The Business Master (3rd Edition)

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A C D B AutoCAD DataBase User-supported software by Norman Newman Kibbutz Tsor'a M.P. Shimshon ISRAEL 99705 ┌───────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ Runs on all IBM-compatible computers: XT, │ │ AT, PS/1, PS/2. Requires DOS 3.0 and one │ │ 360K drive. 640K memory recommended. │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────┘ Legal note ---------- This program is copyright 1992/3 by Norman Newman, Kibbutz Tsor'a, M.P. Shimshon, ISRAEL 99705; all rights reserved, all wrongs deserved. The program may be freely distributed and copied, provided that no changes are made in either ACDB.EXE or ACDB.DOC (this file). The author denies all responsibility for any damage caused by the use or misuse of this program. This software is provided as shareware. This means that you have the opportunity to try ACDB before having to register. Should you decide to keep and use this program, you are requested to register your copy with the author by sending a cheque for $35. This will entitle you to receive a new copy of the program without the shareware screen at the beginning, which is capable of 'launching' (executing) a program from within, and which is capable of communicating with AutoCAD, as well as free support and updates for one year. This program is "user-driven" and suggestions for additional features are welcome. This documentation describes version 1.2, which is the current released version (1/93). What is the AutoCAD DataBase (ACDB)? ------------------------------------ ACDB is a program designed to maintain a database of drawing files, created by the AutoCAD program (AutoCAD is a trademark of AutoDesk Ltd), although it can easily be used with other CAD programs. Some of ACDB's features are: * Record sorting by several fields * Viewing the stored data and the drawing itself on one screen * Launching AutoCAD from within the program * If ACDB is launched from within AutoCAD, it will automatically display the chosen file in AutoCAD. ACDB was written with the aid of Borland's Turbo Vision programming interface, which supports an implementation of IBM's SAA-CUA (Systems Application Architecture - Common User Access) standard, which has been used in several programs and supports a common user interface, with such devices as dialog boxes, list boxes and scroll bars. ACDB supports a mouse. Installation ------------ Your distribution diskette should contain the following files: ACDB.EXE ACDB.DOC TVPRINT.DAT If you have a floppy drive system, prepare a newly formatted diskette, and copy all three files onto this diskette. If you have a computer with a hard disk, create a new subdirectory and copy the files into this subdirectory. ACDB looks for its data files (called ACDB.DAT and ACDB.CFG) in the current directory, and if no file is found, a new file will be created when ACDB finishes executing. You can maintain several databases concurrently by executing ACDB from different subdirectories. Registered users will also receive the file ACDB.LSP. It is suggested that this file (which contains the 'acdb' command) be added to your ACAD.LSP file in the following matter: copy acad.lsp + acdb.lsp acad.lsp This will ensure that the 'acdb' command is always available to you within AutoCAD. The file TVPRINT.DAT contains information about different printers, and may be seen as a system-wide resource which is used by several programs written by the author. This file may optionally reside within the same directory as the ACDB files (this is recommended if you are NOT using other programs written by the author), or in a separate directory. If you intend to do this, you must add to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file the line SET TVPRINT=C:\ACDB (replace C:\ACDB with the name of the directory where the file TVPRINT.DAT will reside; leave no spaces on either side of the equals sign). This creates an 'environmental variable' called TVPRINT, which says where the printer database can be found. Programs such as ACDB can acquire the value of this variable and so access the printer database. Program Invocation ------------------ One invokes the program by simply typing 'ACDB' at the DOS command line. If you have the registered version of the program and intend to run it within another program, invoke the program by typing 'ACDB /F' (this is done automatically by the 'acdb' command in AutoCAD). Should you have a non-registered version of the program, you will initially receive what is termed 'the shareware screen': this screen informs you of the program's name, who wrote it, and what the terms for registration are. In order to continue, simply type in the number that will be displayed. Note that this number is random, and so will not be the same from invocation to invocation. The main screen can be divided into three parts: the bottom line is called the status line, the top line is called the menu bar, and the middle portion (coloured blue on a colour screen) is the workspace. On the status line appear four different items. The first two inform you of general commands: pressing <F10> will make the menu bar active, and pressing <Alt-X> will stop the program running and return you to DOS. The next item on the status line is called 'the hint'; this will either be a hint on how to operate the