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1995-08-22
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MultiCAD
FOR ATARI ST
A drafting package written in C++
Atari 520/1040 and ST/E are trademarks of Atari Corporation.
GEM is a trademark of Digital Research, Inc.
Copyright (c)1995 J.H.Taylor.
All rights reserved.
Table of Contents Page
Packing list: 11
Disclaimer 11
System Requirements 12
PART I 13
Menubar selections 13
Desk 13
About MultiCAD 13
File 13
Clear 13
Load Alt/L 13
Load .INF 14
Save as ... Alt/S 15
Save drawing 15
Printer setup Alt/O 16
Print Alt/P 16
Paper Size 17
Quit Alt/Q 19
Graphics 19
Add SB (Space Bar) 19
Regular poly 19
Regular pline 19
Bezier lines 20
Bezier Polylines 20
Bezier Polygons 21
Tangent -> XY 21
Tangent -> tangent 21
Perpendicular 22
Arc fillet 22
Arc radius 23
Tools 23
Uundo Alt/Undo 23
Attributes Alt/A 23
Preferences Ctrl/D (Desires) 26
Crosswires 26
Paste 26
Cut ref. 26
Expert 27
Text 27
Data memory 27
Clipboard memory 28
Drawing Guides Alt/G 28
Drawing Setup 30
Portrait/Landscape 30
Width mm 31
Height mm 31
Dimensioning Setup 32
Arrowheads 32
Arrow size 32
Text size 32
Level 32
Suffix 32
Align 32
Align 33
Offset with leader 33
Measure 33
1st leader 33
2nd leader 33
Edit 34
Delete Primitive 34
Break 35
Move one end 35
[X ortho] 36
[Y ortho] 36
[X extnd] 36
[Y extnd] 36
[Crosshair junction] 36
[Make horizontal] & [Make vertical] 36
Join line ends (at common node) 37
Join line ends. (2nd to 1st) 37
PART II 38
Icon menu selections 38
[LIB] 38
[Ctrl/A] (Architectural) 38
[Ctrl/M] (Mechanical) 38
[Ctrl/E] (Electrical) 38
[PRIM] 39
[Ctrl/L] (Line) 39
[Ctrl/C] (Circle - filled) 40
[Ctrl/R] (Arc) 41
[Ctrl/T] (Text) 41
[Ctrl/B] (Box/rectangle - filled) 44
[Ctrl/P] (Polygon - filled) 44
[Ctrl/I/O] (Ellipse, Elliptical arc) 45
[Ctrl/N] (Polyline) 45
[BLOCK] 46
[F1] (Mark block) 46
[F2] (Cut block) 46
[F3] (Copy block) 47
[F4] (Paste block) 47
[F5] (Rotate block) 47
[F6] (Vflip block) 48
[F7] (Hflip block) 49
[F8] (Scale block) 49
[Shift/F8] (Scale drawing) 49
[F9] (Change block level) 50
[XFER] (Transfer) 51
[Alt/D] (Save/Dump block) 51
[Alt/T] (Text import) 51
[Alt/C] (CADja ASCII import) 52
[Alt/E] (CADja ASCII Export) 52
[Alt/J] (DXF import) 53
[Alt/X] (DXF Export) 53
[TOOL] (Tools) 55
[Ctrl/S] (Snap to grid) 55
[Ctrl/Y] (Snap to guideline) 55
[Ctrl/G] (Grid) 55
[Alt/J] (Drawing edJe) 55
[Ctrl/U] (Units) 56
[Ctrl/F] (Set reF/origin) 57
[Alt/1] (inclined dimension) 58
[Alt/2] (horizontal dimension) 58
[Alt/2] (vertical dimension) 58
Help Help 59
Undo Undo 59
[LAY] (Layers) 60
[Ctrl/X] (Layers/levels) 60
[Ctrl/V] (View all levels 61
[Ctrl/W] ((W)ipe/hide all levels) 61
[LOOK] 62
[Alt/W] (World view) 62
[Alt/F] (Mark-and-zoom/Find) 62
[Alt/K] (Keyboard shift) 63
[Alt/M] (Mouse shift) 63
PART III 64
Keyboard only functions 64
Alt/R (Redraw/refresh) 64
Clr-Home 64
Z (Zoom-in) 64
Alt/Z (Zoom-out) 64
Ctrl/Y (Snap to guideline) 64
PART IV 66
THE WORKING SURFACE 66
Editing 66
File extensions 66
Example 1 67
Example 2 70
Hints & Tips 72
IMPORTANT NOTICE: 73
This is MultiCAD version 1.20.
If you have any constructive criticisms, suggestions to make the
program or manual more user-friendly, technical advice, etc. etc. please
write to me (J.H.Taylor) at:-
12 West Drive,
Cleadon,
Sunderland,
Tyne & Wear,
SR6 7SJ
UK.
MultiCAD is a drafting utility which will undergo a continuous
process of enhancement. Users are encouraged to send their suggestions
to the above address. The most popular and useful improvements will be
included, provided it is within my capabilities.
Unlike paint, graphics or image manipulation packages
MuliCAD, similar to all other drafting packages, represents each graphic
item (line, circle etc.) as a conceptual 'object'. MultiCAD calls them
'primitives' other drafting packages call the 'entities'. As such they can
not be altered in the same way as a paint package eg. erasing bits or
cutting out sections exactly to a frame. The primitives can be thought of
as 'solid' objects which can be 'handled', picked up and moved around.
Notwithstanding the above, groups of primitives can be cut out, but to be
'captured' within the cutting frame the whole of a primitive must be
inside the frame: if any part of a primitive lies outside the frame it will
not be 'captured'.
When reporting bugs please return your original disc (for a free
fixed update) together with as much detail as possible on the bug. If it
involves a printout, these should also be sent to me even if it looks like
garbage.
The library of shapes will constantly be expanded. Users who
require a new shape should them to me in a .MDF (MultiCAD Drawing
File) file on disc. Standard shapes in particular disciplines such as
architecture, chemistry, engineering etc. etc. would be most welcome.
Please send me examples of your work - the best will be
included with later releases.
Packing list:
Files Description
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
MULTICAD.PRG The MultiCAD program.
MULTICAD.RSC The MultiCAD resource file.
INFFILES Information files for MultiCAD.
DRGS Folder of example MultiCAD drawings.
CADJA Folder of example CADja ASCII files.
FONTS Folder of MultiCAD vector fonts.
LIBS Folder of MultiCAD library shapes.
Disclaimer
This program is copyrighted by J.H.Taylor and may not be
modified or altered in any way or charged for without the author's
express permission. MultiCAD is not Shareware or in the Public
Domain and may not be freely copied or distributed.
No warranties, either express or implied, are made by the
author with respect to the software or its fitness for a particular
purpose. The author accepts no responsibility for any loss that may
result from the use or inability to use this software.
Notwithstanding the above, care has been taken to
minimise bugs and inaccuracies in the software. Any problems
should be reported as explained earlier.
System Requirements
* Atari 520 ST or 1040 ST/E with disc drive(s).
* Monochrome monitor (but will run with colour).
* Will operate with enhanced screens.
* On the same directory:
MULTICAD.PRG the program.
MULTICAD.RSC the MultiCAD resource file.
INFFILES the MultiCAD .INF user settings folder.
FONTS the MultiCAD fonts folder.
LIBS the MutliCAD library shapes folder.
DRGS the MultiCAD drawing folder.
CADJA the CADja ASCII drawing folder.
DXF the DXF drawing folder.
* You must know how to operate with GEM.
PART I
Menubar selections
The menu titles are the names that appear on the menu bar at the
top of the screen. When they appear in square brackets eg [XFER] they
refer to the icons in the menubar on the LH side of the screen.
Menu items refer to the names that drop down when a menu title
is selected. When they appear in square brackets eg [HELP], [CTRL S]
they refer to the pop-out icons that appear when an icon menubar icon is
selected.
TITLE ITEM
Desk
About MultiCAD
Author's name and MultiCAD release dates. Also information
about upgrades.
File
Clear
Open a new drawing work area. Any previous work will be
lost. Data in the Paste buffer will, however, be retained.
Select 'Clear' from the 'File' menu and the screen will be
immediately cleared unless editing has taken place and the drawing (file)
has not been saved to disc. If this is the case a warning message will be
displayed which will allow the option of cancelling or continuing the
action.
Load Alt/L
Load an old MultiCAD or MiniDraft drawing from disk drive
into the main buffer. Any drawing already in memory which has been
edited in any way will cause a warning to this effect to be displayed; in
this event the option can be taken to cancel or continue the operation. In
the latter case the existing file in memory will be lost.
Select the 'Load' item from the 'File' menu or press Alt/L on
the keyboard. If no editing has taken place the file selector box will be
produced which will allow a filename and/or pathname to be changed or
confirmed. To clear the file/pathname press the Esc or backspace key
and type in the new name or select a file/pathname from the list
displayed. If the file exists and is a MultiCAD file, it will be loaded into
memory and immediately displayed on screen; if it is not a MultiCAD
file a message will be displayed which will give you the option to convert
it to a MultiCAD file; only MiniDraft files can, however, be converted.
Initially a 'full view' of the drawing will be displayed. This can
be changed to a Mag: 1.000 view by pressing the Clr Home key.
Alternatively click on the magnifier icon (in the second bottom left icon
menu on the screen) or press Alt/F, and a portion of the drawing can be
'marked' out and immediately displayed to fill the entire screen.
Load .INF
Load MULTICAD.INF information file. This will load your
favourite settings for the preferences, units, drawing setup and levels
dialog boxes.
Save these settings by selecting [Save] from the Preferences
dialog.
Note that a .INF file, with the same name as the drawing, is
saved automatically when the drawing is saved. ie. a drawing with the
filename of BRACKET.MDF will produce an info file called
BRACKET.INF in the INFILES folder. This file is automatically loaded
into MultiCAD when the same drawing is loaded.
You can save this info under any other filename by means of the
Preferences dialog box.
Save as ... Alt/S
Save the whole drawing (complete with header information) onto
disk. The menu selector box will be displayed where the file/pathname
can be changed or confirmed.
Select the 'Save as...' item from the 'File' menu or press Alt/S
on the keyboard. The file selector box will be displayed and the
file/pathname can be entered in the same way as for 'Load'. Clicking the
'Ok' button or pressing the <Return> key will cause the file data to be
written to disc.
NOTE:The header data contains the following information:-
24 bytes Author's name & copyright date.
4 bytes Version number.
13 bytes The .INF filename.
