARRAY 39 LINESTYLE 50 LINESTYLE 52 LOCAL SCALE 37 MACRO COMMANDS 52 MAKING SYMBOLS 57 MATH COPROCESSOR 6 MEET COMMAND 43 MEMORY REQUIREMENTS 6 MENU 8 MENU ITEMS 13 METRIC UNITS 19 MIRROR COMMAND 40 MODIFY COMMAND 44 MOUSE 6 DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 75 MOUSE 12 MOUSE BUTTONS 12 MOUSE DRIVER 6 MOVE COMMAND 36 MULTICOLOR DISPLAY 50 OKIDATA PRINTERS 25 ORTHOGONAL MODE 17 PAN 46 PARALLEL PORTS 25 PARAMETRIC DRAW 34 PATH ARRAY 39 PICK MODE 35 PICK MODE 36 PLACING LEADER LINES 62 PLOT CLIP 55 PLOT COMMANDS 54 PLOT ENHANCING 56 PLOT IMAGE SETTINGS 55 PLOTTER BUFFER DELAY 9 PLOTTERS 24 POLAR COORDINATES 15 POLYGON DRAW 31 POSTSCRIPT PRINTERS 25 PRIMARY FONT 23 PRINTER DENSITY 26 PRINTER DRIVERS 24 PRINTERS 24 PRINTERS CITOH 24 PRINTERS CODES 25 PRINTERS EPSON 24 PRINTERS LASERJET 25 PRINTERS OKIDATA 25 PRINTERS POSTSCRIPT 25 PROTECTING LAYERS 64 QUIT 18 RADIUS DIMENSION 61 REFERENCE MARK 14 REFERENCE MARKS 53 RELATIVE COORDINATES 15 ROTATE COMMAND 38 RUBBER COMMAND 43 SCALE 19 SCALE COMMAND 37 SCALE LOCAL 37 SCALING FACTOR 54 SELECTING OBJECTS 35 SERIAL PORT 6 SERIAL PORT SETUP 27 SERIAL PORTS 25 SET COLOR TO NN 11 DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 76 SET VIEW 47 SIDEWAYS PRINTING 55 SLIDE CREATE 59 SLIDE PLAY 59 SNAP 48 SNAP MODE 17 SPLINE DRAW 33 SUPER VGA GRAPHICS (800X600) 9 SUPER VIDEO GRAPHICS ARRAY 5 SYMBOL COMMANDS 56 SYMBOL CREATING 57 SYMBOL EXPLODE 58 SYMBOL USE 57 TAPE DRAW 34 TEXT HEIGHT 30 TEXT JUSTIFICATION 31 TEXT PLACE 30 TEXT WIDTH 30 TRAVERSE COORDINATES 15 TRIM COMMAND 40 TWEEN COMMAND 45 UNDO 18 UNDO COMMAND 37 UNITS 42 UNITS SETTING 52 UPDATE COMMAND 46 USE ONLY TWO COLOR B&W MODE 10 USE SYMBOLS 57 USE VIRTUAL MEMORY 11 USING LAYERS 63 VGA CARD (640X480) 10 VGA MONO (640X480) 9 VIDEO GRAPHICS ARRAY 5 VIDEO MODE 9 VIEW SETTING 47 VOLUME ARRAY 39 WARP COMMAND 44 WHITE BACKGROUND 50 WINDOW MODE 35 WORDPERFECT 24 ZOOM IMAGE 47 /ATT 9 /BM 9 /DCH 9 /DEL=NNN 9 /E 9 /EM 9 /EMV 9 /ES = NN 9 DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 77 /EV 10 /FNT 10 /H 10 /H2 10 /MONO 10 /N87 11 /NE 11 /NT 11 /SET=NN 11 /V1 11 /VM=XXX 11 DRAFTChoice 2.0 Copyright 1992, TRIUS, Inc. [Unregistered 6/92] Pg 78