dialog box which is on the screen, or will be a copyright notice. When you start the program, there is no dialog box on the screen, and so the hint will be the copyright notice. The final item on the status line is a clock; its accuracy depends on the accuracy of your computer's clock. The menu bar has three visible options: 'Drawings', 'Reports', and 'General'. Note that the first letter of each option is coloured red. There are three equivalent ways to choose one of these options: a) move the mouse pointer over the desired option and press the left mouse button; b) press <F10> to take the cursor to the menu bar, which will highlight Drawings (on a colour screen, this will be green); press the arrow keys until the highlight is on the desired option, and then press <ENTER>; c) press <Alt-key>, where 'key' is the red (first) character in each option (eg <Alt-D> - pressing <ALT> and <D> simultaneously - will select 'Drawings'). After you have selected an option, a pull-down menu will appear underneath the selected option, allowing access to several sub-options. You can choose one of these sub-options again in any one of three ways: by using the mouse as above, by moving the green highlight with the arrow keys and pressing <ENTER> when the desired sub-option is lit, or by pressing the red (first) character (no need for <Alt>!). In all stages of the program (except the main menu), you can cancel the current option by pressing Escape, by clicking the mouse or pressing Enter on the 'Cancel' button (if there is one), or by clicking the mouse on the 'close' box (the little green box in the top left hand corner of the dialog box frame). This document will often refer to 'drawings'; within the confines of ACDB, a drawing means a record contained within the database which contains data regarding a drawing file (with extension *.DWG), and not the drawing itself. DRAWINGS ======== In this section are four program options which relate to specific drawings. Add a drawing ------------- Upon choosing this option, a list box will open, displaying all the files whose path and name (eg c:\acad\acad.dwg) match the default values, as defined in the Configure option. Initially, this value will be '*.dwg', but should ACDB and (for example) AutoCAD be in different directories, you will have to change this default directory to show exactly where the drawing files are (eg 'C:\ACAD\*.DWG'). Note that you can only enter into ACDB's database drawings which physically exist. You can scroll through the filenames with the arrow keys or by dragging on the scrollbar with the mouse. In order to select a drawing, press Enter (or double click on the mouse) to choose the drawing whose name will be highlit, or press Escape to exit the option. Assuming that you have chosen a file, the file dialog box will disappear, and a new dialog box will open on the screen. If you have chosen the name of a drawing which does not appear in ACDB's database, the dialog box will be empty; otherwise the data stored regarding the chosen drawing will be retrieved and disposed in the dialog box. The data which you can store regarding each drawing are: + Client - for whom the drawing was made + Product - the name of the product (the drawing may be part of a larger product) + Salesman - the name of the salesman responsible + Comments - any other remarks + Drawing/Block - whether the file is a complete drawing or a block The first four fields are alphanumeric text strings, each upto 40 characters long. In order to save typing, you can press F2 (or click on the right mouse button) when on any of the first three lines, in which case ACDB will open a small window listing all the clients/products/salesmen which have been entered into the database. You can choose one of these by scrolling through the list and pressing Enter; pressing Escape will close the window without selecting any name. You can move forward through the dialog box by pressing Tab, and backward by pressing Shift-Tab. You can jump to different fields by pressing Alt and the highlit letter in each field (eg Alt-C will jump to the client field), or by clicking the mouse on the desired field. If you are satisfied with the data you have entered, 'press' on the OK button (by clicking the mouse on it, by pressing Alt-O, or by tabbing to the OK button and pressing Enter), which will cause the data to be added to the database. Should you wish not to keep the data, press Escape or click on the Cancel button. In the right hand corner of the menu bar appears the number of drawings within the database; note how the number increases when you add a new drawing. Edit a drawing -------------- This option allows you to edit data which you have already stored regarding a specific drawing. Upon choosing this option, you will be presented with a list of drawings which already exist within the database; you can choose a drawing by scrolling through the list with the up- and down-arrows keys, and then by pressing <ENTER>. If you prefer to use a mouse, 'drag' the box on the scrollbar (the line on the right hand side of the list box) until the desired drawing is displayed, and then double click the left button on the name of the drawing. The same dialog box as described in the previous section will be displayed, but instead of being empty, the data regarding the chosen drawing will be displayed. Should you press