1 byte Units index (for program internal use).
4 bytes Drawing width (mm).
4 bytes Drawing height (mm).
4 bytes Drawing denominator scale.
4 bytes Drawing numerator scale.
4 bytes Drawing units.
(1=inches 12=feet 0.039370078=mm etc).
1 byte Drawing orientation (0=portrait 1=landscape).
1 byte Printer resolution mode.
(3=highest 2=medium 1=lowest).
Total 64 bytes
Save drawing
Save the whole drawing (complete with header information) onto
disk. No file selector box will be displayed. A warning will be displayed
if an error occurs such as trying to save a drawing with a null filename.
Select the 'Save' item from the 'File' menu. Unless there is a
null filename the file data will be immediately written to a disc file
having the current filename.
Printer setup Alt/O
Select the type of printer and printer resolution.
Two kinds of printer; Epson compatible dot matrix and HP
deskjet are supported by MultiCAD. Make sure you chose the correct one
for your system otherwise either masses of printed garbage will be
produced which will be difficult to abort (you may have to reset ie. press
control-alt-delete) or the system may halt.
The resolution buttons control the quality of line on the final
hardcopy without affecting the screen. Low resolution numbers (75, 100
etc) produce bold, easily read diagrams whilst the higher resolutions
produce more delicate drawings suitable for complex and detailed
drawings.
Print Alt/P
Produce a print (screen dump) of the current drawing.
This feature has the unique capability of producing massive
printouts, on an Epson compatible dot matrix printer, by means of
pasting up 'strips' or 'tiles' of printer dumps. This facility is carried out
automatically.
The screen is merely a window on the drawing 32,767 x 32,767
pixels, all of which can be printed out, in one go, on a dot matrix printer.
All you need do is specify the size of the printer paper at printout time
and the program will calculate the number of pages to print in both the X
and Y directions across the screen. This will cause the drawing to be
printed out in strips (consisting of pages in the X direction) on the printer
paper. For the best results a tractor feed should be used otherwise
registration between strips will be lost.
This facility does not, as yet, apply to inkjet printers.
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ø ø
ø ø
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ø X page 1ø X page 2ø X page 3ø X page 4ø ø
ø Y page 4ø Y page 4ø Y page 4ø Y page 4ø ø
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ø X page 1ø X page 2ø X page 3ø X page 4ø
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בגגגגדגגגגדגגגגדגגגגœ of drawing
ø X page 1ø X page 2ø X page 3ø X page 4ø
ø Y page 2ø Y page 2ø Y page 2ø Y page 2ø ø
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ø X page 1ø X page 2ø X page 3ø X page 4ø ø
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Paper Size
Select the size of paper on which you wish to print your drawing.
ie.
A4 - 210mm x 297mm
A5 - 148mm x 210mm
A6 - 105mm x 148mm
80 - 203mm x 279mm
(80 cols on 8.5" x 11" fanfold)
80a - 203mm x 297mm
(80 cols on A4 paper)
132 - 335mm x 279mm
(132 cols on 13.6" x 11" fanfold)
(Special)
Other (American) sizes, which you may key in yourself are:-
A - 279.40mm x 215.90mm
B - 431.80mm x 279.40mm
C - 558.79mm x 431.80mm
D - 863.58mm x 558.79mm
E - 1117.60mm x 863.58mm
First ensure that the printer is switched on and on-line. Select the
'Print' item from the 'File' menu or press Alt-P. A dialog will be
produced which will allow the number of copies to be entered. There are
also two radio buttons, [Normal] and [As displayed], which allow you to
print your drawing either as you have set the display or as s standard
printout. This means that you do not have to remember to press Clr-Home
before printing out a drawing. If you do use the [Normal] button, the
display is returned to whatever settings were in force before the printout.
When you have selected your paper size select 'Print'.
The drawing is displayed in 'blocks' and assembled in another part
of memory from where it is dumped out. The progress of the printout is
shown at the top of the screen as a percentage of the total drawing printed.
The printing process can be aborted at any time by pressing [Esc].
At the start of each 'strip' an alert message is displayed to remind
you to re-align the printer paper. This will ensure that the creases in
fanfold paper will 'line up' when composite drawings are pasted together.
The dump can be aborted by pressing the 'Esc' key.
Quit Alt/Q
Finish with the program.
If editing has taken place prior to this action and the file has not
been saved to disc a warning message will be displayed allowing the option
of aborting or continuing.
Graphics
The main source of graphics selection. Library shapes and general
drawing primitives (GDP's) are selected from this menu.
Add SB (Space Bar)
Use the mouse to position the selected graphic onto the screen.
Regular poly
Generate a regular filled polygon shape.
When you select this facility you will be confronted with a dialog
box in which to enter the outside diameter, number of sides and angle of
orientation required in the polygon shape. The polygon will be filled with
the currently set fill attributes.
If sufficient number of sides are specified, filled 'circles' can be
generated using this facility. These 'circles' will be drawn much more
rapidly than true filled circles which may be very advantageous in certain
circumstances where there are a large number of them.
Regular pline
Generate a regular polyline shape.
When you select this facility you will be confronted with a dialog
box in which to enter the outside diameter and number of sides required in
the polyline shape. The polyline will be drawn using the currently set line
attributes.
The same comments apply to the Regular polyline as to the
Regular polygon.
Bezier lines
Draw a curved shape, made up of separate lines and manipulate it
by means of the mouse.
Select 'Bezier lines' from the 'Graphics' menu and a dialog box
will appear. Enter the required values for Number of section and Pull
factor. The latter value influences how much effect the mouse has on the
shape of the line. Click on [Ok] to accept your values and you can then
place the start and end points of your Bezier line in the same manner as
drawing a single line.
Control over the line is obtained by the use of the left & right shift
keys. You must hold down one of these keys whilst moving the mouse.
When you are satisfied with the curve press the left mouse button
and the curve will be fixed in position. The curve will be made up of
separate line primitives. This means that the curve can be 'chopped' up and
other primitives spliced in.
Bezier Polylines
These work in exactly the same way as Bezier Lines above. Bezier
Polylines are constructed out of a single polyline and are thus much more
memory efficient than Bezier Lines. They can not, however, be 'chopped'
up.
WARNING: Bezier Polylines with more than 256 sections may cause the
computer to CRASH!!
Bezier Polygons
Similar to Bezier Polylines these are made up from a single
polygon primitive. When the curve is fixed in position it is filled with the
current fill pattern.
See WARNING above.
Tangent -> XY
Draw a line (not a polyline) which will be a tangent to an arc
curve at one end and the other end fixed at any point on the drawing.
Select the menu item and a small dialog box will appear requesting
you to select an approximate position on the first arc or quit the process.
There is no need to select the exact position as the software will compute
it.
If you select [Ok] the familiar crosshairs will appear and should be
placed as near to the curve as possible (you are allowed an leeway of
approximately 3 pixels) and press the left mouse button. If selection is
successful another little dialog box will appear requesting you to select the
line end point. Select [Ok] or press <Return> and place the crosshair at
the desired position (it only makes sense to select outside the arc/circle) and
press the left mouse button. If all is well a line will be drawn between the
tangent point and the selected point on the drawing. If for some reason the
line can not be drawn an error message will be displayed.
You will now be confronted with the initial dialog box to either
continue or quit drawing tangents.
Tangent -> tangent
This is similar to the above facility but enables a line to be drawn
at a tangent to two arc curves.
Select the menu item then select the first arc in the same way as
above. If successful a second small dialog box will appear requesting you
to select a second arc. Select the arc in the usual way and if successful the
tangent line will be drawn between the two curves. If for some reason the
line can not be drawn an error message will be displayed.
You will now be confronted with the initial dialog box to either
continue or quit drawing tangents.
Perpendicular
Draw a line perpendicular to another line.
Select the menu item under Graphics and a small dialog box will
appear requesting you to select the base line for your perpendiculars. Select
[Ok] and place the crosshairs on the desired baseline for your
perpendicular/s and press the left mouse button. If the selection is
successful a small 'x' will be placed on the line and a small dialog will
appear requesting you to select your positions for the line ends. Select [Ok]
or press <Return> and the crosshairs will reappear and should be placed
on the drawing where the perpendicular line is to be drawn from. Press the
left mouse button and a perpendicular line will be drawn.
More perpendiculars can be drawn until the right mouse button is
pressed to end the process.
Arc fillet
Draw an arc at the intersection of two convergent lines and
optionally trim the lines to fit the start and end points of the arc. In this
way there is no need to initially draw the lines exactly the right length
since, if required, the software will trim them to fit the fillet curves
exactly.
Select the 'Arc fillet' menu item and a dialog box will appear.
Enter the desired radius and select either or both lines to be trimmed as
required. Select [Ok] and a small dialog box will appear requesting you to
select the first line. If this is successful another, similar dialog box will
appear requesting you to select the second line. If all is well yet another
dialog box will appear requesting you to select a point close to the required
position of the fillet centre. There are of course four logical positions for
the centre of a fillet at the intersection of two lines. The software will use
the one nearest to the crosshair position when the left mouse button is
pressed.
At any stage the process can be aborted either by selecting the
[Quit] dialog button or by pressing the right mouse button.
Arc radius
Draw a Line from the centre of a specified Arc to its perimeter.
Select the 'Arc radius' menu item and a small dialog box will
appear requesting you to select a point on the arc. If you select [Ok] the
crosswires will appear and you should place it on the desired spot and press
the left mouse button. If all is ok a radius line will immediately be drawn
from the centre of the arc to the cursor position.
If an error occurs an alert message will be displayed.
NOTE:This function is useful to find the centre of an Arc/Arc circle. If
horizontal and vertical radius lines are drawn and the snap-to-guides
switched on, the reference marker can be placed on the exact centre
of the Arc/Arc circle.
Tools
Uundo Alt/Undo
Undo undone primitives. Because an undone primitive is not
deleted from memory it can be restored with this facility. Provided no
Cut, Add or Paste has taken place since the last Undo sequence. Uundo
can be used to restore all the previously undone graphics.
Attributes Alt/A
This produces a dialog/selector box from which all of the
drawing attributes such as fill patterns, border, write mode, line styles
and sizes etc, etc. are selected.
The difference between the top left and bot. right fills is minimal
and seems to be a quirk of GEM itself. The top two rows of fills are
described in the 'Programmers Reference' as 'DOTTED' (fill type=2)
fills and ranges from 0 (top left) to 23 (extreme right middle row) and
'CROSSHATCH' (fill type=3) ranging from 0 (bot right [Wh]) thro 1
(bot. left) to 11 (2nd right bot. row).
