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+=========================================================================+ | | | VQuilt (tm) | | | | A Computer Program For Quilt Design, Visualization, and Construction | | | | Demonstrator Version 1.0 | | | | --- O --- | | | | If you find the demonstration version of VQuilt enoyable to use and | | useful, then you will appreciate the full release version that: | | | | - Includes an illustrated manual! This manual is more comprehensive | | than the documentation included with this demonstration package! | | | | - Permits you to SAVE the patchwork blocks and quilts that you design | | to your hard disk and subsequently LOAD them back into VQuilt for | | viewing and modification! | | | | - Permits you to PRINT your patchwork blocks and quilts in color (if | | you have a color printer), gray-scale, or black and white! | | | | - Prints actual size TEMPLATES for cutting fabric! | | | | - Scales patchwork blocks to any integral size between 1" and 20". | | Great for PAPER PIECING! | | | | - Comes with a comprehensive library of pre-defined traditional | | patchwork quilt blocks so that you can start designing quilts | | immediately! | | | | - Provides you with FREE technical support via phone, fax, or Genie! | | | | - Provides you with the privilege to inexpensively upgrade to future | | versions of VQuilt! | | | | VQuilt makes a terrific gift for the young folks .. both girls and | | boys. Besides the creative endeavor, it can teach them important | | concepts relating to geometry, ratio, and proportion. Being a middle | | school Math teacher, I find this particularly exciting! | | | | And VQuilt is AFFORDABLE! We had two fundamental reasons for picking | | the $39.95 price point for VQuilt: | | | | 1. Quilting for most people is a hobby. We do not believe that you | | should be asked to spend $100 or more for a piece of software that | | you will only be using occasionally. If you use a piece of | | software such as a word-processor day in and day out in a business | | environment, then it is much easier to justify spending a great | | deal of money for it! | | | | 2. We wanted to make VQuilt accessible to young people and felt that | | the chosen price point put VQuilt within their reach! | | | | Computer Systems Associates is a small systems development outfit | | that is dedicated to developing and distributing quality and | | affordable computer software for the crafts! | | | | If you would like a fully functional copy of VQuilt, it can be | | ordered from: | | | | Computer Systems Associates | | P.O. Box 129 | | Jarrettsville, Maryland 21084-9998 | | | | Phone (410) 557-6871 | | Fax (410) 557-7928 | | Genie: P.HISLEY | | CompuServe: 73177,162 | | Internet: pnh@clark.net | | | | VQuilt Price: $ 39.95 | | State Tax: Where Applicable | | Shipping/Handling: $ 5.00 UPS Ground | | $ 9.00 UPS 2nd Day | | $ 19.00 UPS Next Day | | | | We ship by UPS Ground in the continental USA | | Parcel post in Alaska, Hawaii and Canada | | is $8.00 | | | | Note: VQuilt is in manufacturing now and will begin shipping the | | first week of December, 1994! | | | | Thanks in advance for your support and patronage! | | | | Sincerely, | | | | Sarah Hisley | | Computer Systems Associates | | | | | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | (c) Copyright 1994 Computer Systems Associates | | All rights reserverd. | | | | Permission is granted to translate or make copies of this document | | for personal use only. This document may be distributed only as a | | component of the VQuilt Demonstrator archive. | | | | If you translate this document to a different language, please send | | us a copy so that we may add it to our archives and make it available | | to others. Thank you in advance! | | | | --- Otherwise --- | | | | No part of this documentation may be reproduced, transmitted, | | transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into | | any foreign language (natural or computer), in any form or by | | any means without the prior written permission of Compuer Systems | | Associates. | | | | --- Our lawyers made us do it! --- ;-) | | | +=========================================================================+ A Quick Note If You Wish To Print This Documentation! ----------------------------------------------------- This document does not have any FORMFEED characters embedded in it. This means that if you simply send it to your dot matrix printer it will print continuously ... there will be no page breaks. Owners of laser printers are a bit luckier since their printing device is sheet oriented to begin with. We suggest that you either run this document throught a print utility that inserts formfeeds or print the documentation from a word-processing program (most will import ASCII files). We apologize for any incovenience this may cause you, but we have never had a great deal of luck when we have received