on the OK button, the original data will be discarded and the new data will be stored. Display a drawing ----------------- Upon choosing this option, you will be presented with a list of drawings which already exist within the database; you can choose a drawing by scrolling through the list with the up- and down-arrows keys. Should you wish not to display a drawing, press <Escape>; otherwise press <Enter> or double click with the left mouse button on the desired drawing. Assuming that you have chosen a drawing, ACDB will look for a slide file with the same complete name (that is, including the path name which ACDB stores but does not display in the list box), but with the .SLD extension (ie if you have chosen AIRPLANE.DWG, ACDB will look for the file AIRPLANE.SLD). Should such a file be found, ACDB will both display the data stored regarding this file and draw the drawing. SLD files are created within AutoCAD with the 'mslide' command. In order to return to the file list box, you must press a key (it doesn't matter which); clicking the mouse has no effect. If no SLD file can be found, only the data regarding the file will be displayed. Remove a drawing ---------------- Again you will be presented with the list of drawings within the database; choosing a drawing will cause a dialog box to appear, asking you to confirm that you wish to delete the drawing from the database. Should you press the 'Yes' button, the drawing will be deleted from the database, and the drawings count (appearing in the top right hand corner of the screen) will decrease by one. It is important to remember that deleting a 'drawing' from the database in no way affects the actual drawing file stored on disk. REPORTS ======= In this section are contained options which will enable you to display the data contained in the database according to different criteria. The first option ('Show by client') allows you to display drawings belonging to the chosen client(s). The second option allows you to display drawings belonging to the chosen range of products, and the third allows you to display drawings belonging to the chosen salesman/salesmen. As these three options are basically the same, differing only in the sort criterion, only the 'sort by client' option will be documented here. Choosing this option will cause a dialog box to be displayed, in which you can choose where to send the output - to the screen, to the printer or to a file. After this will appear another dialog box, asking for the range of values; the initial 'from' value will be the first client in the database (by alphabetical order), and the initial 'to' value will be the last client. These values can be changed by either typing on the the input lines, or by pressing <F2> to display a list box containing clients' names. You choose a name by scrolling and pressing <ENTER>. If you have chosen to display the drawings ordered by the client(s) on the screen, a large list box will appear, listing each drawing's number, client and name. In order to obtain further data, scroll through this list and press <ENTER> on a specific drawing; the data regarding this drawing will be displayed as in the section "Display a drawing" described before. Slide files are not drawn by this option. If you have chosen to print to a file, you will be prompted for a file into which to write the data. Writing to a file and writing to the printer cause all the data regarding the drawings ordered by the chosen client(s) to be printed. GENERAL ======= In this section are four options which relate to the database as a whole, or which do not fit into the previous sections. Launch a drawing ---------------- This option exists only in the registered version of the program; non-registered users will receive a message telling them to register, should they choose this option. Initially you will be presented with the list of drawings stored in the database; you can scroll through the list with the arrow keys. To execute AutoCAD with a specific drawing, simply press Enter (or double click the left mouse button) when the desired file is highlit. Pressing Escape will return the program to the main menu. If you are running ACDB within AutoCAD and executed the program with the 'acdb' command, ACDB will create a file (called C:\ACDB.$$$) which contains the name of the drawing which you have chosen. This name is passed to AutoCAD, and the drawing selected is then drawn. If you are running ACDB directly from DOS, you must tell ACDB which program to execute by entering its name in the configuration section. For AutoCAD, this will normally be a batch file called ACAD.BAT or ACAD386.BAT. Should you wish to execute a different program, change the value in the configuration section. Update/weed ----------- This option checks all the drawings in the database and updates their size and 'last accessed' dates. If a drawing exists in the database, but the corresponding file no longer exists, ACDB will ask you whether to delete the drawing. Configure --------- Choosing this option will display a dialog box which enables you to modify ACDB's behaviour. The dialog box consists of four lines: the first is the default file type to look for when adding files (see 'Add a file'), the second is the name of the program to execute (see 'Launch file'), the third is the type of printer that you are using, and the fourth controls