The top left fill fills the shape with nothing (ie. generates a white
circle) whilst the [Wh] fill seems to turn off the perimeter visibility also??
The dotted square in the rectangle is the 'perimeter visibility' switch.
Switch this off and your filled shapes will not have a single pixel line
surrounding them.
By using a white fill in the replace mode it is possible to
obliterate or 'punch holes' in a filled background. This is useful, for
example, for putting windows in a brick wall fill. This technique is
employed with the architectural library window shapes.
Select your background fill and using a large polygon or
rectangular shape and draw it on screen. Select a white fill, Rep mode
and perimeter visibility On. Create a rectangle the desired size and draw
your 'window'.
As regards Rep, Tr, Xor and Rev these are the write modes for
the various graphics objects and determine how they mix together on the
screen.
The 'official' explanations are as follows:-
Rep (Replace Mode):
The replace mode sets the points without concern for the existing
graphics.
new = col AND obj
Tr (Transparent Mode):
In the transparent mode, the points are only set where no points
are yet present. In addition, the points of the graphic at which points are
to be set without colour, are cleared. This can better be clarified [and I
should think so - Author] with an example. A filled surface is to be
drawn. If the screen area is empty, there is no difference between the
replace and transparent modes. If the screen area already contains
graphics, however, the fill pattern would not be recognised in the replace
mode. A fill pattern on a screen having a colour of the fill pattern cannot
be recognised in the replace mode. [This, to me, isn't much clearer: I
suggest you experiment - Author].
new = (col AND obj) OR (old AND NOT obj)
Xor (Xor Mode):
In the Xor mode, points are set only where none are contained in
the already existing graphic. All points already set at the new positions
are erased. The points of intersection of an old and new line are thereby
erased.
new = obj XOR old
Rev (Reverse Transparent Mode):
In this mode all overlapping points for which no colour is
assigned in the object remain (such as the gaps in a dashed line). The
overlapping points which are assigned a colour in the object are erased. A
fill pattern drawn on a black surface in reverse transparent mode is
therefore the negative of the corresponding fill pattern in the transparent
mode. [Experiment again - Author].
new = (old AND obj) OR (col AND NOT obj)
Bk (Black):
This is the line colour switch: switch this off and you can draw a
white line on a black background.
Line Thickness:
This is measured in pixels and is not magnified by the
magnification factor.
NOTE:Unfortunately there is a bug in GEM which does not give the
correct line widths in some cases. Only odd values of line widths are
valid and vertical lines with a width value greater than 1 are drawn
2 pixels wider???. You will notice that the vertical portions of
sloping lines are also 2 pixels wider than the horizontal portions
???.
Notwithstanding all this, 'thick' lines are now possible with
MultiCAD. These are automatically generated from polygons - see
explanation in Lines primitive.
Preferences Ctrl/D (Desires)
This enables you to customise various facilities ie. the
appearance of the crosshairs, the way a block appears when pasting, how
a block is referenced for pasting and the memory requirements etc.
Crosswires
The solid form of crosswire is suitable for most work whereas
broken and dotted are useful when the screen is cluttered or there are a lot
of black areas.
Paste
If a large block is to be pasted it can be cumbersome to move
about the screen due to the delay in drawing it at each movement. If the
positioning is not critical the initial Cut'ing frame can be displayed
instead; thus enabling much more rapid movement around the screen.
Both block and frame can be displayed to give some idea of where the
drawing lies within the frame.
NOTE:This facility is switched automatically to normal block drawing
mode when library shapes are used.
Cut ref.
With this set to [Block] when a block is Cut, its reference point is
the top LH corner of the Cut'ing frame. This means that when it is pasted
back, the X & Y coordinates at the top of the screen indicated where this
point is located on the drawing.
However, with [Origin] set, Cutting & Pasting enables any point
within (or outside) the block to be the reference point. Simply place the
origin marker (using Ctrl/f) on the required part of the drawing and Mark
it out as usual.
Marking a block with the origin off the screen will result in
nothing being seen when you try and paste it back. This can be worrying if
you forget you are in [Origin] mode when cut'ing and paste'ing.
An alternative method is, with the 'Snap' option off, place the 'hot
spot' (or reference point) of the section to be pasted, on a grid dot, switch
'Snap' back on and cut it out with the [Block] option set in the Preferences
dialog. You will then find that, when pasted, with the 'Snap' on, the new
'hot spot' will 'hit' the grid points.
Expert
If [Yes] is selected the user will be regarded as an expert
MultiCAD user. In this case certain dialog boxes will not appear as a
reminder of what to do next. These dialog boxes are mainly in the Line edit
and Graphics drawing areas.
Text
If there is a lot of vector text in a particular drawing it can take a
fair while to refresh a drawing. To speed up this process only the
surrounding rectangle of the text can be drawn. This is achieved by
selecting the 'Outline' button on the Preferences dialog box.
Data memory
This sets the limit of memory that is available for both the
drawing, temporary hardcopy buffer and imported ASCII files.
NB: If the surplus data memory (Total Data memory available
minus drawing memory used) becomes too small, hardcopy printing will
slow down. If it gets below 32000 bytes an alert box will be displayed and
the hardcopy process will be prevented. If this happens increase the Data
memory value, save MULTICAD.INF (or the current drawing .INF file)
with the [Save] button in Preferences. Alternatively you could simply save
the drawing.
The next time you start up MultiCAD, the memory figure at the
top or the screen will show the new value.
When an ASCII text file is imported into MultiCAD it, first of all,
goes into the surplus data memory. If there is no drawing data then the
whole data memory is therefore available. If not enough memory is
available for this operation however, a warning message will be displayed.
If the import is successful, the ASCII data is converted and placed
into the clipboard memory from where it can be pasted into the drawing.
When importing CADja or DXF ASCII files, the size of the
corresponding MultiCAD converted data is approximately 20%-30% of the
original CADja file. Hence a CADja file of 10000 bytes (in data memory)
needs approximately 2000-3000 bytes. These files are immediately
converted to .MDF format, placed into the drawing buffer and displayed
on screen.
Clipboard memory
This sets the limit of memory that is available for the Cut, Copy
and text ASCII import (see above) functions. If this is exceeded a warning
message will be displayed.
Again, as with Data memory, if you change this value it will only
become active if you 'Save' preferences, 'Quit' MultiCAD and restart.
This is necessary since Atari GEM will trash any data (drawings or blocks)
in memory if you re-initialise the Data or Clipboard memory buffers.
Drawing Guides Alt/G
Draw a horizontal or vertical guide line in a dotted line style and
place it on a particular level. Guide lines will stretch the full width or full
height of the drawing.
These lines are useful for quickly marking the edges of a shape
prior to drawing it with either lines, polylines or polygons.
When selected, a dialog box will appear where the direction
(horizontal or vertical) can be selected. The distance away from the origin
marker can also be entered. The level on which the guidelines are to be
drawn can also be set at this stage. This convenient since guidelines are
usually drawn on a different level from other primitives. By this means,
when the drawing is complete, all the guidelines can be deleted by isolating
their level and 'Cut'ing them out. If [Ok] is selected, the line will
immediately be drawn between the edges of the drawing.
When the Snap-to-guides menu item (keyboard ctrl/Y) is set,
precise location of primitives is achieved. This takes all of the guesswork
out of positioning and thus enables accurate engineering drawings.
Drawing Setup
Portrait/Landscape
Landscape orientates the screen dump sideways on the printed
sheet. In other words, on an A4 sheet, the bottom edge of the screen runs
down the left hand edge; therefore the bottom left hand corner of the screen
appears at the top left hand corner of the printed sheet.
If a full view of the drawing is invoked, this mode will be
indicated by the display of a wide rectangular dotted frame (unless a special
sheet size is being used - ie width greater that height).
Portrait orientates the screen dump in the same direction on the
printed sheet as seen on the screen. It is important to realise that in this
mode the top left hand corner of the screen appears at the top left hand
corner of the printed sheet.
If a full view of the drawing is invoked, this mode will be
indicated by the display of a narrow rectangular dotted frame (unless a
user-defined special sheet size is being used - ie width greater that height).
It is important to realise that the current settings of Magnification
and position of the drawing will affect how the drawing is printed out. To
ensure a 'normal' printout press the Clr-Home key before selecting the
Hardcopy dialog.
The standard/DIN drawing sizes are:-
2A - 1189mm x 1682mm
A0 - 841mm x 1189mm
A1 - 594mm x 841mm
A2 - 420mm x 594mm
A3 - 297mm x 420mm
A4 - 210mm x 297mm
A5 - 148mm x 210mm
A6 - 105mm x 148mm
A7 - 74mm x 105mm
80 - 203mm x 279mm
(80 cols on 8.5" x 11" fanfold)
80a - 203mm x 297mm
(80 cols on A4 paper)
132 - 335mm x 279mm
(132 cols on 13.6" x 11" fanfold)
(Special)
These values can be altered, in the User Setup panel, to enable a
portion of the drawing only to be printed out.
Width mm
This sets the maximum width of the drawing that will be printed
assuming that the printer is capable of handling it.
Height mm
This sets the maximum height of the drawing that will be printed.
The buttons [2A] - [132] are a handy facility to take the strain out
of remembering the correct values for different sheet sizes. Simply select
the desired sheet size - A4 say, whereupon the correct values will be
entered.
You can enter any values you like (within reason) since they do
not necessarily have to correspond to the drawing size code. The program
operates on the values shown and not the code number (A4/A5/80a etc).
Dimensioning Setup
Arrowheads
There are four types of dimensioning heads available - line arrow,
solid arrow, oblique, dot or none at all. The head type for dimensioning
lines can be different from the heads chosen for the optional offset with
leader style of dimensioning and are chosen from the two sets of arrow
buttons.
Arrow size
The arrow size is the distance (in the current units) from the tip to
the back of the arrow or half the length of an oblique or twice the diameter
of a dot type head.
Text size
This operates exactly as for regular Text size. The text used for
dimensioning is, however, only vector text since, unlike bit-image text, it
can be orientated at any angle.
Level
This is the drawing level into which the dimension data will be
placed. During this operation the appropraite drawing level will be
activated and this will be reflected in the Layers dialog box.
Suffix
Any text entered into this field will be appended to the measured
dimension eg. " will cause a dimension of 1.234 to appear as 1.234" etc.
Align
When thus button is selected the measured dimension will be
orientated along the dimension line. If the dimension line is too short, two
external dimension lines are created and the measurement aligned with one
of them.
