17 Bit Software 2: Collection B

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Electro CAD V1.4 Demo Instructions ================================== By Derek Pell (c)1991 ===================== About: ====== Electro CAD is an electronics schematic drawing & PCB design tool. A combination of library symbols are used to build up schematic and PCB art works these schematics/art works can be saved to disk and printouts can be obtained. Since Electro CAD V1.3 first went sale approximately seven months ago the program has become very successful, now electronically orientated people are using it all over britain and in their businesses too! For your information the stars (**) throughout this document indicate the improvements made or new functions added to Electro CAD. In May this year two Electro CAD accessories went on sale, these accessories enable the user to create there own Electro CAD libraries and to design PCB art works. With these two accessories Electro CAD become a very powerful and valuable electronic design tool. Here's a quick overlay of the two accessories. Custom Library Creator ====================== This program will enable you to make your own Electro CAD symbol libraries or even edit and add new symbols to the current library. Every aspect of the library formation is included. ie. Symbols, symbol names, section titles and custom icon bar of your own choice. In addition to this a brush grabbing and save facility has also been included for symbols which are physically too big to fit in a library. (Maximum lib.symbol size just fits in the Electro CAD window.) The library program uses pre-drawn iff screens to make the symbols, for this job I recommend D-Paint II. (Other drawing programmes which support medium res 640x256, 8 colour screen may be used.) PCB Design Libraries Disk ========================= These libraries together with the PCB ops. menu in Electro CAD its self will enable you to design and print out PCB track and component layouts. The libraries carry a collection of commonly used components packages including surface mount and various track and pad configurations (equivalent to the etch resist transfers used to make PCB's.) The system can produce double sided boards (one layer at a time), construction layout plans for final assembly or even a component legend if required. Because of the vast range of component packages currently in use, I recommend that the PCB libraries should be used in-conjunctions with the Custom Library Creator to give infinite coverage of all components. For this peropus and your convenience both the PCB libraries and the Custom Library Creator are available on one disk. Electro CAD Price List ====================== Electro CAD V1.4..................................£15.00 plus 40p P&P. Custom Library Creator............................£8.00 plus 40p P&P. PCB Libraries Disk................................£6.00 Plus 40p P&P. Custom Library Creator and PCB Libraries Disk.....£14.00 plus 40p P&P. Complete kit (E-CAD.V1.4 and Joint Disk)..........£29.00 P&P inc. To order please send a cheque or post order amounting to the above fees, made payable to: Derek Pell 58 Ash Road Newport Isle of Wight PO3O 2AG. Note: If you order two disk you only need to pay postage and packaging once. PD Libraries ============ If your a PD library please review this new Electro CAD V1.4 Demo in your next news letter, with the right promotions this disk could be in the running with the most popular utilities disks in your library! Recommendations =============== Electro CAD pushes the Amigas chip memory quiet considerably, I therefore recommend you start each session with this program from a could boot. Important: You should always boot from you Electro CAD disk, do not try running it from your standard workbench disk. Why? see Hard Disk Users. The Work Bench ============== The workbench on this disk is fairly limited, but it will let you format blank disks, make directories to store schematics in. You will also be able to change the work-bench preferences. Future Developments =================== No immediate plans, but as always I do intend to keep Electro CAD and the accessories up to date. As a registered customer you will be informed of forth coming programs and upgrades. Hard Disk Users =============== Electro CAD makes extensive use of the Ram Disk in order to speed up exchanging of file. Eg. reloading the default library after using a custom library. For this peropus the start-up sequence is used to setup the Ram disk ready for use. Thus if you install Electro CAD to your hard disk it will not work because the Ram disk has not been setup. The solution to this problem is a separate icon activated program which sets up the Ram disk before you enter Electro CAD. This Ram disk setup program is provided together with hard disk installation instruction on the Electro CAD V1.4 disk. Compatibility ============= You should be able to load your Electro CAD screens