how often the program will automatically save your data. The default values of these fields are '*.DWG' - select all drawing files in the current directory, 'C:\ACAD.BAT' - execute this batch file with the chosen drawing file, 'Epson' - use an Epson printer, and '5' - save after five changes.. Should you choose to use ACDB with a different target program, you should adjust these values accordingly. If you run ACDB in one directory but keep your DWG files in another directory, it is worthwhile to add the directory name to the default file name - e.g. C:\ACAD\*.DWG. Pressing Enter will cause the data in the dialog box to be stored in the file ACDB.CFG. As with the data file (ACDB.DAT), this file will be created in the current directory, and so it is possible to maintain multiple configurations in different directories. One example of multiple configurations is to maintain one database of AutoCAD drawings (default values C:\ACAD\*.DWG and C:\ACAD.BAT), and another database of letters and articles (default values C:\LETTERS\*.TXT and C:\NORTON\NE.COM). Obviously the field names will not completely match the secondary application, but this problem can be overcome with a little imagination. The printer name is needed only to determine how many lines to print on a page. Most continuous feed printers have 66 lines on a page, but single sheet printers can print only 55 lines. In order to install your printer, press <F1>; a window will open displaying names of printers contained in the printer database. You can choosing a printer by scrolling and pressing <ENTER>; <F1> will allow you to add a new printer to the database, and <F2> will allow you to edit the information contained in the printer database about the chosen printer. Should you decide to add or edit a printer, a dialog box will appear asking for escape sequences to print normal and compressed print (16 character per inch), to eject a page, and how many lines there are on a page. As mentioned earlier, ACDB only uses the number of lines on a page. The printer database is maintained on a system wide basis, so that many programs can use it. Add to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file the line SET TVPRINT=C:\ACDB (replace C:\ACDB with the name of the directory where the file TVPRINT.DAT will reside). This creates an 'environmental variable' called TVPRINT, which says where the printer database can be found. Programs such as ACDB can acquire the value of this variable and so access the database. Show totals ----------- This option is for the inquisitive: it opens a window displaying statistics regarding the database, namely how many drawings, clients, products and salesmen have been defined; how much free memory exists, and how many more drawings can be entered (accept this number with a grain of salt). ADVERTISEMENT ============= Other shareware programs written by Norman Newman: 8PUZZLE: this program reproduces the puzzle of eight numbered blocks and one empty space in a 3 x 3 grid. "...In the last version we complained about the method of moving the blocks. This has been fixed. You can also save and reload games, ask for hints and more." PsL News, November 1989. AMATEUR: an expert system shell. "Is an expert system shell that is small, simple yet effective." PsL News, December 1988. BIGBEN: a TSR program which emulates the Big Ben clock in London by chiming every 15 minutes, and ringing the hour on the hour. EXHUME: exhumes data lost on a damaged disk. "Will rescue (or "exhume") data which have been lost on a disk after the directory or FATS have been corrupted." PsL News, October 1990. HYPER: a simple hypertext implementation. "[HyperSee] displays in a hypertext format ASCII text files created with any text editor or word processor which will save in straight ASCII. We like HyperSee because it is extremely simple, yet it works. It does not support graphics, but for a text-based system, it has the advantage of being small enough (17K) to include on shareware disks for viewing program documentation files." PsL News, February 1991. INFER: a program to solve the hypothetical syllogism. MAG: a database manager for magazine articles. Written primarily for computer magazines, but can be used (with a little imagination) for other subjects. SPEECH: speaks keystrokes through the Speech Thing (manufactured by Covox Inc). A must for vision-impaired users. PASMAC: a TSR program which provides a several keyboard macros for Pascal programmers. The sign-on message explains the use of the program. THE IMPORT MANAGER: a sophisticated program which maintains a database for an import/export business. Tracks orders across the high seas. Manages payments (but you have to supply the money!). All these high quality programs will be yours when you register your copy of ACDB. REGISTRATION FORM FOR ACDB ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Name: ____________________________________________________ Street:___________________________________________________ City: __________________ State:________ Zip:____________ Computer Brand: ______________________ Model: ___________________ Where did you get your copy of ACDB? Friend [ ] BBS [ ] Shareware library [ ] Check here if you need a 3.5" disk [ ] Amount to send: $ 35.00 Please make your check payable to: Norman Newman and mail to: Kibbutz Tsor'a M. P. Shimshon ISRAEL 99705 Comments: