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HOME PLAN (TM) is by: HOME PLAN SOFTWARE 6890 Rimrock Valley Rd. Orders: 1-800-671-7526 Fax: (209) 754-3737 Mountain Ranch, CA 95246 Info: (209) 754-4891 CIS 71321,167 "The author of Home Plan is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536." DEFINITION OF SHAREWARE Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before buying it. If you try a Shareware program and continue using it, you are expected to register. Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software. Because the overhead is low, prices are low also. Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee -- if you don't use the product, you don't pay for it. DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT Users of HOME PLAN must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "HOME PLAN is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of HOME PLAN." ************************************************** Home Plan was written on an IBM compatible in Turbo Pascal 6.0 to draw and print floor plan type drawings on 9 & 24 PIN dot matrix or HP Laser compatible printers. This program requires a VGA monitor. ************************************************** INDEX Pg. 1 Installation Pg. 2 General Hints Pg. 3 Plan Size Adjustment Pg. 4 Undo Pg. 4 Redo Pg. 4 Cursor Movement Pg. 4 Cursor Speed Pg. 4 Line Drawing Pg. 5 Line Erasing Pg. 5 Line Type Pg. 5 Draw Rectangle Pg. 5 Draw Rectangle w/ Double Wall Pg. 5 Draw Rectangle w/ Framing Pg. 5 Draw Circle Pg. 6 Draw Circle w/ Double Wall Pg. 6 Draw an Arc Pg. 6 Draw Walls Pg. 6 Insert Text Pg. 7 Insert Figures Pg. 7 Rearrange Furniture Pg. 7 Insert a Door Pg. 7 Delete Screen Portion Pg. 7 Automatic Dimensioning Pg. 8 Clone the Last Element Pg. 8 Square Footage Calculation Pg. 8 Alter Plan Menu Pg. 9 Reverse Horizontally Pg. 9 Reverse Vertically Pg. 9 Move the Plan Pg. 9 Move/Copy/Delete a Group Pg. 9 Move/Copy/Delete/Re-size Pg. 10 View/Purge Pg. 10 Metric Mode Vs USA Mode Pg. 11 Toggle Auto-Dimensions Pg. 11 Start a New Plan Pg. 12 Save a Plan to Disk Pg. 12 Load a Plan from Disk Pg. 12 Delete a File from Disk Pg. 12 Print the Current Plan Pg. 12 Print to Scale Pg. 13 Removing On Screen Prompts Pg. 13 Return to Opening Menu Pg. 13 Deleting Drawing Elements Pg. 13 Appendices Pg. 14 Registration Pg. 15 List of Command Keys Pg. 16 Page 1. INSTALLATION: Just copy the files to your working drive, and type HOMEPLN to start. FEATURES include: METRIC/USA System User defined drawing size Adjustable cursor speed Undo of the last action Automatic dimensioning Optional showing of framing (studs, joists etc.) Rectangles, circles and Arcs etc. Clone the Previous action Deletion of user defined screen portions Adjustable width Walls Selectable line styles On screen 'odometer' shows horiz & vert measure Line angle indicator Insert Doors of any size Saving & loading plans to & from disk Deleting plans from disk Printing at Screen size or 1/8" per Ft. Scale Insertion of pre-drawn furniture & appliances Square Footage Calculation Move the Plan Reverse the Plan Copy/Move/Re-size/delete elements from the plan This Manual is meant to be a reference manual, not a constant companion. Use the Manual if a command gives you trouble. I advise you to load the program & start to draw a plan. Select the first option from the main menu, press F1 to see a list of commands; 'Esc' to make the list go away. Just start drawing & use the commands listed while following the prompts.where applicable. Frequent use of F1, Undo & Del will fix any mistakes. Load one of the sample .PLN files that came with this program and modify it. Insert some furniture or appliances into it. ************************************************** This was written because I couldn't find a way to do these things without using a huge program and hours of manual reading. ************************************************** See below for some hints then: JUST type "HOMEPLAN". F-1 for help. ( there is a Tutorial option on the Main Menu. This walks you through a few samples of Home Plan's drawing routines.) A description of Home Plan Pro is available at the end. *************************************************** Page 2. GENERAL HINTS: F-1 = Help: The Option Menu allows you to configure the program. Don't be afraid to experiment. Anything changed can be changed