The Business Master (3rd Edition)

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[ D A N C A D 3 D V E R S I O N 2 . 5 ] D A N C A D 3 D . C O M v 2 . 5 (tm) DANCAD3D: A VECTOR GRAPHIC ANIMATION TOOL Useful For CAD: 3D Computer Aided Drafting and technical drawing. CAE: 3D and 4D Computer Aided Engineering and testing. CAM: Computer Aided Manufacturing when used with DANCAM. Brief Program Documentation for Shareware Distribution Disks. COPYRIGHT (c) 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 by DANIEL H. HUDGINS DANCAD3D, 466 DIAMOND STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114, U.S.A. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This documentation file may not be edited, altered, changed, or translated without express written permission from its author. Read the disclaimer in this documentation before using the program. This version of DANCAD3D is dedicated to the thousands of DANCAD3D users around the world and especially to those few that supported its development with financial support, spiritual support, and constructive criticism. And additionally to the shareware dealers that agreed to sell v1.1 and gave me the opportunity to develop DANCAD3D into a useful program. [DANCAD3D.DOC-1] [ T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S ] Disclaimer............................................5 Trade Mark notice.....................................6 Hardware requirements.................................8 Video boards and modes................................9 Computer system memory...............................10 Printing and Plotting drawings.......................10 Dot matrix printers..................................11 LaserJet type printers...............................11 HPGL and other pen plotters..........................12 PostScript printers..................................12 Mouse and Trackball..................................13 Harddisk speed.......................................14 RAM disks and extra memory...........................14 CONFIG.SYS: files and buffers........................14 Distribution scheme..................................15 Description of program...............................17 Computer Aided Manufacturing.........................17 Location of main program features....................18 How dancad is used...................................19 Example calculation of scale values..................19 How drawings are stored..............................21 How drawings are saved...............................21 How to load a drawing you saved......................21 How to avoid loss through mistakes...................22 Disk file types......................................23 3D-Quick drawing filetype............................23 Elements drawing filetype............................24 2D-Real drawing filetype.............................25 Perspective projections..............................25 Pixel drawing display screen filetype................26 ASCII drawing data files.............................27 Using ASCII files with DANCAM and DANPLOT............27 Other filetypes DANCAD3D uses........................28 Macro command files..................................28 Vector font files....................................28 Alias symbol files...................................29 DANCAD3D status files................................29 DANCAD3D's configuration file........................29 Drawing editor basics................................30 Drawing editor views.................................31 Drawing editor root menu.............................31 Drawing cursor.......................................32 Drawing line segments................................32 Drawing editor scale.................................33 Drawing cursor movement..............................33 Elastic line segment.................................34 Begin element command................................34 Values displayed on drawing editor screen............35 Absolute or relative measurement.....................35 Measuring angles and distances.......................35 Drawing curves.......................................36 Drawing circles......................................36 [DANCAD3D.DOC-2] [ T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S ] Making parts of circles..............................37 Other round shapes...................................38 Editing lines........................................38 Editing elements.....................................38 WYSIWYG and screen redraw speed......................39 Screen update list...................................39 Grids for drawing....................................39 Aids to drawing of shapes............................40 Polygon command......................................40 Rectangle command....................................40 Cube command.........................................40 Lettering............................................40 Automatic dimensioning...............................41 Blocks of text.......................................41 Drawing aids that work from drawn elements...........42 The Fit-Curve command................................42 The Thicken command..................................43 The Lathe command....................................44 The Window command...................................46 The Hole command.....................................47 Commands that change line segments...................48 Line style and attributes............................49 Inserting line segments into elements................49 Deleting line segments from drawings.................50 Pulling the end points of line segments..............50 Line segment numbers.................................51 commands that change elements........................51 The Elements sub-menu................................51 Interactive editing: The on-screen sub-menu..........53 Interactive Offset: The Drag command.................53 Important things to know about the drawing editor....55 Text editor basics...................................57 Uses of the write command text editor................58 Editing macro files..................................58 Editing ASCII data files.............................58 Editing text for the Block text command..............59 Other uses of the write command......................60 Macro basics.........................................61 Using the automatic macro feature....................63 Using the output macro to prototype macro code.......66 Frequently asked questions...........................70 Run-Time errors......................................70 Running macros from DOS..............................70 Information about DANCAD3D...........................70 Dot matrix printer drivers...........................71 Why did the program crash?...........................71 Loading DANCAD3D drawings into other programs........72 PostScript files.....................................72 HPGL files...........................................72 DXF files............................................72 Data filetypes.......................................73 Pixel files..........................................73 3D data files........................................73 [DANCAD3D.DOC-3] [ T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S ] 2D data files........................................73 Sets of Elements filetype............................74 ASCII data filetype..................................74 Making HPGL files....................................74 Making DXF files.....................................74 Making PostScript files..............................74 Hidden line removal..................................74 Getting the cube command to work.....................74 Drawing curves.......................................75 Ease of use..........................................75 Product pricing......................................75 Printer ports........................................75 Installing plotters..................................76 Spooling PostScript files............................76 Connecting the LaserWriter...........................77 LaserWriter setup....................................77 Running demo files...................................78 How to draw something................................78 Cursor and mouse keys................................78 Erasing lines in drawings............................79 Zooming in on a drawing..............................79 Zooming out to see whole drawing.....................79 Preview command......................................79 Viewing in 3D perspective............................79 Printing a drawing...................................80 Plotting a drawing...................................80 Printing PostScript files............................80 Saving drawings before you quit......................81 Reloading a set of elements..........................81 Loading older DANCAD3D version drawing files.........81 New features in v2.5.................................81 CGA snow on the screen...............................83 VGA video boards.....................................83 How to get more information..........................83 Tips on using DANCAD3D...............................84 General tips on running DANCAD3D.....................85 Serial ports.........................................85 General tips on using the drawing editor.............86 Pen plotters.........................................90 Closing comment for shareware documentation..........90 [DANCAD3D.DOC-4] [ D I S C L A I M E R ] QUICK DISCUSSION OF IDEA You use DANCAD3D only at your own risk. DANCAD3D is distributed as shareware so you can test the program to see if it does what you want it to before you buy the whole outfit. DANCAD3D is sold "as is", you should read the disclaimer below before using DANCAD3D or any of the other programs written by Daniel H. Hudgins. STEPS TO CARRY OUT IDEA 1. Read and accept the terms of the disclaimer. 2. Read the rest of this documentation file. 3. Use the program at your own risk. 4. Trade Marked names mentioned in the text belong to their owners. DETAILED DISCUSSION OF IDEA The following legal notices must be read, understood and agreed to before using any of Daniel H. Hudgins programs or products. DISCLAIMER DANCAD3D including all associated programs (i.e. DANCAD87, DANMOVIE, DANGRAPH, DANCAM, DANPLOT, and all the other programs), disks, and documentation is distributed as is, with no guarantee that it will work correctly in any or all situations. The documentation files or the printed manual or manuals may contain errors and omissions. The use of the programs DANCAM and DANPLOT pose a physical hazard to the user. The use of DANCAM and DANPLOT can cause serious physical injury or death. In no event will Daniel H. Hudgins be liable for any damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use these programs and or files, even if the Author has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or for any claim by any other party. The program can and will crash resulting in loss of data when operated, Daniel H. Hudgins shall not be held liable or responsible for any such loss. Should the program prove defective, you (the user) assume the entire cost of all necessary repair, servicing, or correction. All offers are subject to change or withdrawal without notice or notification of any kind. The use of the program constitutes total agreement and acceptance of this disclaimer. If you reside in a local that has laws that require Daniel H. Hudgins to bear liability of any kind you are disallowed use of this or any other program written by Daniel H. Hudgins. If you cannot accept the program "as is" and "where is" and you bought it from Daniel H. Hudgins then return it within 30 days in unaltered, undamaged, and [DANCAD3D.DOC-5] [ D I S C L A I M E R ] unused condition for a refund (less shipping and handling.) The use of DANCAM and DANPLOT carry additional risks to the user and his computer. Daniel H. Hudgins will not be liable or responsible for any injury, loss, or death that might result from using DANCAD3D with DANCAM or DANPLOT. Automated power driven equipment is dangerous. You should not use DANCAM or DANPLOT if you cannot accept the possibility of damage to your computer, loss of health, loss of body parts, or death, and the need to protect anyone exposed to equipment used with DANCAM and DANPLOT. The extent of the need for any protective measures such as safety shields and training of workers must be determined by the user and is not Daniel H. Hudgins responsibility. The user of DANCAM and DANPLOT accepts full responsibility, including financial, legal, and moral responsibility, for any problems or losses that might arise from using the programs. DANCAM and DANPLOT must not be used by persons that are ignorant of the dangers involved with use of the programs and the associated hardware. The stepper motors can start unexpectedly because of a number of causes including bugs in the software or failure of the electrical connections. The operator should be prepared for, and expect that the automated machinery will start unexpectedly. The operator should also expect that stepper motors will louse holding torque (causing the motor shafts to turn freely under the force of gravity or springs) when the motor power is lost or the electrical connections fail to operate properly. Dangers involved in the use of DANCAD3D, DANCAM, and DANPLOT include but are not limited to: damage to your computer and related hardware, damage to your body and mind or the body and mind of others (damage to your body can include fatal injury), fire or burns caused by stepper motors and other equipment getting hot, electrocution caused by touching or getting near stepper motor driver circuits and wiring, or electrocution or electric shock from any electrical hardware used with DANCAD3D, DANCAM, and DANPLOT. You may not use DANCAD3D, DANCAM, or DANPLOT if you do not accept all risk for any loss, damage, or injury that you may incur as a result of using the programs DANCAD3D, DANCAM, and DANPLOT. If you find a bug in the program let me know about it so that it can be fixed. This version of DANCAD3D has be tested and should (but may not) work on most fully IBM compatible personal computers that have hardware that meets the minimum requirements. If some part of the program does not work on your computer, the only way I can look into helping you is if you write and ask for help. Please enclose a self addressed stamped envelope if you live in the United States, or a first class postal voucher (from your post office) if you live outside the United States to pay for the reply postage. TRADE MARK NOTICE A number of Trade Marks are mentioned in this documentation and in the programs and files on the accompanying disks. They belong to [DANCAD3D.DOC-6] [ D I S C L A I M E R ] there respective companies and have no connection to DANCAD3D. They are only mentioned to help you identify the differences between equipment supplied for use with personal computers and how that affects your use of DANCAD3D. Among the Trade Marks mentioned are: IBM, CGA, EGA, MDA, 5152, ProPrinter, PC, PC-XT, PC-AT, PC-DOS are trademarks and or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. MX-80, LX-80, HI-80, Epson are trademarks and or registered trademarks of EPSON Corporation. Hercules are trademarks and or registered trademarks of Hercules Computer Technology, Inc. MicroSoft, MS-DOS are trademarks and or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. FastTRAP, KeyMAP are trademarks and or registered trademarks of MicroSpeed Incorporated. Turbo Pascal are trademarks and or registered trademarks of Borland International. PostScript are trademarks and or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Linotronic 300 are trademarks and or registered trademarks of Linotype Incorporated. LaserWriter Plus are trademarks and or registered trademarks of Apple Computer Incorporated. HP-GL, HP7470A, LaserJet, LaserJet II are trademarks and or registered trademarks of Hewiett-Packard Company. DANCAD3D, DANCAD87, DANMOVIE, DANGRAPH, DANCAM, DANPLOT, are trademarks and or registered trademarks of Daniel H. Hudgins. [DANCAD3D.DOC-7] [ H A R D W A R E R E Q U I R E M E N T S ] QUICK DISCUSSION OF IDEA DANCAD3D runs on IBM XT, AT, or PS/2 compatible computers. DANCAD3D requires at least 512KB of system memory. DANCAD3D requires a harddisk to be used. STEPS TO CARRY OUT IDEA 1. Check that you have more than 480KB system memory free. Use the DOS external command CHKDSK to check the amount of free DOS main memory. Do not confuse the free RAM memory with the free bytes on your harddisk! 2. Check that your mouse driver is installed. 3. Check that you have put the DOS MODE command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to set up your serial ports (if needed.) 4. Install DANCAD3D on your harddisk with the file INSTALL.BAT. 5. Set your video board to CGA, EGA, or Hercules video mode. 6. Run DANCAD3D and pick the current video mode you have set. DETAILED DISCUSSION OF IDEA The choice of computer hardware to use with DANCAD3D makes a significant impact on the ease and efficiency with which you will be able to use the program. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS FOR DANCAD3D v2.5 COMPUTER......100% IBM XT, AT, or PS/2 compatible. DOS...........v2.1 required, v3.21 or higher recommended. MEMORY........512KB to 640KB, 640KB strongly recommended. 640KB is required by some of the macros that come with the manuals and video tape. VIDEO.........CGA video graphics 640 by 200 pixels. EGA video graphics 640 by 350 pixels in 16 colors. MGC or Hercules graphics 720 by 348 pixels. DISKS.........A HARDDISK is required to use the program. Floppy disk required to install the program. PRINTER.......EPSON compatible with MX-80, LX-80, FX-286, or LQ-1500 Wide carriage dot matrix printers with EPSON type codes IBM compatible with 5125, GRAPHICS PRINTER, PRO-PRINTER [DANCAD3D.DOC-8] [ H A R D W A R E R E Q U I R E M E N T S ] STAR compatible with SG15X or SG10X PostScript compatible laser printer Linotronic 300 photo imagesetter HPGL code compatible laser printer Many types of plotter. HP-PCL code ink jet and laser printer LaserJet II compatible laser printers RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT FOR DANCAD3D v2.5 MOUSE.........Version 2.5 uses mouse of most menus and command prompts, I recommend that you buy a 3 button mouse if you do not currently have a mouse now. I use the 3 button FastTrap 3D trackball with the track wheel being supported for the z axis in DANCAD3D. CPU...........I strongly recommend that DANCAD3D be used on computers that have a clock speed of 10MHz or faster. You should also use an 80286 or faster micro processor. DANCAD3D will run on the 8088, but some of the commands will take a long time to act. Replacement mother boards are available for XT compatibles that give them the speed of an AT for less than $250. PRINTER.......If you are going to buy a new printer I would recommend that you get a laser printer. v2.5x supports the LaserJet II type as well as PostScript type laser printers. PostScript or HPGL compatible printers are generally faster than HP-PCL code printers. HARDDISK......I recommend that you use a voice coil harddisk with an access time of 28ms or less. Slow stepper motor harddisks make the program work very sluggishly. You should also use a harddisk optimizing program like FastTrax (tm) to de-fragment the files on your harddisk at least once a week in order to have DANCAD3D run well and quickly. VIDEO BOARDS AND MODES DANCAD3D works on the currently most available video modes used in XT, AT compatible computers. Many VGA video boards support one or more of these video modes. The modes available to pick from are listed in the video board menu that comes up when you run the program for the first time (or when you select the [V]ideo menu from the title screen pop-up menu.) VIDEO TYPE TEXT DRAWING SCREEN PERSPECTIVE SCREEN C = CGA COLOR COLOR 640x200x2 640x200x2 or 320x200x4 B = CGA B&W MONOCHROME 640x200x2 640x200x2 or 320x200x4 [DANCAD3D.DOC-9] [ H A R D W A R E R E Q U I R E M E N T S ] E = EGA COLOR COLOR 640x350x2 640x350x2 or 640x350x16 M = EGA MULTISYNC MONOCHROME 640x350x2 640x350x2 or 640x350x16 H = HERCULES MONOCHROME 720x348x2 720x348x2 If you have an multimode video board you should set the video board's video mode to the mode you wish to use before you run DANCAD3D. To change the video mode DANCAD3D will be working on select [V]ideo (by pressing [V]) from the small menu that comes up over the title screen when you run the program and press [Return] the first time. Keep in mind that Pixel type files cannot be exchanged between video modes, so you should decide on one video mode and stick with that mode. The ATI Wonder (tm) brand video board can output a composite video in any of the video modes DANCAD3D uses. Most CGA compatible video boards can put out a composite video signal (through an RCA jack.) A composite video signal can be recorded on a VCR. Such a video board will let you video tape animations made with DANCAD3D or DANMOVIE. COMPUTER SYSTEM MEMORY You can check the amount of free system memory your computer system has with the DOS CHKDSK command. Do not confuse the amount of bytes free on your harddisk with the amount of DOS system memory free! The DOS command CHKDSK is external and comes on the floppy disks that accompany your Microsoft DOS software manual. EXAMPLE: C>C:\DOS\CHKDSK If you have a 1MB 80286 computer and it reads less then 655360 bytes total you should check the manual about how to install the computer for 640K of system memory. You will probably have to take the cover off and set the memory jumper to the 640K position, then run setup and tell it you have 640K of system memory and 0K of expanded memory (or the amount of expanded memory less that on the mother board.) Terminate and stay resident (TSR) computer programs use up some of your computers free memory. DOS also uses up some of the system memory. Since the amount of memory free determines how many line segments you can draw with in DANCAD3D's workspace you should not use any TSR programs that are not absolutely needed. NEVER use that little program that puts a clock in the corner of the computer screen while running DANCAD3D. PRINTING AND PLOTTING DRAWINGS DANCAD3D prints drawings on most standard printers currently manufactured. DANCAD3D prints on Dot matrix printers, LaserJet II compatible ink jet and laser printers, and also PostScript (tm) compatible laser printers and imagesetters such as the Linotronic 300. [DANCAD3D.DOC-10] [ H A R D W A R E R E Q U I R E M E N T S ] DANCAD3D can plot in any size and many colors on pen plotters. In order to use a printer you need to install the appropriate driver file with the main menu [C]hange command. Additionally you may need to change the port name that is in the installed driver to the port your device is connected to (the [I]nstall command for each type of driver is found in the DOT, JET, or PLOT sub-menu of the hardcopy sub-menu.) DOT MATRIX PRINTERS DANCAD3D will print at high quality on most currently manufactured dot matrix printers. DANCAD3D's print out on dot matrix printers is more that 30 times as sharp as a screen dump, and compares with the printout obtained from laser printers if you photocopy the printout at 50% reduction. DANCAD3D will work with 8 or 9 pin and many 24 pin printers that have a 240 dot per inch mode. It will work with line feeds of 1/216 or 1/180 inch and also with 1/144 or 1/72. Provision has been made to print on 120 dot per inch printers as well. A maximum of 1920 dot columns is supported (3840 maximum in the wide carriage mode.) The drivers for the major brands of printers are supplied on the program disks (*.PRN.) You can also install some non- standard types of printers with a built in utility ([H] [D] [I] from the main menu.) Some printers are very slow when printing at this high resolution. Also the speed of your computer can affect the speed of print out. A page that takes 2 hours to print on a 4.77 MHz 8088 computer and slow printer can print in about 15 minutes on a 25 MHz 80386 computer and fast printer (DANCAD3D can automatically print several drawings overnight by running a macro command file.) There are several dot matrix drivers supplied for use with this version of DANCAD3D. The printed manual has instructions on how to edit the drivers. Most dot matrix printers currently manufactured will work with these drivers: DRIVER FILENAME DOT MATRIX PRINTER TYPE PROPRINT.PRN 9 pin printers with 1/216" line feed (FX, LX, IBM.) LQ_1500.PRN 24 pin printers with 1/180" line feed (LQ, NEC-P6.) STARG15X.PRN Older star SG15X and SG10X with 1/144" line feed. MX_80.PRN Older Epson type, with only 120 dpi print mode (MX.) FX286E13.PRN Wide carriage with 1/216 inch line feed (FX, LX, IBM.) LQ_1500W.PRN Wide carriage with 1/180 inch line feed (LQ, NEC.) HP-PCL OR LASERJET II TYPE PRINTER DANCAD3D's JET sub-menu of the HARDCOPY menu from the main menu will let you print drawings on printers compatible with the LASERJET [DANCAD3D.DOC-11] [ H A R D W A R E R E Q U I R E M E N T S ] or LASERJET II at 150 dots per inch (d.p.i.), or 300 d.p.i. Multiple copies of each drawing can be produced rapidly once the data has been down loaded to the printer. The HP-PCL drivers are named *.JET. Note that the HP-PCL code printers require 1.5MB of printer memory to print full pages at 300 dpi. When you pick a LaserJet driver you should stick with it since the Jet page files only work with the driver used to make them. There are several HP-PCL drivers supplied for different resolutions and page sizes, the file names of the drivers follow this form: DRIVER FILENAME HP-PCL OR LASERJET TYPE OF PRINTER HPLJPLUS.JET 8 by 11 inch, at 150 dpi driver for LaserJet Plus. 150D8X11.JET 8 by 11", 150 dpi for LaserJet II compatibles. 300D8X11.JET 8 by 11", 300 dpi for LaserJet II compatibles. 