into most graphics programmes, Including D-Paint and Kind Words word processor. I will also give you free of charge my Kind Word screen sizing program with the full version. This can be used to cut you diagrams to a connivent size so they may be inserted into your text documents. I use this program to help me put together my college assignments, once printed they look very impressive. How to Use This Demo Version ============================ The Icon Bar ============ This is used to select the predefined symbols, simply keep clicking on the appropriate icon until the symbol that you need appears. All the common component symbols (and more) have been included. When you have the right one pull the mouse away from the bar. The left mouse button rotates the symbols forward while the right rotates them backwards. The four icons at the end are Pencil, Shape Draw, Pen and Undo. Pressing the return key will abort each function or swap the current symbol with the mouse pointer. Pencil ====== This is a simple elastic line drawing device just click on one point and stretch the line to the other point. Shape Draw ========== This can be used to draw boxes, circles and ellipses. The shapes are set on the menu, more about the menu latter. Labelling Pen ============= This is for labelling your schematics. Type in the label push return and use the mouse to position the label. Undo ==== This will undo the last error you made while editing you schematic. There are function where it is absolutely necessary to make the screen contents permanent. E.g. save or print, as a result of this you will not be able to undo the last step after returning from these functions. The Drawing Area ================ This is four screens (2 by 2) and the cursor keys are used to scroll around the area. Each screen is referred to as a page in screen operations such as load/save. Before a screen operation is carried out the status of each page can be changed. This is done by high lighting and clicking on the particular page in the screen operations window, there are three settings: 'Yes' Page will be effected. 'No' Page will be unaffected. 'N/A' Page is not available. The operation can also be cancelled at this point. The Menu ======== The menu is activated by the right mouse button when mouse pointer is not positioned over the icon bar. Trashcan Menu ============= Clear Screen ============ This allows you to clear one or more pages at once, use the screen operation window to chose which screen are cleared. Rubber ====== The rubber rubs out approximately 1 square cm at the current coordinates of the rubber. The rubber is not meant to be used with the Zoom function. If you make a mistake whilst in zoom mode change the current pen colour to Pen 0 and then use this to correct it. Disk Menu ========= Load a Schematic ================ Load schematics pages. When the file selector appears the various drives and directories may be displayed by pressing the right mouse button. There are two example screens on this disk, one is an example schematic the other is a PCB artwork. To load these click on the 'Examples' directory, when the disk light go out you will see the two file listed in the file selector. Click on one followed by a click on OK. Saving Schematics ** ==================== Here you have the usual options of 'Save' and 'Save As' the 'Save' function has a key board short cut (F9) These function lets you save your schematics/PCB art works. (Full version only.) Erase a Schematic ================= Same as clear screen function, only this time you can erase pages that are stored on disk. (Full version only.) Print Schematic ** ================== This function now produces some really impressive results. The whole printer routine has been completely reprogrammed, and makes use of the Amiga operating system printer device. All printer options may be set using the preference device from the workbench. 1:1 printouts can be achieved for PCB track layout and it is also possible to obtain a colour printout if you have a colour printer. The printer menu has two options. Print Pages =========== Prints the drawing area pages separately, same as V1.3's printer routine but about 10 times faster. That no exaggeration as the original routine did not use the operating system and was a 100% AMOS code. Print Schematic =============== This function let you print a complete schematic which has been saved to disk. All four of Electro CAD's pages are printed on the same sheet of printer paper to form a complete schematic/art work. This function involves a temporary shutdown of the drawing area, so your current schematic must be save first. When the print out has finished the drawing area will be re-opened. The pages to be printed by both of these functions can be set using the screen operations window in the usual way. In addition to this there is also a printer options window, which allows you to chose wether your schematic is printed without or with