Align
This will cause a gap in the dimension line (actually two lines) to
be generated and the measurement placed in the gap. Even if the dimension
line is inclined and the text is not, the correct gap will be calculated and the
measurement accurately positioned.
Offset with leader
When this button is activated the offset with leader facility is
switched on. This allows a leader line to be drawn away from the middle of
the dimension line together with a horizontal extender and if the
measurement button is activated, the measured dimension will be place at
the end of the extender.
Measure
This button simply turns on or off the measuring facility. When
turned off no text will be generated.
1st leader
When this button is activated a normal leader line will be
generated from the first point chosen.
2nd leader
When this button is activated a normal leader line will be
generated from the second point chosen.
Edit
The principle use of these facilities is to correct any slight errors
made whilst drawing lines (not polylines). However, a handy secondary
use (I have found) is to set out a few arbitrarily placed lines and shift them
into the required positions using the appropriate method. In this way it is
ensured that lines are joined exactly or are absolutely vertical or horizontal.
NOTE:As yet these functions do not operate on Polylines. If enough
MultiCAD users express a need for Polyline editing I'll see what I
can do (Jim).
Delete Primitive
Delete individual primitives by selecting them with the mouse
crosshairs.
Select the 'Delete primitive' menu item and the crosshairs will
appear immediately. Select a primitive and provided the crosshairs are
near enough to it, it will be deleted from the screen and also from the
drawing database. Primitives can be deleted continuously until the right
mouse button is pressed to abort the process.
To delete a primitive carry out the following procedure for each
primitive type:
Line:Place the crosshairs on the line to be deleted and press
the left mouse button. Please note that 'thick' lines are
made from polygons and are deleted in a different way -
see later.
Circle:Place the crosshairs on the outer edge of the circle to be
deleted and press the left mouse button.
Arc:Place the crosshairs on the arc line and press the left
mouse button.
Text:Place the crosshairs on the body of the text and press
the left mouse button.
Ellipse:Same as for Circle.
Elliptical arc:Same as for Arc.
Rectangle: Place the crosshairs on any edge of the rectangle and
press the left mouse button.
Polygon:Place the crosshairs on any edge of the polygon and
press the left mouse button.
Polyline:Place the crosshairs on any one of the polyline elements
and press the left mouse button.
If the crosshairs are too far away from any primitive an error
message will be displayed.
Break
Break a line into two lines using the mouse crosshairs.
Select the 'Break line' menu item and the crosshairs will appear
as with line delete. Place the crosshairs at the desired position on the line
to be broken and press the left mouse button. Provided the crosshairs are
close enough to the line a small 'x' marker will be drawn on it to indicate
the position of the break. This marker, however, will disappear if any
other screen manipulations are carried out.
This facility is useful for trimming lines and can be ended at any
time by pressing the right mouse button.
Move one end
By various means change the position of the selected end of a
line.
Select the 'Move one end' menu item and a dialog box will
appear requesting you to select the line end to change or to quit the
process. Assuming you do not quit, another dialog box will appear
showing the various methods available. Select one of the options and
click on the [Ok] button. The following explains the way each of the
options perform the 'Move one end' Line edit operation.
[X ortho]
With this method, the chosen line end will be moved laterally in
the X direction to the position of the vertical crosshair when the left
mouse button is pressed. No change in the Y direction will occur.
[Y ortho]
This is the opposite of [X ortho] since the line end will be
moved in the Y direction to meet the horizontal crosshair when the left
mouse button is pressed. There will be no change to the line end in the X
direction.
[X extnd]
Unlike the two above methods, when the left mouse button is
pressed, the line end may be moved in both the X and Y directions to the
position of the vertical crosshair in such a way as to leave the direction
(angle) of the line unchanged.
[Y extnd]
Similar to [X extnd] but the line end is moved to the position of
the horizontal crosshair when the left mouse button is pressed.
[Crosshair junction]
Do I really need to explain this one? Ok, just for completeness.
When the left mouse button is pressed the line end is moved to the
junction point of the crosshairs.
[Make horizontal] & [Make vertical]
These are also self explanatory. However, BEWARE, if you
make a horizontal line vertical or a vertical line horizontal it will shrink
to a single pixel length line and virtually disappear from the the screen.
Such a line will be extremely difficult (probably impossible) to reselect.
Simply described, a line is made horizontal by making the Y value of the
selected line end the same as the Y value of its other end. Similarly a line
is made vertical by making the X value of the selected line end the same
as the X value of its other end.
Join line ends (at common node)
Join two line ends together without altering the direction (slope
or angle) of either line. Both lines are either extended or retracted so that
they meet at their common intersection point.
Select the menu item and a small dialog box will appear
requesting you to select the first line. Select it in the usual way and if
successful another similar dialog will appear requesting you to select the
second line. If all is well with the selection the two lines will immediately
be reconfigured to be joined at their intersection point.
This facility makes it unnecessary for lines to be joined exactly
at the time of drawing them. It is especially useful when lines are not
either vertical or horizontal.
Join line ends. (2nd to 1st)
Join two line ends together by shifting the position of the second
line end.
Select the menu item and you will be requested to select the two
line ends in the same way as the method above. However, this time when
the second line end is selected, it will be shifted to join onto the selected
end of the first line.
PART II
Icon menu selections
[LIB]
[Ctrl/A] (Architectural)
[Ctrl/M] (Mechanical)
[Ctrl/E] (Electrical)
Display a selector box of the required set of library of shapes.
Select the particular library item (eg. 'Mechanical') required
from the [LIB] menu or press the appropriate Ctrl/Key combination. This
will produce a selector box containing icons which represent various pre-
programmed graphic shapes. To invoke a particular library shape first
select the desired icon with the left mouse button and then the [Ok]
button. This will cause the data for that shape to be placed in the paste
buffer where it can be rotated, scaled or flipped then pasted onto the
screen. Selection of the [Cancel] button will leave any data in the paste
buffer undisturbed.
NOTE:A small dot, usually (sometimes) in the bottom LH corner of the
icon, denotes the reference point for positioning the shape with the
paste facility and corresponds with the X & Y values shown at the
top of the screen.
NOTE:Using the library automatically sets the paste to the normal
'Drawing' mode; any previous 'Outline' or 'Both' mode will need
to be reset again if required.
NOTE:You will probably find that the scale of the shape is not
appropriate for your drawing most of the time since the size of each
of them is fixed. You should therefore decide (probably by trial and
error) a scaling factor and set the value in the library dialog box to
bring each shape up (or down) to the required size before pasting it
into your drawing. It is worth keeping a note of these values. I will
probably include these in an expanded drawing header block on a
later version.
[PRIM]
These are the basic Graphical Drawing Primitives (GDP's) from
which all drawings are composed. Some have two or three methods of
placement:-
(i):With the mouse by selecting the [Mouse] button from the dialog box.
(ii):With reference to the origin marker by keying in the relative position
and selecting the [Ok] button.
(iii):Multiple entry method. This enables a number of similar, equally
spaced primitives, to be placed in the X and Y directions. Simply
set the desired numbers of primitives in the X direction and number
of such rows in the Y direction together with the corresponding
spacing. Press [Ok] and the primitives will be placed on the drawing
with respect to the origin marker. This technique is also possible in
the paste mode.
Please note that methods (ii) & (iii) also sets the primitive for the
mouse mode.
[Ctrl/L] (Line)
Select a graphic single line GDP.
Select [Ctrl/N] icon in the [PRIM] menu or press Ctrl/L. You will
then be presented with a Dialog box for the input of the line parameters
with reference to the origin marker and current units. See examples at the
end of the manual for information on use of multiple entry data. Select
[Ok] or press RETURN to fix your line.
There are two methods of specifying a line with the '[Ok]' method
ie. [Polar] or [Cart'esian]. With the polar method the X & Y positions of
one end of the line and length & angle must be specified. With the
cartesian the X & Y positions of both ends of the line must be specified.
Also it is possible to draw lines of any thickness (GEM lines are
bugged and are restricted in width) and with a fill pattern of your choice.
These can be used for generating PCB tracks. Simply chose [Thick] and
enter the required width in the current units. Only square and round lines
are supported at present.
NOTE:'Thick' lines are generated from ploygons and can not, therefore,
be edited with the Line edit facilities.
If you wish to draw the line by hand select [Mouse] from the
dialog box and you will then be presented with a crosswire style cursor.
This is the standard CAD style cursor and allows drawing elements to
aligned vertically and horizontally on the drawing.
The starting point of a line is set by placing the crosswire
intersection at the desired position and pressing the left mouse button (or
Alt/insert) once. The line will now be drawn and can be moved around the
screen with the cursor or keyboard and fixed in position by pressing the left
mouse button (or Alt/Insert). If you change your mind about the position of
the start point, pressing the right mouse button will cancel the line and
return you to the start condition.
NOTE:The X & Y position of the current line end relative to the current
reference point and angle of the line are displayed at the top of the
screen.
[Ctrl/C] (Circle - filled)
Select a graphic filled circle GDP. A dialog box will be displayed
for the input of the required radius and X & Y positions.
Ensure that the required fill attributes are correct then select
[Ctrl/C] icon from the [PRIM] menu or press Ctrl/C. This will produce a
dialog box to enable the input of the circle radius X & Y positions if
required. Enter the desired values and select either [Ok] or [Mouse]. If
[Mouse] is selected both the crosswire cursor and the circle of radius as
input will appear on the screen. They can then be moved about the screen
with the mouse or Alt/graphics keys and fixed in the required place by
pressing the left mouse button. Pressing the right mouse button aborts the
action. If [Ok] was selected, the circle will be placed immediately on the
drawing at Xpos & Ypos with reference to the origin marker.
NOTE:When placing with the mouse, the X & Y position of the current
circle centre relative to the current origin is displayed at the top of
the screen.
[Ctrl/R] (Arc)
Select a graphic arc GDP. A dialog box will be displayed for the
input of the desired radius, start & end angles and Xpos & Ypos.
This graphic operates in the same way as 'Circle', however the
dialog box includes two extra entries for the starting and ending angles.
It should be noted that as regards Arcs 0deg and 360deg are the
same. If a circle made from an arc, with start and end angles of 0deg &
360deg respectively, is vertically flipped both these angles will change to
180deg and nothing will be drawn. To get over this enter 0deg for the start
angle and 359.9deg for the end angle.
NOTE:The X & Y position of the current arc centre relative to the
current reference point is displayed at the top of the screen.
