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AutoCAD Release 10 README.DOC for AutoCAD 386 December 13, 1989 This file highlights some important changes in AutoCAD 386 Release 10 and includes last-minute information that missed the deadline for the printed manuals. Also included is a section on some commonly asked questions and answers about AutoCAD 386. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Performance 2 Other Phar Lap Switches 3 Abnormal Termination of AutoCAD 386 4 VCPI EMS Memory Managers 4 CFIGPHAR Configuration Program 5 Protected Mode ADI Drivers (ADI P386) 6 Real Mode ADI Display Drivers 7 Compatibility with Application Programs - FLATLAND 7 Perspective Views 8 Miscellaneous Changes and Corrections 9 DOS 4.0 Notes 10 AutoShade AutoFlix Updates 12 AutoCAD AEC Architectural Notes 13 Known AutoCAD 386 Specific Problems 13 Known Problems in AutoCAD 14 Commonly Asked Questions and Answers on AutoCAD 386 15 AC10386RD Page 1 of 21 PERFORMANCE * With AutoCAD 386 now able to directly use all of the physical memory in your computer, it is no longer necessary to be concerned with VDISKs, ACADXMEM and ACADLIMEM (previously used by AutoCAD to control extended and expanded memory for extra page space) or ACADFREERAM. Unless you have another application that requires a VDISK, it is recommended that you let AutoCAD 386 have that memory for its own use. * Some polling digitizers may experience minor skipping of the crosshairs during operation. The frequency of this can be adjusted by using the -vscan switch in AutoCAD 386. This can be changed using the CFIGPHAR program described later in this README.DOC, or you can follow the instructions in the Installation and Performance Guide showing how to use Phar Lap's CFIG386 program. The vscan parameter allows you to vary the frequency of page table scans. We have noticed that on certain polling digitizers, frequent scans of the page table cause some digitizers to skip or miss a sample. If you decrease the number of scans per second, by setting vscan to a higher number, the digitizer performance may be improved. The scanning of the page table entries is only important on systems where there is moderate to heavy swapping activity. More page scans per second allow the VMM driver to make a better choice of which pages to swap out. If you are not running a polling digitizer, set vscan to a lower number, i.e. 4000 milliseconds(4 seconds). If you do have a polling digitizer and are running on a system with a lot of memory, keep vscan at 20000 (20 seconds) or higher. 20000 is the default setting for vscan. You may want to test different vscan parameters to achieve an optimal balance between digitizer performance and overall AutoCAD performance. More information on the vscan parameter can be found in the AutoCAD 386 Installation and Performance Guide. * AutoCAD 386 is a Virtual Memory system. The key to a virtual memory system is to have plenty of disk space. On PC computers, it can be common to find hard disk space running at a minimum. You should keep the hard disk from which swap space will be allocated organized and optimized to avoid minimum disk space conditions. The Virtual Memory Manager in AutoCAD 386 uses this disk space when necessary to accommodate memory needs that are not physically available. This is called swapping which is done transparent to the user. You should always have disk space available to the virtual memory manager and never attempt to run AutoCAD 386 when disk space is too tightly limited. AutoCAD 386 goes to great lengths to do its best to accommodate accidental out of disk space conditions. It will make the best attempt to save all of your work when it detects a disk full error condition or when the virtual memory manager cannot allocate enough virtual memory to accommodate its needs See the AutoCAD Installation and Performance Guide for more information on AutoCAD 386's use of the Phar Lap VMM virtual memory manager. AC10386RD Page 2 of 21 * On a system with 2MB of memory, with all of the memory available to AutoCAD 386, performance is greatly improved over regular DOS AutoCAD. If you regularly work with large drawings, more memory will aid performance. The following table is a generalized benchmark comparing similar configurations of AutoCAD 386 with regular DOS AutoCAD. It is presented as a guideline to help you in finding the optimal system configuration and memory needs for your work. You will want to apply further benchmark tests with your work to find your best configuration. This comparison is between DOS AutoCAD, version C7, and AutoCAD 386. The benchmarks were conducted on a Compaq 386/25MHZ machine with a 300MB disk. Machine configurations were as follows: DOS AutoCAD -- 563,776 bytes of conventional(640K) memory, 3 Megabytes of extended memory. Of the 3 Megabytes of extended memory, approximately 1 Megabyte was used for a RAM disk to hold the AutoCAD Overlays. The remaining 2 Megabytes of extended memory were used for I/O paging space. AutoCAD 386 -- 467,968 bytes of conventional(640K) memory, 3 Megabytes of Extended Memory, we purposefully left the PCNFS network drivers in, so that there was less conventional memory available. Test DOS AutoCAD 386 Change (seconds) (seconds) Nozzle Load from Menu 5.4 3.8 +29.6% Nozzle 10 regens 24.6 22.4 +8.9% Nozzle 10 redraws 4.25 3.8 +10.5% Marin regen 200 78 +61% San Diego Benchmark 587 374 +36.2% Stpauls hide 280 178 +36.4% Aksland load 168 137 +18.4% Aksland Save 11.1 4.2 +62.1% Aksland Redraw 23 20.9 +9.1% Nozzle Dxfout 22.9 31.5 -37.5% Nozzle Igesout 34.8 35.1 0 Explanations: Nozzle -- our prized drawing found on Bonus/Sample disk. Marin -- a 3.38 Megabyte copyrighted drawing consisting of three USGS quadrants, covering southwest Marin county. San Diego Benchmark -- user supplied AutoCAD benchmark, exercises many AutoCAD commands and times them. Stpauls -- a sample drawing from Release 9 AutoCAD Aksland -- drawing of a subdivision plan, lots of text. OTHER PHAR LAP SWITCHES * The following Phar Lap switches were omitted from the AutoCAD 386 Installation and Performance Guide. Most user shouldn't need them, but