300D8X14.JET 8 by 14", 300 dpi for LaserJet II compatibles. HPGL LASER OR PEN PLOTTERS DANCAD3D v2.5 supports most plotters. It can drive up to 127 plotter pens. You can drive any port or send the plotter data to a disk file for spooling later while you draw some more drawings. Most plotters use a ASCII text type of data format so the DOS spooler PRINT should work if your plotter will accept a form feed, i.e. ASCII 12. The plotter drivers are named *.PLT. There are many plotter drivers supplied, a few of the most commonly used are: DRIVER FILENAME PLOTTER TYPE OR FILETYPE HPGL.PLT Makes HP-GL type plotter codes. HI_80.PLT Makes Epson type plotter codes. DXF.PLT Makes DXF type drawing files. POSTSCRIPT PRINTERS If you have a laser printer that supports Adobe's PostScript (tm) Adobe Systems Inc. you can plot out on it with good quality. Your local desk top publishing center may have a Linotronic 300 typesetter by Linotype. You can install DANCAD3D's laser printer PostScript plotter driver to output to a file rather than a port and take that file on disk down to your local desk top publishing center to print it out. If their Linotronic 300 (tm) or LaserWriter Plus (tm) are on the COM1 port of their PC, all you have to do is put the disk with your PostScript plotted file on it into their A: drive and enter COPY A:*.OUT COM1 (where you entered PAGE1.OUT, or PAGE2.OUT, ... when you changed the plotter port name) at the DOS prompt and presto fabulous [DANCAD3D.DOC-12] [ H A R D W A R E R E Q U I R E M E N T S ] quality for pennies a page! Press [H] [P] [I] from DANCAD3D's main menu and change the port to a filename like A:PS.OUT of the PostScript laser printer driver ADOBE_PS.LZR so that all you have to do is put a BLANK formatted disk into drive A: and hit the spacebar to make your PostScript files when you have pressed [H] [L] from the main menu. The PostScript drivers are named *.LZR. DRIVER FILENAME TYPE OF POSTSCRIPT DEVICE TO USE DRIVER WITH ADOBE_PS.LZR Any standard PostScript printer or use to make file. LINOTYPE.LZR Drive the Linotronic 300 photo imagesetter. MOUSE OR TRACKBALL DANCAD3D v2.5 supports the MicroSoft (tm) MicroSoft Corp. compatible mice and the FastTRAP (tm) MicroSpeed Inc. 3D trackball. Be sure to run the driver that came with your device before running DANCAD3D. You may also need to run the DOS MODE command to setup the serial port for the mouse driver. Read the book that came with the mouse. You can move the drawing cursor, mark, draw lines, and redraw the screen by moving the device and pressing its buttons. Note that some older versions of the mouse drivers supplied with the mice have bugs that will crash your programs, therefore you should contact the company you bought the device from to obtain their latest driver software. If the program crashes when you enter the main menu, then try editing your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files to not install the mouse driver and see if you can draw that way. Let me know what type of mouse you are using and when you bought it if you are having a problem. The mouse controls the menu selection bar found in most of the menus in DANCAD3D. By pressing the left mouse button you can select the command the menu bar is over. Within the drawing editor you can move the drawing cursor, mark, draw lines, and select menu commands by moving the mouse device and pressing its buttons. As a general rule when using the mouse with DANCAD3D the left mouse button activates a command like the [Return] key and the right button erases the filename or number prompt like the [Escape] key. At prompts that ask you to answer [Y]es or [N]o the left mouse button answers [Y]es and the right mouse button answers [N]o. In the drawing editor ([D]raw from the main menu) the mouse is normally used to move the cross shaped drawing cursor, but can also be used to select the commands from the menus by pressing and releasing the mouse's center button. If your mouse only has two buttons you can press the [Spacebar] on the keyboard to toggle the mouse between moving the drawing cursor and moving the menu selection bar. When drawing the mouse's right button marks the starting point for a line segment, and the mouses left button draws the line segment from the marked point to the drawing cursors current position. In the text editor ([W]rite from the main menu) the mouse's center [DANCAD3D.DOC-13] [ H A R D W A R E R E Q U I R E M E N T S ] or left button makes a menu of commands pop-up on the screen. If you do not have a mouse press the [F1] key (or press the [Ctrl] and [^] keys at the same time) to pop-up the menu. Commands are selected from the pop-up menu with the left mouse button or [Return] key (or the command's first letter) as usual. HARDDISK SPEED Because DANCAD3D makes very heavy use of the harddisk I recommend that you use a HARDDISK OPTIMIZING PROGRAM, such as FastTrax (tm), to reshuffle the fragmented files so they are accessed faster. DANCAD3D runs faster in the root directory of your harddisk. Some harddisk optimizing programs let you locate a particular program close to the FAT. Doing this with DANCAD3D will also help speed it up. I optimize my harddisk four times a week. You should also use the DOS BACKUP command at least once a day to keep your data safe (use the add only files that have changed option.) You can also backup all the files from your harddisk and then reformat it and restore the files, this will speed up the file access until the files become fragmented again. Voice coil harddisks are faster and generally more dependable that stepper motor type harddisks. You should try to get a harddisk that has an access time of less than 28 ms. RAM DISKS If you are one of the fortunate people that have a 2MB or larger RAM disk above the DOS 640KB you can copy all the DANCAD3D files into the RAM disk to get the program to work much faster. Alternately or additionally putting the pixel frame files to be loaded with the [A]nimate command, of the [F]iles sub-menu of the main menu, into a RAM disk will make the pixel files load much smoother and faster. CONFIG.SYS: FILES AND BUFFERS In your DOS CONFIG.SYS file you should have two commands that tell DOS how much memory it can take for its own use. When running DANCAD3D these should be set to: FILES=20 (for nested macros), and BUFFERS=20 (to reduce drive head movement.) If you need more memory you can set fewer buffers, BUFFERS=2. Using fewer buffers will make more system memory available for DANCAD3D's use. [DANCAD3D.DOC-14] [ D I S T R I B U T I O N S C H E M E ] QUICK DISCUSSION OF IDEA DANCAD3D is a shareware program. You can give copies DANCAD3D to your friends, or co-workers. If you want to sell DANCAD3D's shareware disks you should write for permission (so I know what version you will be selling in case you have an out of date version, and for other legal reasons.) The Author of DANCAD3D has some things that can help you get the most out of your use of the program if you want to purchase the full and current DANCAD3D outfit. The non-shareware disks and other items in the registered user outfit are for the use of the registered user and may not be copied or sold. STEPS TO CARRY OUT IDEA 1. Evaluate the shareware disks. If you have a good set of current disks the program should work if you have the required hardware. 2. Share DANCAD3D with people you know that might have use for it. Try giving a copy to your local secondary school shop teacher, any engineering students you may know, and any PC users groups in your area. 3. If anyone has a problem running DANCAD3D have them contact me with a bug report. 4. If you think you would like to know more about DANCAD3D use the order form that can be selected from the opening screen pop-up menu. You can request a current price list from DANCAD3D by writing, but be sure that you send a stamped self addressed legal size envelope, or at least some stamps or postal vouchers to cover the return postage. DETAILED DISCUSSION OF IDEA DANCAD3D is distributed as a user supported program. That means that shareware dealers can write to me an ask permission to sell the five shareware disks with DANCAD3D.COM and it's overlays on them. Shareware dealers normally sell disks: at swap meets, at computer shows, and through the mail for $0.75 to $6.00 per disk. I do not get any part of the money the shareware dealers charge for DANCAD3D. You can also give (share) copies of the shareware disks to anyone you know that might be interested. Another term for shareware is User Supported Software. User Supported means that the people that buy and use the shareware disks of a program eventually send some money to the author in support of his efforts and to see that the program continues to improve. I have now been operating DANCAD3D as a company for four years. So far the contributions from users have not been sufficient to [DANCAD3D.DOC-15] [ D I S T R I B U T I O N S C H E M E ] balance the expenses associated with operations. In order to make DANCAD3D a solvent operation, the pricing on the version 2.5 user outfit has been set at a more realistic point than I have charged in the past. For the type of person that actually does register his use by purchasing outfit this price point has not presented any difficulty. From my experiences with users over the years, and the thousands of letters I have answered, the features of the user outfit have evolved. The v2.5 DANCAD3D user outfit contains the depth of explanation that users have asked for to make efficient use of DANCAD3D in their work. If you would like to have some questions answered before ordering the complete registered user outfit for DANCAD3D you can write to me. When you write I ask that you PLEASE send some first class postage stamps if you live in the U.S., or some first class postal vouchers if you live in a foreign land. The cost of postage in answering peoples questions is my biggest business expense. Because of the difficulty I am now having keeping up with answering all the letters I get each week is is easier for me to make collect phone calls if you have several questions. I can call you collect in the evening (or day) if you want me to, but be sure to tell me that you want me to call you collect and give me the phone number and times and days you want me to try to call you. This documentation file should get you started drawing with DANCAD3D. The automatic output macro feature accessed from the main menu (by pressing [O]) and the demo files on the shareware disks will allow you to test the macro command interpreter. The shareware distribution scheme is beneficial to the user since he can test the program on his hardware before spending the retail price for the outfit. If for some reason you cannot get DANCAD3D to work on your system please write and tell me as much as you can about your computer hardware, where you got the disks, and any error messages you saw. When possible include a print screen of the error messages you see (press [Shift] and [PrtSc] to print the screen on your printer.) Most problems users have come form not properly installing DANCAD3D on their harddisks or having defective copies of the program. I always enjoy seeing what users are doing with DANCAD3D. Please send examples of your drawings, files, or macros. If you would like to share you work with other users say so in your letter. Seeing what you are doing helps me to know what new commands are needed and how improve the explanations in the manuals. [DANCAD3D.DOC-16] [ D E S C R I P T I O N O F P R O G R A M ] QUICK DISCUSSION OF IDEA DANCAD3D is a program that lets you make high quality line drawings. DANCAD3D lets you make 2D line drawings like using a pencil and ruler, or you can make 3D wire frame drawings by drawing lines that go in any direction in the drawing workspace. DANCAD3D approximates circles and other curves by joining short line segments whose end points fall on the desired curve. DANCAD3D organizes the lines used to make up drawings into groups called elements. The drawing editor in DANCAD3D lets you add or delete any line or element at any time during the making of a drawing. Elements from one drawing can be saved to the harddisk and used individually or in groups in other drawings. DANCAD3D can run it self automatically from a type of scripting file called a macro command file. DANCAD3D can also create macro command files automatically by incorporating macro commands into an automatic output macro file that correspond to the menu commands you activate while using the program. Use of the automatic output macro feature gives you excellent protection against making mistakes while drawing since the mistake can be edited out of the output macro with the text editor and the drawing regenerated to the point before the mistake happened in the macro command processor. DANCAD3D has a built in facility for animating drawings so you can see the object rotate to get a better idea of the three-dimensional shape. By using DANCAD3D's macro language individual elements in the drawing can be rotated and moved to simulate the operation of a dynamic mechanical system. When used with DANCAM or DANPLOT, DANCAD3D can manufacture parts directly from drawings of cutting tool paths made with DANCAD3D. DANCAD3D, DANCAM and DANPLOT make up one of the least expensive, and yet very versatile, CAD, CAE, CAM systems available! STEPS TO CARRY OUT IDEA 1. Use INSTALL.BAT to install DANCAD3D on your harddisk. 2. Read this DANCAD3D.DOC file. 3. Run DANCAD3D and select the video board type. 4. Select [D]raw from the main menu to draw and edit drawings. 5. Select [W]rite from the main menu to write or edit macro programs. 6. Select [O]utput from the main menu to output macro programs. 7. Select [R]un from the main menu to run macro programs. [DANCAD3D.DOC-17] [ D E S C R I P T I O N O F P R O G R A M ] 8. Select [C]hange from the main menu to install device drivers. 9. Select [H]ardcopy from the main menu to print out drawings. 10. Select [F]iles from the main menu to load or save drawings. 11. Go on to use and learn about more of the program features. DETAILED DISCUSSION OF IDEA DANCAD3D is divided into four major sections. The four parts of DANCAD3D are accessed from its main menu by pressing the first letter of the command name or by clicking the left mouse button when the menu bar is over the desired command. The four main sections of DANCAD3D are described below with the principle sub-functions listed. LOCATION OF MAIN PROGRAM FEATURES 1. The manual entry menus accessed from the main menu. A. The Change command to set up DANCAD3D for use. B. The Files sub-menu to save and load drawings. C. The Preview command to adjust perspective values. D. The Hardcopy sub-menu to print out drawings. E. The Automatic Output macro feature (press [O] to activate.) 2. The drawing editor for drawing and editing line segments. A. The line drawing sub-menu to draw line segments. B. The lines sub-menu to edit drawn lines. C. The Elements sub-menu to edit elements made of lines. D. The Calligraphy sub-menu to add lettering and dimensions. E. The 3D shapes sub-menu to draw polygons and curves. F. The Measurement command to measure distance and angles. 3. The text editor for writing and editing macro files. A. The pop-up menu (click left mouse button or press [F1].) 4. The macro interpreter for running macro programs. A. The macro trace feature. DANCAD3D holds drawing line segments in a three-dimensional space called the "Workspace". The workspace can hold lines of dimensions up to +/- 1E18 units (one followed by eighteen zeros.) The smallest line segments supported are +/- 1E-18 units. DANCAD3D uses a scaling factor to adjust the size of the line segments you draw in order to make them fit on the printed page. You can change the scaling factor with the main menu Preview or Change commands to make drawings larger or smaller than life size. DANCAD3D's default scale of 240 draws one unit of distance in the drawing editor as one inch on the print out. Changing the scale to 120 would of course make one unit in the drawing editor equal one half inch on the print out. Any ratio of scales to [DANCAD3D.DOC-18] [ D E S C R I P T I O N O F P R O G R A M ] units can be worked out allowing DANCAD3D, DANCAM, and DANPLOT to work in metric or any other system of decimal units. HOW DANCAD3D IS USED Using DANCAD3D starts by drawing some elements with the drawing editor. You may want the automatic output macro turned on to let you edit the macro file script of what you were drawing. After you have built a set of elements you would write macro script files to manipulate the elements and make an animated movie of how the elements will interact in the device you are engineering. Once you have debugged the design of the device you are working on you would make up blue-prints of the various parts to be manufactured, or draw tool paths directly with DANCAD3D and save the tool paths in ASCII file type for use with DANCAM or DANPLOT. If you are using DANCAM or DANPLOT you would probably save the ASCII tool path file to a floppy disk and use the computer in your shop to run DANCAM or DANPLOT to read the ASCII tool path files and cut out the parts. After testing the parts in operation you might need to use DANCAD3D to edit the tool path ASCII files and manufacture a second prototype before making a production run or parts with DANCAM or DANPLOT (measuring and testing a prototype is the most practical and reliable method of compensating for tool post flexing and other sources of error in the finished part produced on any given machine in the machine's current state of precision (if the piece is a "one of" you can draw the tool path to make the part slightly over size and make the final cut by hand, or draw a separate tool path file for the final cut).) If you project concentrates on the production of drawings as the final product rather than parts, you would just use the drawing editor and the Hardcopy sub-menu from DANCAD3D's main menu. If your project involved only the production of an animated movie you would use the drawing editor and the text editor to make elements and write macros. The SIGNAL macro command can activate a cine film recorder automatically from within DANCAD3D automatically. EXAMPLE CALCULATION OF SCALE VALUES Note: In order to have the automatic dimensioning letter numbers correctly you may need to draw the drawing with a scale different than the scale that the drawing will be printed with. In effect you draw to have the numbers read to the units you want, and you print to give the numbers some absolute and real ratio to the absolute and real physical dimension of the units name. If you want one inch on the drawing to equal one foot in reality you are really asking that the drawing be printed at 1/12 real size, but you would probably want one inch to read 1.000 in the automatic dimensioning (even though the one inch dimensioned would only be 0.0833333 (1/12) inches long on the print out.) So when you make the drawing you draw so the numbers [DANCAD3D.DOC-19] [ D E S C R I P T I O N O F P R O G R A M ] on the top of the drawing screen look correct (in the units you wish to use) and then you figure the correct scale that will print the drawing the size you want it to be. At a scale of 1 DANCAD3D will print 1 / 240 inch per unit drawn. For 1 unit drawn to equal 1 inch on print out use scale of 240. That comes from: 240 * (1 / 240) = 240 / 240 = 1, or 1:1 ratio. 1 inch on printout to 1 foot actual distance = 12 to 1 ratio (1/12" on printout to 1 unit drawn) = 240 / 12 = scale of 20. 1 inch actual distance to 1 foot on printout = 1 to 12 ratio = 240 * 12 = scale of 2880 1 unit = 1 mm = 240 / 25.4 (mm per inch) = scale of 9.448818898 1 mm on print out to 1 m of actual distance = 1000 to 1 ratio = 9.448818898 / 1000 = scale of 0.009448818 1 mm of actual distance to 1 cm on print out = 1 to 10 ratio = 9.448818898 * 10 = scale of 94.8818898 As you see in the above examples DANCAD3D used 240 units to the inch as its reference value (although DANCAD3D used 240 units per inch internally as a reference value, the accuracy of DANCAD3D drawings can be millions of times more accurate than this reference value.) All scaling factors are then worked out in ratio to one drawing editor unit of cursor movement to 1/240 of an inch on the final print out. That is if you print the drawing with the scale set to one the drawing cursor would have had to move 240 units for the line to print one inch long. If you change the scale for printing to 240 then the drawing cursor would only have to move one unit to produce a line one inch on the print out. Any other system of measurement can be used if you find the correct ratio between 1/240 (0.0041666) of an inch and the absolute size of the units you want to use (from Angstroms to light years.) Always keep in mind when setting the scale that larger numbers make the drawing look larger, and smaller scales make the drawing look smaller. Inside the drawing editor you can freely adjust the scale value to zoom in or out without having any effect on the length of the lines that were drawn. The value of the scale entered with the main menu Change command is important since the scale value entered with the main menu Change command affects the thickness of line segments in the print out and WYSIWYG display of the drawing editor. [DANCAD3D.DOC-20] [ D E S C R I P T I O N O F P R O G R A M ] The use of the Magnify command alters the relationship between the units drawn and the printing scale. For instance if you magnify an element by 2 on all the axis you would need to divide the printing scale by 2 to have the element print at the same size (magnify and scale are reciprocal.) HOW DRAWINGS ARE STORED DANCAD3D holds drawings as a series of line segments. A maximum of 10920 line segments can be held in DANCAD3D's drawing workspace at one time. Drawings that require more than the maximum number of line segments are possible by superimposing several workspaces of line segments onto a single screen or print out. The amount of system memory free on your computer limits the maximum size of the drawing workspace. Line segments drawn into the workspace are assigned an element number that the line segments belong to (the line segments also have a number but for the most part only the element number matters.) It is possible to have all the line segments of a whole drawing in only one element, but it is much better to break up drawings into several elements so that individual elements can be rotated, moved around (offset or translated), and magnified (for fit.) Elements are begun with the drawing command [B]egin new (element.) HOW DRAWINGS ARE SAVED DANCAD3D offers to save the drawing elements currently in the drawing workspace when you quit to DOS (NEVER turn your computer off or [Ctrl] & [Alt] & [Del] until you have quit from DANCAD3D's main menu and returned to the DOS prompt.) If you let DANCAD3D save the elements in the workspace for you the elements will be reloaded the next time you run DANCAD3D. Having the program save the drawing you are working on is just fine until you have finished the drawing and want to work on another drawing. When you are finished working on a drawing you should press [F]iles [S]ave [E]lements from the main menu and save the drawing elements. Then select [I]nitialize from the main menu to clear the workspace so you can start a new drawing. Drawings can be saved as a single element rather than saving all the elements as individually. The 3D-Quick file format allows all the elements to be joined into one mass if you enter element number 0 as the element you wish to save (the element 0 trick also works on most of the other commands such as rotate and magnify if you want to act on all the elements in the workspace rather than just one.) See the section below about file types. HOW TO LOAD A DRAWING YOU SAVED [DANCAD3D.DOC-21] [ D E S C R I P T I O N O F P R O G R A M ] If you want to load a drawing you saved as in the above section, first save what is now in the workspace as in the above section. Once you have saved what is in the workspace (if it is anything that needs to be saved) you can select [I]nitialize from the main menu to clear the workspace. Next select [F]iles [L]oad [E]lements from the main menu and carry on as you wish with the loaded drawing's elements. HOW TO AVOID LOSS THROUGH MISTAKES In the drawing editor root menu there is a [B]ack-up command that will save all the elements in the workspace. You should [B]ack-up your drawing every 30 minutes, or before each command you are unsure of to protect what you have drawn so far. The automatic output macro also protects your drawing from mistakes by recording all the commands you enter through the menus. If you make a mistake simply edit the output macro in the text editor ([W]rite from the main menu) to remove the last line or lines of text at the bottom of the file. Always remember to save the edited output macro back to the disk before you exit the text editor. Initialize the workspace (or otherwise restore the workspace to the state it was in when the output macro was started) and run the output macro with the macro interpreter ([R]un from the main menu.) You can then continue to append new and hopefully correct commands to the output macro and finish your drawing as if the catastrophic mistake never happened! [DANCAD3D.DOC-22] [ D I S K F I L E T Y P E S ] QUICK DISCUSSION OF IDEA DANCAD3D uses several different types of data file for storing drawing information. In the course of using DANCAD3D you will probably need to use most of these filetypes to accomplish desired results. Be sure you know the filetype of each file you have saved to your harddisk so each file can be loaded properly later. STEPS TO CARRY OUT IDEA 1. Use the standard file extensions (i.e. .3DE, .3D, .2D, .ASC, .FON ,.MAC) whenever possible. When you need to use numbered file extensions in place of the standard file extensions store the numbered files in a descriptively named sub-directory e.g. 3DE\, 3D\, 2D\, ASCII\, FONTS\, MACROS\, and so on. 2. Use the Elements file-type to save drawings in progress. 3. Use the ASCII file-type to save drawings for use with DANCAD87, DANCAM, DANPLOT, and DC2AS. 4. Use the 3D-Quick file-type to save individual elements. 5. Use the 2D-Real file-type to save perspective projections of 3D elements in the workspace. Notice that 2D files are normally all normalized to print at a scale of 1, see the text below. 6. Use the Automatic Output Macro to act as a back-up and editable record of the commands used while drawing. 