back easily. COLORS: If you have trouble reading the screen on your monitor, try changing the colors. Select the Option Menu from the Opening Menu. Then, select Color Menu from the Option Menu. The Color Menu will let you see the changes as you make them, so try for the best combination. GET USED to using the '+' & '-' keys to adjust cursor speed. Zipping around your plan sometimes requires speed and sometimes, precision. A 'speedometer' in the lower right corner will tell you how far the cursor will go with each press of the NumberPad keys. Watch this change when the + or - keys are pressed. Using Shift with the NumberPad Keys will slow the cursor to the minimum speed for precision placement. The four Arrow keys on 101 keyboards also will move at the minimum speed. Move quickly using the NumberPad Keys, adjusted at a brisk pace, and hold down the Shift key at the end, to place the cursor precisely. The AUTO-Dimension may appear somewhat less than intuitive. Just try it a few times. (there is always Undo.) AUTO-DIMENSION will not work on distances less than two ft.(default scale) because of inadequate room. You can draw the lines, & use Insert Text ('Ins') to enter the appropriate numbers. SOME operations will cause lines to be partially erased and other distortions which will be rectified when the plan is redrawn. The plan is frequently redrawn in the normal course of events. If you want to force a redrawing, press F1 to bring the command list down, then 'Esc' to make it go away & redraw the plan. When you start serious plan drawing, draw a basic structural outline & save it under 'Basic' or some such. Now, you can load 'Basic' and do all sorts of things with it, saving new versions under new names. Many versions can be saved under many names all starting with 'Basic' until you settle on one approach. The PRE-DRAWN furniture & appliances are sized for average sizes of the items depicted. We can't guarantee that your stuff is the same size. Starting with ver 2.6, you may alter the size of furniture and appliances with the Plus & Minus keys while inserting the figures. At scales more than two or at most three times the default, the pre-drawn stuff is just too small to use. (it's still available if you want to insert a dot in your drawing.) Page 3 COMMANDS: ( For a Command List & a brief description, press F1 ) EDIT Commands: PLAN SIZE ADJUSTMENT: You may adjust the Plan Size when starting a new Plan. The on-screen prompts will tell you to press '-' or '+' to adjust the size of your new drawing. The maximum horizontal & vertical screen dimensions will be shown as you select the optimum scale. Once a plan has been started, or retrieved from disk, the Size can not be changed. Use the smallest plan size that will accommodate your proposed plan. 'Esc' cancels & invokes the Default size. UNDO 'Alt U' Mistakes are easy to fix! Pressing 'Alt U' will cancel the most recent command and redraw your plan without it. Successive presses of 'Alt U' will continue to delete the previous commands in reverse of the order they were made. REDO 'Shift Alt U' Hold down the Shift key while pressing Alt U, to bring back the last element that was "Undone" by Alt U. CAUTION: only the most recent deletion by UnDo can be restored. All previous elements that were Undone are no longer in memory. CURSOR MOVEMENT: The cursor is moved by the Numberpad Keys. (if the NumLock is off, the program will turn it on while you are drawing) The Numberpad keys can move the cursor in 8 directions. In addition, Pressing <Asterisk> will center the cursor on the screen. In addition to the Number Pad keys, the dedicated arrow keys will move the cursor one pixel at a time. They are not affected by the cursor speed adjustment described below. You can use these separate arrow keys for precision work without disturbing the cursor speed adjustment of the Number Pad keys. CURSOR SPEED: '+' ... '-' The cursor speed is adjusted with the '+' or '-' keys while in the Drawing Mode. Use Shift with the NumberPad keys to slow the cursor to the minimum speed for precision placement. The distance that the cursor moves each time is shown at the lower right corner of the screen. At the default drawing size, the minimum cursor movement is one inch. The next press of '+' increases it to 6 inches. Subsequent presses of '+' increases movement by 1/2 