ASCII files that have already been paginated. Introduction ------------ Hello! My name is Sarah Hisley. I am an avid quilter and the co-designer of the VQuilt quilt design computer program. VQuilt has evolved over the last several years out of my desire for a quick and easy way to design and color patchwork quilt blocks. Like many quilters, I have always had trouble visualizing exactly what a finished block or quilt will look like. Short of manually hand-drawing and coloring block patterns, a tedious and time-consuming process at best, it was always pretty much guess-work. After discussing the problem with my husband Philip, who is a computer systems engineer by profession , we decided to collaborate and see if we could effectively apply computer technology to what has traditionally been a hand-work craft. Rather than attempting to 'computerize' quilting, what we wanted to do was produce a quilt design program that 'facilitated' quilting .. a subtle but distinctive difference. +------------------------------------------------+ | We believe that a quilter should spend more | | time working with fabric than sitting in | | front of a computer screen! | +------------------------------------------------+ The design of VQuilt reflects that philosphy! It is << NOT >> a program for technicians! VQuilt is a color and pattern visualization tool that has an easy, intuitive user interface that does not get in the way. Early in the design process we decided on several key criteria: VQuilt had to: 1. Look and feel familiar 2. Be easy and intuitive to use 3. Be accurate 4. Be comprehesive and truly useful And most importantly VQuilt had to: 1. Be fun to use 2. Be affordable Designing patchwork blocks with VQuilt is as simple as connecting-the- dots with a click of a mouse button. Coloring blocks is as easy as picking or mixing the color that you want and pointing to the block pieces that you want to color. As a design tool VQuilt provides the ability to: 1. Design and color patchwork blocks. 2. Design and color quilts by incorporating previously designed patchwork blocks into a larger work. 3. Automatically design quilt templates. VQuilt lets you specify what you want a quilt to look like (block size, number of blocks across and down, etc.) and then AUTOMATICALLY generates a scaled quilt template for you to fill in with colors or block designs. 4. Save and load both blocks and quilts so that you do not lose any of your designs. (SAVING NOT AVAILABLE IN DEMO VERSION) 5. Print images of your blocks and quilts as frames, black-and-white, or color. (NOT AVAILABLE IN DEMO VERSION) 6. Print actual-size piece templates for your patchwork blocks. (NOT AVAILABLE IN DEMO VERSION) Blocks can be automatically scaled between 1" and 20". This means that you can design a block in one size and then automatically make it larger or smaller with out having to redraw it. THIS IS GREAT FOR PAPER PIECING! I am very excited about VQuilt and hope that you find it as productive and as much fun to use as I do! If you have any questions or suggestions regarding VQuilt please send them to my attention. Our goal is to provide the best and most useful software tools to the craft community! Warmest Regards Sarah W. Hisley Hardware Requirements --------------------- VQuilt requires the following hardware environment: 1. Any 100% IBM-compatible personal computer from a 286 on up. Performance is a relative issue. VQuilt runs quite well on a 286, and clicks right along on faster machines. 2. 550KB Conventional memory, miminum. The more free program memory that you have, the happier VQuilt will be. EMS memory or XMS memory is REQUIRED if you wish to print oversized multi-page templates. 3. VGA display adapter and VGA color monitor. 4. Microsoft-compatible mouse. Both serial and bus mice are supported. 5. 1 megabyte of hard disk space for the program code and libraries. 1 megabyte of hard disk space for swap space. VQuilt is very dynamic and will perform virtual paging if it has to. Software Requirements --------------------- VQuilt requires the following software support: 1. MSDOS 3.0 or greater. 2. VQuilt will run quite well under windows in a DOS box. Warning: A word about mouse support. Frequently people will say, "I loaded your program, but it doesn't recognize my mouse! I know that my mouse is OK because it works when I run Microsoft Windows!". VQuilt is a native MSDOS program. In order for it to recognize a mouse, a MSDOS mouse driver must be installed. Windows is a monolithic environment that contains its OWN mouse driver that is only present when Windows is running! If your mouse does not seem to be working with VQuilt please make sure that you have a MSDOS mouse driver loaded! An MSDOS mouse driver must be loaded even if you are running VQuilt under Windows in a DOS box. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Note: Since it is impossible to print the actual icons (pictures) on | | VQuilt's Panel Buttons in this text documentation, we have | | adopted the following convention: | | | | Button Name [Button Image] | | | | .. where [Button Image] is a verbal description of the icon. | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Starting VQuilt From MS-DOS! ---------------------------- Change Directory (CD) to the sub-directory into which you have installed VQLTDEMO. If you installed the demo from your ROOT directory this will be \VQLTDEMO. At the MSDOS command prompt simply type .. VQLTDEMO [Enter] ... and in a few moments two VQuilt splash screens will appear. Pressing any mouse button at each of these screens will take you to the Quilt Design Screen. VQuilt only has one command line option switch that might be of interest to some users: The drawing areas for quilts and blocks is, by default, WHITE. It is possible to change this color to either solid GRAY (easy on the eyes) or MEDIUM GRAY (brighter but causes some visual problems when used with very dense drawing marks). To change the background color of the drawing areas you would use the following command line switches as follows when you invoke VQuilt: VQLTDEMO ... for White (default) VQLTDEMO -b0 ... for Gray VQLTDEMO -b2 ... for Medium Gray Starting VQuilt From Microsoft Windows! --------------------------------------- VQuilt can be run under Microsoft Windows by selecting the 'Run...' option from the Program Manager's File menu and then entering .. \VQLTDEMO\VQLTDEMO.EXE in the field labeled 'Command Line'... if you want to change the background color of the drawing areas be sure to add the option switch. Press the (OK) Button. Alternatively VQuilt can be set up to run by pressing an 'icon' by making an entry in a 'Program Group'. Please refer to your Microsoft Windows documentation for instructions on how to do this! Mousing Around! --------------- VQuilt REQUIRES a mouse .. nothing fancy here .. just single clicks and double clicks (if you want to use them .. not required), and a little dragging on scroll bar sliders (again not required). VQuilt uses an Arrow Cursor; the hot point is at the tip of the arrow. To select items or to push buttons on the screen simply place the tip of the arrow on the item and click the LEFT mouse button. For a few select functions the RIGHT mouse button is used ... this will be highlighted in the documentaion. To drag a scroll bar slider, place the tip of the arrow on the slider and press the LEFT mouse button ... while HOLDING the LEFT mouse button down, move the mouse and drag the slider to the desired position, and then release the mouse button! The VQuilt Operating Environment! --------------------------------- The entire VQuilt working environment consists of only TWO display screens ... one to design quilts, the Quilt Design Screen ... the other to design blocks, the Block Design Screen. You always start on the Quilt Design Screen. You toggle back and forth between these two screens by pressing the Quilt [Quilt Block] Button in the bottom right-hand corner of the 'Button Panel'! Try it! Press the button once by placing the tip of the arrow cursor on it and clicking the LEFT mouse button. You will switch to the Block Design Screen. You may be interested to notice that the 'Button Panel' on each of the screens is virtually identical ... what you learn to do on one screen will work exactly the same way on the other screen! Press the button a second time. You will switch back to the Quilt Design Screen. Where Is The On-Line Help! -------------------------- Perhaps we're being too cocky, but there is << NO >> on-line help in VQuilt ... BY INTENT! We believe that if a program like VQuilt needs on-line help, then it TOO DIFFICULT TO USE! Anyone who is reasonably computer literate or who has worked with Microsoft Windows will feel comfortable with VQuilt in about 15 minutes. For newcomers to computers, a quick pass through the manual should generally suffice. In The Beginning ... ! ---------------------- The first screen you arrive at is the Quilt Design Screen (I am assuming that you toggled back) you can easily tell which screen is which .. the quilt design screen has the [Exit] Button while the block design screen has the color mixing scroll bars. The very first thing that you should do is decide what you want your quilt to look like. Since virtually everything associated with a quilt is relative to the size of the basic quilt block, you want to establish that before doing anything else! You do this by pressing the Parameters [Ruler & Drawing Triangle] Button on the Button Panel! You will be presented with a dialog box that permits you to describe exactly what you want your quilt pattern to look like .. all of the parameters should be self explanatory except for 'Subdivide', which I will explain in a moment. Try entering parameters ... notice that the overall size of the final quilt is displayed in the lower left corner of the dialog box .. when you are finished entering parameters press the [Okay] Button ... VQuilt will automatically generate a quilt pattern for you! The 'Subdivide' parameter is a trick to make 'On-Point' option more flexible. When 'Subdivide' is specified <NO>, VQuilt will generate a rotated square for each requested block and alternative rows of block. If 'Subdivide' is specified <YES> then VQuilt not only generates the rotated squares but also generates four triangles under each rotated square. To use those four triangles simply ERASE (more on this later) the rotated square covering them. This is probably the most non-intuitive feature in VQuilt. Please note that the screen display of the quilt pattern is accurately scaled to reflect the chosen parameters. In particular, if you specify a large block size AND a large number of blocks across and down, then the resulting quilt pattern will be relatively small. This unfortunately reflects the reality of dealing with fixed screen real-estate and a finite number of pixels. Next ... ! ---------- Now toggle over to the 'Block Design Screen'. If you do not see any 'drawing marks' in the block drawing area then press the Drawing Marks [Grid] Button. This button toggles the display of the sticky drawing marks on and off. Don't worry ... even if you can't see them, they are still there! They are referred to as 'sticky' since your cursor does not have to be exactly over them to get a'hit' ... just close. These marks are only 'active', however, when the Draw Pieces [Triangle/Rectangle] Button is pressed. Please note that there are marks on the border of the drawing area, even if you cannot see them! Drawing Modes! -------------- There are 7 modes in VQuilt: 1. Draw Pieces 2. Draw Circles 3. Draw Freehand 4. Paint Pieces 5. Erase Pieces 6. Push Pieces 7. Tag Pieces (Default - All buttons on Button Panel UP) The modes are assigned to the first 6 buttons on the 'Button Panel'. These buttons function just like the buttons on an automobile radio (at least they used to before electronic switching became standard). Only one button can be depressed at a time. If one button is depressed and you press another one, the first button pops up! Panel Buttons can be explicitly released by clicking on them with the LEFT mouse button a second time! Drawing Pieces! --------------- Press the Draw Pieces [Triangle/Rectangle] Button on the Button Panel. To draw a piece simply place the tip of the arrow cursor on a 'drawing mark' and press the LEFT mouse button. A small 'starting' circle will appear. This indicates that you have started to draw a piece. VQuilt works with 'objects'. Once you have started drawing an object, VQuilt wants (actually insists) that you to complete it. To complete an object you simply have to get back to the small starting circle. VQuilt really wants you to finish what you have started! To remind you to complete an object ... VQuilt WILL NOT LET THE ARROW CURSOR OUT OF THE DRAWING AREA UNTIL YOU DO COMPLETE AN OBJECT! You draw pieces line by line ... each time you click on a drawing mark the arrow cursor momentarily changes to a small square to let you know that you have a 'hit'. If your computer has a speaker you will hear a 'beep' (if you rummage around you will find the Setup Options [Asterisk] Button that lets you turn the beep on or off). As you connect drawing marks a red line is drawn between the new mark and the previous mark ... when you finally get back to your starting point (the small circle) the piece will be redrawn with a black border and painted with the 'current color'. The small circle will disappear. If you make a mistake while you are in the middle of drawing a piece, simply click the RIGHT mouse button and the last line drawn will be erased You can, in fact, completely back yourself out of an object (the small circle will disappear). As you erase each line you may see the 'ghost trail' left where the line was. We have left this 'trail' there intentionally since in some situations (particularly when free-drawing) it is useful to see where you have been. When the block drawing area is refreshed all ghost trails will disappear. If you are in the middle of a complex object and you want to terminate it, the simplest thing to do is to connect directly to the small starting circle and then Erase the object! You can draw pieces on top of other pieces. In this case it is convenient to think of the objects that you have drawn as pieces of fabric that can be layered on top of one another (this concept will become important when we talk about 'pushing' pieces. Drawing pieces is as simple as that! The Current Color! ------------------ There is always a 'current color'. It is indicated by medium size square on each of the drawing screens. The current color can be changed by: 1. Mixing a new current color 2. Picking a new color from the color palette 3. Picking a new color from a piece in the drawing area. Picking and Saving Colors! -------------------------- To Pick a color simply press the [Pick] Button and then click with the LEFT mouse button on either a color palette square or a piece in the drawing area. On the Quilt Design Screen, you can even pick a complete block out of a quilt. When you switch back to the Block Design Screen, the picked block will be the new active block. Appropriate warnings are given in order to prevent you from destroying a block that you may be in the process of working on. To Save the current color simply press the [Save] Button and then click with the LEFT mouse button on a color palette square. 