7. When loading fonts for lettering only use the *.FON extension, the corresponding .808, or .814 file will load automatically when needed. DETAILED DISCUSSION OF IDEA DANCAD3D has three main filetypes (the pixel filetype is really just a snapshot of the screen and not a drawing data filetype) that it stores drawings in: 3D-Quick, 2D-Real, and ASCII. The Elements filetype is really an automated way of saving a set of 3D-Quick elements that represent all the individual elements in the workspace. It is important that you not mistakenly try to load a file of one type into the program by asking the program to load a different file type. Sub-directorys are created by INSTALL.BAT for you to segregate the files of different types. The following is a detailed explanation of the filetypes and how they are best used. 3D-QUICK DRAWING FILETYPE [DANCAD3D.DOC-23] [ D I S K F I L E T Y P E S ] Whether you are drawing 2D or 3D drawings you should normally use the 3D-Quick file type for saving all elements and finished drawings. The 3D-Quick file format does not portray the objects you draw, (see 2D-Real below for a file type that does) but rather saves all the drawing line segments just as you drew them there absolute positions in the workspace. The 3D-Quick filetype is also the filetype that loads fastest. When 3D-Quick files are saved to the disk you should use (unless you need numbered file extensions (i.e. .1, .2) for a macro to read) the file extension *.3D to avoid accidentally forgetting what filetype the file is. ELEMENTS DRAWING FILETYPE Since complex drawings can contain hundreds for drawing elements saving each one manually would not be practical. The Elements filetype automates the saving of all the elements in the workspace. Additionally the Elements filetype preserves the rotational centers of the elements, and automatically restores the elements centers when the Elements set is reloaded into the workspace. When DANCAD3D saves sets of elements the last three characters of the filename are used for the digits of the elements number (therefore the filename can only be five characters rather than the normal eight.) The filename extension would normally be given *.3DE unless you wanted to create a set of numbered sets of elements (for complex animation purposes.) So if you have five elements in the workspace, and you save them as a set of elements under the name MYDR1.3DE these file names would appear in the disk directory: EXAMPLE: MYDR1001.3DE MYDR1002.3DE MYDR1003.3DE MYDR1004.3DE MYDR1005.3DE MYDR1SET.3DE The sixth file with SET in its name is a non-drawing data file that holds the center information for the set of elements. Individual drawing elements from an elements file set can be loaded into the drawing workspace by selecting the 3D-Quick file format and entering the full numbered element filename, i.e. to load the third element from the MYDR1.3DE element set you would ask for the file by its name MYDR1003.3DE. Each set of elements can hold as many elements as the drawing workspace can, i.e. 255. If you try to save a set of elements to a floppy disk you will notice that each element file takes at least 1024 bytes from the free disk space. The 1024 bite size of small files is a result of the way some versions of DOS store data on floppy disks and is not what DANCAD3D asks DOS to do. The importance of this short coming in DOS is that you will need to use an empty disk for each workspace if you use 360KB floppies and if you have hundreds of elements in the Elements file set (but since 360KB floppies only cost [DANCAD3D.DOC-24] [ D I S K F I L E T Y P E S ] $0.21 its not much of a burden.) It is possible to load a set of elements into the workspace when the workspace already has some elements in it. If the workspace has for instance 50 elements in it then when you load a set of 10 elements on top of the 50 currently in the workspace the first of the elements loaded from the set of ten would be element number 51 and so on. 2D-REAL DRAWING FILETYPE Oddly enough, the 2D-Real file type is not meant to be used for saving 2D drawings, but rather to make 2D perspective projections of 3D elements in the workspace. One set of Elements of any workspace will preserve the actual location of all of the lines in the drawing, but does not save any information of how the 3D shapes should be presented on the 2D screen or print out. The 2D-Real filetype does just the opposite, it only saves the way 3D objects LOOK on a 2D surface (like a shadow) and saves no direct information about the actual depth of objects. Only by making 2D projections of the 3D workspace can humans gain an understanding of the 3D shape of the elements (unless you use DANCAM to make a sculpture of the element.) When making 2D blue prints and other numerically scaled drawings you should save the elements with the 3D-Quick file type since the 3D- Quick file format is very accurate. The 2D-Real file format is intended to preserve perspective views of the elements in the workspace as they appear in the main menu preview screen. Frequently when working with three dimensional objects you will have the scale, used in the main menu preview, set to many different values. It would be hard to remember all those different scale values at some later time. To avoid remembering what perspective scale value looked good with a given set of elements the 2D-Real file type "Normalizes" all 2D-Real files to print out with the scale set to 1 (or some number close to 1 depending on the size of paper you wish to fill.) To avoid normalization you can set the preview scale to 1 when you save the 2D-Real file. When saving all the elements into 2D-Real files you would select element number 0 as the element to save and thereby have all the elements in the workspace visible in the perspective projection. As a normal practice in using DANCAD3D you would save all the elements as one set of Elements filetype, and also save many different perspective views of the elements in normalized 2D-Real filetype files. The normalized 2D-Real files would then be later viewed or printed with the scale set to 1. Saving finished drawings in the 2D- Real filetype takes less disk space than saving the finished drawing in the 3D-Quick filetype (you should always save a back-up macro or set of elements for any drawing you are working on in case you have to edit the drawing at a later date, because the 2D-Real filetype limits the amount of editing you can do since the third dimension is squashed and therefore unalterable.) [DANCAD3D.DOC-25] [ D I S K F I L E T Y P E S ] PIXEL DRAWING DISPLAY SCREEN FILETYPE Since the writing of the perspective views to the screen takes a few seconds a quicker way of displaying screens of perspective views is built into DANCAD3D. After you display a perspective projection of the elements in the workspace onto the computers screen, what is displayed on the computers graphics screen can be saved to a pixel file on your harddisk. By saving a series of screens to your harddisk as pixel type files you will be able to reload the series of pixel type files fast enough to simulate motion through the animation technique (animation technique means that series of slightly different still drawings shown in rapid session are perceived by humans to appear to move continuously rather than jump from one to the next, that is the mind of the viewer connects the series of drawings and believes them to be one changing drawing rather than hundreds of non- changing drawings as the drawings really are.) The [A]nimate command in the [F]iles sub-menu from the main menu will read pixel files in from your harddisk (or better yet from a RAM disk) and animate them for you. The program DANMOVIE v2.x will also animate pixel files for you, but works faster and smoother that loading the files from the harddisk. DANMOVIE v2.x comes with the registered user outfit. If you have 640KB of DOS system memory you can use on of the public domain RAM disk programs that turn part of your DOS memory into RAM disk to set up a 192KB RAM disk in your DOS memory. If you do not have any large TSR programs loaded DANCAD3D will run with the free system memory remaining. The 192KB RAM disk is large enough to store about eleven CGA mode pixel frame files. Eleven CGA pixel frame files should be enough to rock the display of the workspace a few degrees from right to left. When you use the Animate command you can press [B] to set the display to "Back-'n-Forth" mode. To make a set of perspective pixel files automatically, set the [F]actors in the main menu [P]review command, then select [A]nimate from inside the main menu [P]review command (if your RAM disk is drive D: you would start the filename for the pixel file set with D:\.) If you have a large enough RAM disk above your DOS system memory you can smoothly animate up to 999 frames with the [F]iles sub-menu [A]nimate command. Pixel frame files (unlike the drawing data files) are only able to be displayed if you have DANCAD3D set to the same video board type that DANCAD3D was set to when the pixel files were saved. Most people will not be changing video modes since there computer only supports one video board type. If you use several computers, or have a video board that changes graphics modes, you should use some method of marking your pixel files by video board type used make the files (perhaps use different sub-directories for each pixel file type, i.e. \CGAPIXB, \CGAPIXC, \EGAPIX, and \HGAPIX.) When you are using the macro DISPLAY command to draw line segments from the workspace to the video screen, you can initialize the workspace without erasing what is on the video screen there by [DANCAD3D.DOC-26] [ D I S K F I L E T Y P E S ] allowing you to reload the workspace with different line segments and use the macro DISPLAY command repeatedly to write more line segments to the video screen than the workspace can hold at one time (in other words there is no limit to the number of line segments a pixel file can hold.) ASCII 3D DRAWING DATA FILE TYPE DANCAD3D's 3D-Quick 3D drawing data file format is not accessible to users since it is in binary form. Because of the need to be able to interface DANCAD3D to other programs easily DANCAD3D can create ASCII data files of the drawing elements 3D line segment data. The ASCII data files take the form of a text document without page brakes. The ASCII drawing files can be loaded with the main menu [F]iles [L]oad [A]SCII command or run in the macro interpreter [R]un from DANCAD3D's main menu. If ASCII 3D data files are run in the interpreter the CENTER command will be used to set the elements center point. You can read, write, or edit DANCAD3D format ASCII 3D data files with the text editor. The text editor is command [W]rite from the main menu. You can also write programs in BASIC or other languages to create or translate DANCAD3D ASCII data files into filetypes required by other application programs. DANCAD3D's hardcopy commands can be used to print drawings make by programs you have written in some other language if you write your program produce a DANCAD3D type ASCII data file as an intermediate step. DANCAM and DANPLOT both read DANCAD3D ASCII data files. If you want to save a tool path drawn with DANCAD3D for use with DANCAM or DANPLOT you should use the ASCII 3D data filetype. The format of the ASCII data file looks like this: ENTER x1 y1 z1 x2 y2 z2 1 1 0 0 x3 y3 z3 x4 y4 z4 1 1 0 0 x5 y5 z5 x6 y6 z6 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 As you see the first line of text of the ASCII has the macro command ENTER on it. The following lines of text each have the end point data for individual line segments, grouped, first end point x, y, and z, second end point x, y, and z, then the four numbers at the end are the line segment's attributes. The default attributes would always be 1 1 0 0. The numbers must be separated by spaces (ASCII code number #32.) The last line of text in the data group is ten spaced zeros and marks the end of 3D data entry. Each line of text in the ASCII data file should end with an ASCII #13 (carriage return) and ASCII #10 (line feed.) Double spacing within the ASCII data file is not permitted, nor is additional text at the ends of the lines of text. The number of line segment data text lines between the ENTER and ten zeros allowable depends on the maximum number of drawing lines [DANCAD3D.DOC-27] [ D I S K F I L E T Y P E S ] DANCAD3D can hold (i.e. less than 10920.) DANCAM and DANPLOT can read ASCII data files of any length, you can combine ASCII data files made with DANCAD3D into larger ASCII data files for use with DANCAM and DANPLOT. OTHER FILETYPES DANCAD3D USES DANCAD3D has several filetypes that you see mentioned in the menu prompts. Some of the more important are described bellow. MACRO COMMAND FILES DANCAD3D's macro command files can be used as drawing storage files. It is not possible to save a finished drawing as a macro command file (unless you just use the ENTER command) but it is now possible in v2.5 of DANCAD3D to save all the commands necessary to construct any finished drawing WHILE the drawing is being created. The automatic [O]utput macro prompt from the main menu lets you turn on the output macro so that the output macro is built (appended to) as you make a drawing. One interesting application of the output macro file as a drawing file is the possibility of translating other drawing file data formats into DANCAD3D macro code and then running the translated macro in order to import drawings into DANCAD3D from other CAD systems. The output macros also let you correct the spelling of the text in lettering commands and make other changes in the drawing that are not as easy with the other ways to save the drawings. The reason that the macros are not the standard way to save drawings is that the macros take longer to "load" (run) than the other data file formats. The DANCAD3D manuals and disk set have extensive explanation of the macro commands and examples of how they can be used. Some important applications of macro programs would be: printing several drawings while you are away from your computer, simulation of the motion of several parts in a dynamic system, computer animation including the use of a stop motion cine film or video recorder, and the operation of changes on several drawing files in batch form. VECTOR FONT FILES DANCAD3D has built in facilities for the creation of fonts for lettering. The process involves drawing each character for the font and saving the character as an ASCII file. The commands in the [F]iles sub-menu from DANCAD3D's main menu can then transform the drawings of the characters into a *.FON file for use with DANCAD3D's lettering commands. Version 2.5 of DANCAD3D adds the ability to create *.808 and *.814 screen font files that match the vector font files so that the characters displayed on the screen will match the characters that will appear in the drawing (i.e. for foreign language fonts.) Complete instructions for creating font files come with the outfit, as do [DANCAD3D.DOC-28] [ D I S K F I L E T Y P E S ] example foreign language fonts for eastern and western Europe. ALIAS SYMBOL INDEX FILES To make loading frequently used element files (e.g. symbols of any type) DANCAD3D has the provision to allow for the constriction of an index file that lets an [Alt] and [SomeKey] combination to stand for the name of some drawing element file. For instance, while drawing you might press [Alt] and [F] to have a symbol file named SYM12345.ASC loaded, and them press [Alt] and [2] to have a symbol file named XYZ123.3D loaded where the cursor is. You of course decide what key will load what symbol when you make the alias index file. Up to 360 symbols can be referenced through the alias index files (alias refers to the fact that the [Alt] & [SomeKey] becomes the alias for the symbol files true name.) Complete instructions for making your own alias index files and many example symbol files come with the outfit. DANCAD3D STATUS FILES When you quit DANCAD3D the program automatically saves the responses you entered at many of the programs important prompts. Since this environment of most recent answers is usually associated with a current drawing you may want to save a status file along with the set of elements file for each drawing you make. The status file save and load are found in the main menu's [F]iles [L]oad and [S]ave sub-menus. DANCAD3D'S CONFIGURATION FILE DANCAD3D's configuration file is loaded automatically every time you run DANCAD3D. To alter the contents of DANCAD3D's configuration file you need to use the main menu [C]hange command. Things that are saved in the configuration file are those that if incorrectly entered would seriously disrupt DANCAD3D operation, such as: the mouse sensitivity, the printer and plotter driver names, the alias index file filenames, the default scale to be used to set the line with in printed drawings, and so on. If you get the configuration file messed up you should erase DANCAD3D from your harddisk and reinstall it from your original disks (of course you would back up any drawings you wanted to save.) If you do not understand the prompts in the [C]hange sub-menu leave the values at their default value. [DANCAD3D.DOC-29] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] QUICK DISCUSSION OF IDEA As you remember DANCAD3D has four major parts: the menus accessed from the main menu, the macro interpreter, the text editor, and the drawing editor. The drawing editor is the part of DANCAD3D that allows you to draw lines, curves, lettering, and other shapes in 2D or 3D within DANCAD3D's workspace space. DANCAD3D's workspace exists even when you are not in the drawing editor, so you can [Q]uit the drawing editor and return to the main menu (to activate other commands) without lousing the drawing you saw on the drawing editor's screen. STEPS TO CARRY OUT IDEA 1. To enter the drawing editor select [D]raw from the main menu. 2. To draw lines select [D]raw from the drawing editor root menu. 3. Use the [M]ove command to set the cursor movement interval. 4. Use the [S]cale and [*] commands to set the screen magnification. 5. Use the cursor keys or mouse to move to the first point of a line. 6. Press the [.] or [Del] key or [Right] mouse button to mark the start of the line segment. 7. Use the cursor keys or mouse to move to the second point of the line segment you want to draw. 8. Press the [0] or [Ins] key or the [Left] mouse button to draw the line segment into the workspace. 9. Repeat steps 3., 4., and 5. through 8. to make a drawing. You can change the scale of the drawing editor while drawing to zoom in and out to see what you are doing better. 10. Press [Escape] to return to the drawing editor root menu to access any other drawing editor commands you will need to use. 11. Press [Q] to quit the drawing editor and go out to the main menu. DETAILED DISCUSSION OF IDEA The drawing editor is not needed to create drawings with DANCAD3D, but it does make creating drawings much easier since you can see exactly what you are doing on the screen. Other ways to make drawings would be to use the macro commands, or to draw on graph paper enter the coordinates as a list of numbers. To get into the drawing editor select [D]raw from the main menu. [DANCAD3D.DOC-30] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] The primary function of the drawing editor is to place line segments into the workspace at precise locations. The drawing editor has many commands that make such tasks as automatic dimensioning and lettering much easier and quicker than manually drawing the required line segments. Curves and circles are created in DANCAD3D by using many short line segments (which looks satisfactory when used properly.) The drawing editor also lets you edit any drawing made with DANCAD3D after it has been finished. Editing drawings is made easier if when the drawing was being made thought was given as to how the drawing should be broken up into separate elements. The [B]egin and [J]oin commands in the [E]lements sub-menu control which lines belong to same or different elements. Some of the many commands available in the drawing editor are described below. DRAWING EDITOR VIEWS The DANCAD3D drawing editor screen lets you draw and edit lines and elements that are loaded into DANCAD3D's workspace. Since DANCAD3D is a 3D CAD program the drawing editor lets you view the drawing workspace from the Front, Side, and Top. Some variations on the Front view are also available such as Oblique, and Isometric views. Since it is possible to get confused while drawing in 3D I recommend that you ALWAYS look at the reading of the x, y, and z values for the drawing cursor at the top of the drawing editor screen while you are working. It is also wise to change from Front, to Oblique, to Side, to Top views to check that you have the drawing cursor at the actual point that you want it to be. If you are only drawing in 2D you should use the Front view and locate the cursor so :z always reads 0 (if you accidentally make a 2D drawing that has some lines out of the z = 0 plain simply use the Magnify command in the Elements sub-menu of the drawing editor and set the factors to x=1, y=1, z=0, and all points z values will be set to zero.) You can change the view displayed in the drawing editor by pressing [V] (for View) while drawing. DRAWING EDITOR ROOT MENU After you select the appropriate view that you will use while drawing the drawing editor root menu comes up. The command [D]raw in the drawing editor root menu is the main drawing sub-menu. The other sub-menus have descriptive names and can be seen on the screen. When the root menu of the drawing editor is displayed the menu selection bar is on. When the menu bar is on you can select from the menu on the right of the screen with the mouse or cursor keys (pressing the [Right] mouse button or the [Return] key will select the command under the menu bar. When you are in the sub-menus of the drawing editor the mouse and cursor keys can be used to control the drawing cursor or the menu selection bar. To toggle the control of the drawing cursor to or from the menu bar while in one of the drawing editor sub-menus (but not the root menu) press the [Center] mouse button or the keyboards [DANCAD3D.DOC-31] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] [SpaceBar]. The menu bar must be off in the drawing sub-menu in order to draw lines, so the menu bar automatically toggles off when you select the drawing sub-menu. DRAWING CURSOR A cursor is a point or symbol on the screen that tells you where the current active point is. For entry at the prompts you see a small underline or block (blinking in the text screens) under the space where the next letter you type will appear. In the drawing editor there is a different kind of cursor. The drawing editor cursor looks like a large plus (+) symbol. Extending from the plus shaped drawing cursor are some dotted lines that make aligning the drawing cursor to lines and elements already drawn easier. The center point on the drawing cursor is "clear" to allow you to see when the drawing cursor is over a drawn line or point. If you have difficulty locating the drawing cursor over a drawn line, increase the scale (zoom in) as described below and press [*] to redraw the screen. The drawing cursor can be positioned in three ways as described in detail below: 1. By rolling the mouse or trackball. If your mouse does not work be sure to check that the mouse driver is installed in your CONFIG.SYS and or AUTOEXEC.BAT file on your harddisk! 2. By pressing or holding down the cursor keys. Change the amount the cursor moves with each keypress with the [M]ove command in the drawing editor's [D]raw or [M]ove cursor sub-menus. The PD program HOTKEY on the DANCAD3D utility disk that comes with the outfit speeds up the keyboard repeat and makes the drawing cursor move faster. 3. By entering the coordinates that the cursor should have. Enter the new cursor coordinates with the [G]oto command in the drawing editor's [D]raw or [M]ove cursor sub-menus. DRAWING LINE SEGMENTS The basic drawing technique in using the drawing editor is the drawing of line segments. Select [D]raw from the drawing editor root menu to be able to draw line segments. There is a simple and direct procedure used to draw line segments: 1. Move the drawing cursor to the first end point of the line segment you wish to draw. 2. Press the [Right] mouse button or [.] or [Del] or [Delete] key on the Keyboard. 3. Move the drawing cursor to the second point of the line segment you wish to draw. [DANCAD3D.DOC-32] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] 4. Press the [Left] mouse button or the [0] or [Ins] or [Insert] key on the keyboard. It is possible to make perfectly useful drawings with DANCAD3D simply by repeating the steps 1. through 4. above over and over. When drawing line segments for a tool path that will be given to DANCAM you should keep the direction of the line in mind, i.e. from first point to second point, since the line direction will be the direction that the tool will move! Tool paths are normally drawn as a series of line segments that touch, but you do not need to draw the retrace (back wind) if you can accept that the tool will move from the last point drawn to the next point drawn even if the two points are not at the same location. DRAWING EDITOR SCALE The drawing cursor can be moved by rolling the mouse or trackball as well as by pressing the cursor or num-pad keys. Before you start drawing line segments you should check the values next to the :s and :m at the top of the drawing editor screen. The :s tells you the current drawing editor scale for the display and can be changed in three ways: 1. Press [S] to enter a display scale. 2. Press [+] to make the scale value larger. 