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mCAD Version 1.2 mCAD is an object-oriented drawing program. It has a small set of graphics primitives (like "line", "box", and "text") and a small set of editing functions (like "move", "size", and "rotate"). While drawing and editing, the user can call on other functions to modify the display -- to zoom in, slide around, superimpose a grid, etc. The one powerful feature of mCAD is that primitives can be grouped and ungrouped; the editing functions operate on groups of (one or more) primitives. In these instructions, "group" and "object" will mean either a single primitive or a group of primitives. Most (surely all!) Amiga users know how to use the mouse to draw pictures. In mCAD, the mouse does mostly what you're accustomed to from programs like GraphiCraft. There are three differences: 1) In mCAD, you are called on to SELECT objects for treatment with one of the editing tools. Since mCAD can't know for which of two or more overlapping objects your SELECT click was intended, it runs through a list of all the possibilities, highlighting each in turn. In this context, the MENU button means "No, not that one", the SELECT button means "Yes, the highlighted object is the one I want". 2) While drawing a primitive (exception: text) or editing a group (exception: coloring), mCAD gives you a chance to abort the whole operation. In this context, the MENU button means "Abort", the SELECT button means "The highlighted object is drawn as I want it, make it permanent." 3) Certain editing functions, "Size" for example, require additional information and indicate this by drawing a highlighted object. You are asked to click on (SELECT button) e. g., one corner of a box. So, generally, when the mouse buttons don't have their Intuition meanings, the SELECT button means "Yes/ok/do it...", and the MENU button means "No/abort/get me out of this". This follows the accepted Amiga convention that "left" breaks new ground while "right" is conservative and safe. If you get lost in -- or called away in the middle of -- a sequence of mouse clicks, a couple of MENU button clicks will get you out of it. ********************************************************************* THE COMMAND LINE: to call up the program ***************** mCAD ? Help mCAD filename Create/Edit a drawing named "filename". You need not type the filename if you intend to load the file from within mCAD. ********************************************************************* THE MENU: menu items that don't work or aren't yet implemented are described by "*" ********* ************* PROJECT New Erases the current drawing. Open Opens a drawing which exists on disk for viewing and/or editing. MicroSmith's file requester is used to specify the file name. Save Saves the drawing to disk using the current drawing name. The current drawing name is either the name that occurred on the command line, or the name of the file most recently "Open"ed. The default drawing name is "mCAD.out". SaveAS Saves the drawing to disk. MicroSmith's file requester is used to specify the file name. Plot Saves the (entire) drawing as a plot file in the Hewlett Packard Graphics Language. Instructions are included in the file to enable XON/XOFF handshaking with the plotter. To actually make the plot, copy the plot file to SER: The plot file name has the same root as the current drawing name, and the extension ".plt" Quit Quits mCAD. If you have made any changes to the current drawing, you will be asked if you want to save it. ************* PART Open Includes an mCAD drawing, which was previously saved to disk, in the current drawing. You will use MicroSmith's file requester to specify the part name. Save Saves a group to disk using the current part name. Select the group you want to save with the mouse as described above. SaveAs Saves a group to disk by name. Select the group with the mouse. Group Draw a box completely enclosing the objects you want treated as a group. An object can only be in one group at a time. If an enclosed object is already part of a group, it will be extracted from that group. If an entire group is enclosed, that group will merge into the new group. UnGroup Select a group by clicking on any of its members. On the confirming SELECT click, the group will be dismembered. ************* OPTIONS Replot Redraws the screen. The options "Axes" and "Grid" do not cause a replot automatically because redrawing can take a long time, and because you may want to make another display selection before redrawing. Zoom Draw a box around the region you want. mCAD will zoom in to the biggest region consistent with both the box you drew and the aspect ratio of the drawing. Note: in this version the aspect ratio cannot be changed by any command. Slide Draw a line. On your second SELECT