'Saving' is strictly for saving a custom color into the color palette. Note that you 'paint' rather than 'save' the 'current color' into a piece. Color Palettes! --------------- A word about 'color palettes is probably appropriate at this point. Every block and quilt has a color palette associated with it. When you save a quilt or block to disk, you also save its color palette. When you load a quilt or block from disk you are given the OPTION to load its associated color palette. The active color palette on each drawing screen is reflected by an array of sixteen squares. In particular ... WHEN YOU SWITCH FROM THE BLOCK DESIGN SCREEN TO THE QUILT DESIGN SCREEN, YOU BRING OVER THE COLOR PALETTE FROM THE BLOCK DESIGN SCREEN! If you want to paint with a custom color on the quilt drawing screen, you have to: - Mix it on the block drawing screen. - Save it in the block color palette. - Then switch back to the quilt drawing screen. While this may sound awkward, you will find that the user interface is very fast and fluid and the operation is not at all burdensome. We worked under the premise that people would be working primarily with blocks on the Quilt Design Screen and deferred mixing colors to the Block Design Screen where it would be most useful. You will note that when you attempt to load blocks from disk or pick blocks from a quilt, VQuilt will ask if you want to load the color palette as well. Declining to load a color palette preserves the one that you are currently working with. Drawing Circles! ---------------- Press the Draw Circle [Circle] Button on the Button Panel. Drawing circles is even easier than drawing pieces. Circles are drawn in an 'invisible bounding box' i.e., a box that closely surrounds the circle. Place the tip the the arrow cursor at the location in the drawing area that you want to be the UPPER LEFT-HAND CORNER OF THE BOUNDING BOX. Click the LEFT mouse button. Now drag the mouse. The circle will dynamically 'rubber-band'. When you have a circle of the desired size simply click the LEFT mouse button again and the circle will be redrawn with a black border and will be painted with the 'current color'. Draw Free-hand (Applique)! -------------------------- Press the Draw Free-hand [Pencil] Button on the Button Panel. Freehand drawing is just like drawing with a pencil. Place the tip of the arrow cursor at the location in the drawing area at which you want to start. Press and HOLD the LEFT mouse button. A small starting circle will appear. Move the mouse. You will leave a trace in the drawing area. A freehand drawn object must be closed just like a piece. If you let the LEFT mouse button up before you have gotten back to the small starting circle, VQuilt assumes that you want to freehand draw incrementally. From this point on you simply make small line segments by clicking the LEFT mouse button until you reach the starting circle. YOU CANNOT CONTINUE 'DRAG AND DRAW' ONCE YOU HAVE RELEASED THE INTIAL PRESS OF THE MOUSE BUTTON! Just as with drawing pieces, you can use the RIGHT mouse button to back yourself up in the middle of a freehand drawn object. This is where the 'ghost trails' really come in handy since freehand drawing movements are generally quite small. Caveat! If you draw extremely large or complex freehand objects, you may find that you have exhausted the number of 'points' available to an object. Unlike normal pieces, free-hand pieces are composed of many tiny line segments, particularly if drawn using the 'drag and draw' technique. The number of available points is quite large so normally this should not be a problem! Coloring Pieces! ---------------- Press the Paint [Paint Brush] Button on the Button Panel. Place the tip of the arrow cursor on the piece that you wish to color. Click the LEFT mouse button. The piece will be painted with the current color. If you are on the Quilt Design Screen and the 'current color' happens to be a quilt block, then you will 'paint' that quilt block into the piece that you select! Please note, however, that VQuilt only permits you to paint quilt blocks into pieces that are SQUARE or ON-POINT! Erasing Pieces! --------------- Press the Erase [ Scissors ] Button on the Button Panel. Place the tip of the arrow cursor on the piece that you wish to erase. Click the LEFT mouse button. The