3. Press [-] to make the scale value smaller. To make it easier to center the area to be zoomed in on a dotted outline border can be turned on by pressing the [1] or [End] key on the keyboard. The dotted border shows what will fill the drawing editor screen when you press the [*] or [*/PrtSc] key on the keyboard to re-draw the screen at the new scale. The dotted boarder will follow the drawing cursor around and can even move completely off the screen if you need to zoom in on some part of the drawing that is not currently displayed (assuming you know or have [R]ecorded the point you want to zoom in on.) DRAWING CURSOR MOVEMENT When drawing most drawings you do not draw line segments to points that have irrational decimals in the line segments end point values. Rather you usually draw with all the line segments ending on the even mile, inch, mm, 0.001 of an inch, or micron. The [M]ove command in the drawing editor drawing sub-menu lets you set the smallest amount you would want the drawing cursor to move when you roll the mouse or press the cursor keys. You can change the [M]ove at any time while drawing. To know what the current [M]ove value is just look at the value next to the :m at the top of the drawing editor screen. [DANCAD3D.DOC-33] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] If you are drawing without a mouse or trackball you can use the cursor or num-pad keys. The trick to using the cursor keys is to use [M]ove to be set to as large a value as you can to get to the points you want to get to. The cursor keys for drawing when viewing the front view are: [7] or [Home]......Move cursor away from you, -z axis. [8] or [Up]........Move cursor up the screen, -y axis. [4] or [Left]......Move cursor left on the screen, -x axis. [6] or [Right].....Move cursor right on the screen, +x axis. [2] or [Down]......Move cursor down on the screen, +y axis. [3] or [PgDn]......Move cursor toward you, +z axis. [Z]................Put the cursor at x=0, y=0, z=0 (Zero cursor.) [G]................Put the cursor at any point (Goto point.) [R]................Record cursor position. [J]................Jump to recorded cursor position. Another way to move the drawing cursor is to use the [G]oto option and simply enter the values you want for the cursor's location. When entering values into the [G]oto command (or any other value prompt) you can press [I] to invert (n=-n), or [R] for the reciprocal (n=1/n) of the value you see at the prompt. The inverse will move the cursor to the other side of the axis prompted for. Reciprocal would be used if you had used the Magnify command and needed to scale the cursor's location. There is a two part command that allows you to record and jump to points that you may need to put the drawing cursor at several times. By pressing [R] for record while drawing you can let one of the letter or number keys on the keyboard stand for that point in the workspace. You simply press [R] then [SomeKey] to assign the current drawing cursor location to [SomeKey]. Then whenever (in the drawing or cursor move sub-menus) you want to have the cursor return to that point you press [J] (for Jump) and then the same [SomeKey] that you pressed before. Actually all the ASCII codes (entered through the num-pad by holding the [Alt] key down) can be used to record points by so up to 255 cursor points can be recorded. To erase a recorded point simply use the key to record some other cursor position. ELASTIC LINE SEGMENT As an aid to visualizing where the next line segment drawn will be in the workspace an elastic (rubber band like) line segment follows the drawing cursor around the screen. When you click the [Right] mouse button, or press [.] or [Del] keys the elastic line will then stretch from the location of the cursor when you marked this new starting point by clicking the [Right] mouse button, or pressing [.] or [Del] key. You can toggle the elastic line on and off by pressing [E] (for Elastic) while drawing. BEGIN ELEMENT COMMAND [DANCAD3D.DOC-34] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] To make editing drawings easier you should group line segments that go together into elements. To begin a new element while you are drawing line segments (in the drawing sub-menu of the drawing editor) press the [B] (for Begin) key. The begin element command will ask you for the position of the center point you want the new element to have. If you do not plan on rotating the new element around some particular point leave the cursor where it is and press [Escape] to get out of the Move Cursor menu and back to the Draw Lines sub menu. The center point of any element can be changed at any time with the [S]et center command in the [E]lements sub-menu of the drawing editor. OTHER VALUES DISPLAYED ON DRAWING EDITOR SCREEN At the bottom of the drawing editor the numbers before the :l and :e tell you how many lines and elements have been placed into the workspace and correspond to the values displayed at the top of the main menu. The values before the :c and :w tell you the current values for the line color, and line width attributes. The drawing line attributes are set from the [L]ine style command in the [L]ines sub-menu of the drawing editor. The words "NEW macro", "Macro OFF", or "Append MAC" displayed in the lower right of the drawing editor screen tell you the status of the automatic output macro. You can change the status of the output macro by selecting [O]utput from the [F]iles sub-menu of the drawing editor. ABSOLUTE OR RELATIVE MEASUREMENT When moving the drawing cursor the display of the cursor's position can be toggled between reading the absolute position in the workspace, and reading the distance relative to the point marked by pressing the [Right] mouse button or the [.] or [Del] key. To toggle between the reading of absolute and relative distance measurement press [D] (for Delta) while in the Draw lines or Move cursor sub-menus of the drawing editor. If you are drawing many small objects distributed over a large area (such as in making maps of archaeological sites) use the [G]oto command to move the cursor to some reference point near where the small object is to be drawn, then use the relative distance measurement (i.e. :Dx :Dy :Dz) to locate the cursor accurately. MEASURING ANGLES AND DISTANCES The [M]easure command from the drawing editors root menu lets you measure angles and distances in three-dimensions. The distance measurements are given in three ways: the absolute position of the cursor relative to the center of the workspace, the distance from, the marked point that you are measuring to (you mark a point by pressing the [.], [Del], or [Delete] keys or the [Right] mouse button), from the cursor position, and the distance along the arbitrary through the [DANCAD3D.DOC-35] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] workspace from the marked point to the cursors position. The angle measurements are given in degrees around each of the three axis and are angles equivalent to the angles that would be required for use with the Rotate command if the marked point was the center to the element. Automatic dimensioning is available with the [D]imension command in the [C]alligraphy sub-menu of the drawing editor root menu. DRAWING CURVES To draw a curve that is like a curve made using a french curve or other template follow these steps: 1. In the [D]raw sub-menu of the drawing editor draw a series of line segments that roughly resemble the curve you are trying to get. Try making the rough curve from about 10 line segments whose end- points are exactly on the desired curve. Keep the line segments in the rough curve all about the same length for best results. Remember to use the [B]egin command to begin a new element just before you draw the rough curve. 2. Use the [F]it-curve command in the [3]D-shapes sub-menu of the drawing editor to make the rough curve into a smooth curve. To start with, try 2 iterations and damping factor of 0.2. Increasing the damping factor will make the curve turn more sharply around the points of the rough curve. Using more iterations will increase the number of line segments in the final curve. To conserve the capacity of the workspace you should use the smallest value of iterations that will give satisfactory smoothness to the final curve. DRAWING CIRCLES The [P]olygon command in the [3]D-shapes sub-menu of the drawing editor is used to produce circles. Basically the idea is to make polygons with enough sides that the eye cannot see that the sides are straight. The number of sides needed to make the polygon look like a circle increase as the radius of the polygon is increased. The following table will give you some starting values (DANCAD3D cannot pick these values for you since the program has no idea how large you will be printing the drawing and or how much you will be zooming in on a particular circle in an animation.) RADIUS ON PRINT-OUT SIDES TOTAL SIDES DRAWN MAXIMUM RADIUS UNITS 0 to 0.25 inch 18 1 to 18 0.25 at scale of 240 0.25 to 0.5 inch 36 1 to 36 0.5 at scale of 240 0.5 to 1.0 inch 72 1 to 71 1.0 at scale of 240 1 to 2 inches 144 1 to 144 2 at scale of 240 [DANCAD3D.DOC-36] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] 2 to 4 inches 288 1 to 288 4 at scale of 240 4 to 8 inches 576 1 to 576 8 at scale of 240 The exact number of sides total entered is not absolutely critical, and if you find smaller values acceptable by all means use smaller values. Note that the maximum radius for a given number of total sides depends of the scale used for printing (additional scaling factors can also affect the scale so keep the compound scale in mind), i.e. if 36 sides total is all right for a 0.5 unit circle at a scale of 240 then a 36 sides total polygon with a radius of 1.0 units would be all right at a scale of 120, and so on. MAKING PARTS OF CIRCLES You noticed that the [P]olygon command mentioned in the above section lets you enter the number of sides to draw as well as the number of sides total around the polygon. It is very simple make a half circle if you choose a number of sides total that has a factor of 2 in it (divisible by 2), and the number of sides to draw as half the number of sides total. Similarly any fraction of a circle can be drawn by making sure that the number of sides total contained the factors of the denominator of the required fraction. These examples should clarify the point: FOR FRACTIONS THAT GO INTO 360 DEGREES 1/2 circle = 180/360 degrees (/10) = 18 sides drawn / 36 sides total 1/3 circle = 120/360 degrees (/10) = 12 sides drawn / 36 sides total 1/4 circle = 90/360 degrees (/5) = 18 sides drawn / 72 sides total 1/5 circle = 72/360 degrees (/6) = 12 sides drawn / 60 sides total 1/6 circle = 60/360 degrees (/5) = 12 sides drawn / 72 sides total FOR OTHER TYPES OF FRACTIONS OF CIRCLES 1/7 circle = (n*1)/(n*7) = if n=10, 10 sides drawn / 70 sides total 7/11 circle = (n*7)/(n*11) = if n=2, 14 sides drawn / 22 sides total 26/29 circle = (n*26)/(n*29) = if n=1, 26 sides drawn / 29 sides total 52/58 circle = (52/n)/(58/n) = if n=2, 26 sides drawn / 29 sides total As you can see the factors you multiply or divide by depend on the [DANCAD3D.DOC-37] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] need to make the numerator larger or smaller. The sides total is then worked out according to the proper ratio to the sides drawn. You probably also noticed that the polygon command only accepts integers for the number of sides in a polygon, if you are working in radians rather than degrees you will need to convert the radians to degrees and factor the numerator and denominator (or just round off the values to the nearest degree in non-critical applications.) OTHER ROUND SHAPES Ovals can obviously be made by drawing two half circles and connecting the ends of the half circles with line segments. Ellipses and similar shapes can be made by using the [M]agnify and [R]otate commands in the [E]lements or [O]n-screen sub-menus of the drawing editor. By entering different values for the x, y, and z magnification factors you can stretch and or squash circles and other shapes. Macro programs can of course be used to create any curve, and especially curves that follow mathematical formulas. EDITING LINES If you draw a line segment in the wrong location while drawing you can press [U] for "Undo last line segment" to erase the last line segment drawn. If you need to change or erase a line segment that in embedded in an element you will need to use the commands in the [L]ines sub-menu from the root menu of the drawing editor. The [P]ull point command lets you adjust the end point where one or more line segment terminate. If you have difficulty getting the [D]elete command to delete a line segment, make sure that what you see as one line segment is really one line segment and not two or more line segments end to end (when drawing if you need to lengthen a line segment you should use the [P]ull-point command rather than drawing another line segment as an extension to the one already drawn.) The [P]ull-point can be used to move the end-points of any line segment that will not delete because the line segment is really more than one line segment. Also check that the drawing cursor is over the desired point by changing [V]iews from Front, to Side, to Top. EDITING ELEMENTS If you wish to [E]rase, [R]otate, or move around ([O]ffset, and [D]rag) whole elements (made from line segments) use the [E]lements sub-menu of the drawing editor root menu. The [O]n-screen sub-menu from the drawing editors root menu lets you: [R]otate, [M]agnify, and [D]rag around, elements (that have fewer than about 500 line segments) in such a way that you can see how the element will appear on the screen while you change the elements shape or position (rather than only entering a specific value and seeing the result of the change.) Since the [+] and [-] keys are used to rotate or magnify elements in the On-screen sub-menu commands the [<] and [>] keys control the zoom [DANCAD3D.DOC-38] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] scale. When working with elements you can pick the element to work with by touching the drawing cursor to one of the end points of a line segment in the desired element, or by entering the sequential number of the element. WYSIWYG AND SCREEN REDRAW SPEED If you use several thickened line segments in your drawing and you have the What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) turned on you will notice that the thickened line segments take somewhat longer to draw on the screen than the lines of thickness 1. The WYSIWYG display in DANCAD3D is very accurate when the global scale has been set properly with the main menu [C]hange command. But normally you do not need the WYSIWYG on all the time, so you can toggle the WYSIWYG on and off with the [W]YSIWYG command in the drawing editor [S]et-up sub-menu form the drawing editor root menu. In other words, turning the WYSIWYG off will speed up the screen redraw if you have thickened lines in your drawing. SCREEN UPDATE LIST AND SCREEN REDRAW SPEED Another way to speed up the redrawing of the screen is to have the elements that do not need to be displayed not be displayed. The Screen Update list that controls which elements are to be displayed on the screen is accessed withe the [U]pdate command in the drawing editors root menu. You can turn on or off the display of any elements you wish, the elements themselves remain in the workspace and are unaffected by being on or off. The screen update list can be used to figure out which elements on the screen go with the various element numbers on the list by turning all but one of the elements off (The [N]umber command in the [E]lements sub-menu can also be used to figure out what numbers go with what element on the screen.) The redrawing of the drawing editor screen can be interrupted by pressing [SpaceBar] while the screen is redrawing. DRAWING GRIDS TO AID IN SPACING DANCAD3D lets you have a layout grid appear superimposed on the drawing editor screen while you work on your drawings. The layout grid consists of a grid work of points (dots) that are spaced as the corners of squares. The spacing of the grid points, and the point from which the grid points measure from can both be set with the [G]rid command found in the drawing editors [S]et-up sub-menu. You should set the drawing editor scale to the amount you will be using and redraw the screen before you turn the layout grid on since the grid spacing limits the amount you can zoom out (reduce scale.) If you are drawing in inches (scale of 240) you might set the layout grid spacing to 0.25 and put the center of the layout grid at 0:x 0:y 0:z. Another grid is available for drawing individual characters that [DANCAD3D.DOC-39] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] will be made into a font file. The drawing editor scale would be set to about 7 to 14 when working on font characters since the width of the em unit (width of capital M in an ideal font) in DANCAD3D is 96 drawing units (the fonts are of course automatically scaled to any decimal values when drawn into the drawing with the lettering commands.) AIDS TO DRAWING OF SHAPES DANCAD3D has several commands that make the drawing of shapes easier than the manual insertion of line segments with the mouse or cursor keys. POLYGON The Polygon command was described above in regard to making circles. You should keep in mind that the Polygon command can also make triangles and squares by setting the sides total and drawn to 3 or 4. RECTANGLE When drawing it is common to draw rectangular boxes around parts of drawings, as well as outlining the whole drawing. The [R]ectangle command in the drawing editors [2]D-Shapes sub-menu lets you mark one corner point of the rectangle you want and then move the opposite corner of the rectangle with the mouse or cursor keys while you see the rectangle change shape on the computer screen. The ability to have an "elastic" rectangle is called "rubber banding" in CAD lingo, because the appearance on the screen is like a rubber band being stretched between four movable pins. CUBE The three-dimensional equivalent of the Rectangle command is the [C]ube command found in the [3]D-shapes sub-menu. When using the cube command remember to position the first corner of the cube in all three dimensions, and then move cursor in all three dimensions to position the second corner. For example, set the drawing editor view to front and set the first corner point, move the cursor in the x and y axis for the opposite corner, then change the view to side, or oblique to move the cursor in the z axis (so you can see the movement of the cursor and cube outline.) LETTERING Lettering is one of the areas in drawing that most needs automation. The [L]ettering command in the [C]alligraphy sub-menu of the drawing editor will translate words and numbers you type in from [DANCAD3D.DOC-40] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] your keyboard into line segments and elements in the drawing you have in the workspace. DANCAD3D's lettering command gives you extremely precise control over the size of the individual characters and the spacing and size of whole words. DANCAD3D has several font files (including fonts with special international characters) available on the disks that come on the set of disks that are part of the registered user outfit (the font file filenames all end with *.FON.) You can also create fonts to meet any special needs you may have. DANCAD3D's lettering has all of the popular letter spacing options, i.e. Monospaced, Justified, Proportional, and Kerning. DANCAD3D's lettering command supports international character sets and displays corresponding characters on screen as you enter the text if the special screen fonts files are installed properly on your harddisk. When used with DANPLOT, DANCAD3D's font files and lettering commands allow you to engrave letters, symbols, numbers, and other lines such as scale rulings on parts and manufactured goods. AUTOMATIC DIMENSIONING In mechanical drawing you will frequently need to have dimensions lettered and marked out with arrows. The [D]imension command in the [C]alligraphy sub-menu will automatically measure and letter dimensions for you. Dimensions not parallel to the major axis can be drawn by rotating the whole drawing by the required amount before the dimensions are drawn. Specify element number 0 (all elements) with the [R]otate command in the [E]lements sub-menu and use the workspace Zero as the center of rotation (you of course rotate the element with the off-axis dimensions back to its original orientation by using the inverse angle of rotation value.) It is standard practice in mechanical drawing to have all dimensions parallel to the major axis since three axis machine tools only move the work-piece along lines parallel to the major axis. BLOCKS OF TEXT ASCII text files of a half page or so can be automatically made into lettering with the [B]lock command in the [C]alligraphy sub-menu of the drawing editor. How much text can be brought in depends on the font used and how many line segments are free in the workspace. A special [E]ditor is provided that will let you edit the block of text ASCII files and see fonts on screen that correspond to the DANCAD3D calligraphy fonts. Foreign language symbols can be displayed on the editor screen and the lettering and dimension text entry prompts. Complete details of the operation of the special fonts is explained in the registered user outfit. By using the macro language and the page files it is possible to type-set whole pages of text and drawings that can be printed out on dot matrix or LaserJet type printers (but since each page is laid out as a drawing I would not recommend using [DANCAD3D.DOC-41] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] DANCAD3D to type-set documents longer than several pages.) You can freely mix text with drawings on a single page and control the placement of the text and drawings to extremely precise positions (if you use a LINOTRONIC 300 for the final print out the layout can be accurate to better that 0.001 inch.) DRAWING AIDS THAT WORK FROM DRAWN ELEMENTS DANCAD3D has three commands in the drawing editor that use simply drawn elements and make more complex elements. The three commands that make elements more complex are: [F]it-curve, [T]hicken, and [L]athe and are located in the [3]D-shapes sub-menu. THE FIT-CURVE COMMAND The [F]it-curve command lets you make smooth curves from roughly drawn "curves" made from line segments of drawable length. The [F]it- curve command will work in all three dimensions, so curves in the form helix type shapes can be made if you have such a need (a helix tool path would be required to mill threads with DANCAM.) [F]it-curve is useful for smoothing lines in graphs and other 2D drawings. To use the Fit-curve command follow these steps: 1. Enter the [D]raw sub-menu of the drawing editor. 2. Press [B] to Begin a new element if any elements are in the workspace. Do not begin a new element if the workspace is empty since element 1 is begun automatically when you start drawing line segments. 3. Draw a series of (abutting) line segments whose end points fall on the curve you want to have. The last point of each line segment (except the last line segment) should fall on the same point as the first point of the next line segment (except for the first line segment.) For best results use 8 or more line segments for every 360 degrees of turn in the curve you want. If the curve is less than 360 degrees and does not turn back on it self the rough curve should have about 10 line segments. Air foils and ship hulls, and other symmetrical curves that have a pointed corner should be drawn in halves with the sharp corner at the end of the curve (or use the [C]opy and [F]lip commands in the [E]lements sub-menu to make the full symmetrical pattern.) Try to make all the line segments in the rough curve about the same length (to avoid over shoot problems where long line segments are followed by short line segments.) 4. Press [Escape] to exit the Draw sub-menu. 5. Enter the [3]D-shapes sub-menu. 6. Press [F] to select [F]it-curve. Answer the prompts. The number [DANCAD3D.DOC-42] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] of iterations controls the number of line segments in the curve element created. The number of line segments in the fit-curve doubles with each iteration. The damping factor controls how "roundly" the new curve element will go through the end points of the rough curve you drew. To begin with try 2 iterations, and a damping factor of 0.2. The curve element made by the fit curve command can it self be fit again if needed. You want to use the smallest number of iterations that will give an acceptably smooth result. 7. You can erase the rough curve, or leave the rough curve in the workspace in case you want to try fitting the curve again with other values for the iterations and damping entered. The rough curve can always be erased later by using the [E]race command in the [E]lements sub-menu. You should note that when an element is erased all the elements with numbers above the element that is erased will have their element number decreased by one, i.e. if you have three elements in the workspace and you erase element 2, element 3 will have its number changed to element 2. If the rough curve is drawn is the element with the highest number, the fit curve element will have the same number as the rough curve element after the rough curve element is erased. THE THICKEN COMMAND When representing 3D outlines of objects a frequent form is to have two identical parallel faces with lines connecting to end points of the line segments in each face. Since one face of the final form and the thickness (or distance between the parallel faces) is all the information needed to construct such forms an automatic command to thicken a drawing of one face would be a possible convenience. The [T]hicken command in the [3]D-shapes sub-menu of DANCAD3D's drawing editor will automatically thicken the outline or plan of a face of the element you want. Thickening takes place along one of the major axis. The [M]agnify command in the [E]lements or [O]n-screen sub-menus will let you change the thickness axis after the element is thickened. Examples of shapes that can be made with thicken are: stamped parts like gears and plates with holes, extrusions, and rows of studs or columns. The steps involved in the use of thicken are: 1. Enter the [D]raw sub-menu of the drawing editor. 2. Press [B] to Begin a new element if any elements are in the workspace. Do not begin a new element if the workspace is empty since element 1 is begun automatically when you start drawing line segments. Thicken works best if there are no other elements in the workspace, or the element to thicken is the element with the highest element number. 3. Draw an outline or plan view of one face of the 3D element you wish to make. The [P]olygon command in the [3]D-shapes sub-menu can be used to make circles that thicken will make into cylinders [DANCAD3D.DOC-43] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] to represent posts or holes. If you use commands such as [P]olygon that make new elements you will need to use the [J]oin command in the [E]lements sub-menu to join the polygon elements to the other line segments in the outline you are drawing (so all the line segments to thicken are in one single element.) When drawing an element to be thickened you would ordinarily make the plane of the element parallel to the major axis, i.e. if you are drawing from the front view and the cursor reads -3:z when you draw the first line segment all the other line segments would be drawn without changing the z axis value of the drawing cursor. It is possible to incline the plane of the outline element to be thickened to have the edge of the produced thick element beveled (slanted.) 4. Press [Escape] to exit the Draw sub-menu (or just go to the root menu of the drawing editor). 5. Enter the [3]D-shapes sub-menu. 6. Press [T] to select the [T]hicken command. Answer the prompts. 7. Rotate the thickened element into its proper position with the [R]otate command in the [E]lements or [O]n-screen sub-menus is needed. When you rotate elements always keep in mind where the center of the element is, and use the [S]et-center command when needed to be sure. The thicken command takes a few moments to act. Generally the thicken command is used very infrequently while drawing (and so its contribution to the total time spent on the drawing is insignificant), and is more often used in macros (macros are normally run while you are away from the computer so the time it takes a macro to run does not matter either.) Although the thicken command takes a few moments to act it actually saves a great deal of time when you need to make shapes with connected parallel faces. THE LATHE COMMAND Another area where automation in the drawing of 3D elements is in the production of round shapes like those that are turned on a lathe or potters wheel. The unique aspect of shapes produced on a lathe is the cross section of the shape. Additionally the shape produced by a lathe has symmetry around the axis of the work pieces rotation. Because of the symmetry of the profile of shapes made on a lathe only half of the profile is needed (being bisected by the axis of rotation.) In DANCAD3D you can draw a half profile of a shape that is to look like it was made on a lathe (turned) and have the [L]athe command in the [3]D-shapes sub-menu of the drawing editor. The lathe command works best when the element to be lathed is the only element in the workspace. 1. Enter the [D]raw sub-menu of the drawing editor. [DANCAD3D.DOC-44] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] 2. Press [B] to Begin a new element if any elements are in the workspace. Do not begin a new element if the workspace is empty since element 1 is begun automatically when you start drawing line segments. Lathe works best if there are no other elements in the workspace, or the element to Lathe is the element with the highest element number. The [B]ackup and [R]estore elements commands in the [F]iles sub-menu can be used (along with [I]nitialize in the root menu) to temporally empty the workspace. 3. Draw a half profile of the 3D element you wish to make such that the half outline lies in the 0:z plane and is right of 0:x on the screen. The [P]olygon command in the [3]D-shapes sub-menu can be used to make circles that will become ring shapes when lathed. Drawing a square or rectangle right of 0:x will make a washer shaped element when lathed. When using the lathe command you should try to keep the number of line segments in the element you want to lathe to the smallest number that will represent the desired shape. In general the element to be lathed should have less than 100 line segments, with 10 being a more desirable number. If you want to make a sphere you can put a half polygon with about 20 sides total, 10 sides drawn so that the open part of the half circle is at 0:x. The [J]oin command in the [E]lements command can be used if needed to combine elements into a half profile to be lathed (lathe acts on one element at a time, so you will need to [J]oin all the elements you want to be part of the profile element that you are going to [L]athe.) 4. Press [Escape] to exit the Draw sub-menu (or just go to the root menu of the drawing editor). 