a grid and wether you use the default or current screen printer palettes. Schematic and art works may only be printed with the full version of Electro CAD. Move Schematic ============== This lets you change the position of your actual drawing with respect to the whole drawing area, e.g. centring the schematic in the middle of the screen. The movement is again done by the cursor keys. Colour Menu =========== This lets you change the current drawing colour, all symbols etc. will be the chosen colour. Shape Menu ========== This sets the current shape for the shape drawing function. Symbol Menu =========== Flip Horizontal =============== Flip current symbol or brush horizontally (mirror image). (F1) Flip Vertical ============= Flip current symbol or brush vertically. (F2) Vertical/Horizontal =================== Change the polarisation of the current symbol, i.e. vertical to horizontal or visa versa. This only works with symbols since each symbol has been drawn in two positions for accuracy. (F3) Load Custom =========== Load an Electro CAD custom library. The 'Exit Custom' function reloads the default library. The libraries take exactly the same form as the default library. There is a sample library in the 'Examples' directory on this disk, to load this use the 'Load Custom' function and select the Examples directory followed by the sample library file 'SampleLib.Elib' from the file selector. Grab a Brush ============ This lets you copy a section of the screen so it may be duplicated any where in the drawing area. Unfortunately due to memory the size of the area which can be grabbed had to be limited, so larger sections may have to be dealt with a bit at a time. Using the right mouse button to grab will result in completely lifting the brush from the screen. Unfortunately it became necessary to put a colouring restriction on the brushes, Now brushes bigger than 1/4 screen size can not be re-coloured. Loading and Saving Brushes ========================== The Save brush function will enable you to save the current brush. This is a very useful functions as custom brushes can be created in Electro CAD or D-Paint if you also have the Custom Library Creator. Once saved you may then load your brushes when ever you need them. There are some example brushes in the 'Brushes' directory on this disk. To load these brushes select the 'Load Brush' function from the menu and then select the 'Brushes' directory followed by a brush file. The Custom Library Creator will also let you grab brushes from imported D-Paint screens. The difference between a brush and a library symbol is a brush can be a lot bigger than a symbol. The saving of brushes is Not allowed in this demo version. Zoom Menu ** ============ This lets you zoom in on selected sections of the drawing area, once the magnified section is complete a close screen editing facility is automatically available. The 'Restore' function on the zoom menu restores the screen back to normal with any changes that may have been done in the editor. If you make a mistake whilst in zoom mode change the current ink colour to Pen 0 and use that to correct it. There is an X and Y axis lock built into the zoom routine, this is very useful when drawing straight horizontal or vertical lines in the zoom editor. The X lock is activated by the X key, and the Y lock is activated by the Z key. PCB Ops Menu ** =============== Detailed instructions for this menu will be given with the custom libraries disk, here's a the basic principle on how this operation will be carried out. Assume you have a printout of your circuit diagram you wish to construct. First you will have to load into Electro CAD the PCB custom library, this will consist of various component package shapes, pads and tracks etc., a bit like having a sheet of etch resist transfers. Once you have load this you will then have to define a PCB board area using the shape draw (this will be twice or maybe even four times as big). Referring to your circuit diagram you can then layout your board using the package shapes, this will be done in blue say. Once you have your layout you can save it as your PCB layout. Next using the pencil in red say, you can lay down some basic guide lines. Now all you have to do is use the remove blue function, just leaving your connections. Lay down you tracks using the predefined track and pads in the library. There is also a PCB tracking pen for tracks at any angle, this is used by clicking in four different points on the screen. And a 'flud fill' for ground planes. Once you have the track layout the red guide line may be removed just leaving the PCB in white. When your PCB artwork is finished you can obtain a print out using the print menu. In order to produce your PCB you will require a 1:1 printout. There are two ways of achieving this. A.) Photo copy you PCB board printout reducing it to its correct size. B.) Set the workbench printer preferences so a 1:1 print out may be obtained. In