[Ctrl/T] (Text)
Enter text. A dialog box will be displayed for the input of the
required text and text attributes.
Select [Ctrl/T] icon from the [PRIM] menu or press Ctrl/T. Enter
the desired text, optional sequential number and attributes in the dialog box
displayed and select [Ok] or [Mouse]. If [Mouse] was selected the text can
be moved and placed as with 'Circle'.
If a sequential number was entered it will be appended to any text
entered into the dialogue box. When the first text string is placed on to the
drawing the sequential number will be incremented by one ready for the
next placement. This will continue for as long as the left mouse button is
used. When the right button is used, the process is aborted and the next
number in the sequence is remembered, ready for continuation at a place
not visible on the screen.
NOTE:The X & Y position of the current text reference point (bottom
LH corner of the 1st character) relative to the current reference
point is displayed at the top of the screen. Due to a limitation of
GEM, normal text cannot have a height in excess of 26 pixels. This
means that no matter how large the value of Magnification is the
height of any normal text cannot exceed 26 pixels. However, vector
text, which uses a built-in font does not suffer from this limitation.
This text can be expanded to any size and, if not a line style text,
can be filled with any of the GEM fill patterns. Another benefit of
vector text is its ability to be displayed as a true mirror image - both
laterally and vertically and orientated at any angle. It can also, of
course, be rotated, scaled and flipped.
The vector size is a value corresponding to current units in use ie.
if the units are [mm] and the text size is 6; vector text will be 6mm high
(ie. from the top of a capital letter to the bottom of a lower case
descender). If the units are then changed to [inches] the vector text will be
6" high (take care!).
The [Bk] button switches the 'normal' text from black to white
which enables white text on a black background.
The four arrows set the orientation of the 'normal' text. GEM
only allows these four orientations which is why the orientation of the
vector graphics is separate. Vector graphics can be orientated at any angle.
There are several choices of vector font: filled styles and a single
line styles mainly intended for CAD work.
The Serial value is an extremely handy facility for implementing
item numbers or circuit component numbers. If this value is null then text
entered in the 'Text' line is implemented as usual. However, if there is a
value (even 0) in the 'Serial' place, this will be appended to any text in the
'Text' line and will automatically be incremented each time a value is
placed on the drawing. Therefore such texts as R1, R2, R3 etc and Part 1,
Part 2, Part 3 etc can easily be entered. Don't forget, this facility is
swithed off when a null 'Serial' value is entered.
The level on which the text is to be drawn can also be set at this
stage. This convenient since text is usually drawn on a different level from
other primitives.
Please note that the outline attribute only is supported for filled
vector text.
If you find you are drawing an '@' symbol, you have accidentally
generated a null string and are trying to draw it. This arises from the way
the HiSoft WERCS package uses the '@' character to clear dialog text
fields. With nothing entered in the Text dialog GEM thinks the '@'
character is valid and faithfully displays it. This does no harm and serves to
remind you what has happened otherwise only the crosswires would
appear. If you want to draw a null value however, say for a serial number
with no preceding text; simply type a space in the 'Text' line then
backspace over it.
[Ctrl/B] (Box/rectangle - filled)
Select a graphic filled rectangle GDP.
Ensure the required fill attributes are correct and select the
[Ctrl/B] menu icon from the [PRIM] menu or press Ctrl/B. A dialog box
will be displayed for the input of the rectangle width & height and X & Y
Pos. Select [Ok] to place the text with reference to the origin marker or
select [Mouse] then 'Add' or press the space bar and place the box as
before.
NOTE:The current X & Y position of the top LH corner relative to the
current reference point is displayed at the top of the screen.
[Ctrl/P] (Polygon - filled)
Select a graphic filled polygon GDP.
Ensure the required fill attributes are correct and select [Ctrl/P]
icon from the [PRIM] menu or press Ctrl/P. The graphics cursor will
change to the crosswires and should be positioned at one point of the
desired polygon. Click the left mouse button and move the cursor to the
next point and press the left button again. This should be carried out for
all points of the polygon. From the second point onward each time a point
is marked a line will be drawn to indicate the progress of the polygon.
There is no need to 'join up' the polygon as this is done automatically.
When all the points have been marked press the right mouse button and the
polygon will be filled with the chosen fill pattern.
NOTE:The X & Y position of the current point relative to the current
reference point is displayed at the top of the screen.
NOTE:The line attribute settings are obeyed when drawing polygons. By
setting the line style to dotted, the outline, whilst drawing, is visible
even when drawing over a solid black area. The final outline,
however, is still governed by the perimeter visibility attribute.
[Ctrl/I/O] (Ellipse, Elliptical arc)
Select a graphic filled ellipse/elliptical arc GDP from the [PRIM]
menu or press the appropriate Ctrl/key combination. A dialog box will be
displayed for the input horizontal and vertical radii and in the case of ell
arc, start and end angles.
These are implemented exactly the same as for Circle and Arc.
[Ctrl/N] (Polyline)
Select a graphic polyline GDP.
This is basically the same as Line except that a new line is started
immediately the left mouse button is pressed. Whenever possible, when
'strings' of lines with the same attributes are required, use this function
instead of 'Line' since it is less costly in terms of memory usage.
NOTE:As yet, the Line Edit'ing functions do not operate on Polylines.
See note in Edit (lines).
NOTE:The X & Y position of the current line end relative to the current
reference point and angle of the line are displayed at the top of the
screen.
NOTE:When 'Mark'ing a polyline the complete 'string' of lines most be
surrounded by the block mark for the polyline to be 'captured'.
[BLOCK]
[F1] (Mark block)
Select a portion of the screen to be 'cut' or 'copy'ed to the paste
buffer.
This enables a section of a drawing to be 'Mark'ed out for either
'Cut'ing or 'Copy'ing. Select the [Mark] icon from the [BLOCK] menu or
press F1. Any previously marked area of the screen will be un-marked and
the graphics cursor will change to a crosswire. Move the centre of the
crosswire to the top left hand corner of an area of drawing that it is desired
to mark. Press and hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse
so that the dotted rectangle surrounds the desired area. Release the mouse
button and the area of screen 'captured' will be highlighted within the
block mark.
NOTE:If the Set Ref:[BLOCK] radio button in the preferences dialog is
selected the top LH corner of the block becomes the reference point
when positioning the block with the paste function and corresponds
with the X & Y values shown at the top of the screen. If however
the Set Ref:[Origin] radio button has been selected, the origin
marker indicates the reference point for pasting. Make sure that the
origin marker is visible when using the [Origin} method otherwise it
will not be possible to paste the marked or cut block back to the
screen.
NOTE:On large drawings and 8Mhz machines there may be a delay
whilst the program is searching.
[F2] (Cut block)
Delete/Cut a section from the screen that has been 'Mark'ed. The
deleted portion will also be placed into the paste buffer.
Select the [F2] icon from the [BLOCK] menu or press F2. Any
'Mark'ed area on the screen will be erased from the screen and the data
removed from memory. This removed data however, will be transferred to
the paste buffer from where it can be rotated, flipped,scaled and pasted
back to screen. It can also be saved to disc (see [BLOCK] 'Save').
NOTE:When Cut'ing an entire, large, drawing it can be quicker to use
Copy then Clear the drawing. This is due to the fact that the Cut
routine has to delete individual records from memory one by one,
whereas 'Clear' merely resets memory pointers.
[F3] (Copy block)
Copy a section of the screen that has been 'Mark'ed, into the paste
buffer. The existing data in memory and screen remain intact.
Select the [F3] icon from the [BLOCK] menu or press F3. The
data of any 'Mark'ed area on the screen will be copied to the paste buffer
and can be operated on in the same way as with 'Cut'.
[F4] (Paste block)
Copy and position a 'Copy'ed or 'Cut' area of the drawing back
onto the drawing.
Select the [F4] icon from the [BLOCK] menu or press F4. A
dialog box will appear which offers the choice of mouse placement or
multiple entry mode (see explanation given in the PRIM section. If
[Mouse] is chosen the graphics cursor will be replaced by a copy of the
contents of the paste buffer which can be dragged around the screen and
fixed in position by pressing the left mouse button (or Alt/insert key).
Pressing the left mouse button will also cause a copy of that data, in the
new position, to be placed in memory. As many copies as required, of that
data can be pasted, memory permitting. Pressing the right mouse button
ends the activity.
See also Cut/Ref in Preferences
[F5] (Rotate block)
Rotate the contents of the paste buffer by a specified value or by
90 deg anti-clockwise.
Select the [F5] icon from the [BLOCK] menu or press F5. you
will then be presented with a small dialog box into which you may enter
your desired rotational angle. If you select the 'By above angle ACW'
button, the contents of the paste buffer will be rotated in an ACW direction
by this amount.
It must be emphasised that certain Atari GEM primitives can not
be rotated by other than 90 degrees and because of this they are ignored
when this button is selected. ie.
Primitives rotated with Primitives NOT rotated with
'By above angle' button 'By above angle' button
----------------------- ---------------------------
Line Text (bit-image)
Circle Rectangle*
Arc Ellipse
Polygon Elliptical arc
Polyline
Vector text
*These are specified in the drawing file by width & height and can not
therefore be rotated. If you need to rotate rectangles you should make them
out of polygons or polylines. In future versions I may provide a handy
facility for this.
On the other hand the 90 degree button will cause all primitives in
the paste buffer to be rotated 90 deg in an anti-clockwise (ACW) direction
and any angular value entered into the dialog box will be ignored.
In both cases individual GDP's or composite data can be rotated.
[F6] (Vflip block)
Flip the contents of the paste buffer about the vertical axis.
Select the [F6] icon from the [BLOCK] menu or press F6. This
will cause any data in the paste buffer to be flipped or 'mirrored' about the
vertical axis. Beware of flipping circles made from arcs with start and end
angles of 0 and 360 deg. Both of these angles will be converted to 180 deg
and as a result the circle will disappear. To avoid this phenomenon, the
start and end angles should be represented as 0deg and 359.9deg
respectively.
[F7] (Hflip block)
Flip the contents of the paste buffer about the horizontal axis.
Select the [F7] icon from the [BLOCK] menu or press F7. This
acts in the same way as 'Vflip' but flips the data around the horizontal axis.
[F8] (Scale block)
Scale the contents of the paste buffer by the amount shown in the
block scale dialog box.
Select the [F8] icon from the [BLOCK] menu or press F8. A
dialog box will be displayed which allows you to scale all values by the
amount specified or scale primitives only and set text to a specific value.
For example it may be that you want to double the size of the vector text,
ste the bit-image text to 26 without altering the rest of the drawing. In this
case you would set Primitives to 1, Text, bit to 26 & select its [Abs]
button, set Text, vector to 2 & select its [Scale] button.
When you have set the parameters to the desired value and click
on [Ok]. The contents of the paste buffer will then be scaled by the value
entered.
This separate text scaling is an additional handy facility since the
same can be achieved by the good drafting technique of putting all text by
itself on a dedicated drawing level. By this means it can be isolated,
marked, cut and scaled on its own.
[Shift/F8] (Scale drawing)
Scale the contents of the drawing buffer by the amount shown in
the Scale drawing/block dialog box. This operates in the same way as
'Scale block' above.
Unlike the drawing scales eg. 1:2, 1:4 etc. which are held in the
drawing header and only increase or reduce the drawing values for display
purposes, this facility changes the actual drawing values held in memory.
[F9] (Change block level)
Change the drawing level of the block data in clipboard memory
to a new level. If necessary composite blocks can be dissected, given the
required layer number then pasted back.
Select the [F9] icon from the [BLOCK] menu or press F9. A
dialog box will appear into which you can enter your desired new block
level. The new level will be added to the current level usage and will be
reflected in the layers dialog box.
[XFER] (Transfer)
[Alt/I] (Load/Insert block)
Load a block from disk drive into the paste buffer.
Select the block [Alt/I] icon from the [XFER] menu or press Alt/I
(Insert). The file selector box will be displayed and a filename can be
entered the same as for 'Load'. Clicking [Ok] or pressing the <Return>
key will cause the data to be loaded into the paste buffer.
NOTE:Inserting a block automatically sets the paste to the normal
'Drawing' mode; any previous 'Outline' or 'Both' mode will need
to be reset again if required.
[Alt/D] (Save/Dump block)
Any data in the paste buffer will be saved to disc without any
header information (this means that it can subsequently be Insert'ed back
into the drawing). The file selector box will be displayed enabling the
block file/pathname to be changed or confirmed.
Select the block [Alt/D] icon from the [XFER] menu or press
Alt/D. When the file selector box is displayed the file/pathname can be
entered as for File 'Save'. Clicking [Ok] or pressing the <Return> key
will cause any data in the paste buffer to be written to a disc file with the
filename and extension (default .BLK) chosen.
[Alt/T] (Text import)
Load text from a pure ASCII text file into the paste buffer.
Where large amounts of text need to input, it can be written using
a word processor, saved in ASCII format and imported to MultiCAD.
Before importation, setup the Text and Attributes dialogs with the
required text styles/modes etc. Select Import ASCII and load the required
file. The t ext will be placed into the paste buffer from where it can be
pasted into the drawing. Do not import too much text as it may become too
unwieldy to move around the screen.
[Alt/C] (CADja ASCII import)
Load a CADja ASCII drawing text file into the drawing buffer.
CADja ASCII files are drawing files described in pure ASCII text.
ASCII files are the established file format for conversion between different
software packages and hardware platforms. ASCII files written by CADJA
and MultiCAD can be read and manipulated by ST, PC and Mac software!
They can be read directly from the desktop, loaded and edited in databases,
word processors, programming languages or other post processors.
Programmers can further manipulate the ASCII data extracting relevant
information suitable for use in databases, spreadsheets, word processors or
(for example, using DASCH) other CAD programs. By editing an ASCII
CADja file it is possible to change drawings in ways that are not possible
within a CAD program.
These files are loaded directly into the drawing buffer, converted
into MultiCAD format and immediately displayed.
NOTE:Any text that was exported using the CADJA ASCII export
facility will automatically be converted to single line (CADja)
vector text.
[Alt/E] (CADja ASCII Export)
Save the drawing or contents of the paste buffer as a CADJA
ASCII text file.
For the reasons given above a drawing may need to be converted
to an ASCII format. To achieve this select [Alt/E] icon from the [XFER]
menu or press Alt/E. A dialog box will be displayed giving you the option
of converting either the whole drawing or the contents of the paste
(clipboard) buffer. After you chose one of these a file selector box will be
displayed and the filename can be chosen or keyed in. The usual file
extension is .ASC and is displayed as default.
CADja ASCII ellipses are made up of bits of arcs. MultiCAD does
not (as yet) convert ellipses to a set of arcs so these must be drawn in some
other way by the user.
[Alt/J] (DXF import)
Load a DXF (Drawing Interchange File) ASCII drawing text file
into the drawing buffer.
A DXF file is simply and ASCII text file with a file type of .DXF
and specially formatted text. However, the DXF format is very
comprehensive and detailed and is itself a major topic. If MultiCAD users
require further information on the subject there are three disks I can supply
each containing details of the file structure together with file examples.
Send a cheque for £3 per disk, requesting DXF disk 1, 2 or 3, to the usual
address.
At present MultiCAD imports & exports sufficient DXF
information for its own requirements. If registered users require further
facilities they should contact me in the usual way.
As with CADja files, DXF files are are loaded directly into the
drawing buffer, converted into MultiCAD format and immediately
displayed.
[Alt/X] (DXF Export)
Save the drawing or contents of the paste buffer as a DXF ASCII
text file.
For the reasons given above a drawing may need to be converted
to a DXF ASCII format. To achieve this select [Alt/X] icon from the
[XFER] menu or press Alt/X. A dialog box will be displayed giving you
the option of converting either the whole drawing or the contents of the
paste (clipboard) buffer. After you chose one of these a file selector box
will be displayed and the filename can be chosen or keyed in. The usual
file extension is .DXF and is displayed as default.
DXF ellipses, unlike CADja, are not made up of bits of arcs.
They seem to be special entities within the DXF format. I am endeavouring
to obtain more information about them and hope to have all ellipse facilities
functional by the next release (circa June 1995).
[TOOL] (Tools)
[Ctrl/S] (Snap to grid)
Activate or deactivate the positioning grid 'snap' facility.
When active (shown by the word 'Grid' in the information line at
the top of the screen), objects positioned on the screen will be fixed at the
grid point nearest the mouse position.
[Ctrl/Y] (Snap to guideline)
Activate or deactivate the positioning guideline 'snap' facility.
When active (shown by the word 'Guide' in the information line at
the top of the screen), objects positioned on the screen, if near enough to a
guideline (as determined by the Guide snap limit in the Units dialog) it will
be fixed at the guideline position.
NOTE:A guideline can be any truly horizontal or vertical line (not
polyline) currently displayed.
[Ctrl/G] (Grid)
Toggle the dot grid screen display.
Select the [Ctrl/G] icon from the [TOOL] menu or press Ctrl/G.
The dot grid will appear or disappear from the screen.
NOTE:A dot grid that resolves to less than 5 pixels will not be displayed
since it makes the display almost unreadable.
[Alt/J] (Drawing edJe)
Display the edges of the drawing sheet size.
With this switch 'on' (default) the edges of the drawing sheet will
be displayed and can be seen if the world icon is clicked.
[Ctrl/U] (Units)
Display a dialog box into which various drawing unit values can
be entered.
Scale:These two values allow you to draw in one set of values whilst
displaying and printing out in another. You could, for example
set the units to Mtrs. and the scale to 1:1000; then if you drew a
line 1.234 metres long, the drawing would display it 1.234
millimetres long.
Mag:Sets the amount by which the display is magnified: it does not
affect the actual data values in memory. This value is also
changed by the use of the Z, Alt/Z and Alt/F (Mark-and-zoom -
Find) keys.
Guide snap:This value sets the maximum distance (in the current units)
the cursor can be from a guideline before it will snap to it.
Units:As you would expect the selection of a particular unit value, with
the exception of [Pixels], determines the size of objects printed
out.
[Pixels]:Use this if you want to enter raw pixel values into the drawing.
This does not relate to any dimensioning structure so you could
formulate your own. 'Pixels' is ideal for drawing circuits by
freehand since the values obtained from the screen will be
integers.
[mm]:If you select this, all dimensions entered into a dialog box will
produce a length/radius/position etc. in millimetres, on the final
printout.
[Inches]:Same as [ mm ] but in inches.
Do I need to explain the other Units?
The same is true for any of the other units provided that the
drawing scales settings resolve to 1:1. Any other values of scale will affect
the size of the drawing as displayed but not the actual drawing sizes stored
in memory or written to the .MDF file.
[Other]:You can enter you own Units factor here if you wish
(astronomical units?). Calculate it on the basis of 1 for inches,
12 for feet, 63360 for miles.
Grid:This sets the vertical and horizontal distance in Units between
successive dots in the grid matrix.
NOTE:A dot grid that resolves to less than 5 pixels will not be displayed
since it makes the display almost unreadable.
Some printers, like the Canon Bubblejet have the facility to
emulate a 24 pin printer by changing the DIP switches on the printer.
[Ctrl/F] (Set reF/origin)
Set the reference point from which all distances are measured.
Select the [Ctrl/F] icon from the [TOOL] menu or press Ctrl/F. The
graphics cursor will change to a cross and can be placed on a point on
screen that is required to be a reference point for measurement and precise
placement. Position the cross at the desired reference point and press the
left mouse button. This will cause the reference marker to be placed at this
position and will stay the same size and in the same relative position on the
drawing no matter what part of the drawing is being viewed or what
magnification is in operation. When lines, circles, arcs or ellipses are
manipulated on screen, the X and Y distances of the line end or
circle/arc/ellipse centre are shown at the top of the screen.
[Alt/1] (inclined dimension)
With this, and the following two facilities you can chose two
points on the drawing and create a set of dimensioning lines complete with
leader lines, arrowheads, dimension line/s, measurement and optional
offset line with leader.
Alt/1 will draw and measure a set of dimensions which are parallel
to the two points chosen. To carry this out chose the Alt/1 icon and the
familiar crosshairs will appear. Place the crosshairs on the first point at
which the first leader should point and press the left mouse button. A
'rubber' line will now appear at the crosshairs and can be dragged to the
desired second point at which the second leader line should point. Press the
left mouse button again and a set of dimension lines can now be dragged to
an appropriate position. Press the left mouse button once more to fix the
dimension lines in position.
However, at this point, if the 'Offset with leader' button is active,
yet another 'rubber' line can be drawn which will extend from the middle
of the dimension line. This line can be dragged to an appropriate position
and the left mouse button pressed. This will fix the leader pointer line
whereupon another (horizontal) extension line can be drawn in the same
way. When the left mouse button is pressed the process is finished and the
measured value, if active, is appended to the leader.
[Alt/2] (horizontal dimension)
This works in the same way as Alt/1 above except that the
dimension line will always be horizontal even if the first two points chosen
do not lie on a horizontal line.
[Alt/2] (vertical dimension)
This works in the same way as Alt/1 above except that the
dimension line will always be vertical even if the first two points chosen do
not lie on a vertical line.
Help Help
Display a dialog box which contains some useful, handy
information.
Select the 'Help' icon from the 'Edit' menu or press the 'Help'
key. A dialog box will be produced containing the information ie.
Alt/Insert Simulates the left mouse button
Alt/Clr-Home Simulates the right mouse button
Alt/^,v,>,< Moves the cursor 8 pixels
Alt+Shift/^,v,>,<Moves the cursor 1 pixel
<,>,^,v Page left, right, up, down (90%)
Shift/<,>,^,v Page left, right, up, down (10%)
Z Zoom in.
Alt/Z Zoom out.
Alt/G Set a Guideline.
Alt/F Find (Mark-and-zoom)
Alt/R Redraw/refresh the drawing
Ctrl/G Dot Grid toggle
Ctrl/F Set Reference/Origin marker
Help Produces this dialog
Let me know if you think the Help screens should be expanded.
Undo Undo
Undo the last primitive entered into the drawing.
By pressing this key the last primitive in the drawing will be
ignored and the associated graphic erased from the screen. A primitive
(circle, line etc.), placed in error can therefore be quickly deleted by
pressing the Undo key. This facility is not limited to the last primitive
entered and if pressed again the next last primitive will be erased and so
on. In this way pasted composite graphics can also be deleted by pressing
the Undo a number of times.
[LAY] (Layers)
[Ctrl/X] (Layers/levels)
Produce a dialog box in which to enter level names, the levels to
currently display, and the level on which to draw.
A drawing can be made up of up to 16 drawing levels which can
be displayed separately, some or all at once. Only those that are displayed
are affected by the Cut & Copy functions. Blocks cut out of one layer can
have their level changed (see F9) and thus pasted into a different level.
Please note that if a different current draw level is in operation from the
level of that of the block, it will not be visible when pasting.
Blocks loaded in from either disk or the Library are initially at
level 1. Use F9 to change them to the current draw level.
The various buttons are explained as follows:-
[All]:The entire drawing data is searched and all the levels in use shown
in the 'Display' section. These will be retained as 'User'
selections if [Refresh] or [Ok] are selected.
[User]:The previous selection is re-entered into the 'Display' section
provided it has not been updated as explained above.
[Refresh]:The dialog is exited and the drawing re-drawn according to the
current settings in the 'Display' section. These settings become
[User] settings.
[Ok]:The dialog is exited but the drawing is not re-drawn. The settings
do, however become [User] settings. If you really wanted to
refresh the drawing just press Alt/R.
[Cancel]:Exit the dialog and leave all settings the same as when you
entered the dialog.
[Ctrl/V] (View all levels
Make all levels active for display.
By pressing Ctrl/V or selecting the illuminated light bulb icon all
levels will become active and the drawing will be immediately refreshed to
show the complete drawing.
If you now press Ctrl/X and select [User] you will see that all
display levels are active.
[Ctrl/W] ((W)ipe/hide all levels)
Make all levels inactive for display.
This has the opposite effect of Ctrl/V. By pressing Ctrl/W or
selecting the dull light bulb icon all levels will become inactive and the
drawing will be immediately refreshed to show a blank screen.
If you now press Ctrl/X and select [User] you will see that all
display levels are inactive.
The level names are saved in the .INF file when [Save] is selected
from the Preferences dialog. They are subsequently loaded back when the
same drawing is loaded for rework etc.
[LOOK]
[Alt/W] (World view)
Display an overall view of the drawing.
If it is necessary to view the entire drawing on the screen it can be
achieved with the aid of the world view icon. Simply click on this icon or
press Alt/W and the correct magnification and screen offsets will be
calculated in order to display the whole drawing in the centre of the screen.
The scale of the display in the full view mode will depend on the
size of the drawing sheet chosen. It is therefore a good idea, if this facility
is to be used, to set up the drawing size, using the drawing setup dialog
box.
All drawing functions can be used in this mode, however,
accuracy will be reduced owing to the scale of reduction involved. Unless
keyboard input or one of the snap facilities is used
[Alt/F] (Mark-and-zoom/Find)
Fill the entire screen with a section of the current part of the
drawing on display.
To operate this facility, click on the [Alt/F] icon in the [LOOK]
menu (magnifying glass icon) or press Alt/F and the mouse cursor will
change into a pair of crosswires. Place the crosswires at the top LH corner
of a rectangle that is required to be viewed. Press and hold down the left
mouse button and the crosswires will change into an expandable box. This
expandable box can be moved to surround the area required and when the
left button is released, the area 'marked' will immediately be displayed on
the screen.
NOTE:A magnification in excess of 100 is not allowed.
[Alt/V] (Last View)
Cause the previous view to be re-displayed.
If a 'wide angle' area of the drawing is being worked on and a
small area of this needs detail attention it can be zoomed in on by means of
the magnifying glass icon. When this detailed work is completed the
original 'wide angle' view can be restored by pressing Alt/V or clicking on
the icon in the [TOOL] menu.
[Alt/K] (Keyboard shift)
Shift the screen with the keyboard by altering the screen offset
values. This is useful when large excursions of the drawing are required.
Select the [Alt/K] icon from the [TOOL] menu or press Alt/K. A
dialog box will be produced where the new screen offsets can be entered.
Selection of the [Ok] button will cause the screen to be redrawn with the
new offset.
[Alt/M] (Mouse shift)
Shift the screen with the aid of the mouse.
Select the [Alt/M] icon from the [LOOK] menu or press Alt/M.
The graphics cursor will change to a cross. Place the cursor on a position
of interest on the drawing and click the left mouse button once and the
cursor will change to a pointing finger. Move the cursor to another
position on the screen and click the left mouse button once more. The
screen will then be immediately redrawn with the first mouse position
appearing at the second mouse position.
Press the right mouse button to end mouse shift.
PART III
Keyboard only functions
Alt/R (Redraw/refresh)
Refresh the drawing.
If the drawing has undergone extensive modifications the display
can get a bit chopped up. Pressing Alt/R will reconstitute it.
Clr-Home
If, through moving, zooming etc. you lose track of where you are
within a drawing, pressing the Clr Home key will quickly restore the
display to the base position and with a magnification of 1:1.
Z (Zoom-in)
Pressing the 'Z' key will either increase the Mag. value and reflect
the result on the screen.
NOTE:If the value of magnification is in the range 0.5<mag<1,
pressing the Z (zoom-in) key will set Mag = 1.
Alt/Z (Zoom-out)
pressing Alt/Z will perform the exact opposite of the 'Z' key.
NOTE:If the value of magnification is in the range 1<mag<2, pressing
the Alt/Z (zoom-out) keys will set Mag = 1.
Ctrl/Y (Snap to guideline)
This toggles the guideline positioning facility. When 'on'
primitives, pasted blocks and the reference marker, if near enough to a
guideline, will be placed on that guideline. If near enough to both a vertical
and horizontal guideline the object will be placed on the intersection.
A guideline is any horizontal or vertical Line (not a polyline) on
the current guideline level.
PART IV
THE WORKING SURFACE
All movement on the screen can be carried out either by means of
the mouse or by means of the Alt and/or shift-graphics keys. Using
Alt/graphics key will move the graphics cursor or shape 8 pixels up, down,
left or right; Alt+shift-graphics key will move it 1 pixel up, down, left or
right. This, of course, will correspond to different drawing values
depending on which units are in force.
Also the mouse buttons can be simulated on the keyboard.
Alt/insert simulates the left mouse button and Alt/Clr Home simulates the
right.
In all cases a particular action is aborted by pressing the right
mouse button (or Alt/Clr-Home).
Editing
Any old MultiCAD drawings can be loaded, displayed, modified
or converted into new drawings. Sections can be 'cut' out, saved on disc
and later 'inserted' into new drawings.
File extensions
File extensions can be anything you like. I have used .MDF
(MultiCAD Drawing File) for complete drawings and .BLK for blocks.
Tutorial
The following examples will produce a sample drawing. The
figures in brackets should be used in this example.
Example 1
Load in a drawing sheet blank, scale it, and draw a regular lattice
structure.
1. Determine the Scale of your drawing (1:7)
2. In the Units dialog (Ctrl/U).
2.1 Set Units (mm).
2.2 Set printer (9 pin or 24 pin, 1:2)
2.3 Set Scale (1:7)
2.4 Select [Ok]
3. In Setup Drg. (In Tools menu).
3.1 Select [Landscape].
3.2 Select [80].
3.3 Select [Ok].
4. Press Alt-W keys.
5. Press Alt-I and Insert DGB80_2L.BLK.
6. Scale block (F8)
6.1 Set Primitives Scale 7.
6.2 Set Text Scale 1.
6.3 Select [Ok].
7. Paste block (F4).
Before pressing F4, ensure the [Drawing] paste mode is selected in
the Preferences (Ctrl/D) dialog. For fine positioning adjustment use the
shift-Alt and arrow keys. Fix in position with the Alt/insert key and exit
from paste with the Alt/Clr-home key.
8. Set ref (Ctrl/F) at around X:100mm Y:500mm
9. Press Ctrl/A for the Attributes dialog.
9.1 Select the top LH fill pattern
(white).