we have included these in case you do. AC10386RD Page 3 of 21 -maxvcxpi The -maxvcxpi nbytes switch limits the amount of memory 386|Dos-Extender will allocate from an EMS emulator which has the VCPI interface. If this switch is not used, by default 386|Dos-Extender will allocate all available EMS memory. By using this switch, it is possible to leave some EMS memory free for use by other programs. -codesize The -codesize switch specifies the number of bytes of code which can be paged to disk without seriously affecting program performance. It is equal to the total size of the program's code, in bytes, minus the program's code "working set", that is, the amount of code that needs to be in memory at any given time to avoid excessive paging. This information is used with the -swapchk force and -swapchk on settings to calculate the minimum swap space required (see the AutoCAD 386 Installation and Performance Guide for information on the -swapchk switch). Increasing the value reduces the swap file size. Specifying too large a value with this switch may result in unacceptable program performance, or even fatal out-of-swap-space errors. ABNORMAL TERMINATION OF AUTOCAD 386 If AutoCAD 386 should ever terminate abnormally, either as a result of a program error, or the machine being rebooted without exiting AutoCAD, the swap file and its associated reserve file will be left on disk. We suggest running the DOS utility, CHKDSK/F, after such an event, and deleting the swap file and its reserve. The swap file reserve has the extension ".swr" appended to the name of the swap file. Use the DOS DIR and DEL commands to examine the directory listing for files that have odd names similar to the following. 0F2B265F 397312 12-06-89 3:44p 0F2B265F SWR 100000 12-06-89 3:43p If the file access times are not recent, delete these two files. The sizes of the files may not be exactly as listed above. It shouldn't harm anything to have these files on your disk if you encounter a system crash or power down. AutoCAD 386 will remove the files the next time you `properly' exit an editing session using the Main Menu. NOTE: Be careful about deleting these files in a networked environment. The swap file and swap file reserve may not be yours and may be active for another user's AutoCAD 386 editing session. VIRTUAL CONTROL PROGRAM INTERFACE (VCPI) EMS MEMORY MANAGERS * The basic rule for running AutoCAD under a VCPI memory manager is to let the memory manager manage the memory. Even though the memory manager simulates expanded memory out of your extended memory, the memory is still accessible to AutoCAD 386 because of the VCPI interface. AC10386RD Page 4 of 21 Autodesk has tested the following VCPI EMS memory managers: - CEMM version 4.01 by Compaq Computer Corp. - 386MAX version 4.07 from Qualitas, Inc. - QEMM version 4.01 from Quarterdeck Office Systems. * Compaq Computer's CEMM memory manager, version 4.01 defaults to allocating only 256K of your extended memory as expanded memory. You will need to read the documentation for CEMM in the Compaq Supplemental Software Guide that comes with your computer and follow those instructions to increase that amount by at least 768K. AutoCAD will run under these conditions, however, `thrashing' will occur and performance will suffer. NOTE: EARLIER VERSIONS OF CEMM PRIOR TO 4.01 DO NOT SUPPORT THE VCPI SPECIFICATION AND WILL NOT ALLOW AUTOCAD TO COEXIST. Contact your dealer for an upgrade to the latest version of CEMM to use with AutoCAD 386. * Quarterdeck Office System's QEMM driver allocates all of your system's extended memory as expanded memory by default. AutoCAD 386 will run without adjustment to these defaults. You will want to carefully experiment with QEMM by consulting its documentation to optimize performance, tailoring your system to your specific needs. * 386MAX also allocates all of your system's extended memory as expanded by default. AutoCAD 386 will run without adjustment to the defaults. You will want to carefully experiment with 386MAX by consulting its documentation to optimize performance, tailoring your system to your specific needs. There are some versions of 386MAX that do not run properly. Consult with your dealer to be sure that you don't have one of these versions. * To help you optimize and tailor performance, AutoCAD 386 provides extra information in the STATUS command display. If you are running under an EMS emulator, and you are not experiencing good AutoCAD performance, execute the STATUS command from within the drawing editor and look at the extended memory field. If AutoCAD 386 does not have access to at least 1 MB(and preferably more) of extended memory, performance will suffer. See your Installation and Performance Guide for more information on EMS simulators and the STATUS command information for AutoCAD 386. CFIGPHAR CONFIGURATION PROGRAM * This pboGram Is supplied oN a se0arate diskette incl⌡ded with your AutoCAD 382 package to allOw user-friendly configuration of 386|DOS-Extender switches. Most customers will never need to change any of these switches. For the vast majority of users, AutoCAD 386 will execute with the default 386|DOS-Extender switches configured as documented in the AutoCAD 386 installation guide. On-line help for this program is available at all times by hitting the function key F1. The list of keys to use and their available actions are listed on the bottom status line. AC10386RD Page 5 of 21 The functionality of this program is the same as the Phar Lap utility, CFIG386.EXE, which is supplied on the executables disk. CFIGPHAR.EXE is a user-friendly front end to CFIG386.EXE. The output of CFIGPHAR.EXE is a batch file which, when run from the DOS prompt, will reconfigure the 386|DOS-Extender switches for AutoCAD 386. Place the batch file in the same directory as the AutoCAD executable and execute it from that location. This program has not gone through our quality assurance cycle, and is supplied as bonus material. If you encounter any problems with this program, please revert back to using cfig386.exe. If you like this program please let us know. If you experience problems on your