click mCAD redraws the picture as if your first click had grabbed a hold of the page. (mCAD is too slow to move the whole picture along with the mouse and memory is too precious to spend on a scrollable screen.) FullPlot Zooms out to show the whole drawing. Axes This is a toggle switch that puts axes on the display. See Replot. Grid This is a toggle switch that puts a grid over the display. See Replot. X-Hair This is a toggle switch. The mouse pointer is replaced by a crosshair. Notice what happens when you press the MENU button and move the mouse. GridSnap This is a toggle switch. Primitives (exceptions: text, circle, arc) drawn with GridSnap enabled will snap to the grid on your *final* SELECT click. When enabled, menu item reads "GridSNAP". DataSnap This is a toggle switch. Primitives (exceptions: text, circle, arc) drawn with DataSnap enabled will snap to previously drawn objects (if they are close enough) on your final SELECT click. Points are more "attractive" than lines connecting those points. When enabled, menu item reads "DataSNAP" nTics*2 Increases the density of tics / grid lines. A maximum is enforced. This item causes a replot. nTics/2 Decreases the density of tics / grid lines. A minimum is enforced. This item causes a replot. ShowXY Calls up a numeric readout in the current plot color of the pointer position. The readout is in USER coordinates (the numbers which are drawn when you select "Axes" are in USER coordinates.) The readout consists of the absolute X (horizontal) and Y coordinates and the distances from the location of the most recent SELECT click. ************* DRAW Line Draw a sequence of (one or more) connected lines. Click twice on your final point. Box Draw a box by clicking on two corners. Circle Draw a circle by clicking on the center position, moving the mouse to change the size, and clicking again when the size is right. Arc Draw an arc with three mouse clicks: the first click sets the center; the second click sets the radius and starting angle; the third click sets the ending angle. Measure * Clone Select a group by clicking on any of its members. A duplicate will follow the mouse pointer until you press either the MENU button ("abort") or the SELECT button. TextSize Draw a box indicating the size/aspect of the letters you plan to type onto the screen. Cursor SELECT the location of the text cursor. ************* EDIT In every case, you first select a group for treatment. Erase SELECT a highlighted group to erase it. Size SELECT a highlighted group. mCAD draws the smallest enclosing rectangle (possibly a line). You SELECT a corner of the rectangle to begin sizing. The group is scaled as the mouse moves. Press the SELECT button, when you like what you see, or the MENU button to abort. Move Select a group by clicking on any of its members. The group will follow the mouse pointer until you press either the MENU button ("abort") or the SELECT button. Rotate The selected object is rotated about its "center". Vary the angle by moving the mouse and click SELECT to finish or MENU to abort. Rot +90 Select a plot. The selected plot will be rotated counter- clockwise by 90 degrees. Rot -90 Select a plot. The selected plot will be rotated clockwise by 90 degrees. Point Select a group. When the group you want to modify is highlighted, click on the point you would like to move. The point and lines connecting it to adjacent points will follow the mouse. Click SELECT to finish or MENU to abort. Color Select a group. The selected group immediately turns to the current plot color. (No chance for abort here.) ************* COLORS color boxes Your menu selection becomes the current plot color. Initially, the current color is #4 (first box in second row of the palette). Modify Colors Call up Microsmith's Palette tool (a very nice tool written by Charlie Heath). Save Colors Save current colors to the file "mCAD.rgb" which is read by mCAD on startup. ************************************************************************ NEW FEATURES Version 1.2 File input and output from within mCAD has been added. Thanks to Charlie Heath and MicroSmith's for the file requester and, while I'm at it, for their palette tool. This is the hard stuff, folks. If I had had to write these tools myself, you can be sure that they wouldn't be such a pleasure to use, and that I would be asking for more of a donation than $20. Point editing has been added. This feature allows you to move a single point of a group without affecting other points. A shortcut for rotating by 90 degrees has been added. (The original motive for this was to rotate entire drawings before plotting.) Several bugs that once caused mCAD to crash have been fixed. mCAD now realizes that mouse clicks are being queued up "behind its back" and that disabling them doesn't erase queued messages. Groups