5. Enter the [3]D-shapes sub-menu. 6. Press [L] to select the [L]athe command. Answer the prompts. The Sides total, and Sides drawn work just as in the [P]olygon command. If you want to make a half or quarter round then you would enter values like: 20 sides total 10 drawn, or 40 sides total 10 drawn. 7. Rotate the lathed element into its proper orientation with the [R]otate command in the [E]lements or [O]n-screen sub-menus is needed. Position the element with the [O]ffset command in the [E]lements sub-menu or the [D]rag command in the [O]n-screen sub- menu (the drag command may be to slow because of the large number of line segments in the lathed element, the [O]ffset command requires that you work "blind" but is much faster.) When you rotate elements always keep in mind where the center of the element is, and use the [S]et-center command when needed to be sure. The lathe command takes a few moments to act. Generally the lathe command is used very infrequently while drawing (and so its contribution to the total time spent on the drawing is insignificant), [DANCAD3D.DOC-45] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] and is more often used in macros. Although the lathe command takes a few minutes to act it actually saves a great deal of time when you need to make shapes with many "ribs" and "hoops" rotated around some axis. When using the lathe command you should always keep the number of line segments in the profile element and the sides drawn to the smallest values that will give an acceptable representation of the 3D shape you need to draw. THE WINDOW COMMAND The [W]indow command in the [3]D-shapes sub-menu lets you select a rectangular prism shaped portion of a drawing and make a new element that contains only the line segments or parts of line segments that fall with in the indicated prism (box shaped volume.) When working with 2D drawings [W]indow can be used to enlarge a detail of the drawing for emphasis, or to cut out parts of the drawing that you want to use as elements you can add to other drawings. Since [W]indow creates a new element the workspace will need to have sufficient line segments free to allow for the number of line segments to be created for the new windowed element. The [W]indow command has an option that lets you have a border automatically drawn around the windowed element so as to make the windowed section look like an outlined cut out. The window command is useful to clip (limit) tool path elements that will be used with DANCAM so that the tool will not move out of the useful range of tool positions (and possibly damage the work-piece or tool.) 1. Load the elements or drawing that you want to window. 2. Select [W]indow from the [3]D-shapes sub-menu of the drawing editor. 3. Move the cursor to the first point that will define the volume to the extracted. If you are extracting line segments from a 2D drawing the cursor can be in the z=0 plane for both corners of the volume, i.e. just like using the [R]ectangle command in the [2]D- shapes sub-menu. 4. Move the cursor to the other corner of the rectangular prism volume that contains the line segments you want to extract (duplicate.) If you are making a 3D window try changing from the front view to the side view, or use the oblique view, so you can see that the cursor is positioned properly in all three dimensions. 5. Answer the prompt that asks if you want to make a border around the new element. 6. The new element will be in the same position as the line segments you took it from, so you will need to move the new windowed element with the [O]ffset or [D]rag commands (in the [E]lements sub-menu) before you can see it. You can also [E]rase the element that the windowed element was taken from to make the windowed [DANCAD3D.DOC-46] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] element visable. 7. Use the commands [M]agnify and [R]otate in the [E]lements or [O]n- screen sub-menus to alter the windowed element. 8. Use the [S]ave command in the [F]iles sub-menu to save the windowed element if the windowed element will be needed for other drawings (Use the [3]D filetype for drawings, and [A]SCII for tool paths that will feed DANCAM.) It is possible to split a drawing in half in order to spread the drawing so as to put more lines between the halves. To split a drawing with the [W]indow command try these steps: 1. Load the drawing to split into the workspace. 2. Window one half of the drawing. You would probably not want a border added. 3. Save the new windowed element (the number of latest element in the workspace is indicated at the bottom of the drawing editor screen next to the :e.) Be sure to press [Z] to zero the cursor before saving the element (to make loading the element less confusing later.) 4. Erase the new windowed element. 5. Window the other half of the drawing. The second rectangular window should have one side or plane in common with the rectangular window used to make the first rectangular window. 6. Erase the drawing that was loaded (element 1 if the drawing was one element.) 7. Load the element of the first half of the drawing that was saved in 3. above. 8. Use the [O]ffset or [D]rag commands in the [E]lements sub-menu as needed to spread the halves of the drawings apart. If you need to have one of the sides of the rectangular windowing volume an some angle to the major axis you can rotate the element or drawing the windowed element is to be extracted to the desired angle (with the [R]otate command in the [E]lements sub-menu) before the windowing is done. After the new windowed element has been created the new element and the source element or drawing can be rotated back to their original orientations (when you use the [R]otate command for rotating drawings pick the [Z]ero option for the element center to use and pick element number 0 so all the elements will rotate together around the workspace center.) THE HOLE COMMAND [DANCAD3D.DOC-47] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] The [H]ole command in the [2]D-shapes sub-menu lets you select a rectangular shaped portion of a 2D element or drawing and make a new element than contains only the line segments or the parts of line segments that fall outside the indicated rectangle. The [H]ole command does the opposite of the [W]indow command. If you need to make a hole in a 3D perspective, save the elements to a disk file in the 2D file format (with the perspective scale set to 1) and reload the "flattened" element to make a hole in the "flattened" projection of the element(s). Since [H]ole creates a new element, the workspace will need to have sufficient line segments free to allow for the number of line segments to be created for the new holed element. The [H]ole command has an option that lets you have a border automatically drawn around the holed element so as to make the holed section look like an outlined cut out. The hole command is useful to make open areas in drawings so that you can get the effect of having pasted a small drawing or block of text over a larger drawing. 1. Load the 2D elements or 2D drawing that you want to make a hole in. 2. Select [H]ole from the [2]D-shapes sub-menu of the drawing editor. 3. Move the cursor to the first point that will define the rectangle to the extracted. The cursor should be in the z=0 plane for both corners of the rectangular hole, i.e. just like using the [R]ectangle command in the [2]D-shapes sub-menu. 4. Move the cursor to the other corner of the rectangular area that contains the line segments you want to remove. 5. Answer the prompt that asks if you want to make a border around the new element. 6. The new element will be in the same position as the line segments you took it from, so you will need to move the new holed element with the [O]ffset or [D]rag commands (in the [E]lements sub-menu) before you can see it. You can also [E]rase the element that the holed element was taken from to make the rectangular hole element visable. 7. Use the commands [M]agnify and [R]otate in the [E]lements or [O]n- screen sub-menus to alter the holed element. 8. Use the [S]ave command in the [F]iles sub-menu to save the holed element if the holed element will be needed for other drawings (Use the [3]D filetype for drawings (even though the element is 2D, you should save elements in the 3D file type, the 2D filetype is mostly for use in making perspective projections of 3D elements), and use [A]SCII filetype for tool paths that will feed DANCAM or DANPLOT.) [DANCAD3D.DOC-48] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] COMMANDS THAT CHANGE LINE SEGMENTS The [L]ines sub-menu from the drawing editors root menu has several commands that let you control the attributes of line segments in drawings. Additionally the [L]ines sub-menu lets you to delete or alter any line segment in a drawing. LINE STYLE AND ATTRIBUTES The [L]ine style command in the [L]ines sub-menu has options to do these tasks: 1. Set the line attributes that the next lines drawn in the drawing sub-menu of the drawing editor will have. Possible line attributes are: color, width, end shape, and styles like doted and dashed. On mechanical pen plotters line widths should be selected with the line/pen color number rather than the line width value since the pens of different line widths in the plotters pen changer are selected by color number regardless of the pens line width (you will have to make a table you can refer to that will equate the pen you want used to the DANCAD3D line color drawn.) The current line color and width numbers are shown next to the :c and :w at the bottom of the drawing editor screen and indicate the line color and line width attribute that lines will have when you draw line segments in the drawing sub-menu of the drawing editor. The value of the (global or world) scale entered with the main menu [C]hange command needs to be set to the value that will be used when the drawing will be printed out for the WYSIWYG of thickened or dotted/dashed lines to appear correct in the drawing editor. 2. Change the line attributes of any line segment in the workspace. 3. Change the line attributes of all the line segments with in any single element. 4. Change the line attributes of all the line segments in a drawing by selecting element number 0 as the element to change. Pressing [L] from the [D]raw sub-menu of the drawing editor will also bring up this [L]ine style menu even though [L] is not given in the [D]raw sub-menu. Having the access to the [L]ine style menu duplicated in the [D]raw sub-menu makes changing the line color easier. INSERTING LINE SEGMENTS INTO ELEMENTS The [I]nsert command in the [L]ines sub-menu lets you insert a line segment into an element that is NOT the element with the highest number (normally line segments are appended to the element with the highest number unless you use the [B]egin new element command.) If you [DANCAD3D.DOC-49] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] are going to insert many line segments into an element you would do better to use [C]opy and [E]rase from the [E]lements sub-menu to copy the element you want to add line segments to so the copy is now the element with the highest number and erase the original element. In the [D]raw sub-menu line segments are appended to the element with the highest number unless you use the [B]egin command to start a new element (you should be careful that you use the [B]egin command after the commands that create elements before you start drawing line segments or you will not be able to erase the line segments drawn after the element without also erasing the element it self as well (DANCAD3D normally appends line segments to the highest numbered element to allow additions to elements you are working on when you quit the program and rerun it or initialize the workspace and load another drawing).) DELETING LINE SEGMENTS FROM DRAWINGS The [D]elete command in the [L]ines sub-menu of the drawing editor lets you delete any line segment in a drawing or element. Be sure that the line segment you wish to delete is actually only one line segment and not two line segments end to end! If you have two line segments end to end use the [P]ull-point command to move one of the end points so you can see where the other end point(s) of the line segment(s) you wish to delete are. Also use the [V]iew option to check the cursor alignment from the [F]ront, [S]ide, and [T]op views to make sure the line segment and cursor are aligned. Use the [+] key and [*] key to zoom in and check cursor alignment with the line segments end points. PULLING THE END POINTS OF LINE SEGMENTS The [P]ull-point command in the [L]ines sub-menu of the drawing editor lets you change the end point of any line segment in the workspace. Options in the [P]ull-point command let you pull one, two, or all the line segments that meet at a given point in the workspace. If the [P]ull-point command is used twice both ends of the line segment can be moved. If you have several line segments meeting at one point and want to move one of the line segments you can use the option of the [P]ull- point command that will pull the first matching line segment found. Since the first matching line segment found may not be the one you want to move you may need to use the [P]ull-point command several times to spread out the end points of the line segments that meet at the end point of the line segment you want to move. Once you have the end points spread out so the end points are no longer meeting at a common point you can use the [P]ull-point command to place the end points of the line segments you spread out where you want them to be. The [R]apid-pull command is a variation of the [P]ull-point command that lets you pull several points without having to reenter the command from the [L]ines sub-menu each time. The [R]apid-pull command [DANCAD3D.DOC-50] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] is useful in adjusting tool-path drawings for use with DANPLOT and DANCAM. An alternative to using the [P]ull-point command is to [D]elete the line segment you want to change and [I]nsert a new one. Be aware that if you [D]elete and [I]nsert a line segment the order of the line segments in the element will no longer be the same. Where the preservation of line segment order is important, such as in a tool path, the [R]apid-pull command should be used exclusively. LINE SEGMENT NUMBERS The [N]umber and [F]ind commands in the [L]ines sub-menu of the drawing editor let you find the absolute sequential number of any line segment in the workspace. With the [N]umber command the same precautions apply as to the [D]elete command, that you are really marking the end points on ONE line segment and not two or more end to end. The number of a line segment is not used very much, but can be useful to know if you use the commands in the [N]umerical sub-menu of the main menu. Also knowing the number of a line segment can help you edit ASCII data files in the text editor since the reading of the text cursor line at the top of the text editor screen will be one higher than the sequential number of the line segment number (the first line of the ASCII data file is ENTER so line segment #1 will be on text line #2 of the ASCII data file.) COMMANDS THAT CHANGE ELEMENTS Previously discussed were some commands that transform elements into new elements. More often you will just want to move elements around or make them larger and smaller. There are two menus that let you change elements (in most cases you can affect whole drawings by selecting element number 0 as the element to act on and the workspace Zero point as the rotational center to use.) THE ELEMENTS SUB_MENU The commands in the elements sub-menu let you [R]otate, [M]agnify, [F]lip, and [E]rase elements by touching the drawing cursor to one of the end points of a line segment (the cursor does not really need to touch the end point if you set the tolerance to a larger value, but generally you want to keep the tolerance small so you will not accidentally "find" the wrong element), or by entering the element number of the element you need to affect (the [N]umber command in the [E]lements sub-menu will find the number of any element in the workspace if you forget what an element's number is, also the [U]pdate-list command from the drawing editors root menu will help you figure out what elements go with what numbers (by turning off all but one at a time).) [DANCAD3D.DOC-51] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] If negative values are entered into the [M]agnify command the axis with the negative value will be inverted (flipped.) Be very careful that you do not enter a value of 0 to the magnify command. Magnifying by 0 will irreversibly squash your drawing into nothing (Magnifying the Z axis by 0 is a useful technique to make a 3D element into a 2D element.) Any axis you do not want to change when you use the Magnify command should be magnified by 1. You can distort elements by magnifying the three axis with different values. If you are making a movie to be projected through an 2X animorphic lens you can save the perspective projection as a 2D file, initialize and reload, then magnify the 2D perspective element with x=0.5, y=1.0, and z=0 (animorphic lenses are used to show wide screen movies.) Notice that magnifying by a number larger than 1 makes the element larger, and magnifying by values less than 1 make the element smaller (to reverse magnification re-magnify the element using the inverse of the values used the first time, i.e. magnifying by 0.5 will cancel magnifying by 2.0.) The [O]ffset command will move an element to any point in the workspace, at any time during the development of a drawing. The term offset is used in electronics to designate relative values, such as the voltages of the x and y centering controls on an oscilloscope. In DANCAD3D the position of an element is its original position "offset" any number of times some relative (or absolute) distance. In geometry the term for what [O]ffset does is Translate, but I thought naming the command Translate might confuse users as to what it does. The "center" of each element is important to keep in mind when working with elements. You have the choice of having an element affected relative to the workspace's center Zero point (x=0, y=0, z=0) or the movable center point of each individual element. The center point for the individual elements can be set and changed with the [S]et-center command in the [E]lements menu. The difference in the affect on the element from using the [Z]ero center or the elements own [C]enter are as follows: FOR MAGNIFY: Center Z: Element grows toward or from the center of the workspace. Center C: Element grows toward or from the selected elements center. FOR ROTATE: Center Z: Element rotates (orbits) around center of the workspace. Center C: Element rotates around the center point set for it. FOR FLIP: Center Z: Element flips and goes to the other side of the axis. Center C: Element flips across a line through the set center point. FOR OFFSET: Center Z: Element moves the given distance from the workspace center. Center C: Element moves the given distance from is current position. You should keep in mind that the point that an element has set for [DANCAD3D.DOC-52] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] its center does not need to be within the element. Putting the center point for an element at one of its corners is a very useful method of preparing an element for re-positioning by rotation around the point at the corner (the center for an element can be set to ANY point in the workspace.) When you use the [P]olygon command you will inevitably be using the [R]otate command to re-orient the polygon at some point while working on your drawing. INTERACTIVE EDITING: THE ON-SCREEN SUB-MENU The commands in the [E]lements sub-menu do their job well, but sometimes it is faster and easier if you can see how elements will look in relation to the other elements while they are moved (offset), rotated, and magnified. The commands in the [O]n-screen sub-menu work best on elements that have fewer that 500 line segments (fewer that 50 works best) and the computer being used is at least 8 PC's of CPU power. INTERACTIVE OFFSET: THE DRAG COMMAND The [D]rag command in the [O]n-screen sub-menu of the drawing editor lets you move elements around on the screen to visually position them. You can zoom in and out with the [+] and [-] keys while inside the [D]rag command in order for you to see the fit of elements better. The [D]rag command is most useful when you are using a mouse to move the drawing cursor, because the element can be moved rapidly across the screen, then moved into final position by moving the mouse slowly (use the [M]ove command to set the cursor movement increment.) The [D]rag command can be set to automatically be activated when an ALIAS symbol has been loaded. See the [PgUp] command in the [D]raw sub-menu of the drawing editor. The [D]rag command can be used to visually adjust the location of a cutting tool outline relative to an outline of the desired shape in the preparation of tool paths for use with DANCAM or DANPLOT. To prepare a tool path, that requires compensation for the tool or flame size (difference between the tool axis and its cutting edge), for use with DANCAM or DANPLOT follow these steps: 1. Draw an outline of the finished part you wish to make. The outline of the finished part should show all important edges in all three dimensions. As part of the finished part outline element you can draw the maximum dimensions of the raw material the part will be cut from so you can see where to start the movement at medium feed rate for the roughing cuts (DANCAM moves at the highest speed the motors can follow between when no line color and therefore no feed rate is selected, you need to know where the rough block of material and the tool will meet so you can slow the tool feed to a safe speed.) Objects of constant [DANCAD3D.DOC-53] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] interference such as lathe chucks (as cylinders since the jaws make a stepped cylindrical volume while moving) can be included in the stock outline to help avoid having the tool hit the chuck! 2. Begin a new element and draw an outline of the cutting tool in 3 dimensions. You can include the tool holder or tool post so while you are drawing the tool path you can check for interference of the tool holder as well as the tool. Try to use as few line segments as possible when drawing the tool and holder outline. 3. Enter the [D]rag command and give the element number of the tool and holder element as the element to drag. Start with the drawing cursor at the tool's home position and draw line segments for the tool motion into the block of raw stock material. After you have drawn enough line segments to rough out the part look carefully at the proximity of the tool outline to the outline of the finished shape and carefully draw the final cuts taking care that no part of the tool cuts past the outline of the final shape outline. When all the line segments for the final cut have been drawn, draw a safe path clear of the work-piece so the tool can go back to the home position (do not draw a line past the home position away from the work-piece! It might really be better to stop short of the home position and let DANCAM (or DANPLOT) bring the tool back to the home point and or home switches for you.) Press the [Escape] key to exit the [D]rag command. You can and should change view points frequently with the [V]iew command while drawing tool paths. You can change the line color for the next line to be drawn while within the [D]rag command by pressing the [L] key (for Line style, line colors control the cutting rate in DANCAM (or DANPLOT) and also activate the programed pause and auxiliary device control lines (see the set-up menu in DANCAM (or DANPLOT) to install the feed rates your equipment can operate at (if you are using medium large size stepper motors you should only count on a maximum of 120 RPM at 200 in/oz of torque at the motor shaft)).) 4. You can use the [W]indow command to clip your tool path so that the tool path will not accidentally run out of range. You can write a macro to automatically clip all your tool paths before you save them for use (by running the macro while the tool path is in the workspace.) 