selected piece will disappear. IT IS GONE FOR GOOD! In order to prevent the accidental erasure of other pieces, the Erase Button will automatically pop up after a SINGLE piece has been deleted. If you wish to delete MULTIPLE pieces, you can click the RIGHT mouse button and the Erase Button will STAY DEPRESSED until you click the LEFT mouse button (when erasing the last piece) or until you explicitly release the Erase Button by pressing it again. This feature is for the experienced or confident user. Pushing Pieces! --------------- Press the Layer [Rectangle/Rectangle] Button on the Button Panel. This is probably the next most non-intuitive feature of VQuilt. As has been mentioned earlier, it is quite possible to draw one piece on top of another piece. At some point you may wish to have the top piece below the bottom piece. You can accomplish this by placing the tip of the arrow cursor on the piece that you want to move to the bottom. Click the LEFT mouse button. The top piece will move under the piece it was originally covering. If you think of the pieces as fabric, this operation does not seem to be all that unfamiliar. Where it becomes a little tricky is when the piece being pushed is not directly 'in front of' the lower piece in the 'object chain'. When pieces are drawn, they are chained together in the order in which they were created. It may be that the piece that you want to 'push' is many places further along in the chain than the one that 'appears' to be on the bottom. You may find that you have to click the LEFT mouse button several (possibly many times if you have many interceding pieces) times to get the desired effect. Toggle Drawing Marks! --------------------- Press the Drawing Marks [Grid] Button on the Button Panel. This button is a toggle that either displays the drawing marks used for piece drawing or suppresses the display of the drawing marks. It is convenient to hide the drawing marks when you want to see what your block or quilt looks like without having a myriad of little spots on it! Toggle Piece Framing! --------------------- Press the Framing [Picture Frame] Button on the Button Panel. The Framing Button toggles the black border that is drawn around each piece either on or off. This enhances the viewing of a block or quilt by removing framing and helps to approximate what a block or quilt would look like in fabric. This is particularly useful for viewing quilts that have a large number of blocks that have a large number of pieces. Without suppressing the frame lines such quilts appear to be rather dark and dreary! Rotating Blocks! (Block Design Screen Only) ---------------- Pressing the Rotate [Square/Curve Arrow] Button on the Button Panel rotates the current block 90 degrees clockwise. Flipping Blocks! (Block Design Screen Only) ---------------- Pressing the Flip [Square/Up & Down Arrows] Button on the Button Panel flips the current block vertically top for bottom. Zooming Quilts! --------------- Pressing the Zoom [Magnifying Glass] Button on the Button Panel will cause VQuilt to generate and enlarged version of the current quilt. Pressing any mouse button will change back to the Quilt Design Screen. Print Blocks and Quilts! ------------------------ +---------------------------------------------------------+ | Note: The Print functions are not available in the | | demonstration version of VQuilt but are fully | | implemented in the product release! | +---------------------------------------------------------+ Pressing the Print [ Printer ] Button on the Button Panel brings up a dialog box that gives you the following options: +---------------------------------------------------------+ | Note: The print dialog box will only appear if a | | printer is actually connected to LPT1 or LPT2. | | See the paragraph below for information on | | installing printers! | +---------------------------------------------------------+ 1. [ Color ] Prints the block or quilt in color if you own and have installed a color printer. Prints in gray-scale (dithered blank & white) if you have not installed a color printer. 2. [ Frame ] Prints only the framework of the block or quilt. 3. [ Templates ] Prints actual size templates of the block. This option only appears from the Block Design Screen. 