display running CFIGPHAR, special video modes are controlled by setting the DOS environment variable VC_VID_SYS. By setting this variable, you WILL bypass the program's video auto-detection. This variable MUST be set in the following order: Mode Color CGA Monochrome ------------------------------------------ start mode 3 7 adapter 2 1 number of rows 25 25 number of columns 80 80 screen access method 2 1 screen location b800 b000 video status port 3da 3ba If you have a color monitor, and wish to force the program to run in CGA mode, the command line setting would look like this: SET VC_VID_SYS=3 2 25 80 2 b800 3da PROTECTED MODE ADI DRIVERS (ADI P386) * AutoCAD 386 introduces a new ADI interface that operates in protected mode called ADI P386. These drivers are much more efficient than regular ADI drivers, and only operate with AutoCAD 386. Since AutoCAD 386 is the first implementation of this new interface, there may be a period of time before device manufacturers have ADI P386 protected mode drivers available. It is a good idea to keep in contact with your dealer or the manufacturer of your peripheral device concerning upcoming availability and release dates for their drivers. * See the AutoCAD 386 Installation and Performance Guide and your driver manufacturer's instructions for information on installation and configuration of these drivers. * Printer Plotter ADI P386 protected mode ADI drivers interface with AutoCAD 386 as though they were a plotter. Configuration is through configuration menu item #5, "Configure plotter." Most printer plotters are monochrome devices. There are configuration options for pen number assignment to colors. This is not applicable to these devices and has no effect if attempted. Hardware plotter linetypes also do not apply to printer plotters but are offered as a configuration choice. Changing any of these options has no effect on the final output from these devices. This will AC10386RD Page 6 of 21 be changed in a later release of AutoCAD 386 so that the options are not offered for printer plotters where they are not supported. Regular ADI printer plotter devices continue to be configured through the configuration menu item #6, "Configure printer plotter." REAL MODE ADI DISPLAY DRIVERS (ADI) * By now, ADI version 4.0 drivers should be available for your devices. However, there may be occasion to use an older driver written for ADI version 3.1 (corresponding to AutoCAD Release 9). Release 10's new multiple-viewport feature works best with display drivers that explicitly provide support for it. ADI display drivers written for these older versions of AutoCAD should continue to work with Release 10, with the following restrictions: * ADI 3.1 drivers that use display-list techniques will get very confused by multiple viewports. Don't use multiple viewports with such drivers. * Non-display-list drivers may clear viewports very slowly. Release 10's ADI 4.0 has new features that allow drivers to clear viewports quickly, and to make effective use of display-list techniques in conjunction with multiple viewports. * If you use an ADI display driver and expect to use multiple viewports, contact the manufacturer of your driver to see if an ADI 4.0 version of the driver is available. For optimum performance, update to an ADI P386 (Protected Mode ADI) driver as soon as that is available. COMPATIBILITY WITH APPLICATION PROGRAMS - FLATLAND * Some functions, including entity selection and object snap, have changed from Release 9 (and earlier) in Release 10 to accommodate 3D, viewports, and perspective views. These changes have little effect when you're using AutoCAD interactively. However, programs that generate AutoCAD command sequences may get unexpected results. Therefore, the FLATLAND system variable is provided to let you maintain compatibility with programs that have not yet been updated to recognize and take advantage of Release 10's new capabilities. When FLATLAND is zero, Release 10's 3D features are fully enabled. When FLATLAND is nonzero, compatibility with previous versions is maintained. The initial FLATLAND setting for a drawing is shown in the following table. Condition | Initial setting --------------------------------------- | ------------------------ Editing an old drawing (produced by | FLATLAND = 1 AutoCAD Release 9 or earlier) | | Editing a drawing created or previously | As saved with the drawing edited with AutoCAD Release 10 | | Creating a new drawing (with "name=") | FLATLAND = 0 AC10386RD Page 7 of 21 | Creating a new drawing (without "=", | Set by prototype drawing -- in or with "name=prototype") | the standard ACAD.DWG | prototype, | FLATLAND is zero. If you're using a version of AutoCAD AEC Architectural older than the current version, 3.0/10.0 (see notes on updating to AEC Architectural 3.0/10.0 further in this README.DOC), or a third-party application that has not yet been updated to take advantage of Release 10's new features, you may experience problems with entity selection or object snap if you set FLATLAND to zero. In such cases, we recommend that you keep FLATLAND set to 1 (set this in the prototype drawing, if necessary) and use only the World Coordinate System when editing with AutoCAD Release 10. NOTE: The FLATLAND system variable is a temporary conversion aid, and will be removed in the next major update of AutoCAD. If you've written your own application and it fails to work properly with FLATLAND set to zero, run with FLATLAND set to 1 if necessary, but UPDATE YOUR APPLICATION AS SOON AS IS PRACTICAL, because future versions of AutoCAD will always operate as though FLATLAND were zero. See the Release 10 Reference Manual (Appendix D) for further details. * In previous versions, DXF files and the AutoLISP (entget) function supplied a 38 group containing an entity's elevation. Release 10 continues to supply this field if FLATLAND is set to 1 and the entity lies in the World Coordinate System's XY plane. Otherwise, the 38 group is omitted and the elevation is supplied as the Z coordinate of the object's 3D points. This poses a small problem for Polylines, since the 38 group was supplied