both cases the step down ratio and printer settings can by easily calculated. Of course producing the final artwork transparency/PCB is down to the user. Here's a quick overlay of the 'PCB Ops' menu. Tracking Pen: Four click elastic stretch pen for drawing tracks. Fill Area: Fill an enclosed area with the current colour. Remove Pen 1: Remove all objects drawn in pen 1 from any page. Remove Pen 2: Remove all objects drawn in pen 2 from any page. Remove Pen 3: Remove all objects drawn in pen 3 from any page. Mirror image: Flip a page or the whole drawing area over, leaving you with The solder side up. The example PCB shows the uses of all these functions. Preference Menu =============== Most of the functions on this menu toggle on/off and the current preference setup can be saved to the Electro CAD disk by selecting the 'save Prefs' function from the menu. Once you have done this Electro CAD confiders the preferences for you every time you use it. Coordinates ** ============== This allows the current coordinates of the mouse pointer to be displayed. These coordinates are relative to the left and top edges of the drawing area, so they also give an indication to where the screen is positioned over the drawing are. The coordinates count the grid cell position of the mouse pointer rather than the absolute position. If the pointer is halfway between two cells, the cell number and the relative pixsle displacement will be displayed in a decimal format. This format has been chosen because it is easier to use when designing PCB's. Memory Check ** =============== Displays the amount of available chip and fast memory, useful when running Electro CAD with other programs or saving schematics to the ram disk. Targeting ========= This is an aide for the pencil or shape draw, when the mouse cross is positioned centrally over a line on the screen a chiming bell will sound to help you join the lines with grated speed. Set Font ======== Sets the current labelling font for the text pen, you have a choice of three. Small font, normal topaz font or greek font. The greek font has been included because of the greek letters used in electronics. Screen Grid ** ============== Activate the screen grid. The grid image is kept completely separate from the drawing area, so the grid will not be saved with your pages. Grid Snap ** ============ Lays current symbol to the nearest point on the screen grid. The grid does not have to be activated to use this function. Pressing the shift key when laying down a symbol will shift the fixed symbol position half way between grid cells. (F4) Set RGB ** ========== This lets you change the colour setting of all four screen colours. The Reset button will reset the current colour only to its default value. The fourth slider bar adjusts the intensity of the grid. Inverting Schematic =================== Make Electro CAD pages compatible with Kind Words word processor. For those of you who haven't got Kind Words, it is capable of importing graphics screen into text documents. This produces very impressive documents (college assignments in my case). Once your Electro CAD pages have been inverted to the Kind Words format they may be imported into your documents. Work Bench ** ============= Opens or closes the work bench so Electro CAD can be used with other multi tasking programs. Once the work bench has been opened you can toggle in between Electro CAD and the work bench by pressing [left Amiga] [A] at the same time. If you open the workbench and then select 'Save Prefs' Electro CAD will not shut down the work bench on loading. So if you wish to change this setting, select 'Workbench' to close the workbench and re-save your prefs. The work bench can only be opened on Amigas that have the fatter Agnus chip fitted and the 1mb of chip ram modification done. It is also necessary to have some fast memory as well. So to use this function you need at least 1mb of chip and 512k of fast memory. All Amigas sold since about the beginning of 1990 have the fatter Agnus chip already fitted, but the 1mb of chip memory mod has not been made. If you want information on how to carry out this mod you may obtain it from me. Just send me a cheque/post order for £2.00 and a stamped addressed envelope and I will provide you with all the information you need to carry out the mod. Of course, to use the above function you will still need to get some more fast memory since the 512k you have will become chip memory when the mod has been done. Exit System =========== This lets you exit the Electro Cad system and takes you back to the work bench. Save Prefs ** ============= Saves the preference setting to the Electro CAD disk. About ** ======== Very important this one, Electro CAD credits! I'm sure you will agree that this program is worth every penny! and of grate use to any one involved in electronics. So if you wish to buy the full version and any accessories please contact my at the above address. End of Document.