4. [ PCX ] Prompts for a filename and outputs the quilt or block to an MSDOS file in the PCX graphics file formation Before you can print anything, you have to tell VQuilt what type of a printer you are going to use. Installing a printer is done by pushing the Setup Option [ Asterisk ] Button on the Button Panel. This will bring up a dialog box that, among other things, has an [Install Printer] Button. Pressing the [Install Printer] Button presents a list box that contains over 130 supported printers. Select your printer by clicking on it in the list window and then pressing the [OK] Button. If your printer is not displayed in the list window, you can scroll throught the list of available printers by dragging the scroll bar slider or by pressing the scroll bar buttons. You only need to install your printer once. If you change printers you will have to go through the printer installation process again. Loading/Saving/Deleting Quilts or Blocks! ----------------------------------------- VQuilt provides a facility for archiving quilts and blocks on your hard disk drive. Pressing the Library [Book] Button on the Button Panel brings up a dialog box that gives you the following options: 1. Load Pressing the [Load] Button presents a list box that shows what quilts or blocks are available for loading. You can scroll through the list of available quilts or blocks by dragging the scroll bar slider or by pressing the scroll bar buttons. When this function is invoked from the Quilt Design Screen only the names of quilts are displayed. When invoked from the Block Design screen only the name of blocks are displayed. Click on the desired quilt or block and then press the [OK] Button. +---------------------------------------------------------+ | Note: The Save function is not available in the | | demonstration version of VQuilt but is fully | | implemented in the product release! | +---------------------------------------------------------+ 2. Save Pressing the [Save] Button prompts for the name by which you wish to save the block or quilt. Pressing the [OK] Buttons archives the quilt or block to disk. +---------------------------------------------------------+ | Note: The Delete function is not available in the | | demonstration version of VQuilt but is fully | | implemented in the product release! | +---------------------------------------------------------+ 3. Delete Pressing the [Delete] Button presents a list box that shows what quilts or blocks are available for deleting. You can scroll through the list of available quilts or blocks by dragging the scroll bar slider or by pressing the scroll bar buttons. When this function is invoked from the Quilt Design Screen only the names of quilts are displayed. When invoked from the Block Design screen only the name of blocks are displayed. Click on the name of the quilt or block and then press the [OK] Button. Since a deleted quilt or block is gone for good, VQuilt prompts you as to whether you are really sure you want to continue with the deletion. Erasing and Clearing Blocks and Quilts! --------------------------------------- The Clear [Blackboard Eraser] Button gives you the opportunity to either clear all the colors from a block or quilt, or to 'erase' the entire block or quilt. If you erase a block you are given a fresh drawing area. If you erase a quilt, the quilt pattern is regenerated using the exisitng quilt parameters. Designing Quilt Patterns! ------------------------ Pressing the Parameters [Ruler & Drawing Triangle] Button opens a dialog box that permits you to establish parameters that describe the geometry of your quilt. After you have changed the desired parameters, you simply click on the [OK] Button and VQuilt will automatically generate a quilt pattern tailored to the parameters. One particular option permits you to alter the spacing of the drawing marks on the block drawing area. Although this option appears in the Parameters dialog box on both the Quilt Design Screen and the Block Design Screen, it only affects the drawing marks in the block drawing area. The resolution of the drawing marks in the quilt drawing area are automatically determined depending on the overall size of the quilt. Values entered for quilt parameters must always be integral. For example, the size of a block cannot be fractional. It cannot be 7.5" but must rather be either 7" or 8". The paremeters that can be modified include: 1. Number of Blocks Across 2. Number of Blocks Down 3. Block Size 4. On-Point - Yes/No 5. Sub-Divide - Yes/No 6. Mark Resolution 7. Border Style - None - Sash Across - Sash Down - Mitered 8. Size of Border Across 9. Size of Border Down 10. Lattice - Yes/No 11. Size of Lattice Across 12. Size of Lattice Down Changing Setup Options! ----------------------- Pressing the Setup Options [Asterisk] Button opens a dialog box that permits you to modify certain items in the VQuilt environment. 1. Bell - On / Off Turns the drawing mark 'hit' beep on or off. You will find that the audible signal that occurs when you click on a drawing mark is extremely handy feedback. 2. Install Printer Permits you to install the printer of your choice. VQuilt supports over 130 different printers, both black and white and color. If you do not find your printer listed, it can more than likely be supported if your printer has a printer emulation mode. Genrally most printers can 'pretend' to be some other popular printer .. usually an Epson FX or an IBM Proprinter model. Consult the manual that came with your printer. 