foot with each press. (The Metric Drawing Mode uses 25mm increments) Pressing '-' reverses the process. Selecting a larger size will cause the cursor movement to increase proportionately. (actually, the cursor moves the same, but the odometers show larger measurements) Page 4. LINE DRAWING: 'L' or 'Enter' Press 'L' to start the drawing process. No line is drawn yet, but two 'odometers' will appear at the lower left corner of your screen. These 'odometers' will show the cursor movement (one vertical; one horizontal) in feet & inches. (Millimeters in Metric Mode) Press 'L' again, to draw a line between the two points. Press 'Esc' to cancel the process without drawing the line. (this is a handy way to move to a measured point without drawing a line) 'Esc' cancels; 'Alt U' will Undo any unwanted lines. Ver 2.5 and newer, support the use of the 'Enter' key interchangeably with the 'L' key for drawing lines.. LINE ERASING: 'E' The Line Erase command works like the Line Draw command, but uses the 'E' key. Lines erased with this routine sometimes are not erased on printouts made with the higher resolution printer drivers. If you have this problem, use the Delete Screen Portion routine to erase lines. LINE TYPE: 'space' Three types of line are available for most operations. At the bottom center of your screen, is a sample of the current line type. Pressing the Space Bar will toggle between these line types. DRAW RECTANGLES: 'Alt R'...'R' 'Alt R' brings an on-screen prompt to place the cursor at one corner of the proposed rectangle & then to press 'Enter'. When you move the cursor, a rectangle is shown in a dotted line. When you have the desired rectangle, press 'R' to permanently draw the rectangle. ( 'Enter' works also ) Rectangles of the appropriate width make nice walls. (see Show Framing below) DRAW RECTANGLES with DOUBLE WALLS: 'Alt R'...'=' Terminate the Rectangle Command ('Alt R') with an ' = ' sign instead of an 'R" to create a rectangle with a double wall. The "Wall Thickness Menu" will appear. Use the Arrow Keys to adjust the thickness & Press Enter to draw the Rectangle. This can be useful for drawing the exterior perimeter. 'Esc' cancels; 'Alt U' will Undo mistakes. DRAW RECTANGLES with FRAMING: 'Alt R'... 'F' Terminate the Rectangle Command ('Alt R') with an 'F' instead of an 'R' to create a Rectangle with two inch framing members spaced on 16" centers. (Use 'SHIFT F' to change the spacing to 24" centers) In the case of narrow rectangles, such as walls, the end view of the wall studs will be shown. In the case of broader rectangles, perhaps floors or roofs, the joists or rafters will be shown across the shortest dimension of the rectangle. 'Esc' cancels; 'Alt U' will Undo mistakes. Page 5. DRAW CIRCLE: 'Alt C' 'Alt C' brings an on-screen prompt to place the cursor at the center of the proposed circle & then to press 'Enter'. A small circle will be shown with a prompt to move the rim with the cursor. Actually, this command draws an Ellipse. Moving the cursor vertically and horizontally will vary the ellipse radii. To draw a circle rather than an oval, keep the two radii equal. The NumberPad diagonal keys work fine for that purpose. Also, the 'odometers' will show both dimensions as you change them. After creating the circle, You will be prompted to move it exactly where you want it before pressing Enter. DRAW CIRCLE with DOUBLE WALL: 'Alt C'...'=' Terminate the Circle Command with an ' = ' sign to create a double walled circle. The "Wall Thickness Menu" appears. Use the arrow keys to adjust the thickness & Enter to draw the Circle. 'Esc' cancels; 'Alt U' will Undo mistakes. DRAW an ARC Alt ') or (' Hold down the Alt key & Press one of the Parentheses Keys to draw an Arc. Follow the prompt to place the cursor at the first end of the Arc, and press Enter. Follow the next Prompt to place the cursor on the second end of the proposed Arc, and Press Enter. An Arc will be shown between the two points. The last Prompt asks you to move the Rim of the Arc with the cursor. Just try it. It's easy. When everything is to your satisfaction, press Enter to complete the process. 