with the POLYLINE (header) entity, but that entity has no associated point. Therefore, if FLATLAND is zero or the Polyline doesn't lie in the XY plane of the WCS, a "dummy" 3D point (10 group) is supplied with the POLYLINE header entity, with its Z coordinate being the only item of interest. PERSPECTIVE VIEWS * Although most commands are now permitted in perspective views, use of a pointing device to designate points is generally prohibited in such views. You can type in coordinates using the keyboard, but if you use a pointing device to enter points, AutoCAD displays the message: Pointing in perspective view not allowed here. Entity selection is the only activity that allows pointing device input in perspective views. Even then, certain commands (BREAK, FILLET, CHAMFER, TRIM, EXTEND, UCS Entity, and DIM by picking) use the pick point for calculations and don't permit the point to be supplied by means of a pointing device in a perspective view. AC10386RD Page 8 of 21 * If you use the PLOT/PRPLOT "Extents" option with a perspective view active, and the CAMERA position is within the drawing extents, AutoCAD displays the message: PLOT and PRPLOT extents incalculable, using Display and proceeds as though you had used "PLOT/PRPLOT Display". * When plotting a perspective view, an explicit plot scale makes little sense, so AutoCAD ignores it. If you specify a scale factor, AutoCAD displays the message: **Plot of perspective view has been scaled to fit available area.** and proceeds as though you had responded to the "Specify scale" prompt with "Fit". Use the "paper size" option in the plotting configuration dialogue of the PLOT and PRPLOT commands to enter a specific output size for your desired plot area. MISCELLANEOUS CHANGES AND CORRECTIONS * The AutoCAD Reference Manual documents on page 392 that for platforms other than DOS, the memory reserve stated in the ACAD.PGP file for external commands is ignored. AutoCAD 386 also ignores this field. For other changes and restrictions of the external command feature of AutoCAD 386, see the Installation and Performance Guide. * The default setting for the WORLDVIEW system variable is now 1. This variable affects the VPOINT and DVIEW commands, as described in Chapter 6 of the AutoCAD Reference Manual. * The AutoLISP (entsel) function returns a list that includes the point by which the entity was selected. This point is expressed in UCS coordinates. * For some time, the AutoLISP Programmer's Reference has warned application developers to avoid referencing the ATOMLIST symbol list when using the (vmon) virtual function paging feature. Performance-related changes in AutoLISP Release 10 make this more important than ever; the ATOMLIST contents and the order of its items may change if (vmon) is enabled. * It is now possible to OSNAP to the insertion point of an Attribute within a Block. If you use "INSERTion" object snap and point to an Attribute within a Block, the Attribute's insertion point is now chosen rather than that of the Block. Note that if a Block consists entirely of Attributes, there is now no way to object snap to the Block's insertion point. * The FLIP SCREEN function key, all transparent commands, and several AutoLISP functions are now disabled during certain commands, since some displays must redraw when flipping from text mode to graphics mode, and a redraw occurring at critical times could result in an incorrect image. The commands affected are VPOINT, DVIEW, and ZOOM Dynamic. During these commands, the FLIP SCREEN key and transparent commands are disabled, as are the following AutoLISP functions: AC10386RD Page 9 of 21 (entdel) (getangle) (getpoint) (grtext) (entmod) (getcorner) (graphscr) (redraw) (entsel) (getdist) (grclear) (ssget) (entupd) (getorient) (grdraw) (textscr) * In previous versions, the HIDE command had trouble with non-planar 3D Faces and entities that appeared as chevrons or bow-ties when viewed from particular points in space. Sometimes they were hidden incorrectly, and sometimes they were simply drawn as wire-frame images (not hidden). In Release 10, such objects are hidden in a more consistent manner. HIDE now detects anything that looks like a chevron or a bow-tie from the current viewing point, and breaks it into two triangles (with an invisible joining line) for the purpose of hidden-line removal. Any other non-planar face is broken into two triangles along an arbitrarily chosen diagonal. * Polar arrays are handled differently in Release 10. In previous versions, a "No" response to the "Rotate objects as they are copied?" prompt caused each object to be replicated using its own reference point. This resulted in the entities moving independently, rather than retaining their relation to each other as they would if you replied "Yes". (To visualize the effect, draw circles around the array's center point and passing through one endpoint of each selected line, through the center of each selected circle, and so on; then make copies of each entity along the circumference of its own circle.) In Release 10, all selected entities are replicated using the same reference point, so they move as a rigid group, staying in the same relation in all the copies. The reference point for all the entities is that of the last entity in the selection-set. Therefore, if you pick the entities one by one, the last one you pick provides the reference point for all of them. If you pick the entities by a Window or Crossing box, the last one in the selection-set is arbitrary. You can, however, remove one entity from the set and then add it back in, forcing it to be the last in the selection-set. The method recommended in the Reference Manual still works: make a Block of the entities and create a polar array of the Block. This method gives greater flexibility, since the reference point for making the array is the Base (insertion) point of the Block, which can be any point you like. It does, however, create an array of Block References, which must then be exploded if you want the individual entities replicated. * The following clarifies the purpose of the EXPERT system variable. scripts, menu macros, or