3. Printer Resolution The resolution you select affects the quality - Low of the printed output that you get. The lower - Medium the resolution the faster your quilt or block - High will be printed. For most cases selecting Medium resolution is acceptable. If you are going to print only frames then selecting Low resolution works well and will print much faster. 4. Printer Port Select the parallel port that your printer is - LPT1 attached to. - LPT2 Printing Actual Size Templates! ------------------------------ Before you can generate actual size templates, you must first tell VQuilt which pieces that you would like to have printed. In most patchwork blocks pieces are repetitive and you will wind up selecting only a few for printing as templates. The process of selecting the pieces for printing as templates is known as 'tagging'. The 'default mode' (all buttons on the Button Panel UP ) is TAG. This mode is used to tag pieces on a block to be printed as acutal size templates. To tag a piece simply place the arrow cursor on the piece and click the LEFT mouse button. A dialog box will appear. Enter ONE or TWO characters to tag the piece and push the [OK] Button. The piece is now tagged and will print as a template when you request VQuilt to do so. In order to 'see' which pieces are tagged, simply press the RIGHT mouse button while in 'tag mode' and the tags that you assigned will appear on their respective pieces. This function is a toggle. Click the RIGHT mouse button a second time and the tags will disappear. To remove a tag click on the desired piece. When the dialog box appears simply backspace out the existing tag and push the [OK] Button. +---------------------------------------------------------+ | Note: The Print functions are not available in the | | demonstration version of VQuilt but are fully | | implemented in the product release! | +---------------------------------------------------------+ To actually PRINT the templates push the Print [Printer] Button on the Button Panel. When the print dialog box appears push the [Template] Button. Caveat! Printing large templates CAN take a fair amount of time depending on what type and how much memory your computer has. VQuilt always opts to use the fastest available memory it can find it. In its search for enough memory to create an off-screen bitmap, VQuilt first checks for EMS memory and then checks for XMS memory. Either EMS or XMS memory is required to print oversize multi-page templates. Large templates will be printed on multiple pages that will need to be cut and taped together .. we are, unfortunately, constrainted by the size of the print media! Mixing Custom Colors! --------------------- Custom colors can be created on the Block Design Screen. They are created by 'mixing' the three primary colors: RED, GREEN, and BLUE We have cheated a bit and added WHITE (brightness) in order to create the illusion of actually mixing paints, a process that most people have done at one time or another. Mixing is done by either clicking on the appropriate scroll bar button or by placing the tip of the arrow cursor on a 'colored' scroll bar slider, pressing and HOLDING the LEFT mouse button, moving the mouse to drag the slider to a new location and then releasing the mouse button. When the button is released, the new current color will appear. Each scroll bar has a value that ranges from 0 to 32 .. these numbers are displayed in order to permit accurate color determination and repositioning. Sometimes the differences in similar colors are difficult to discern visually. On each end of each scroll bar are two buttons. The 'outside' buttons will drive the respective scroll bar to its maximum limit (high or low) depending on which button you pressed. The 'inside' buttons will increment or decrement each scroll bar slider by single units for fine adjustments. Mixing colors requires some basic knowledge as to how different colors are created in the ADDITIVE color system Example: RED + BLUE = PURPLE RED + GREEN = YELLOW BLUE + GREEN = CYAN RED + BLUE + GREEN = WHITE It is generally useful to leave the WHITE scroll bar slider at its maximum value (32) while you play with the other colors. Then, if you want a darker color reduce the white value. The best way to learn how to mix colors is to experiment. Play with the scroll bars and see what colors you create! Remeber that you can save any colors you create in any one of the sixteen color palette boxes on the Block Display Screen. Simply press the [Save] Button and click on the box that you want to save the color in. As A Last Word ... ------------------ Working with VQuilt is fun .. at least I hope that you find it so! If you have problems with this demonstration version or think that you have found a bug (Out Damned Spot!) please let us know immediately. VQuilt has been tested extensively. We have attempted to make it as robust as possible but, having been in the systems business for quite a while, we always maintain a healthy dose of skepticism!