'Esc' cancels; 'Alt U' will Undo mistakes. DRAW WALLS 'ALT W' This version draws WALLS consisting of level and plumb parallel lines. The WALL Process is started by pressing Alt W. The "Wall Thickness Menu" will appear. Use the Arrow keys to adjust the Wall Thickness, then Press Enter. A prompt will appear telling you to move the cursor with the NumberPad keys. (Only the Vertical & Horizontal keys will work) After moving the Cursor to the wall's end point, Press Enter to draw the lines. Then, move the cursor in a Right Angle to the first line. Press Enter again to draw the second Wall section. The Intersection will clean up for a nice corner. This function is nice for drawing walls of varying thickness around irregular shapes. (It is possible to draw parallel lines at angles other than level & plumb, but the corners won't clean up and the width may vary.) Press Esc to quit the process. Alt U will Undo after you Quit. Page 6. INSERT TEXT: 'Ins' Text may be inserted into the plan by pressing the 'Ins' key. Type the desired text & press 'Enter'. The text will start at the cursor position. Left/Right Arrow, Insert, and Delete do the expected. Ctrl Left/Right Arrow go to the next/previous word. Ctrl Home deletes from the cursor to the beginning, and Ctrl End to the end. Text entries are limited to 70 characters each entry. 'Esc' cancels; 'Alt U' will Undo unwanted entries. INSERT FIGURES: 'Alt F' 'Alt F' will bring up a menu of Pre-Drawn figures of furniture & appliances to insert into your plan. Select the figure with the NumberPad keys & press Enter. The selected Figure will appear on your plan at the last cursor position. You may move the figure using the NumberPad keys & the 'Tab' key will rotate the figure in 90 deg increments. The figure can be re-sized by pressing the Plus or Minus keys. Press 'Enter when you have the figure where you want it. 'Esc' cancels. 'Alt U' will Undo mistakes. REARRANGING the FURNITURE: 'SHIFT Alt F' You can Move/Rotate/Re-size/Copy furniture that was previously inserted in your plan. Place the cursor near the center of the figure. Hold down the Shift key while pressing Alt F. Follow the prompts. TAB, the cursor keys & the Plus/Minus keys will move / rotate / re-size the figure. If you press Shift/Enter, the figure will be moved to its new location. Pressing Ctrl Enter, will do the same thing, but also leave the original in place. INSERT a DOOR: '/' Press the '/' Slash Key to Open the Door. The Prompt will ask you to move the cursor to where you want the Door HINGE to be. Press Enter. The next prompt asks you to move the cursor to other edge of the Doorway. Press Enter. Finally, the prompt will ask you to press the ARROW key that points to the direction you want the Door to OPEN. The Door will open. (A dimension appears, if there is room) Esc Cancels. 'Alt U' will undo mistakes. DELETE SCREEN PORTION 'Del' Move the cursor to one corner of the screen area that you want to delete. Then press the "Del" Key. A small dotted rectangle will appear with a prompt to size the rectangle to cover the area that you want to delete & to press Enter. The drawing within the area you defined, will disappear. 'Esc' cancels; 'Alt U' will Undo mistakes. Page 7. AUTOMATIC DIMENSIONING: 'Alt D' Press 'Alt D'. The on-screen prompts will direct you to place the cursor where you want the dimension to start & press 'Enter'. To find the place where you want the dimension to start, place the cursor on one edge of the thing that you want to measure. Then, move the cursor to a clear area while keeping it in line with the starting point. Press 'Enter' and you will be prompted to move the cursor to the other end of the thing to be measured. The 'odometers' will show the distance moved, & preview the dimension that will be printed. It isn't necessary to keep the cursor level or plumb. In fact, it is easier to actually place the cursor on the line you want to measure to. The Dimension line will appear level or plumb depending on whether the cursor was moved MOSTLY horizontally or MOSTLY vertically. So moving the cursor a short distance at a right angle to the desired direction of measurement won't make any difference. 'Esc' cancels; 'Alt U' will Undo mistakes. CLONING the last COMMAND: '=' Pressing the '=' key will start the Cloning process. The Cursor will move to the beginning point of the previous operation. A Prompt will ask you to move the cursor to a new point and to press Enter to draw a clone of the previous command. This is a powerful and versatile feature, useful for repetitive drawing chores. (stairs, siding, deck boards, framing, etc.) 