work right. In previous versions, the result of grouping objects that were already in different groups depended on the order in which those groups had been formed. mCAD can now read a file and add the objects in that file to its linked list of objects. In other words, the "Parts" menu is fully implemented. It may be useful to know that there is no difference, to mCAD, between a "part" file and a "cad" file. You can treat a whole drawing as a part and vice-versa. You can also use the outputs of the programs "mp" and "tdp" as parts or as drawings. Tab, backspace, and carriage return now do what they say they do. Backspace does not erase, however. Also, see "BUGS/WARNINGS...". ************************************************************************ HINTS, SUGGESTIONS ... mCAD's input file format is very simple. You can make an mCAD file by hand or with a simple program in "c", Basic, etc. In fact, this file can be used as input to mCAD. The only lines mCAD will pay attention to are the following: -------------------------- 100 100 This is a box.. 100 200 Note: if you use this file as input to mCAD, DO NOT SAVE! 200 200 mCAD will cheerfully erase this file, leaving in its place 200 100 a file consisting only of the numbers to the left. 100 100 *> The object above this mark is in a group with the object below it. *C 4 This object is in color 4 125 150 This is a line.. 175 150 *C 5 -------------------------- I prefer a "fast" mouse for most programs, but would like a slower one for doing fine work with mCAD. I haven't found a way to change the mouse speed while in the program (any ideas, Amiga gurus?), but an acceptable substitute is using the Amiga-arrow keys. You may have forgotten about this keyboard alternative since it is so rarely useful. Also, don't forget about Amiga-alt for mouse buttons. (Sometimes, I inadvertently move the mouse while clicking a mouse button.) Grouping objects (making "parts"): Since, in mCAD, the only way to indicate which objects you want in your group is to draw an enclosing rectangle, you may be having trouble excluding objects you don't want. But, because of the way groups are implemented in mCAD, this is not as bad as you might think. You don't have to enclose the whole group at once; two or more rectangles can be used. If you have two groups and you make a group containing one member of each, the result will be a single group containing all the members of both groups. When X-Hair is not selected, the Intuition pointer is supplemented with a dot at the current location of the graphics cursor. (You may know that the Intuition pointer is implemented in low resolution and therefore cannot, with precision, select a point on a high resolution screen. The dot is a remedy for this.) To make effective use of it -- indeed, too SEE the dot -- your pointer should have its "hot spot" on one of the "transparent" pixels. In Preferences, use the "Set Point" option while you "Edit Pointer". ************************************************************************ BUGS, WARNINGS, ADDITIONAL NOTES ... You MUST select a text size and cursor location before typing text into your drawing. The defaults aren't done right in this version. This means that, if you don't specify the size and location at least once, text will be put any old where in some arbitrary size -- which, in turn, means that you can expect a short, one-sided chat with the Guru the next time you select "FullPlot". Letters, in this version, are REALLY primitives; all points are connected together as though drawn with a single "Line" command. This means characters like [ ! = ? : ; " Q ] don't look so good. (Ok, they look awful!). Text is likely to improve in some future version. Occasionally, with both the X-Hair and the dot, trash may be left on the screen after editing a group. Use "Replot" for now. (I don't consistently "pick up" the dot/crosshair before drawing over it.) mCAD doesn't do ANY memory checking. It will crash the system or exit without returning allocated memory if it finds that there isn't enough memory to do whatever it wants to do. In a multi-tasking system with a ram disk, this is bound to happen to you sooner or later. This IS going to be fixed! Until it is fixed, I suggest you save your drawing often and keep an eye on the amount of ram available. Tim Mooney 120 Purefoy Rd. Chapel Hill, NC 27514 If you have a modem, you can leave me mail at the following bulletin board which I monitor regularly. "Deep Thought" (919) 471-6436 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Registered users: I plan to move sometime in the fall of '87. When I do, I'll leave a forwarding address on the bulletin board mentioned above and with: Department of Physics and Astronomy Phillips Hall University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC 27514