AutoLISP programs that issue command sequences, it is impractical to include responses to these prompts, since they only need to appear in situations where the user has an opportunity to answer the question about the operation. Using the EXPERT system variable, you can suppress these confirmation prompts and let the script, macro, or AC10386RD Page 10 of 21 AutoLISP program proceed with the operation unhindered. If EXPERT is zero, all prompts are issued normally. Nonzero values suppress successively more confirmation prompts; as new prompts are added to AutoCAD, higher EXPERT values control those prompts as well as the older prompts. In Release 10, an EXPERT value of 4 is sufficient to suppress all special-situation confirmation prompts. * In the "Maintaining Multiple AutoCAD Directories" section of the AutoCAD Reference Manual (Section B.2.1) it states: "If AutoCAD doesn't find the file acad.cfg in the current directory, the configuration directory or the system directories, then it performs an initial configuration..." This is incorrect. AutoCAD does not look in the current directory, but instead, examines the directory where the AutoCAD program was executed. * The description of the Arbitrary Axis Algorithm on page 410 of the AutoCAD Reference Manual has an error in the first line. That line currently reads: If (Nx < 1/64) and (Ny < 1/64) then It should read: If (abs (Nx) < 1/64) and (abs (Ny) < 1/64) then Where "abs" is defined as an "absolute value function" in the user application code. * Section 10.1.12.1 of the AutoCAD User Reference states "...definition points are not plotted unless you turn the `DEFPOINTS' layer `on'". This is incorrect. The defining points for associative dimensions are never plotted regardless of the on/off status of the DEFPOINTS layer. If you wish to plot the defining points of associative dimensions, you must rename the DEFPOINTS layer. However, unless you rename it back to DEFPOINTS after you plot, any additional dimensions created will make a new DEFPOINTS layer. You then will have more than one layer with associative dimension defining point information. * Page 93 of the AutoCAD Reference Manual indicates that when using a circle as a path curve in constructing a ruled surface with the RULESURF command, the start point of the vertices will be located at the 0 degree quadrant. This is only true for circles oriented in the WCS. UCS relative circles can be used for generating a ruled surface, but the start point is not predictable. If you need to control the start location of ruled surfaces of this type, you should use a polyline arc of 360 degrees instead of a circle. The start point of the polyline arc is predictably consistent and will allow you to have control when creating ruled surfaces. * The AutoCAD Reference Manual in section B.4.9 indicates that there is no limit to the length of a menu item and that menu items may be continued on as many lines as necessary. This is incorrect. As a single menu item AC10386RD Page 11 of 21 approaches 5000 characters in length, you can encounter a "FATAL ERROR: ALLOC: Out of RAM" message. If you encounter this problem, you may find it possible to compile the menu by removing TSR programs thereby relieving the memory constraint. However, you may have to shorten the menu item appropriately if this does not help. * The AutoCAD SlideLib program for creating Slide Libraries has an undocumented limit on the number of slides a single Slide Library can contain. As you exceed 200 slides for a single Slide Library, you may encounter a "BOOM ! Memory capacity exceeded" message. DOS 4.0 NOTES * AutoCAD Release 10 has been tested under IBM's PC-DOS 4.01 and Compaq's DOS 4.01. AutoCAD will operate under this version of DOS, but customers should be aware of the following: * The "MODE CON LINES=43" (or "=50") command sets the display to support additional lines of text. This option is not compatible with AutoCAD Release 10 and should not be used. This incompatibility will be addressed in a later release. * IBM's expanded memory emulator may be incompatible with AutoCAD 386. If you wish to use expanded memory with AutoCAD 386, be sure to use an expanded memory emulator that supports the Phar Lap VCPI specification. (See the AutoCAD 386 Installation and Performance Guide for more details concerning expanded memory simulators.) AUTOSHADE / AUTOFLIX UPDATES * If you use AutoShade 1.0 in conjunction with AutoCAD, we recommend that you upgrade to AutoShade version 1.1. Very large 3D meshes created in AutoCAD Release 10 may cause AutoShade 1.0 to abort with the message "Heapmgmt - heap error. Cheap stack dump". The problem can occur with drawings created by AutoCAD Release 9, but is much more likely to occur with Release 10 due to the ease with which large meshes can be constructed in this new version. AutoShade 1.0 can read meshes up to about 73 x 73. To be precise, M x N must be less than 5420, where M and N are the sizes of the polygon mesh (usually SURFTAB1 and SURFTAB2). Smaller meshes are handled without difficulty. To use large meshes with AutoShade 1.0, EXPLODE them (forming individual 3D Faces) before performing the FILMROLL command. This limitation is removed in AutoShade 1.1. * An updated version of the ASHADE.LSP file for use with AutoShade is provided with AutoCAD Release 10. See Appendix A of the AutoLISP Programmer's Reference for more information. * Updated versions of the AutoFlix files AFLIX.LSP, AFWALK.LSP, and AFKINET.LSP are provided with AutoCAD Release 10. See Appendix A of the AutoLISP Programmer's Reference for more information. AC10386RD Page 12 of 21 AUTOCAD AEC ARCHITECTURAL NOTES * If you're an AutoCAD AEC Architectural 1.5/2.5 customer, we recommend that you upgrade to the latest version of AEC Architectural (3.0/10.0 as of this writing). If you have AEC Architectural 2.0/9.0 but have not sent in your registration card, we recommend that you do so and contact your AutoCAD dealer for an upgrade to version 3.0/10.0. AutoCAD 386 has been tested with AEC Architectural 3.0/10.0 only. If you are using an earlier version, you will need to upgrade your AEC