'Esc' cancels; 'Alt U' will Undo mistakes. SQUARE FOOTAGE CALCULATION '[ or ]' Press one of the SQUARE BRACKETS to start the process. You will be prompted to place the Cursor at one corner of an area to be calculated. Then, press Enter. Next, drag the dotted line with the NumberPad keys to cover the desired area, & press Enter again. The area will be covered by a grid & the square footage will appear at the lower left corner of the screen. Do this as many times as you want, a running total is kept at the lower left corner of the screen. Press Esc to quit & make the grids go away. The running total will stay in the lower left corner until you start another operation. Use Insert Text if you want to get the total on the plan before it disappears. Page 8. PLAN ALTERING ROUTINES: 'CTRL F10' Press Ctrl F10 to see the Alter Plan Menu. This menu lists six routines to alter the current plan in some way. Each routine can also be accessed directly by its "Hot Key" combination. These routines are: 1. Reverse the plan Horizontally (left to right). 'Ctrl F1' 2. Reverse the plan Vertically (top to bottom). 'Ctrl F2' 3. Move the entire plan. 'Ctrl F3' 4. Move/Copy/Delete a Group of elements. 'Ctrl F4' 5. Move/Copy/Delete/Resize Individual elements. 'Ctrl F5' 6. View/Purge elements in chronological order. 'Ctrl F6' Also on this menu, is a chance to save your plan before making any drastic changes. FIRST: What is a drawing element? A line, an Automatic Dimension, a block of text, a rectangle, even a pre drawn figure or a deleted screen area is a drawing element. Drawing Elements are stored in records. An array of these records is stored in memory, and in a disk file when you save your plan. Drawing elements can be moved or copied or deleted or re-sized in the routines described below. 1. Reverse the Plan Horizontally. 2. Reverse the Plan Vertically. Both of the above simply execute when they are selected. They do what they say, making a mirror image of the plan. Note: Walls drawn with the Wall routine do not reverse well. See appendix A. 3. Move the Entire Plan. A box encloses the plan. Move the box with the cursor keys. Press Enter when the box is in the desired location, and the plan will be redrawn inside the box. Continue until satisfied, then press Esc to quit. 4. Move/Copy/Delete a Group of elements. You are prompted to draw a highlighted box around a group of drawing elements. The box "rubberbands" as you draw it. When you have the box around the area you want, press Enter to select all the elements that are entirely within the box. They will be highlighted. (Elements Partially within the box will not be selected) Move the box with the cursor keys. Press Shift Enter to move the highlighted elements to the new location of the box. Press Ctrl Enter to copy the highlighted elements to the new location of the box, and leave the original intact. Press the Del key to delete all the highlighted elements. NOTE: Once deleted, these elements can not be restored. Page 9. 5. Move/Copy/Delete/Resize Individual elements. You are prompted to place the cursor on a drawing element and press Enter. If the cursor is already on an element, it will be highlighted. otherwise, move it to the desired element. Now, there may be more than one element that is "selectable" from one cursor position. Pressing Tab will cause Home Plan to look for the next "selectable" element. Pressing a cursor key will de-select any element and start over again from the new cursor position. Press Enter to select the highlighted element. Move the selected element with the cursor keys. '-' and '+' make the selected element smaller or larger. Shift Enter moves the selected element. Ctrl Enter copies the selected element. Del deletes the selected element. NOTE: Selecting drawing elements is not an exact science. Arcs, ellipses, figures, are selected by their centers. Lines & rectangles are selected by placing the cursor on any part of their lines. Text & Walls have arbitrary areas they "own". Doors are selected by their hinge points. When an element changes color, press Enter, and you have it. NOTE: WALLS drawn by the Wall routine are part of a system when more than one is drawn in one session. You must use the Group routine described above to move all the connected walls together. One wall can be re-sized, but will not move away from its adjacent walls. 