5. Press [Z] to zero the drawing cursor and then Save the tool path (element number 3) as an ASCII type data file for use with DANCAM or DANPLOT. You would of course also want to save the cutting tool outline for future use, and probably also the finished part and stock material outline until it is no longer needed. You can build a Symbol library of three dimensional shapes like tools and holders, vises and chucks, even your whole lathe or mill so you can see exactly how the tool movements you make will appear when the tool path is executed on the machine! The [U]p-date list from the drawing editor root menu will let you turn elements display on and off [DANCAD3D.DOC-54] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] to make visualizing easier. Be sure to change view points frequently while you draw a tool path and keep an eye on the x, y, and z readings at the top of the drawing editor screen so you do not make any silly mistakes (if you have the Automatic Macro feature turned on you will be able to edit out (from the output macro with the text editor) any silly mistakes you might make and continue adding line segments to your tool path.) IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE DRAWING EDITOR There are several important things you should know about the drawing editor to make your using DANCAD3D most efficient. The redrawing of the screen is much faster if you have the WYSIWYG turned off (if any thickened line attributes were given to lines in the drawing.) For the most part you should only have the WYSIWYG turned on when you are inspecting the fit of lines (principally lettering) that have a line thickness greater than one. To turn the WYSIWYG on or off select command [W]YSIWYG from the [S]et-up sub-menu of the drawing editor. In order to have the WYSIWYG display the proper line width and dot-dash spacing the global scale MUST be set to the value that will be used when the drawing will be printed out (or if the drawing is to be made into a 2D file the scale ratio used to save (normalize) the 2D file.) If the [G]rid command is used from the drawing editors [S]et-up sub-menu the main menu [C]hange command MUST be used to set the global (world) scale to the value that will be used when the drawing is to be printed out or made into a 2D file (such as a DXF, PostScript, or HPGL file.) The amount you can zoom out when the layout grid is used is limited by the grid spacing since having zoomed out very far would produce grid dots much to close together to be useful (therefore turn the layout grid off if you need to zoom out a great deal from the normal amount that is displayed on the drawing editor screen.) If you have the layout grid turned on and are zoomed in tremendously then quit DANCAD3D, when you run DANCAD3D again and enter the drawing editor you may get an error message telling you to use the drawing editors [S]et-up sub-menu to change the grid dot spacing. To avoid the layout grid spacing error message turn off the layout grid before you quit the drawing editor when you are done drawing. The [U]p-date list command in the drawing editors root menu lets you turn "off" the display of any element(s) in the drawing workspace as seen from inside the drawing editor. When your drawing has several elements of lettering or other complex elements you should use the [U]p-date list command to turn the lettering or other complex elements "off" when you are not specifically involved with working around or on them. Turning elements off in the drawing editor should not affect saving or printing the elements, but you may want to turn all the elements "on" so you can see that they all look correct before you save or print the final version of a drawing (be careful of entering element numbers in commands when some elements are hidden by being [DANCAD3D.DOC-55] [ D R A W I N G E D I T O R B A S I C S ] turned "off" since you might accidentally alter an unseen element.) The [U]p-date list makes an excellent way of seeing what element numbers go with the displayed elements on the screen. Using the [E]rase command and some other commands can change the element numbers of several elements at once, so if you get mixed up, use the [U]p-date list to see what the current sequential numbers of the elements in the workspace currently are. When you are drawing you should use the [B]egin command in the [E]lements or [D]raw sub-menus to begin a new element before you draw line segments. If after using the [B]egin command you decide that you do not want to draw line segments, you should use the [E]rase command to erase the "empty" element you began before you use the other commands that automatically begin a new element. Empty elements can cause some confusion, so I mention here that you can avoid such confusion by erasing any empty elements that might occur. The commands in the [O]n-screen sub-menu of the drawing editor are meant to be used on fast computers with elements that have fewer than a few hundred line segments (or more like a a dozen line segments.) The [D]rag command works very well with loading symbol files since symbols are usually not overly complex. If you need to manipulate whole drawings it is usually easier to workout the scale ratio or rotation angle manually and then use the commands in the [N]umerical sub-menu of the main menu. In some other drawing programs the drawing editor is where your creation ends, but in DANCAD3D the drawing editor is only the start of the creation of the raw material for animation and manufacturing. The text editor is your next destination to write and edit macros to transform your drawings and elements into dynamic simulations and programed automated actions. [DANCAD3D.DOC-56] [ T E X T E D I T O R B A S I C S ] QUICK DISCUSSION OF IDEA DANCAD3D uses several types of ASCII text files. To make it easier for you to edit the ASCII text files DANCAD3D has a built in text editor (a text editor is like a word processor, but it is used on text that is not formatted into paragraphs.) To enter the text editor select the [W]rite command from DANCAD3D's main menu. To exit the text editor select [Q]uit from the menu that pops up when you click the [Left] mouse button or press the [Control] and [K] keys then press the [Control] and [X] keys. STEPS TO CARRY OUT IDEA 1. Select [W]rite from the main menu. 2. Abort or save the workspace if asked. 3. Press the [Left] mouse button, the [F1] key, or the [Control] and [^] keys; to pop-up the text editor command menu. 4. Load a text file to edit. You can of course create a new text file just by typing into the empty text editor if you wish as well. 5. Select [T]utor help from the pop up menu to read more information about the text editor commands available. When you see a command like ^[A] it means that you press down the [Control] key and hold it down while you and then press the [A] key then let both the [Control] and [A] keys up (like using the [Shift] key to make a capitol letter.) The most used commands are on the function keys, and in the menu that pops up when you press [F1], or the mouse left button. 6. When you are finished editing your file make the pop up menu come up as in 3. above and select [W]rite file to save the file you were working on. YOU MUST ALWAYS SAVE THE FILE YOU ARE WORKING ON TO YOUR DISK BEFORE YOU QUIT THE TEXT EDITOR IF YOU WANT THE CHANGES YOU EDITED SAVED! 7. Select [Q]uit from the pop up menu, or press the [F2] key (or ^[K]^[X]) while editing, to exit the text editor and return to the main menu. DETAILED DISCUSSION OF IDEA The [W]rite command from DANCAD3D's main menu is a text editor for pure ASCII text files (text files are stored on your harddisk and have a DOS filename.) The [W]rite command text editor can be used to display more than [DANCAD3D.DOC-57] [ T E X T E D I T O R B A S I C S ] one text file on the screen at a time by splitting the display screen into two or more parts. When a text editor screen is split into two or more parts where each part shows part of a different text file the parts of the screen where each of the text files is displayed is called a "Window". The command to "Open" a window is in the pop-up menu that comes up when you press the Left mouse button or [F1] on the keyboard. The most frequently used commands for the text editor are in the pop up menu you get when you press the Left mouse button or the [F1] key. Other commands can be accessed by holding the [Control] key down and pressing one or more of the other keys on the keyboard. The cursor keys and the function keys can also be used, see the text editor help screens (press [F1] then [T] (tutor) in the text editor.) The text cursor shows you where the characters you type will appear in the text file. Two text entry modes are available: Insert and Overwrite. You can toggle the text entry mode between Insert and Overwrite by pressing the [Ins] or [Insert] key on the keyboard (when you press the [Ins] key an indicator at the top of the editor screen will change to show you which mode you are in.) You can control the position of the text editor cursor by moving the mouse or trackball, or by pressing the cursor keys on the key board. The [U]p-window command in the afore mentioned pop-up menu can be used to move the cursor from one window to another one. USES OF THE WRITE COMMAND TEXT EDITOR DANCAD3D's text editor is useful in editing many of the ASCII text files DANCAD3D uses to store information on your harddisk. EDITING MACRO FILES The primary reason DANCAD3D has a built in text editor is to allow you to write and edit macro files. You can write macro files by referring to the commands listed in Appendix B of the DANCAD3D technical reference manual, or just edit macro files created for you by the main menu Output command. When editing macro files you should remember to leave a space character between all commands and parameters. And also to save the edited file back to disk before you exit the text editor (you save a file back to disk by selecting [W]rite file from the pop-up menu.) EDITING ASCII DATA FILES DANCAD3D has an ASCII data file format to allow easy access to the line segment data used to make drawings with DANCAD3D. To create an ASCII data file of some element in the drawing workspace select [F]iles [S]ave [A]SCII from the main menu. The ASCII file format is [DANCAD3D.DOC-58] [ T E X T E D I T O R B A S I C S ] the same as the Macro ENTER command's parameter list, to allow you to read an ASCII data file into the text of a macro file and have the line vector data entered into the workspace automatically. To load an ASCII data file into a macro file simply load the macro file into the text editor (with the [R]ead command from the pop-up menu (you get the pop-up menu by pressing the [Left] mouse button or [F1] key)) then locate the text cursor where you want the ASCII data file to be inserted into the macro file and load the ASCII data file into your macro (you load the ASCII data into your macro by selecting the [R]ead command from the pop-up menu as before except you enter the mane of the ASCII data file in place of the macro filename.) Editing ASCII data files is an alternative to using the [P]ull- point command in the [L]ines sub-menu of the drawing editor. The [N]umber command in the [L]ines sub-menu of the drawing editor can be used to help you locate the vectors you want to change in the ASCII text file of the element's line segment data. Similar to editing ASCII data files is writing them from scratch. If you know where you want line segments end points to be in the workspace you can simply type in the numbers for the values of the end points at the x, y, and z axis. The ASCII data file starts with the macro command ENTER on the top line, each line of text following has the six end point numbers and four attribute values for a single line segment, and the file ends with a line of text with ten spaced zeros to flag the end of the line segment data entry. The line segment data text lines start with the x axis value of the first point, then the y and z axis values of the first point, then the x y and z values of the second point, then come the attributes of the line color, and line width, then two spaced zeros (the last to attributes are normally set to 0, but some times to other values when DANCAD3D has created the data file automatically.) EXAMPLE: ENTER -1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 -1 0 1 1 0 0 1 -1 0 -1 -1 0 1 1 0 0 -1 -1 0 -1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 In the above example the x and y values change to make a square, the file specifies four line segments, and the line color and width are always set to 1. You can write programs in any other computer language to produce DANCAD3D ASCII data files if you wish to use DANCAD3D to print out some vector data you may have accumulated. EDITING TEXT FOR THE BLOCK TEXT COMMAND The Block text command in the Drawing editors [C]alligraphy sub- menu reads short text files and automatically draws an element of lettering into the workspace to correspond to the text in the short text file. You can use the [W]rite command from the main menu to edit [DANCAD3D.DOC-59] [ T E X T E D I T O R B A S I C S ] short text files for the block text command, or you can use the foreign language compatible short text file editor, [E]dit in the [C]alligraphy sub-menu of the drawing editor. The Fit option of the [B]lock text command makes text look especially nice since Fit will automatically do vertical and horizontal justification on the text file so the block of text will fit perfectly into the space you have allowed in your drawing. OTHER USES OF THE WRITE COMMAND Some other reasons for using the [W]rite command are: editing the screen font files created by the commands in the [C]alligraphy sub- menu of the drawing editor, writing or editing index files for the Alias symbol loading feature of the drawing editor, and editing of the configuration files for DANCAM and DANPLOT to assign the cutting rates for the unused line colors (up to color 127.) [DANCAD3D.DOC-60] [ M A C R O B A S I C S ] QUICK DISCUSSION OF IDEA DANCAD3D can read a text file containing english like commands and run itself automatically to produce drawings, animated films, and almost any other task that you can do by operating the program manually. DANCAD3D was originally designed to operate entirely automatically and although DANCAD3D can be operated manually from the menus you should take seriously the advantages if this important automatic operation feature. Additionally because DANCAD3D can be automatically made to run a macro from the DOS command line you can write DOS batch files to invoke DANCAD3D and have some macro run then have DANCAD3D automatically quit back to the DOS batch file to run other programs (normally DANCAD3D returns to its main menu at the end of a macro, but the HALT macro command at the end of the macro will return control to DOS.) STEPS TO CARRY OUT IDEA 1. To make a macro file of commands automatically that record whatever you do with DANCAD3D's menus press the [O] key from the main menu. 2. To Run one of the demo macro files supplied on the disks select [R]un from DANCAD3D's main menu and enter the name of the macro file you wish to run. 3. You can look at and possibly edit the DEMO macro files with the text editor. 4. To have a DANCAD3D macro automatically run from DOS simply put the filename of the macro after DANCAD3D on the DOS command line (of course macros can be called from DOS batch files in this same way.) 5. Understanding macro programs fully takes much more explanation than can fit in this shareware disk. The DANCAD3D registered user outfit has lots of information about the many macro commands and numerous examples of how the macro commands can be used to do many different jobs. DETAILED DISCUSSION OF IDEA A macro in DANCAD3D is simply a text (text is letters, words, symbols, and numbers arranged like in a book or news paper, and readable by a human) file of commands that DANCAD3D and you can read. You would read the macro file in order to edit it, DANCAD3D would read the macro file to accomplish the task that the macro commands indicate should be done. DANCAD3D's macro commands can be used for very simple tasks by listing the commands in the order that they are to be executed (first at the top of the file and last at the bottom) or more [DANCAD3D.DOC-61] [ M A C R O B A S I C S ] complex program like tasks can be written using conditional branching and loops. If you are not a programmer you should not be frightened away from writing macros. Using the list programming structure you simply write the commands in the order you want them to happen. After you become proficient in writing lists you can try loops and branches. Loops let you repeat a portion of the file several times. In place of a loop you can of course just repeat the commands over and over in the list, but if you were to repeat several commands several hundreds of times using the programming loop would make the macro file much shorter and easier to edit. The conditional branch lets you have the macro commands test if certain conditions exist and skip over parts of the file if they do. The macro commands can be useful to you even if you have no desire to think up lists of commands. The automatic output macro file will record the commands you select from DANCAD3D's menus and write the appropriate macro commands into the output macro. The name of the output macro the macro commands are automatically written into is whatever you tell DANCAD3D to use when you open the output macro with the [O]utput command from the main menu or drawing editors [F]iles sub-menu. The names of the macro commands correspond to the commands in DANCAD3D's menus. The command to rotate an element is ROTATE, the command to magnify an element is MAGNIFY, and so on. Most of the macro commands have and are followed by a parameter list. The parameter list may contain numbers, letters, words, filenames, or variable names. A complete description of all the parameters that go with the macro commands is found in Appendix B of the DANCAD3D users technical manual. Macro command files are what are known as ASCII text files. You can use DANCAD3D's built in text editor to write and edit macro text files. You can also use most other text editors or word processors to edit macro files if they have a pure ASCII text mode (non-ASCII word processors insert hidden commands (or control codes) into the text and will not be readable with DANCAD3D's macro interpreter ([R]un from the main menu).) Some word processors that claim to write pure ASCII code can insert the control Z (ASCII code number 26) into the text of the file. Loading a text file that has been contaminated with control Z's into DANCAD3D's text editor and saving the text back to disk should remove the contaminating control Z's (control Z's in a text file that has be edited in some other word-processor can make the bottom part of a macro not be run (the execution would stop when the control Z is read).) One of the more powerful features of DANCAD3D macros is their ability to have the RUN command in them which lets one macro run another macro and then the sub-macro and RUN still further sub-sub- macros. If you are interested in doing so DANCAD3D will let you tackle some very useful and intricate tasks. [DANCAD3D.DOC-62] [ M A C R O B A S I C S ] On the simple side you can write out the values of the parameters as literal values. A lot of interesting macros can be made using only literal values i.e. 90, 1.0236. If you want to get into more sophisticated macro programming you can use variable names in place of the literal parameters that go with the macro commands. Variable names in DANCAD3D can have eight letters. Variable names preceded with the | characters (ASCII code number 124) are stored in your computers RAM, variables without the vertical bar are stored on your computers harddisk (or RAM disk) so you can have virtually unlimited numbers of variables. The LET command assigns and or declares variables. Equations can be used in place of variables or literal constants if you enclose the equation in square brackets. ALL COMMANDS SYMBOLS AND PARAMETERS MUST BE SPACED, do not use commas or other punctuation marks to space parameters. EXAMPLE: LET |ZROT = [ SIN( |DZ ) / 2 ] In the above |ZROT and |DZ are stored in RAM for quick access. The size of the RAM scratch pad is limited and should be used for variables that are used frequently. Variable names that are no longer needed can be removed with the RELEASE command e.g. RELEASE |ZROT. LET ZROT = [ SIN( DZ ) / 2 ] In the above ZROT and DZ are stored on the harddisk. LET E:\ZROT = [ SIN( E:\DZ ) / 2 ] In the above ZROT and DZ are stored on the RAM disk E:\. The original reason for having DANCAD3D have macro capability was to have DANCAD3D produce animated sequences of significant complexity. When tasks become very complex or time consuming it is much easier and less mistake prone to make a list of commands, proofread the list of commands, and let the program read the list of commands and carry out the commands. DANCAD3D has the ability to operate your laser printer, dot matrix printer, or cine film recorder automatically, thereby allowing the writing of macro programs that have virtually an unlimited number of elements moving in any number of complex motions. So DANCAD3D's macros can be used for a wide range of tasks from printing several drawings overnight, to making animated simulations of thousands of moving parts. I am mentioning the range of tasks DANCAD3D can perform not to brag, but rather to let you know that DANCAD3D may give you years of interesting challenges as you learn and explore its capabilities. USING THE AUTOMATIC MACRO FEATURE DANCAD3D's automatic output macro feature can be used for three major purposes: 1. To protect against making mistakes while drawing. [DANCAD3D.DOC-63] [ M A C R O B A S I C S ] 2. To allow editing and spell-checking of lettering commands. Spell- checking would be done with your favorite spell checker on the output macro file after you quit DANCAD3D. 3. To make prototype macros or sub-macros that will be run from or incorporated into larger macro programs produced with the text editor. k:Using~the~automatic~macro~to~correct~mistakes USING THE AUTOMATIC MACRO TO CORRECT MISTAKES The thing you need to remember most to protect against mistakes when using DANCAD3D is to have the automatic macro command turned ON! The display a the top of the main menu says NEW, APPEND, and OFF. NEW means you have started a new file or are over writing and old one. APPEND means you are adding new commands to the bottom of a macro file that was started before. OFF of course means that the macro is not having commands added to it. The steps to go through in using an automatic macro for protection against mistakes are: 1. Initialize the workspace by pressing [I] from the main menu. Turn on the automatic macro file (by pressing [O] from the main menu) before you start working on a drawing. Give the macro a descriptive filename you will remember. The standard file extension for macros is *.MAC. 2. Work on your drawing until you make a mistake you can not correct with one of the menu commands (such as [E]raise or [U]ndo.) 3. Turn the automatic macro off (by selecting [O] from the main menu.) 4. Select [W]rite from the main menu and edit the bottom of the macro text to remove the commands that messed the drawing up. Each macro command in the automatic macro file has a time and date stamp that should help you know what commands happened after the drawing stopped looking the way you wanted it to. Lines of text in the macro are deleted by putting the text cursor on the line you want to delete and pressing the [Control] and [Y] key at the same time (press [Escape] to recover deleted text.) 5. Save the edited text back to your harddisk. If you are not sure you edited the macro properly you should save the edited macro text under a different file name. Quit the text editor and go back to the main menu. 6. Select [R]un from DANCAD3D's main menu and let the macro interpreter re-generate the elements you drew. Since the workspace was empty when you opened the automatic output macro [DANCAD3D.DOC-64] [ M A C R O B A S I C S ] file the automatic output macro file starts with an initialize command that will destroy any elements in the workspace before the [R]un command was selected. If you want to save any elements in the workspace before you run the macro you can use the [F]iles [S]ave [E]lements command from the main menu. 7. Turn the edited automatic macro file back on be pressing [O] from the main menu after the macro interpreter has finished. Select the APPEND mode so new commands will be added to the bottom of the edited macro. 8. Enter the drawing editor [D]raw from the main menu and confirm that the mistake has been corrected. Continue working on your drawing. You can look at the bottom of the drawing editor to make sure you see APPEND to tell you that the menu commands are being saved to the designated macro. k:Using~the~automatic~macro~to~correct~and~edit~lettering USING THE AUTOMATIC MACRO TO CORRECT AND EDIT LETTERING By using the automatic output macro to store drawings rather than a vector data file you can edit and change the lettering commands without erasing the lettering elements and using the lettering command to make new elements. This ability to edit lettering can let you change units from english to metric, alter dates, translate the language of any text in a drawing, and of course fix spelling mistakes! The calligraphy command BLOCK reads small text files, and so you can of course also edit the small text files that the BLOCK reads (the filenames that go with each BLOCK command will appear in the automatic macro file as part the the parameter list with each BLOCK command.) 1. Initialize the workspace by pressing [I] from the main menu. Turn on the automatic macro file (by pressing [O] from the main menu) before you start working on a drawing. Give the macro a descriptive filename you will remember. The standard file extension for macros is *.MAC. When you use the lettering command from the Calligraphy sub-menu try to use the Justify option for the letter spacing since the Justify option will hold the text length constant if you change the length of the line of text later (this only works of course if you change the number of characters in the line of text be fewer than 10%.) 2. Turn the automatic macro off (by selecting [O] from the main menu.) 3. If you want to edit any of the text for the lettering commands the select [W]rite from the main menu and edit the bottom of the macro text to remove the commands that messed the drawing up. Each macro command in the automatic macro file has a time and date stamp that should help you know what commands happened after the drawing stopped looking the way you wanted it to. Lines of text [DANCAD3D.DOC-65] [ M A C R O B A S I C S ] in the macro are deleted by putting the text cursor on the line you want to delete and press the [Control] and [Y] key at the same time. Save the edited macro back to your harddisk before you exit the text editor. If you edit the lines of text be sure that you do not add any spaces at the end of the lines of text since spaces at the ends of lines of text will make the line of text look shorter or off center in the finished drawing. 4. Quit DANCAD3D and run the automatic output macro file you were creating through your spell checker. Be careful that your spell checker does not alter any of DANCAD3D's commands and parameters, and only changes the lines of text. 5. Run DANCAD3D again. 6. Select [R]un from DANCAD3D's main menu and let the macro interpreter re-generate the elements you drew. Since the workspace was empty when you opened the automatic output macro file the automatic output macro file starts with an initialize command that will destroy any elements in the workspace before the [R]un command was selected. If you want to save any elements in the workspace before you run the macro you can use the [F]iles [S]ave [E]lements command from the main menu. If all goes well your drawing should look as it did before except for the changes you intentionally made to the lettering commands. Once you become familiar with the parameters of the LETTERING, BLOCK and DIMENSIONING commands (Appendix B of the technical manual) you will be able to alter the line color, width, and even the font used just by editing the macro commands in the text editor. Keep in mind that the search and replace command of text editors can be used to locate the LETTERING commands in a macro, or to locate the name of the font files file names used (search for .FON.) 7. Save the re-generated (re-generated means that the macro interpreter (RUN from the main menu) has repeated the steps that you took when you entered the commands from the menus) drawing by using the commands in the [F]iles [S]ave sub-menu from the main menu, or print the drawing out by using the commands in the [H]ardcopy sub-menu. USING THE AUTOMATIC OUTPUT MACRO TO PROTOTYPE MACRO CODE Sometimes when writing a set of macro commands in the text editor to draw a particular figure you might have difficulty visualizing exactly where certain points are in the three dimensions. You can RUN the macro commands you have written manually with the macro interpreter and then use the automatic output macro feature to APPEND commands that will manipulate the elements created by the macro commands you wrote manually while you SEE what you are doing in the drawing editor (and especially the [O]n-screen sub-menu.) You can also use the automatic output macro feature to produce [DANCAD3D.DOC-66] [ M A C R O B A S I C S ] several small output files that can be read into a larger macro with the read block of text function (^[K]^[R] or [F9] in DANCAD3D's text editor) or the small output macros can be RUN with the RUN macro command as sub-macros. I frequently use the automatic output macro feature to aid in the placement of lettering since it is easier to see where lettering should go by using the drawing editor than just working with the values to the lettering command out of my head (you can though do some page layout tasks just fine by making a sketch on a piece of paper with a pencil and entering the values manually to the lettering commands parameter list.) Steps to manipulate elements interactively as part of the writing of a macro manually i.e. using the automatic output macro feature to append commands to a macro that you have written manually in the text editor: 1. Initialize the workspace by pressing [I] from the main menu. Select [W]rite from the main menu. Write a macro file (you will probably need the DANCAD3D technical reference manual to use the commands whose parameter list is not obvious.) Save the macro you wrote to your harddisk. Quit the text editor. 2. Run the macro you wrote by using the macro interpreter (Run from the main menu.) 3. Use the [O]uput command from the main menu to to APPEND commands to the macro filename you were writing in step 1. 4. Enter the drawing editor (Draw from the main menu) and manipulate the elements as needed. Try using the [O]n-screen sub-menu when you need to rotate or move (drag) elements around. 5. Turn off the outputting (appending) of macro commands to your macro file (by pressing [O] from the main menu) and repeat steps 1. through 5. as needed to complete your macro. 6. When the macro is complete run it one last time in the macro interpreter to fill the workspace with the desired elements. Save or print out the elements in the workspace as desired. Steps to create sub-macros and macro procedures with the automatic output macro feature, i.e. how to create macro file procedures largely through the interactive drawing editor, and then edit the macro procedures into a functional macro with the text editor: 1. Initialize the workspace with the Initialize command in the main menu. It is not necessary that the workspace be empty while creating special sub-macros and procedures, but if the workspace is not empty you will have to keep track of the element numbers that go with the various macro commands. On problem you have to face when combining macro code from several macro files into a single macro file is that the element numbers that go with the various commands really are the element numbers of the elements [DANCAD3D.DOC-67] [ M A C R O B A S I C S ] that the commands are meant to act on. There are two ways to minimize problems with element numbers. One is to divide the concatenated macro file into sections where each section ends with the elements that are to be used again being saved to disk and then the next section of the concatenated macro would begin with the initialize command. Having the workspace empty at the beginning of each section of a macro makes keeping track of what element belongs to what number much easier. Another way to keep track of element numbers is to assign a variable to the current highest element number and then make the elements added after the "marker" variable relative to the markers value. EXAMPLE: LET |MARKER -> ELEMENTS ; -> is a special symbol that reads special values like the ; number of LINES or ELEMENTS in the workspace and assigns ; the value to one of DANCAD3D's user named variables. ; Ordinary assignment of variables is made with the = symbol. LOAD 3DQ PART.146 ; This is [ |MARKER + 1 ] LOAD 3DQ PART.987 ; This is [ |MARKER + 2 ] LOAD 3DQ PART.767 ; This is [ |MARKER + 3 ] # [ |MARKER + 2 ] ROTATE C 0 0 90 ; Rotate PART.987 LET |PART987 = [ |MARKER + 2 ] ; Assign a variable # |PART987 ROTATE C 0 0 45 ; Rotate PART.987 again 2. Use the [O]utput command from the main menu to open a automatic output macro. 3. Use the [D]raw command from the main menu to create a macro procedure in the current automatic output macro file. 4. Close the current automatic output macro file. 5. Repeat steps 2. through 4. to make several macro files that perform different manipulations or create unique elements. 6. Use the [W]rite command from the main menu to edit and combine or concoct the macro procedures you created with the automatic output macro into a larger macro file (if you want to, so the order of the running of the small macros can be scripted.) 7. Save the edited of concatenated macro and quit the text editor. 8. Use the [R]un command from the main menu to run the concatenated and scripted macro programs to produce some useful result. 9. Save or print out the elements created by running the concatenated macro program as desired. I hope the above description of some of the tasks you can put DANCAD3D's macro feature to have encouraged you to increase your use and interest in DANCAD3D. Do not feel that you need to understand everything at once. As time passes and you gain confidence in using the simpler features of DANCAD3D your experience will help you grow [DANCAD3D.DOC-68] [ M A C R O B A S I C S ] into the more advanced features. [DANCAD3D.DOC-69] [ F R E Q U E N T L Y A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S ] Please read all the Questions and Answers bellow before writing to me since I do not have a lot of free time to write individualized letters as I have in the past (not to say I would not enjoy hearing from you, just that the questions and answers below make up 90% of the mail I get each day.) Q: The program said Run-Time Error F0 what does that mean? A: You have not installed DANCAD3D on your harddisk properly, or you do not have a complete set of overlay files on your shareware disks. Unfortunately many of the shareware disks sold have files missing and therefore you will be unable to get the copy you have to work properly. Check that all the files named DANCAD3D.0?? have the same date as DANCAD3D.COM, if not your disks are not usable. You should have gotten five 5 1/4" floppy disks or three 3 1/2" floppy disks for the DANCAD3D program. Use the batch file INSTALL.BAT to install DANCAD3D on your harddisk. When you want to run DANCAD3D on another day you need to use the DOS Change Directory (CD) command to change the current directory of your harddisk to the directory DANCAD3D is in (i.e. DC25.) EXAMPLE: C>CD C:\DC25 C>DANCAD3D DANMOVIE v1.x is no longer to be distributed with the shareware version of DANCAD3D (DANMOVIE v2.x was never a shareware program, and now only comes with the registered user outfit.) All versions of DANCAD3D prior to v2.5D are replaced with the current version (v2.5x.) Current updates of DANCAD87 (for the math chip) DANCAM and DANPLOT come as part of the DANCAD3D registered user outfit (all offers are subject to change, if any change in price has happened you will probably be informed by mail before your order is shipped, in any case your order will be shipped or you will get a letter (I do not deposit checks or money orders unless I am going to ship the order to you) so please include a return postage for a letter with your check if the disks you have are more than a year old (see the date of the DANCAD3D.COM file on disk 1 of 5).) Q: Can I run a macro from the DOS command line? A: Yes, just put the name of the macro after DANCAD3D on the DOS command line. EXAMPLE: C>DANCAD3D DEMO1.MAC Q: Is there some more information on the disks I have? A: In addition to the DANCAD3D.DOC file on the program disks there are many help screens within the DANCAD3D program. You can read the help screens by selecting [T]utor from the main menu, [T]utor from the [DANCAD3D.DOC-70] [ F R E Q U E N T L Y A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S ] drawing editor root menu, and [F1] then [T]utor from the text editor. The help screens can be printed out by pressing [Shift] and [PrtSc] while the screen is displayed and your printer is on and ready. Q: What dot matrix printer driver should I use? A: These drivers works with most printers, if they do not work on your printer your printer will probably not work. Be sure you have installed the proper printer port in the correct driver and used the DOS MODE command to set up your serial ports if needed. DANCAD3D does not support color dot matrix printers. PROPRINT.PRN or IBM5152.PRN for 9 pin printers with 1/216 line feed. FX286E13.PRN for wide carriage 9 pin printers with 1/216" line feed. LQ_1500.PRN or NEC-P6.PRN for 24 pin printers with 1/180" line feed. LQ_1500W.PRN for wide carriage 24 pin printers with 1/180" line feed. STARG15X.PRN for older star SG15X and SG10X with 1/144" line feed. MX_80.PRN for older Epson type printers with only 120 dpi print mode. Select Change from the main menu to install the driver name. Press [H] [D] [W] from the main menu to print a drawing that is loaded into the workspace. Q: Why does the program crash before I get to the main menu? A: Seven reasons for this have been reported: 1. You have some resident program that displays something on the screen, e.g., a clock program or FAX program. Do not run the clock display or FAX program while using DANCAD3D! 2. You picked the wrong video mode for your video board, or your video board is not IBM compatible. Try reinstalling everything. 3. You ran a CGA emulation program. NEVER run a CGA emulation before running DANCAD3D version 2.5. Version 2.5 supports Hercules video mode, install it properly by selecting H when you run DANCAD3D for the first time. 4. You did not install all five disks onto your Harddisk. All the files named DANCAD3D.??? must be on the same drive for the program to work. Run-time error F0 means that one of the Overlay files was not found! The overlays have numbered extensions like DANCAD3D.000, DANCAD3D.001, DANCAD3D.002 and so on. 5. You have a version of mouse driver software that has a bug in it. [DANCAD3D.DOC-71] [ F R E Q U E N T L Y A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S ] Try not loading the mouse driver with your CONFIG.SYS file and see if that helps, if so then write to your mouse company and ask them for an update. 6. You have a bad spot on your harddisk. You should run the DOS command CHKDSK to check out your harddisk. I have been told that reformatting your harddisk with DOS 3.3 can fix this problem. You should take your computer back to the shop and have them enter the manufactures disk error table (the error table is usually glued onto the harddisk by the manufacture) and low level format your harddisk again for you (many of the clone dealers do not low level format the harddisks properly.) 7. You have a bug in your BIOS chip, DMA chip, or harddisk controller. I recommend updating your BIOS chip to the latest AWARD BIOS when you have your harddisk low level formatted. Some of the cheaper clone BIOS do not work properly with the harddisk, and since DANCAD3D uses the harddisk frequently problems with your harddisk are more likely to show up while using DANCAD3D (if your harddisk and other computer hardware is in good order you should not have any problems with running DANCAD3D.) Q: The program crashes when I try to enter the drawing editor. why? A: Five causes of this problem have been found: 1. Your harddisk was not low level formatted properly, you will need a computer expert to enter the bad sector numbers properly and reformat your harddisk. The bad sector numbers are printed on a label that is attached (or should be) to your harddisk. 2. Your Mouse driver has bugs in it. Try not installing the mouse and see if the problem goes away. 3. You have a defective copy of DANCAD3D. Or perhaps you did not install the program properly by using the INSTALL.BAT file supplied. 4. If you are using a Hercules or MGC type video board with your board may not be fully Hercules compatible. DANCAD3D will not work on some EGA boards that are connected to monochrome monitors. Also check 1, 2, and 3 above. The EGA multisync option of the video board selection will activate the EGA monochrome video mode, but should only be used on monitors that support both the 50Hz and 60Hz vertical sweep rates. 5. You mouse got stuck, try rolling the mouse and clicking its buttons then hit the [Escape] or [Return] keys on the keyboard. This is not a common problem and may also indicate problem 2. above. [DANCAD3D.DOC-72] [ F R E Q U E N T L Y A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S ] Q: Can I load a DANCAD3D drawing into my other programs? A: DANCAD3D will make the following file types: EXAMPLE: 1. BSAVE type video pixel file. 2. PostScript type code file. 3. HPGL type plotter code file. 4. DXF type AutoCAD format file. Whether or not your program will be able to read these files depends on whether the manufacture of your program is being honest about his programs ability to import this type of file, and also the amount of memory required to hold complex drawings in memory. You can create other plotter drivers (or modify these) if other similar filetypes are needed through the use of the [I]install command in the plotter sub-menu (the DANCAD3D manual goes into more detail about the structure of plotter drivers if you really need to get into writing drivers.) Q: I notice that there are several different filetypes that can be used to save and load drawings, can you give me a brief explanation of which one I should use? A: Whichever file type you use to save a drawing, you should keep track of the type it was. There are several sub-directories in the DANCAD3D program directory to segregate the files. You can also use different file extensions (e.g. .ASC, .3D, .2D.) Pixel.........Saves screen display in current video mode. You cannot transport pixel files between computers running different video modes (unless you create a set of pixel files in each video mode to correspond to the modes you want to use.) Pixel files load into the video screen and NOT the drawing workspace. You cannot edit or rotate pixel files, they are only for animation and user created menus in macro files. 3D-Quick......Normal choice for saving individual elements and whole drawings as one element (selecting element 0 will join all the elements in the workspace into one file.) You should use the 3D-Quick file type for 2D or 3D drawing elements. 2D-Real.......Special filetype that creates a perspective projection of the elements in the drawing workspace. You should set the perspective scale to 1 if you want the 2D-Real file to be in the scale you normally work in. Finished drawings can be saved in the 2D-Real format if you do not want to edit them since the 2D-Real format takes the least disk space. The 2D-Real data file squashes the z axis so the 3D aspect of elements can no longer be edited if files are saved in the 2D-Real format. [DANCAD3D.DOC-73] [ F R E Q U E N T L Y A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S ] Elements......An automatic way to save all the elements in the drawing workspace so that they can be later loaded and retain their independence. Only a five letter filename is allowed since the last three characters of the filename are used to indicate the elements number. ASCII.........A special purpose type of 3D data file that is used to transport drawings from DANCAD3D to DANCAD87, DANCAM, and DANPLOT. You should use only the ASCII file type when you are going to save a tool path that will be executed with DANPLOT or DANCAM. The ASCII 3D data file type can be loaded into a text editor or word processor and be edited manually if you need to correct some mistake or manually enter some vector data in an element. The other filetypes in the Save and Load menus from the main menu are used in the creation of font files for the lettering commands in the drawing editor and are not normally used (the DANCAD3D technical manual has a tutorial on creating special purpose font or typeface files.) Q: How can I make a drawing file to load into my other programs? A: The PostScript, HPGL, and DXF files are made with the plotter driver. Select [H] [P] [I] from the main menu and change the output port name to the name of a file like A:OUTPUT.DXF. Then select [H] [P] [P] from DANCAD3D's main menu and plot the drawing in the workspace (use the main menu preview to select the perspective values.) The plotter driver will then make a file on the disk rather than sending the information to a port. If the program you have can REALLY read ANY proper PostScript, HPGL, or DXF files you should have no problems loading the drawing. Unfortunately many programs claim to be able to read these file formats, but actually only read a subset of the commands in these graphic languages (that's not my fault!.) You may need to change the size of the drawings when you load the output files into you other software since different software uses different scaling factors. The BSAVE type files are made with the [P]ixel option in the [F]iles sub-menu from the main menu. Pixel files can be loaded into the video buffer of your computer with the BASIC language BLOAD command, the video addresses to use are given in the DANCAD3D technical manual. Q: Will DANCAD3D do hidden line removal? A: DANCAD3D v2.5 only display wire frame drawings. Although I plan to work toward eventually having a hidden line option available I cannot say when exactly I will have the time to work on adding that feature. [DANCAD3D.DOC-74] [ F R E Q U E N T L Y A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S ] Q: When I try to use the [C]ube command in the [3]D-shapes sub-menu of the drawing editor why do I only get a rectangle? A: The cube command works by marking the extreme opposite corners of a cube or rectangular prism. When you are asked to mark the second point for the opposite corner of the cube you have to move the drawing cursor in ALL THREE DIMENSIONS, otherwise your cube will have no thickness! DANCAD3D v2.5 has Oblique and Isometric views that make the visual display of the cube better. Select [V]iew from the "Move Cursor" menu, that comes up when you are told to mark the other corner, to change the display view type. Q: I need to draw lots of curves, how can I do this? A: Version 2.5 has curve fitting that will make a smooth curve from a rough series of line segments. Begin a new element, then draw the rough curve from a chain of line segments, then use the [F]it-curve command in the 3D-shapes sub-menu of the drawing editor. Q: I just bought a computer and am not really into computers, will I find DANCAD3D easy to use? A: If you do not understand DOS commands and tree structured directories I would recommend that you purchase a good book about DOS and learn about its commands. Since you have the shareware version of DANCAD3D you will be able to try out many of the simpler commands and run the demo files. The DANCAD3D technical manuals go into more detailed instructions of the more advanced features of DANCAD3D and should help you grow in your knowledge of both DANCAD3D and how DANCAD3D uses your computer. Since DANCAD3D's commands emulate classical drawing tools like a pen and ruler you can apply lessons found in books on mechanical drawing to drawing with DANCAD3D. Q: Will I be able to apply the price of the v2.5 shareware disks toward the purchase of the v2.5 outfit? A: I am sorry to say that my profit margin is far to small to allow discounts from the list prices. If you send me a self addressed stamped envelope and request the current price list for the whole DANCAD-DANCAM product line I will be happy to send you the current price list (if you live outside the U.S. get a international first class postal voucher from your post office and enclose it with your request in place of the stamped envelope.) Q: How do I install the port for my dot matrix printer? A: Look at the files with the *.PRN extension that should be on the program disks you have. Try to pick the one that looks like your printer's model name (see the above description of the driver names.) [DANCAD3D.DOC-75] [ F R E Q U E N T L Y A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S ] Then run DANCAD3D and press [C]hange from the main menu and enter the filename of the driver for your printer. If the driver not installed for the port your printer is connected to you can install the printer port manually with [H] [D] [I] from the main menu. Q: How do I install my plotter? A: Look at the files with the *.PLT extension that should be on the program disks you have. Try to pick the one that looks like your plotter's model name or code type. Then run DANCAD3D and select [C]hange from the main menu and enter that driver filename as your plotter driver. If the there is no driver that will work on your plotter you can install the printer manually with [H] [P] [I] from the main menu. If the plotter driver installation confuses you I will do it for you if you send all the necessary codes when you order the registered user outfit. Be sure that you use the DOS MODE command to set up your serial port, if you are using it, to correspond to the baud rate that the DIP switches are set to in your plotter. EXAMPLE: C:\DOS\MODE COM1:9600,N,8,1,P Q: Why can't I get a screen dump from the drawing editor screen? A: In order to get a screen dump from the graphics screen you need to run a TSR program like the DOS GRAPHICS.COM before you run DANCAD3D. The [D]ot command in the [H]ardcopy menu from the main menu prints drawings much sharper (about 30 times as sharp) than the screen dump. The DOS GRAPHICS.COM program that comes with some versions of DOS only works on the CGA video mode, so you may need to use one of the substitute screen dump utility programs available from the Public Domain software or your video board manufacture. EXAMPLE: C:\DOS\GRAPHICS.COM Q: Why do I not get the correct characters in the graphics screen for ASCII codes 128 through 255 (n.b. DANCAD3D v2.5 normally supplies its own screen fonts for the graphics screen superseding the ROM fonts on your video board to allow for a fully WYSIWYG display)? A: On some computers you will need to run the GRAFTABL.COM program supplied with your computer before running DANCAD3D. EXAMPLE: C:\DOS\GRAFTABL.COM Q: How do I spool a PostScript (tm) file to disk so I can take it down to my local desk top publishing center to print it out? A: Press [H] [P] [I] and enter ADOBE_PS.LZR as the plotter file to work on. Press [Return] until you come to the question about the port [DANCAD3D.DOC-76] [ F R E Q U E N T L Y A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S ] to use. Enter the name of the file you want the PostScript ASCII data file to be put in, e.g. OUTPUT.PS. Then press [Return] then [Esc] then [Y] to overwrite the old ADOBE_PS.LZR file. When you are ready you can press [H] [L] from the main menu to spool to the designated file. If you want to make several files remember to change the designated file or use [F] [R] to rename the last PostScript file output to a new filename so the file just output will not be over- written, i.e. [F]iles [R]ename OUTPUT.PS PAGE1.PS. If you are going to put your PostScript files on a floppy disk it is simpler to designate the laser printer's driver's port path as something like A:\OUTPUT.PS and put a blank formatted disk into the A: drive each time you want to save a PostScript file. The drivers LASERPS1.LZR to LASERPS5.LZR give progressively heavier lines. On super resolution devices like the Linotronic 300 you may want to have heavier lines since the lines will look thinner than on the LaserWriter Plus. Q: How do I connect a LaserWriter to my PC's serial port? A: Use a cable that connects the pins as: PC or XT port 25 pin female <- to -> LaserWriter 25 pin male pin 2 ------------------------------------- pin 3 pin 3 ------------------------------------- pin 2 pin 7 ------------------------------------- pin 7 pin 5 ------------------------------------- pin 20 AT 9 pin serial port female <- to -> LaserWriter 25 pin male pin 2 ------------------------------------- pin 2 pin 3 ------------------------------------- pin 3 pin 5 ------------------------------------- pin 7 pin 6 ------------------------------------- pin 20 pin 8 ------------------------------------- pin 20 Set the switch on the LaserWriter to 9600 baud and then issue the DOS command: MODE COM1:9600,N,8,1,P. Run DANCAD3D, load your drawing and then select [H]ardcopy [L]aser from the main menu to plot on the LaserWriter. This may cable wiring also work on other PostScript compatible laser printers. Q: How do I avoid time out problems printing large drawings on the LaserWriter? A: If your LaserWriter is version 23 or higher and has a ROM made after April 1986, switch it to 9600 baud and this in from DOS with it connected and turned on: EXAMPLE: EXAMPLE: C>COPY CON COM1 serverdict begin 0 exitserver [DANCAD3D.DOC-77] [ F R E Q U E N T L Y A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S ] 25 9600 4 setsccbatch ^Z 1 file(s) copied C> Press the [Return] key at the end of each line. The ^Z means hold the [Control] key and press [Z]. Wait one minute then turn the LaserWriter off and then back on. It will now be set to DTR (Data Terminal Ready) protocol, to return it to the XON\XOFF protocol do the same thing but change the 4 to a 0. Q: How do I run the demo files? A: Enter DEMO1 from DOS directory DC25 (to get into the directory DC25 on your harddisk enter CD C:\DC25 if your harddisk is the C: drive or CD D:\DC25 if DANCAD3D in on your D: drive harddisk.) The file DEMO1.BAT will work if you have all of the DANCAD3D files installed onto your harddisk. The other demo files (i.e. DEMO2.BAT and so on) work the same way. You can also run the demos from DANCAD3D's main menu by selecting [R]un from the main menu and entering DEMO1.MAC or DEMO2.MAC, or DEMO?.MAC and so on. Q: How do I draw something? A: Select [D]raw from the main menu. After selecting the view type ([F]ront view to start) select [D]raw lines from the drawing editor root menu. With the scale set to 240 the reading of the cursor x, y, and z (at the top of the screen) will read 1 unit equal to 1 inch. To draw a line press [M]ove and pick the amount you want the cursor to move each time you press one of the cursor arrow keys or move the mouse. Then move the cursor the the starting point for a line segment and press the [.] key or the [Del] key or mouse-trackball's [Right- Button]. Then move the cursor to the end point for the line segment and press the [0] key or the [Ins] Key or the mouse-trackball's [Left- Button] to draw and record the line segment. You can group lines into elements by selecting [B]egin new (to begin a new element) from the [E]lements drawing sub-menu or the [D]raw lines sub-menu. Grouping line segments into different elements makes editing drawings much easier, and is the basis of DANCAD3D's flexibility. When you start drawing with an empty workspace the lines you draw will belong to element number one. If there where any elements in the workspace when you started drawing, the lines you draw will be appended to the last element loaded, unless you use the [B]egin new command to start a new element, i.e. element number two. Q: How do I control the amount the drawing cursor moves when I move the mouse or press the cursor keys? A: While in the [D]rawing sub-menu from [D]raw from the main menu press [M]ove to set the amount of movement. For instance if you want to draw to even eights of an inch enter 0.125, or if you want the [DANCAD3D.DOC-78] [ F R E Q U E N T L Y A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S ] cursor to move by one thousandths enter 0.001. If you move the mouse rapidly the cursor will move faster and farther than if you move it slowly. To measure distances relative to the starting point of the line segment you are drawing select [D]elta from the drawing screen menu. To toggle the elastic line that follows the drawing cursor around select [E]lastic from the drawing editor drawing screen. Since the mouse and cursor keys can be used in the drawing editor to both select commands from the menu at the right of the screen and also to control the drawing cursor you will need to learn to press the mouse [Center] button (or [SpaceBar] on the keyboard) to select or de-select the menu selection bar that covers the selected command name in the drawing editors menu (you can select commands in the menu by pressing the [key] shown at the beginning of each command name in the menu when the menu selection bar is off.) Q: Can I erase any of the lines I have drawn? A: Yes, just use the commands in the [L]ines sub-menu of the drawing editor. Be sure that when you mark a line for deletion that it is actually one line segment and not two line segments end to end on a single ray. If you get two line segments end to end use the [P]ull point command in the [L]ines sub-menu to "bend" one of the line segments so you can see where all the end points are. Q: How can I zoom in for fine drawing? A: Press the [+] key until the doted border is around what you want to see then press the [*] key or [*/PrtSc] key to redraw the screen. Q: How can I zoom out to see the whole drawing? A: Press [S]cale and enter the value of the world scale (i.e. 240) you are using or somewhat less (e.g. 120), then press [*/PrtSc] to redraw the screen. The [-] key will also let you zoom out, but be sure you look at the drawing editor scale display (:s) at the top of the screen when the dotted border gets larger than the area of the workspace that shows on the screen. Q: How can I view my 3D drawing in perspective? A: Press [P]review from the main menu and select the perspective you want. The Preview command has its own perspective values and scale that are independent from the display type and scale used in the drawing editor. The perspective values of rotation and scale entered with the preview command also control the perspective of the hardcopy commands and therefore the print quality. Use preview to look at your drawing before you enter the hardcopy sub-menu to print the drawing out. You can press the [+] and [-] keys to rotate the object by redrawing the screen with more or less perspective. Press the [DANCAD3D.DOC-79] [ F R E Q U E N T L Y A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S ] [Escape] key while the preview command screen is displayed (after the re-draw is finished) to have a menu of preview commands pop-up. Q: How can I print out the drawing I have made? A: Press [H] [D] [W] from the main menu to print out a drawing that is in the workspace. Add 90 degrees of rotation in the z axis if you want to print the drawing out long-ways on the paper. Be sure that you have installed your printer's *.PRN file with [C]hange from the main menu. Press [H] [D] [I] to select the port your printer is attached to. Try the printer driver IBM5152.PRN first if your printer has 1/216" line feed. If your printer has 1/180" line feed try driver LQ_1500.PRN. If you have a LaserJet Plus, II, or III compatible printer the procedure is the same but just use the [J]et sub-sub-menu rather than the [D]ot sub-sub-menu. EXAMPLE: 1. Use main menu [C]hange command to install driver name. 2. Use [H] [D] [I] or [H] [J] [I] to install the port name. 3. Load the drawing into the workspace. 