software. * Installation of AEC Architectural 3.0/10.0 with AutoCAD 386 requires you first run the DOS batch file SETUPAEC.BAT included with your AutoCAD 386 software. The file was automatically placed where you told the INSTALL program to load the AutoCAD 386 executable files. The AEC Architectural installation program checks for the existence of four overlay files normally associated with regular AutoCAD. They are: acaddg.ovl, acadds.ovl, acadpl.ovl, acadpp.ovl. The AEC Architectural installation program detects the presence of these files to insure that AutoCAD is loaded. If it does not find these files, it aborts its installation. To successfully install AEC with AutoCAD 386, these overlay files must exist in the AutoCAD directory. Since AutoCAD 386 no longer contains any overlay files, a method is required to make the AEC install program know that AutoCAD is installed which is what the SETUPAEC.BAT file provides. To run the batch file program from the directory where AutoCAD 386 is loaded, type at the DOS prompt: SETUPAEC This batch file will check for the existence of each overlay file described above, and if the file is not present, it will create a dummy file of an inconsequential size by the appropriate name. AEC can then be installed as documented. After AEC Architectural installation is complete, each of the dummy overlay files can be deleted. KNOWN AUTOCAD 386 SPECIFIC PROBLEMS * From the BUTTON menu in a MENU file, ^C assigned to one of the buttons can cause a minor problem. Cancelling a command by pressing the puck button assigned to CTRL-C may leave an extra character at the next command prompt. This problem is most prevalent when editing drawings greater than 700K in size while multiple viewports are active. Cancelling a command from the keyboard does not have this problem or you may use a backspace to remove the extra character. * When encountering a disk full condition, AutoCAD 386 presents the user with the opportunity to save his changes. If the save is again unsuccessful, the user may be prompted for a different location and filename to save his drawing. If running an AutoLISP routine when this condition occurs, the new filename will likely be assigned the next few characters in the AutoLISP command interpreter pipeline. You will want to look for your drawing by an odd name if you encounter this kind of error AC10386RD Page 13 of 21 situation. Before editing the drawing again, examine why you are running out of disk space and correct the problem by freeing up enough disk space to provide the virtual memory manager enough space to run efficiently without encountering the disk full condition again. * The AutoCAD 386 Installation and Performance Guide documents the direct configuration of protected mode ADI P386 device drivers for displays, digitizers, and plotters stating "when you complete configuration, the path and driver name are written into the configuration file, acad.cfg." This information is not being saved between sessions of AutoCAD as documented. When you configure an ADI P386 peripheral device by entering the path name for the location of the driver and save your changes, reentering AutoCAD 386 will find that the configuration was not saved. You should use the "magic name" method of configuring for ADI P386 drivers for AutoCAD 386 and locate the driver in the same directory as the AutoCAD 386 executable. This problem will be fixed in the next release. * During installation of AutoCAD 386, the user is instructed to press the ESC key if he wants to abort the installation at any time. Doing so before the AutoCAD 386 executable has been completely installed will leave a partial file on the hard disk. If installation is aborted while copying the support or bonus files, the files already copied will also remain on your hard disk. You can delete the files, or restart installation and the INSTALL program will correct the situation by copying the files over the existing partial installation. If you specify a different directory in the second installation, you will have to remove the aborted installation files manually. KNOWN PROBLEMS IN AUTOCAD * AutoCAD's dimensioning feature has the following known problems. * Changing the elevation of an associative dimension entity block will not effect the elevation of the defining points located on the DEFPOINTS layer. When adjusting dimension entities edited in this manner from a different viewpoint, you must be sure to select the defining points before you make the edit. * When setting DIMTOH to "OFF", DIAmeter dimensions fail to place the tick mark at the end of the extension line when the circle or arc are small enough to force the text outside and the angle of the extension line is greater than 15 degrees from horizontal. * The following list identifies other known problems of a general nature in AutoCAD Release 10. * DONUTs drawn with a zero inside radius will plot incorrectly when using the "Adjust area fill boundaries for pen width" option at plot time. You can work around this problem by using a small undetectable inside donut radius (e.g., 0.0001). * The TEXT and DTEXT commands allow the entry of a text item when using the FIT option and the specified start and end points for the text are AC10386RD Page 14 of 21 the same. This means that the text is trying to fit in a 0.0 length space. This results in the text making a vertical line the height of your text. * AutoCAD does not ignore trailing spaces in values set to DOS environment variables. For example, C:>SET ACADPAGEDIR=C:\PAGEDIR_ ^ trailing space would not be understood by AutoCAD and would result in the setting of ACADPAGEDIR to its default. In diagnosing problems that involve setting of DOS environment variables, this can be a very elusive cause of the problem. * The HATCH command fails to recognize hatch patterns defined in an external ".PAT" file other than ACAD.PAT when using any of the I, O, or N (Ignore, Outermost, or Normal) pattern style modifiers. AutoCAD will return an "Unknown pattern name. *Invalid*" error message. You can add the pattern definition text to the ACAD.PAT file to avoid this problem. * DXFOUT