9.2 Select [Ok]
10. Press Ctrl/B for the rectangle dialog.
10.1 Set Width:1540
10.2 Set Height:22
10.3 Set X pos:0 (or just leave blank)
10.4 Set Y pos:0 ( " " " " )
10.5 Set X No.:1
10.6 Set Y No.:15
10.7 Set X spc:0 (or just leave blank)
10.8 Set Y spc:47
10.9 Select [Ok].
11. Press Ctrl/B or Space bar for the rectangle dialog.
11.1 Set Width:22
11.2 Set Height:680
11.3 Set X pos:0 (or just leave blank)
11.4 Set Y pos:0 (" " " " )
11.5 Set X No.:34
11.6 Set Y No.:1
11.7 Set X spc:46
11.8 Set Y spc:0 (or just leave blank).
11.9 Select [Ok].
12. Press Ctrl/L for Lines primitive.
12.1 Select [Polar]
12.2 Select [Thin]
12.3 Set X pos:0
12.4 Set Y pos:688
12.5 Set Length:100
12.6 Set Angle:90
12.7 Select [Ok]
13. Press Ctrl/L for Lines primitive.
13.1 Set X pos:1548
13.2 Set Y pos:688
13.3 Set Length:100
13.4 Set Angle:90
13.5 Select [Ok]
14. Press Ctrl/L for Lines primitive.
14.1 Set X pos:1548
14.2 Set Y pos:680
14.3 Set Length:100
14.4 Set Angle:0
14.5 Select [Ok]
15. Press Ctrl/L for Lines primitive.
15.1 Set X pos:1548
15.2 Set Y pos:0
15.3 Set Length:100
15.4 Set Angle:0
15.5 Select [Ok]
16. Press Ctrl/A for the Attributes dialog.
16.1 Select <- & -> line ends.
16.2 Select [Ok]
17. Press Ctrl/L for Lines primitive.
17.1 Set X pos:0
17.2 Set Y pos:780
17.3 Set Length:1540
17.4 Set Angle:0
17.5 Select [Ok]
18. Press Ctrl/L for Lines primitive.
18.1 Set X pos:1640
18.2 Set Y pos:0
18.3 Set Length:680
18.4 Set Angle:90
18.5 Select [Ok]
19. Press Ctrl/T for Text.
19.1 Enter Text:'1540mm'
19.2 Select [13]
19.3 Select [Atari bit image]
19.4 Select [->]
19.5 Set bit image Scale:7
19.6 Set Xpos:700
19.7 Set Ypos:790
19.8 Select [Ok]
20. Press Space Bar.
20.1 Enter Text:'680mm'
20.2 Select [^]
20.3 Set X pos:1624
20.4 Set Y pos:300
20.5 Select [Ok]
You should now be able to complete the drawing ie. fill in the
drawing data panels for Scale: 1:7 Dimensions: mm etc. etc.
Example 2
Draw a 14 pin Dual In-line Integrated Circuit (DILIC) package.
1. Set Units (Ctrl/U).
1.1 Set [inches]
1.2 Set Scale 1:1
1.3 Set Printer (9 pin or 24 pin, 1:2).
1.4 Set Mag (8).
1.5 Select [Ok].
2. Set ref (Ctrl/F)
2.1 Select [Mouse] and position near
bottom LH corner.
3. Select Attributes (Alt/A)
3.1 Select a black fill.
3.2 Select [Ok].
4. Select Circle primitive (Ctrl/C).
4.1 Set Radius:0.03.
4.2 Set X pos:0.1
4.3 Set Y pos:0
4.4 Set X No.:7
4.5 Set Y No.:2
4.6 Set X space:0.1
4.7 Set Y space:0.3
4.8 Select [Ok].
5. Select Attributes (Alt/A)
5.1 Select a white fill.
5.2 Select [Ok].
6. Select Circle primitive (Ctrl/C).
6.1 Set Radius:0.015.
6.2 Set X pos:0.1
6.3 Set Y pos:0
6.4 Set X No.:7
6.5 Set Y No.:2
6.6 Set X space:0.1
6.7 Set Y space:0.3
6.8 Select [Ok].
7. Select Rectangle primitive (Ctrl/B).
7.2 Set Width:0.8
7.3 Set Height:0.2
7.4 Set X pos:0
7.5 Set Y pos:0.05
7.8 Select [Ok].
8. Select Line primitive (Ctrl/L).
8.1 Set X pos:0.1
8.2 Set Y pos:0.05
8.3 Set Length:0.141
8.4 Set Angle:135
8.5 Select [Ok].
Presto! you should now have a 14 pin DIL shape.
Hints & Tips
Double click on MULTICAD.PRG to start up the program. If
you inspect the 'Graphics' icon menu down the left hand side of the screen
you will see that the second top icon shows a pencil drawing a line. This
means that the 'Line' function is active and will be brought into play when
the 'Add' item in the same menu is selected or the space bar pressed. So to
begin with we shall leave this function selected and click once on 'Add'
with the left mouse button or press space bar. A dialog box will appear
which will enable various parameter values and options to be chosen, but
for the time being just click on [Mouse]. A crosswire type cursor will
appear which can be moved around the screen. Choose a position and click
once on the left mouse button. An 'elastic' line is now drawn between the
original position chosen and the current mouse position. Chose another
position for the other end of the line and click once on the left mouse
button again. The line will now be fixed in position and the cursor ready
to draw another line. Manoeuvre the cursor so that it is exactly over one
end of the line already drawn and press the left mouse button. The 'elastic'
line will once more appear. If, however, you are not happy with the new
line, press the right mouse button and the line will disappear and the cursor
will once more be ready for a new line. Draw a few more lines, construct
some shapes to get the hang of it. To end the session press the right mouse
button an extra once after a line has been fixed, or aborted and the arrow
cursor will reappear ready for another menu selection.
The other primitives/GDP's are drawn in a similar fashion
although some do not display a dialog box eg. polyline and polygon.
Identical objects superimposed will cancel on 'Mark'ing due to
xor drawing mode used in this function.
Circles with thick outlines can be obtained using the Arc graphic
and with the line thickness set to the required value.
Boxes with thick outlines can be obtained by using the Polygon
graphic with a Black fill. Draw the inner and outer shapes of the thick box
by going around the outer and inner corners of your box with the polygon
function. When you finally click the right mouse button (after clicking the
left button 10 times) the thick black box will appear. You can, of course,
fill your box outline with any of the other patterns.
To get the best out of this program (or any other similar CAD
package) you should try and think a little more about the construction of
your drawing. Try and break it down into repeatable units; then you have
to draw it in detail only once, copy it, then paste it around the drawing as
many times as you like. Use the Block Save to build up your own library.
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
Please, please try not to allow the full version of this software to
be pirated. I have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours of effort to get it
to its present state of excellence. If you want a friend to try out MultiCAD,
please request a PD version either from myself or one of the many Atari
PD outlets.
The registration number of every copy of MultiCAD is built into
it. Evidence of MultiCAD being pirated could result in any of the
following:-
* All further work on MultiCAD would cease.
* The free backup service would cease ie. it would be charged for.
* The price of MultiCAD and updates would be quadrupled.
* If the culprits were discovered they would be sued.
When requesting upgrades, user's should return their original disk
and manual, including sufficient return postage. The cost of upgrades is
usually the difference between what you have already paid to the author
and the current price of MultiCAD.
Users of the restricted PD version can obtain a copy of the manual
(A5 inkjet printed) at a price of £10, refundable on purchase of the full
version.
INDEX
About MultiCAD 13
Arc 41
Attributes
Line colour 25
line styles 23
Line thickness 25
perimeter visibility 24
Write modes 24
Block
Change level 50
Copy 47
Cut 46
Hflip 49
Mark 46
Paste 47
Rotate 47
Scale (F8) 49
Vflip 48
Box/rectangle - filled 44
CADja
export 52
import 51
Change block level 50
Circle - filled 40
Clear 13
Clr-Home 64
Copy block 47
Cut block 46
Dimensioning setup
1st leader 33
2nd leader 33
align 32
arrow size 32
arrowheads 32
level 32
measure 33
offset with leader 33
suffix 32
text size 32
within dimension line 33
DIN drawing sizes 31
Disclaimer 11
Drawing
scale (shift F8) 49
Drawing edJe 55
Drawing scales 56
Drawing setup
Height 31
Orientation 30
Sizes 31
Width 31
DXF
export 53
import 53
Edit
Delete primitive 34
Edit lines
Break 35
Crosshair junction 36
Join 2nd to 1st 37
Join at common node 37
Make horizontal/vertical 36
Move one end 35
X extend 36
X ortho 36
Y extend 36
Y ortho 36
Ellipse
Elliptical arc 45
Examples 67
Expert 27
File
Load 13
Load .INF 14
Quit 19
Save 15
Save as ... 14
File extensions 66
Graphics
Add 19
Arc fillet 22
Arc radius 23
Bezier Polygons 21
Bezier Polylines 20
Lines 20
Perpendicular 22
Regular polygon 19
Regular polyline 19
Tangen -> tangent 21
Tangen -> XY 21
Grid 55
Help 59
Hflip block 49
Hints & Tips 72
Horizontal dimension 58
IMPORTANT NOTICE 73
Inclined dimension 58
Keyboard only functions
Clear/home 64
Redraw/refresh 64
Snap to guideline 64
Zoom-in 64
Zoom-out 64
Keyboard shift 63
Last View 63
LAYERS
Layers/levels 60
View all levels 61
Layers/levels 60
Library of shapes
Architectural 38
Electrical 38
Mechanical 38
Line
break 35
join ends 37
make horizontal/vertical 36
move one end 35
thick 39
thin 39
Load Alt/L 13
Load .INF 14
Load/Insert block 51
LOOK
Keyboard shift 63
Last view 63
Mark and zoom 62
Mouse shift 63
World view 62
Mag 56
Mark block 46
Mark-and-zoom/Find 62
Menu selections 13
Mouse shift 63
Packing list: 11
Paste block 47
Pixels 56
Polygon - filled 44
Polyline 45
Preferences
Clipboard memory 28
Crosswires 26
Cut mode 26
Data memory 27
Expert 27
Paste mode 26
Text 27
Primitive
delete 34
Primitives
Arc 41
Box/rectangle - filled 44
Circle - filled 40
Ellipses 45
Line 39
Polygon - filled 44
Polyline 45
Text 41
Print Alt/P 16
Printer
paper 17
setup 15
Printer setup Alt/O 16
Redraw/refresh 64
Refresh 60
Rotate block 47
Save as ... Alt/S 15
Save drawing 15
Save/Dump block 51
Scale 56
block (F8) 49
drawing (shift F8) 49
Set reF/origin 57
Snap
block 27
grid 55
guide 55-56, 64
Snap to grid 55
Snap to guideline 55, 64
Snap-to-guides 29
System Requirements 12
Text 41
Import 51
Normal/outline 27
sequential 41
TOOL
Drawing edge 55
Grid 55
Snap to grid 55
Tools
Attributes 23
Dimensioning setup 32
Drawing edge 55
Drawing guides 28
Drawing setup 30
Help 59
horizontal dimension 58
inclined dimension 58
Preferences 26
Set ref/origin 57
Snap to guideline 55
Undo 59
units 56
Un-undo 23
vertictal dimension 58
Undo 59
Units 56
Vertical dimension 58
Vflip block 48
View all levels 61
World view 62
Xfer (transfer)
CADja ASCII export 52
CADja ASCII import 51
DXF export 53
DXF import 53
Load/Insert block 51
Save/Dump block 51
Text import 51
Zoom-in 64
Zoom-out 64