6. VIEWING & PURGING the Plan: 'Ctrl F-10' The current plan will be redrawn with the most recent element highlighted. The total number of plan elements will be shown in the lower left corner of the screen. ( where the "odometers" are normally shown ) To the right of that, will be a description of the type of the current element (line, text, etc.) The following keys will navigate through the plan, allowing you to see the plan re-created chronologically: Press Home to show the first plan element. Press + and - to step through the plan element by element. Press PgUp and PgDn to step through the plan ten elements at a time. Press End to again show the complete plan. Press Del to delete the last element displayed. Press Esc to terminate the process. CAUTION: SAVE the Plan before deleting plan elements! Page 10. PURGING HINTS: It is easy to ruin a plan by deleting the wrong elements by mistake, so Save the plan first. It is easier to determine the element that will be deleted, if you are stepping forward through the plan, rather that backwards. If you wish to delete an element which was later erased during drawing, find the erasing element first. Delete it. Then go back and delete the drawn element. It is hard to find an erasure when you have already deleted the element which was erased! METRIC MODE Vs USA MODE: 'Item 2.' (Option Menu) This version supports the drawing of plans in either the Metric System (mm), or the USA System. (Ft/Inches) Item 2. on the Option Menu toggles between the two modes. Most people will probably draw in one mode or the other without changing this option. If you do use both modes, you should know that each mode uses a different scale. In the Metric Mode, the cursor moves in multiples of 25 mm. In the USA mode, the cursor moves in multiples of 1 inch (25.4 mm). If you draw and save a plan in one mode, and load it in the other, any Auto Dimensions in the plan will differ from what they were originally. This is the difference between 25mm and 25.4mm (1 Inch), or 01.6%. 1.6% might not seem like a huge difference, but it could make a big difference to your contractor when your plan changes by six inches or so. You will be warned if you try to load a plan into the wrong mode. If you don't care, you may go ahead and load it. (If you save it in the new mode, it will load without the warning from then on). Understand, that the drawing itself does not change, only the Auto- Dimensions change. Since the new Auto-Dimensions will be in a different format, one might not notice the difference...... UNLESS one used the F-9 function. (see below) TOGGLE AUTO-DIMENSIONS: 'F-9' The Auto-Dimensions on a plan will switch between the USA system (Ft/Inch) and the Metric system (mm) when the F-9 key is pressed. The Drawing Scale does not change, the Odometers & Cursor Speed do not change. Nothing changes except the numbers created by the Auto-Dimension process. They will change back with the next press of F-9. This is an opportunity to compare Metric and USA equivalence. Page 11. FILE COMMANDS: START A NEW PLAN: 'Alt N' Pressing 'Alt N' will prompt you to save the current plan and then allow you to select a Drawing Size for a new plan. 'Esc' cancels. SAVE a PLAN to DISK: 'Alt S' Pressing 'Alt S' will show you a list of .PLN files in the current directory, and ask you for a name for the file you want to save. If the name you type already exists, you will be asked if you want to overwrite it. If not, type in another name. It is not necessary to type the file name extension. If you type a period (.) or press 'Enter' it will be assumed the file name is complete. You will be returned to the current plan. ( This version provides cursor selectable file names ) LOAD a PLAN from Disk: 'Alt L' If this command is invoked while a plan is current, you will be prompted to save it before loading another. Just follow the prompts. Pressing 'Alt L' will show you a list of .PLN files in the current directory, and ask you for the name of the file to load. If the name that you type doesn't exist, you will be so informed. Type in a name that does exist. It is not necessary to type the file name extension. If you type a period (.) or press 'Enter' it will be assumed the file name is complete. ( This version provides cursor selectable file names ) DELETE a FILE from DISK: 'Ctrl D' Unused & unwanted .PLN files tend to pile up, wasting disk space and filling up the File List window. Pressing 'Ctrl D' will show you a list of .PLN files and ask for the name of the file to Delete from disk. If the name you type doesn't exist, you will be so notified. Re-type the name. You will be asked to verify the file to Delete. Answer Y or N. Caution: This program cannot bring back files deleted from disk! We recommend that you first load the file and make sure that you don't want it before deleting it. ( This version provides cursor selectable file names ) PRINT the CURRENT PLAN: 'Alt P' Press 'Alt P' to print the current plan. If your printer is off line, out of paper, turned off, or some other mysterious malady occurs, you will be so notified. Fix the problem & press 'Enter' as per the prompt, or press 'Esc' to cancel. This version supports 24 pin & 9 pin dot matrix & compatibles as well as HP Laser Jet compatibles. When you print a plan, you will be shown the current printer configuration and asked to confirm it. Press 'N' to change the printer options. The options you select will stay in effect until you change them again. Laser Jet compatibles can choose between 75 or 150 dpi Page 12. PRINT to SCALE: After selecting the printer data, You will see the Print Scale menu. Item 1. "FULL SIZE" is the default. Item 2. "1/8" per ft." (at the default size; Actual distance per ft varies inversely with the drawing size) Use Item 2. when you want to be able to pull dimensions off the plan with a rule. This scale is also handy for enlarging 100% to get a 1/4" per ft. scale. (you will need a copier for that) "Full Size" fills the paper & looks like what you drew. APPROX 1/5" per ft. REMOVING ON-SCREEN PROMPTS: 'Ctrl BkSpc' Usually, the On Screen prompts for drawing operations do not interfere unduly with the operation. Sometimes, however, a prompt will obscure the exact part of the plan that you want to alter. Press Esc to go back to the drawing board, Then press Ctrl-BackSpace to hide the On-Screen prompts until Ctrl-BackSpace is pressed once again. Ctrl-BackSpace only operates from the drawing board, and toggles the prompts on & off. NOTE: The On Screen prompts are useful. Even if you are an experienced user, it is sometimes difficult to remember what you are doing without the prompts I recommend leaving the prompts on unless absolutely necessary, and then turning them back on as soon as the operation is done. RETURN to OPENING MENU: 'Ctrl Home' From the Drawing Screen, Hold down the Ctrl key and press 'Home' to go to the Opening Menu. You will be prompted to either save or abandon the current screen. DELETING DRAWING ELEMENTS: There may be reasons for you to delete elements from a plan. HomePlan supports a large number of elements in each plan, However, it is theoretically possible to exceed that limit in a complex plan, by many repeated overdrawings & erasures. Removal of duplications will reduce the size of a plan. Or, you may want to delete an element after it is too late to use Undo. The last three of the Plan Altering routines (Ctrl F10) allow you to delete drawing elements. You can select elements one at a time, define a group of elements, or search in chronological order in View/purge. Note: Elements deleted with these routines can not be brought back. Page 13. Appendix A. WALLS drawn by the Wall routine are a special system of drawing elements. Each wall is drawn to conform to the wall before it. When the wall system is drawn in a clockwise direction, the "second" line is drawn to the inside of the cursor line. It is drawn on the outside for walls drawn in a counterclockwise direction. When a plan with these walls in it is reversed, the "second" line will switch sides. Because each wall is drawn according to the wall that preceded it, we cannot reverse the process. One choice is to preserve the clean corners of our walls, at the expense of them actually moving over a distance equal to their width. The other, is to lose the clean corners. You can toggle between those choices by pressing Shift/Ctrl/W to see what I mean. NOTE: Be sure to save your plan before playing around with this stuff. Once the walls have been reversed, using the two options described, they won't go back to the original form HOME PLAN REGISTRATION IF you find that you are using HOME PLAN and continue to use it after a reasonable trial period, you must make a registration payment of $20.00 + 4.00 s&h to HOME PLAN SOFTWARE. The $20.00 registration fee will license one copy for use on any one computer at any one time. Anyone distributing HOME PLAN for any kind of remuneration must first contact HOME PLAN SOFTWARE at the address below for authorization. This authorization will be automatically granted to shareware distributors, and such distributors may begin offering HOME PLAN immediately. (However HOME PLAN SOFTWARE must still be advised so that the distributor can be kept up-to-date with the latest version of HOME PLAN). You are encouraged to pass a copy of HOME PLAN along to your friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to register their copy if they find that they can use it. All registered users will receive a copy of the latest maintenance version of the HOME PLAN system. Page 14. Use the "Print Registration Information option at the Opening Menu. Then send $20.00 + 4.00 ($7.00 outside US) s&h to: HOME PLAN SOFTWARE 3890 Rimrock Valley Rd. Mountain Ranch, CA 95246 for: 1. New Registered version, 2. Printed manual 3. FREE registered copy of AMORTIZE.EXE, a fast & easy way to calculate mortgage Balances, Payments, Loan duration, Principal and Interest. ( Amortize.Exe also prints amortization schedules ) 4. FREE utility to convert your Home Plan plans to a PCX file. (PCX files can be imported into many word processors, etc. 5. CompuServe will send you a FREE sign up kit & $25.00 usage credit when you call them with your Home Plan authorization. Home Plan HOME PLAN SOFTWARE CIS 71321,167 6890 Rimrock Valley Rd. Mountain Ranch, CA 95246 1-800-671-7526 (PLAN) Orders only, please, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Pacific time. (209) 754-4891 Tech support & general info. 24 hr Fax: (209) 754 3737. Another Option is: HOME PLAN PRO for $39.00. Discount Order Form: HOME PLAN ver 2.7 Registration: How Many__@$20.00 ea = _________ or HOME PLAN PRO: How many__@&39.00 es = _________ CA residents add 8% sales tax _________ Shipping & handling $4.00 ( $7.00 outside US) _________ Total Payment _________ U.S. Funds only, Please. Offer guaranteed through July, 1996. Name: _________________________________________ Address: ______________________________________ City, State, Zip:______________________________ Day Phone: _______________________ Eve Phone: _______________________ Credit card: Visa ____ Master Card ____ Credit Card# __________-__________-__________-__________ Expiration date: ____/____ Signature ____________________________________ Make checks payable to: HOME PLAN SOFTWARE 6890 Rimrock Valley Rd. Mountain Ranch, CA 95246 Page 15 NUMBERPAD / ARROW KEYS............Move the Cursor: SHIFT ............................Slows the Cursor. 'L' or ENTER .....................Toggle Line Draw. 'E' ..............................Toggle Erase Line. '*' ............................. Center the Cursor. '=' ..............................Clone the last Command. '[' or ']' .......................Calculate Square Footage. '/' ..............................Insert a Door into a wall. ESC ..............................Cancel Drawing Modes. DEL ..............................Delete Screen Portion. INS ..............................Insert Text. ALT A ............................Abandon Current Plan ALT C ............................Circle Function. ALT D ............................Automatic Dimension. ALT F ............................Insert a Pre-Drawn Figure. ALT L ............................Load a Plan from Disk ALT P ............................Print the Current Plan ALT R + R.........................Rectangle Function. ALT R + = ........................Double Wall Rectangle ALT R + F ........................Rectangle w/ Framing ALT S ............................Save a Plan to Disk ALT U ............................UNDO last action ALT X ............................Exit the Program ALT W ............................Draw double line Walls. CTRL HOME ........................Go to Opening Menu CTRL BKSPC .......................Toggle Drawing Prompts CTRL F10 ........................ Alter Plan Menu SPACE BAR ........................Select Line Type F9 .............................Toggle Metric/USA Dimensions Thank you for using Home Plan.