does not include group code 30 information in the header variables $EXTMAX and $EXTMIN as is documented in the AutoCAD Reference Manual. This does not cause a problem for DXFIN since Release 9 DXFOUT did not produce a group code 30 for these variables and Release 10 can read a file with or without them. * DDLMODES' and DDEMODES' linetype selection dialogue will not display dash dot linetypes if the sum of the dash and gap is less than approximately 0.0625. The dialogue will display a single dot. A dash dot linetype of this fine spacing should display as a solid line. * When INSERTing a BLOCK using the XYZ scale option, the prompt for the Z scale factor is misleading if you enter a negative value for the X scale factor. It prompts <default=X> indicating that if a <cr> is entered, the scale factor for Z will be the negative value entered for the X scale factor. Instead, the Z scale factor is entered as the absolute value of the X scale factor making it positive. COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT AUTOCAD 386 Q1: What is AutoCAD 386? AutoCAD 386 is a high performance version of AutoCAD Release 10 specifically designed to take advantage of the power of the 80386 chip. AutoCAD 386 runs under DOS, yet is able to access the full power of the 80386 chip by using 386|DOS Extender(tm) from Phar Lap(tm). The DOS extender is part of the AutoCAD 386 executable file, acad.exe, Page 15 of 21 Q2: What is the minimum configuration for AutoCAD 386? * Compaq Deskpro 386, IBM PS/2 models 70, 80, or a true 386 compatible (80386 CPU must be step B0 or higher) * Minimum memory requirement is 2 Mb RAM, including 1 Mb available as extended memory solely for the use of AutoCAD 386. We strongly recommend 4 Mb or more of memory. AutoCAD 386 can access all of the memory in your system or page out to an equivalent disk space. * DOS version 3.3 or later. * 80287 or 80387 math coprocessor. * A video display and adapter * A hard disk with at least 20 Mb capacity * A 1.2 Mb, 5.25-inch floppy drive or a 720K, 3.5-inch floppy drive * Digitizer tablet or mouse * Printer or Printer/Plotter optional Q3: Which drivers are supported? There are two categories of drivers that are supported: 1. Those drivers distributed with AutoCAD 386 2. Those drivers marketed and sold by ADI driver manufacturers. 1. The following drivers ship with AutoCAD 386. All drivers are in-line protected-mode drivers, except those specifically marked otherwise. Video Display Options ADI Protected Mode ADI Real Mode IBM EGA, VGA IBM MCGA, CGA, 8514* (Supported by real-mode ADI driver distributed with the AutoCAD 386 product) Hercules Graphics Card Digitizer Options ADI Protected Mode ADI Real Mode CalComp 2500, 9000, 9100 Series Tablets GTCO Digipad 5 Tablets Hitachi HICOMSCAN HDG Series Tablet Houston Instrument HIPAD DT11AA and True Grid 8000 Series Tablet Kurta Tablets Logitech Logimouse Models R5, R7, C7 Microsoft Serial or Bus Mouse (Mouse Systems Mouse and IBM PS/2 Mouse are supported by this driver in AutoCAD) Numonics 2200 Series Tablets Summagraphics MM and SummaSketch Series Tablets Plotter Options ADI Protected Mode ADI Real Mode Alpha Merics Alphaplot CalComp 906/907/PCI Plotter Controllers Hewlett-Packard Plotters Houston Instrument DMP Series AC10386RD Page 16 of 21 IBM Series 7300 PostScript Laser Printers UNIX Plot File Plotter Printer Plotter Options ADI Protected Mode (configured as ADI P386 plotter) ADI Real Mode Epson FX-80, -100, -286 Hewlett-Packard LaserJet and PaintJet IBM Graphics Printer IBM Proprinter NEC Pinwriter cp5 Okidata 84 Step 2 and 93 2. The following real-mode drivers are available, to the best of our knowledge, through registered ADI developers. This list consists of only those drivers which are supported in regular DOS AutoCAD, but which are not supported in AutoCAD 386. There are of course many ADI manufacturers who market and sell drivers (both protected-mode and real-mode) that are not on this list. The individual manufacturer should be contacted for driver availability. Video Display Options Control Systems ARTIST 1 and 2 GraphAx 20/20 Number Nine NNIOS Graphics Display Sigma Designs Color 400 STB Chauffer Display Adapter Tecmar Graphics Master Vectrix PEPE Vermont Microsystems' Image Manager 1024 Verticom H-series Verticaom M-series Wyse WY-700 Digitizer Options GTCO Micro Digi-PAD (Type 7) Hitachi Tiger Tablet Houston Instrument Series 7000 (COMPLOT) Houston Instrument True Grid 1000, 8000 Series Tablets Mutoh Drafting Machine Pencept Penpad 320 SAC GP-7 Grafbar & GP=8 Scriptel SPD Tablet Seiko DT-3130/4103 Tablets Summagraphics Bit Pad One, MicroGrid Tablets, SummaMouse Torrington Mouse Plotter Options Imagen Page Printers Roland DG Plotters Western Graphtec MP1000 Printer Plotter Options JDL-750 AC10386RD Page 17 of 21 Q4: Which drivers that are supported in regular DOS AutoCAD are NOT supported at all? The following real-mode drivers are not distributed with AutoCAD 386, and are not available, to the best of our knowledge, through registered ADI developers. The individual manufacturer should be contacted for driver availability. VIDEO DISPLAY OPTIONS IBM Professional Graphics Controller Bell and Howell CDI IV Cambridge Micro-1024 Compaq Portable II Plasma Display (may be configured as IBM CGA) Control Systems ARTIST Transformer Cordata 400 Video Display Board -- Cordata ATP Implementation Cordata FastDraft 480 Hercules InColor Card Hewlett-Packard Enhanced Graphics Adapter (may be configured as IBM EGA) Hewlett-Packard 82960 Micro-Display Genius Number Nine Revolution Board Persyst BOB-16 Quintar Digitizer Options Calcomp 2000, 2100 Tablets Disc Instruments LYNX Trackball Geographics Drafting Board Hewlett-Packard HIL Driver- Vectra Computer Joystick/Koala Pad Plotter Options Canon Laser Beam Printer Cordata LP300X Laser Printer Gould Colorwriter Model 6120 Gould Colorwriter Models 6310 and 6320 IBM Personal Pageprinter Ioline LP 3700 Sweet-P Model 100, Six-Shooter Printer Plotter Options AMT Office Printer Datacopy Model 980 IBM Color JetPrinter 3852-2 Mitsubishi G500 Texas Instruments Omni 800 Toshiba 3-in-One Q5: What are the advantages of an ADI protected-mode driver? The ADI protected mode specifications allow high performance ADI drivers to be loaded and run in protected mode. This allows display manufacturers, for example, to use general purpose system memory to AC10386RD Page 18 of 21 store display lists, instead of making the user buy add-on memory for graphics cards. Q6: Will an existing ADI real-mode driver work with AutoCAD 386? Most existing ADI real-mode drivers should continue to work with AutoCAD 386. Real-mode ADI drivers are .exe programs that must be run before starting AutoCAD. Designed for conventional 16-bit DOS, they load into low memory as terminate-and-stay resident (TSR) programs. AutoCAD 386 will perform a real mode switch and transfer the data to ADI 4.0 real mode drivers. Q7: Which 3rd party applications will be supported? Generally, most current R10 DOS applications will still run. Consult the recently published AutoCAD Sourcebook for a listing of 3rd party software applications. Authorized Autodesk Resellers and Registered Developers will be receiving a free copy of this book. Additionally, the book will be distributed by QUE(r) Corporation in bookstores throughout the U.S. and Canada. Q8: Will it run on 386sx machines? Yes. Q9: Will it run on the 486 machines? Yes. Q10: How does AutoCAD 386 compare with AutoCAD on other platforms? AutoCAD 386 is significantly faster than the regular DOS edition. As for the other platforms, we do not benchmark platform-specific performance. Q11: What are the advantages of AutoCAD 386 to the CAD user More Available RAM Since AutoCAD 386 runs in protected mode in the memory above 1 megabyte, the user can fill the 640K space with network drivers, TSRs (Terminate and Stay Resident) programs like Sidekick, and other utility programs without interfering with AutoCAD's operation. However, AutoCAD 386 needs a minimum of 250K of conventional memory. Speed, Speed, Speed! AutoCAD 386 is fast! There are no overlays to slow down the program. AutoCAD now has direct access to all of the memory in the machine without having to go through expanded memory emulators. The 386 chip is a 32-bit processor that can address up to 4 gigabytes of memory. Faster and Larger AutoLISP Programs Much larger AutoLISP programs can fit into available memory because of the 32-bit addressing capability of the 386 chip. Program execution is also much faster than on plain DOS. In addition, LISPHEAP and LISPSTACK variables no longer need to be set or managed. AC10386RD Page 19 of 21 Larger Drawings fit in RAM AutoCAD will directly address all of the memory in the system! This means very large drawings can be loaded into memory, without having to page back to the hard disk. In addition, drawings will be read in faster both from the hard disk drive and across the network. AutoCAD 386 reads in drawings in 8K chunks, whereas the DOS version uses 1K chunks of data. Easy to Use Installation Program AutoCAD 386 will come with an installation program which will aid the dealer and user in installing AutoCAD. The program is menu driven, quick and very easy to use. No Special Tuning Required The power user does not need to "tune" his machine as much. Previously, DOS users dedicated memory to RAM disks for the overlay files, and to extended memory for paging space. AutoCAD 386 will efficiently use all available memory. Easy Migration Path The user can increase his or her productivity without investing in the time and cost to learn a new operating system. Q12: How much RAM does the AutoCAD 386 executable require? The acad.exe file is about 1.5 Mb and contains DOS Extender from Phar Lap. It is split over two disks, thus the need for the installation program. Q13: Will a disk cache increase performance? A small disk cache may improve overall performance in cases where AutoCAD 386 accesses the disk. It is not advisable to allocate a lot of memory to the disk cache since this reduces the amount of physical memory, which results in increased paging. Q14: How will the autoexec.bat and config.sys files be affected when running the installation program? The install program will list any suggested changes to the config.sys or autoexec.bat files. The installer offers the option of creating a separate startup batch file. Q15: How will AutoLISP programs be affected AutoLISP applications should run unchanged. AutoLISP has access to the virtual memory facilities just like AutoCAD. Large applications should run much faster. LISPHEAP and LISPSTACK variables no longer exist. Extended AutoLISP is no longer needed with AutoCAD 386. Q16: What happens to shell sizes when AutoCAD 386 is executed? The DOS Extender takes up 150-200K of real mode 640K memory. Users who utilize the shell command will only be able to get 350-400K of free memory to run their DOS applications under the AutoCAD "shell" command. This is significantly less than the DOS version of AutoCAD. AC10386RD Page 20 of 21 Q17: How does AutoCAD interact with memory management programs? AutoCAD 386 complies with VCPI (Virtual Control Program Interface) and should work with programs that adhere to this interface standard, such as DESQview 386(tm) and QEMM from Quarterdeck and 386MAX(tm) from Qualitas Systems. Autodesk does not warrant the suitability of such applications with AutoCAD 386. Contact the manufacturer. Q18: Is this version of AutoCAD multitasking? Multiuser? Neither. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- AutoCAD, AutoCAD AEC, and AutoLISP are U.S. registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. ACAD, ADI, AutoFlix, AutoShade, and DXF are additional trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. COMPAQ is a registered trademark of COMPAQ Computer Corporation. IBM, AT, PC-DOS, and PS/2 are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. Inboard is a trademark and Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. QEMM-386 and Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager are trademarks of Quarterdeck Office Systems. 386MAX is a trademark of Qualitas, Inc. 386|DOS-Extender, 386|VMM, and Phar Lap are trademarks of Phar Lap software. AC10386RD Page 21 of 21