4. Use the main menu [P]review command to set perspective. 5. Use [H] [D] [W] or [H] [J] [W] to print the drawing. Q: How can I plot a drawing of what is in the workspace? A: Press [H] [P] [P] to plot a drawing. Be sure that you have installed your plotter's *.PLT file before you try to plot the drawing. Also remember that you must set up your COM? port with the DOS MODE command before it can be used (put MODE in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file so your serial port will be set up automatically when you turn your computer on.) Press [H] [P] [I] to install the computer port your plotter is attached to. EXAMPLE: 1. Use main menu [C]hange command to install driver name. 2. Use [H] [P] [I] from main menu to install the port name. 3. Load the drawing into the workspace. 4. Use the main menu [P]review command to set perspective. 5. Use [H] [P] [P] from main menu to plot the drawing. Q: How can I plot a drawing that I have loaded into the drawing workspace on a PostScript (tm) laser printer? A: Press [H] [L] to laser plot a drawing from DANCAD3D's main menu. The ADOBE_PS.LZR driver is the default PostScript driver and is installed for port COM1. You can select an alternative PostScript driver with the main menu [C]hange command. If you need some port other that COM1 for your printer press [H] [P] [I] from DANCAD3D's main menu. EXAMPLE: 1. If you want some driver other than ADOBE_PS.LZR use the main menu [C]hange command, else skip to 2. [DANCAD3D.DOC-80] [ F R E Q U E N T L Y A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S ] 2. Use [H] [P] [I] from the main menu to install the port name set in driver ADOBE_PS.LZR. 3. Load the drawing to print into the workspace. 4. Use the main menu [P]review command to set perspective. 5. Use [H] [L] to print the drawing. Q: How can I save everything in the drawing workspace so that I can continue working on the drawing later? A: Select [F]iles [S]ave [E]lements from the main menu. The [B]ack-up command in the drawing editor also saves the elements in the workspace as a set of elements. DANCAD3D will also prompt you when you [Q]uit the program from the main menu with [S]ave or [A]bort. If you [S]ave when you [Q]uit DANCAD3D the workspace will be automatically reloaded for you when you run DANCAD3D again (if when you get back into DANCAD3D you do not want the elements that were reloaded you can use the [I]nitialize command in the main menu to clear and empty the drawing workspace.) Q: How can I load a drawing I saved as a set of elements or one of the automatic backup on exit files? A: Select [F]iles [L]oad [E]lements from the main menu. The [R]estore command in the drawing editors [F]iles sub-menu will also load a set of elements back into the workspace. If any elements are currently in the workspace the element set loaded will be renumbered starting with the element number above the element that had the highest number before the new element set was loaded. Q: How come I have trouble loading a 3D file from a drawing I made with DANCAD3D v1.xx into DANCAD3D v2.5x? A: The old 3D-real file is now referred to as Real-3D, and the 3D refers to the new 3D-Quick file type. Press [F] [L] [R] from the main menu to load a 3D file that was drawn with the older version 1.xx of DANCAD3D. To load a file made with DANCAD3D v1.xx into DANCAD87 v2.5x you will first load the file into DANCAD3D v2.5x than save the workspace as an ASCII file in the v2.5x format then load the ASCII conversion of the Real-3D v1.xx file into DANCAD87 v2.5x as an v2.5x ASCII file. DANCAD3D v2.0x drawing data files are fully compatible with DANCAD3D v2.5x (the printer and plotter drivers for v2.5x are different so you should only use the drivers supplied with v2.5x.) Q: What features are new to v2.5? A: Version 2.0 added support for high resolution video modes, and mice-trackballs to draw with. The macro commands were expanded with many powerful new commands, conditional branching through the IF THEN GOTO construct, and the automatic evaluation of expressions and [DANCAD3D.DOC-81] [ F R E Q U E N T L Y A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S ] equations. The drawing feature called ALIAS files was added to let you build symbol libraries and load them very rapidly with simple alt- keystroke commands. A drag feature was added to let you visually position elements where you want them if you are using a fast computer. The lettering commands were enhanced to support a library of font files and a built in font editor lets you make your own special fonts or type-faces. DANCAD87 was introduced in order to use the 80x87 math-co-processor. Version 2.5 broadens the mouse support to most of the program menus and prompts. DANCAD3D now remembers the filenames, and numbers you enter at prompts and can store them in special *.STA status files (you use the [Up-Arrow] and [Down-Arrow] keys at DANCAD3D's entry prompts to recall previously entered values and filenames.) The file directory lets you highlight and select filenames with the mouse or cursor keys so you no longer need to type in filename of files already saved to disk. You can enter the same global search filename characters i.e. * and ? in any filename at any filename prompt in DANCAD3D to get a sorted directory (e.g. enter DEMO????.MAC at a filename prompt to get the names of all the filenames that start with DEMO and end with .MAC.) Support for LaserJet Plus, II, and other HP- PCL code printers has been added. Wide carriage dot matrix printers are now supported. The plotter driver now has plotable area clipping, so you can plot close-up views where some line segments of the drawing fall off of the edge of your plotter paper without the plotter reporting an error. The Windowing and Fit-curve commands have been added to the drawing editor. The draw editor now has Isometric and Oblique views, as well as an adjustable layout grid. The automatic output macro feature now protects the user from ruining a drawing because of a mistake with one of the drawing commands (the output macro also gives some protection against power failure and program crash as well.) The macro command interpreter now runs up to eight times faster, and some macro variables can be stored in RAM rather than on the harddisk (put an | character in front of the variable name, i.e. |XROT rather than XROT.) A simple text editor has been added that can let you edit text for the block text command with foreign language characters that match the characters that will be in the drawing (the screen font for the simple foreign language text editor in the Calligraphy sub-menu can be converted into a text file (with the commands in the Calligraphy sub-menu of the drawing editor) that you can edit with the Write command to have screen fonts include any special symbols you may need.) The Animate command has been added to the main menu Preview command and to the main menu Files sub-menu to bring all the animation features of DANMOVIE v2.x into DANCAD3D with the enhancement of now being able to animate up to 999 frames of continues animation. The 999 frames the Animate command allows for from one to two minutes on continuous animation to be displayed on your computers screen (Animate works best if you have several megabytes of extra memory on your computer to form a RAM disk that the frame files can be stored in.) Unlike DANMOVIE than stored a limited number the pixel files in the computers 512KB to 640KB of memory the Animate command uses your harddisk (or RAM disk) to store up to 999 frame files (you may still want to use DANMOVIE v2.x if you have a [DANCAD3D.DOC-82] [ F R E Q U E N T L Y A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S ] slow harddisk since DANMOVIE can show the frames faster and at a more even rate (DANMOVIE v2.x comes with the user outfit).) Hundreds of other small changes in DANCAD3D have been added to make the program run faster and be easier to use. Q) I get "snow" in the text editor and some or the other text screens, is that normal? A) Some old CGA boards and the cheep CGA clones can have this problem. I recommend that you buy a Hercules monochrome clone board and a amber monitor since the text and graphics are much sharper (250560 pixels for the Hercules, as compared to 128000 pixels for CGA) and Hercules mono graphics video boards do not normally have snow problems. You should be able to get a board and monitor for less than $120. Q) Will DANCAD3D work on my VGA video board? A) DANCAD3D should work on your VGA video board if your video board can be made to support the EGA 640 by 350 pixel by 16 color video mode. DANCAD3D does not currently (Fall of 1990) support the VGA 640 by 480 video mode because there is not enough free memory in the DOS 640KB to store the higher resolution VGA screen for the operation of DANCAD3D's menus. It is actually to your advantage to use the 640 by 350 video mode since the screen will redraw faster (fewer pixels to draw makes the redraw faster) which is usually more important when drawing than the vertical resolution of the screen (DANCAD3D lets you zoom in and out while drawing to see details so it is important that the screen redraw as fast as possible.) Q: If I bought the shareware program from a dealer, why would I also buy something from the program's author? A: The shareware version of DANCAD3D for the most part represents a form of advertising for the shareware author. Unlike some other shareware authors I have not crippled the shareware version of DANCAD3D, so you get to try most of the program features. DANCAD3D is a powerful and feature filled program that it requires more documentation to be fully used than can fit on the shareware disk set. Also you may want to help me out (and your self in the process) so I can continue to make interesting and useful programs like DANCAD3D and DANCAM available to persons like your self at a reasonable price. [DANCAD3D.DOC-83] [ T I P S O N U S I N G D A N C A D 3 D ] QUICK DISCUSSION OF IDEA DANCAD3D, like any other tool designed for technically minded craftsmen, is easier to use once you catch on to the gimmicks of the trade (i.e. CAD-CAM.) This section discusses some tricks that you can apply to make your use of DANCAD3D more efficient once you become familiar with the programs structure. STEPS TO CARRY OUT IDEA 1. Install DANCAD3D on your harddisk and read the file DANCAD3D.DOC. 2. Carefully read all of DANCAD3D's menus and help screens. 3. Plan your tasks before you begin working on them. 4. Try to keep your drawings and Animations as simple as possible at first. You will make better progress if you succeed at simple tasks than if you fail because you "bit off more than you could chew". 5. Avoid using the commands you do not understand. Try to use only the simple commands for drawing lines and printing the drawing that is currently in the workspace. Many of the commands in the menus are used only for special purposes, do not feel that you need to use every command just because you see all of them in the menus! Concentrate on the commands in the [L]ines, [D]raw, and [E]lements sub-menus of the drawing editor, as well as the [S]ave, [L]oad, and [H]ardcopy sub-menus of the main menu. 6. If you have specific tasks in engineering and manufacturing that you are working on you will find that you will learn the less frequently used commands as you need them. When you have found that you can use DANCAD3D at least partly in the production of simple drawings you will probably want to order the full outfit to have a larger base of examples and explanations to draw knowledge and gimmicks from. Once you master DANCAD3D, like so many users have, you will find that it is adaptable to so many tasks that you will use it in many different ways. Some tasks will involve using the text editor and others will not, eventually you will grow to understand that the commands can be used for as many different purposes as there are different users of DANCAD3D. What you produce with DANCAD3D will become a reflection of your effort. DETAILED DISCUSSION OF IDEA The most important tip I can give you is to make sure that DANCAD3D is installed properly on your harddisk. You should use the batch file INSTALL.BAT that comes on the shareware disk set. If the program will not run after being installed the reason is probably that [DANCAD3D.DOC-84] [ T I P S O N U S I N G D A N C A D 3 D ] you did not install it properly or you have bad copies of the disks. If you see the DOS message "Abort, Retry, Ignore" never press any key other than [R] for Retry. If Retry will not work your disks are bad and you should get replacements (probably directly from me (at a charge) since many dealers make copies from disks they did not get from me.) If you get the DOS error message "Data reading error Drive C" you harddisk probably needs to be repaired. As mentioned before the DANCAD3D error message "Run time error F0" means that DANCAD3D is not properly installed (there are 5 disks in the shareware set) or you forgot to use the DOS CD command to change to the DC25 directory, i.e. CD DC25 on the DOS command line before you enter DANCAD3D to run the program. GENERAL TIPS ON RUNNING DANCAD3D When you reboot (turn on) your computer DOS will probably set the directory of your harddisk to its root directory. In order to run DANCAD3D you will need to use the DOS CD command to change the directory to the one DANCAD3D was installed i.e. DC25. EXAMPLE: C>CD C:\DC25 C>DANCAD3D Before you can print out drawings made with DANCAD3D you will need to use the main menu [C]hange command to install the names of the printer drivers. You can get a listing of the drivers installed in the sub-directory DC25\DRIVERS by entering a filename with the same "wild card" characters (i.e. * and ?) that you use with the DOS commands (e.g. DRIVERS\*.PRN, DRIVERS\*.PLT, DRIVERS\*.JET.) Be sure that you use the proper driver for your hardware. If you have your printer or plotter on some port other than the one the driver has selected you will need to use the [I]nstall command in the [D]ot, [P]lot, or [J]et sub-menus of the [H]ardcopy sub-menu (the PostScript drivers are [I]nstalled in the [P]lot sub-menu.) If you use the serial ports you will need to use the DOS MODE command as described elsewhere in this file BEFORE you run DANCAD3D to set up your serial port to match your plotter or printer (probably set to 9600 baud.) Put the MODE command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file with the [W]rite command from the main menu. Remember to save the AUTOEXEC.BAT file back to your harddisk (usually the root directory) before you press [Control] and [Alt] and [Del] keys on the keyboard! The AUTOEXEC.BAT file will automatically set-up your serial port(s) every time you turn your computer on (make sure that you have two serial ports on your computer if you use a mouse since you cannot share a serial port with the mouse and printer or plotter.) From its inception DANCAD3D has been designed to produce tangible products. When working with DANCAD3D you should look through DANCAD3D to the end product. What DANCAD3D looks like as a program on the computer screen is not important since you are not normally showing DANCAD3D to people, you, rather, are showing the drawings, films, and [DANCAD3D.DOC-85] [ T I P S O N U S I N G D A N C A D 3 D ] manufactured goods to people. The quality of the finished goods produced with DANCAD3D, DANCAM, and DANPLOT are as good as most practical tasks need. DANCAD3D, DANMOVIE, DANCAM, and DANPLOT can all be run from the DOS command line. DANCAD3D accepts the name of a macro file from the DOS command line. DANMOVIE accepts the name of a set of pixel frame files from the DOS command line. DANCAM and DANPLOT will accept the name of an ASCII data file that holds the tool path that you want your machine tool to take from the DOS command line. Because the programs will accept actuating instructions in the form of data or macro files you can write DOS batch files that will run DANCAD3D, and DANCAM or DANPLOT sequentially and automatically. (In the next example the prompt reads C:\DC25> if you are using the DOS PROMPT command otherwise the DOS prompt would be C>.) EXAMPLE: C:\DC25>DANCAD3D OFSZ1MIL.MAC C:\DC25>DANCAM TPPART07.ASC 1 C:\DC25>DANPLOT TPPART09.ASC 1 C:\DC25>DANMOVIE ANISET01 Always remember that DANCAD3D and the other programs are designed to run them selves automatically. You do not need (but may want to) be present for your computer to print dozens of different drawings on your dot matrix or laser printer. If the program is going to print ten drawings overnight it does not mater that each takes half an hour to print since the printer would be idle all night anyway. Likewise if you are machining parts with DANCAM the time required to automatically manufacture each part is only important if the machine has no idle time. My own experience is that manually operated devices must sit idle most of the day, but automating the devices lets you set them up and then make parts while you do other things (during the time when the devices would normally be idle, or to free you from manually operating the device thereby giving you more goods and more time to do other things.) I should warn you that letting equipment run unattended carries a risk of fire or other types of damage. If you plan your computers time for tasks that will take several hours for when you are away from the computer doing other things the time required to do the tasks might as well be instantaneous since you personally spent no time getting the tasks done (except for perhaps the small amount of time writing the macro or batch file to execute the task.) GENERAL TIPS ON USING THE DRAWING EDITOR One question I have been asked several times is how to visualize the edge of the paper when working in DANCAD3D's drawing workspace. The simplest way is just to divide the width and height of the paper by two and watch the reading of the x, y, and z values at the top of the drawing screen. An example of centering a drawing on the final print out for an 8 1/2 by 11 inch page would be to keep the x values between -4.25 and +4.25, and the y values between -5.50 and +5.50 (note that most printers do not print all the way to the edge of the [DANCAD3D.DOC-86] [ T I P S O N U S I N G D A N C A D 3 D ] paper, so you will have to allow for the "printable region" that your printer supports (the printable region may not be symmetrical around the center of the piece of paper).) Another trick to center drawings is to use the [R]ectangle command in the [2]D-Shapes sub-menu of the drawing editor to draw a rectangle element the size of the paper with the corners of the rectangle at the appropriate +/- x and y values. After using the [R]ectangle command be sure to use the [B]egin command in the [E]lements sub-menu before you start drawing line segments. When you use the [B]egin command the line segments in the drawing will belong to element #2 and higher, enabling you to use the [E]rase element command in the [E]lements sub- menu of the drawing editor to erase the rectangular outline before you save or print out your drawing. If your drawing will be a perspective projection of three- dimensional elements in the workspace the centering of the drawing may need to be altered for best composition experimentally. The x_shift and y_shift parameters of the main menu [P]review command let you slide the drawing around to center the drawing as needed. You can set all the factors in the [F]actors option from the [P]review command pop-up menu to the inactive value except one of the shift factors so you can slide the drawing by pressing the [+] or [-] keys (if you see that the screen is redrawing off center hit the [SpaceBar], answer [Y] to abort redraw, then press [P], [F], or [+] or [-] again as needed.) Another way to center drawings is to use the [O]ffset command from the main menu's [N]umerical sub-menu or the drawing editors [E]lements sub-menu. To move all the elements in the drawing at once select element number 0, and offset the elements from there current position. You use the main menu [P]review command to find x and y shift values and then use the x and y shift values you found in the [O]ffset command to center drawings if the drawings will be printed with the x and y rotation perspective parameters set to 0 (offsetting elements in the workspace changes where the line of sight passes through the elements but this change is only visable if x and y rotations are used in the printout, you can avoid making the change in the line of sight visable by saving the workspace as a 2D-Real file, initializing the workspace, loading the 2D-Real file back in and Offsetting the now 2D perspective of the 3D elements that were in the workspace.) Three features of the drawing editor should be kept in mind while drawing: the Up-date list for the screen redraw, the WYSIWYG toggle, and the interrupt up-date pop-up menu. The [U]p-date list command in the drawing editors root menu lets you turn off elements so that they are not re-drawn when the screen re-draws. You should turn off all the elements that are not in the part of the drawing you are working on so the screen will redraw as fast as possible. The [W]YSIWYG toggle (in the drawing editors [S]et-up sub-menu) should be toggled off normally and only turned on when you really NEED to see exactly how thickened line segments and lettering will look in the final print out. When the WYSIWYG is off thickened lines are drawn as thickness 1 and therefore redraw faster. When you need to move around to another [DANCAD3D.DOC-87] [ T I P S O N U S I N G D A N C A D 3 D ] part of your drawing you can set the [S]cale to 120 (or whatever will show the area you want), then press [Z] then press [*]. If you hit the [SpaceBar] while the screen is redrawing a menu pops up that will let you have every other line skipped while the screen re-draws. Usually skipping every other line segment during the screen redraw will still allow you to see where to put the cursor so you can zoom in (you zoom in by pressing the [+] key repeatedly and then press the [*] key when the doted border shows the desired area to fill the screen) and also save a lot of time since the screen will redraw twice as fast (you can also abort the redraw from the pop-up menu that comes up when you press the [SpaceBar] while the drawing editor screen is redrawing.) If you are using the automatic output macro while drawing you can put notes in the output macro by pressing the [;] key (the [;] key works from most of DANCAD3D's menus.) If you want to mark a spot in the output macro that you will want to edit later with the text editor you might enter a comment that has some special character or word in it thereby giving the search and replace option something unique to search for, e.g. enter a macro comment like: { @$$ Change font above to BLOCK20.FON } where the @$$ would be what you enter when the search and replace option asks you what to search for (Search and replace is activated in the text editor with ^[Q]^[A] (or [Alt][F1]) and stopped by pressing ^[U] (or [Alt][F2].) If you need come back to a point somewhere in the drawing you can use the [R]ecord and [J]ump commands. The [R]ecord command should be used if you need to zoom in to get a very precise position for the drawing cursor and then zoom out and use the cursor for some other task, then return to the precise location you first went to and [R]ecorded. The [J]ump command will return you to the [R]ecorded precise location much faster than fumbling around with the mouse and [M]ove command a second time. The [R]ecord and [J]ump commands are also useful for centering the cursor at different points in the drawing so you can divide up the drawing into equal sections like tiles that allow you to redraw close-up views of sub-divisions of the drawing without thinking about where the cursor should go all the time. DANCAD3D can print out drawings with unlimited numbers of line segments, but you will need to divide the drawing into sections that can be held in the workspace. Dividing the drawing into sections that can be held in the workspace is not normally a problem since the workspace holds about 10,000 line segments at once. One simple way to divide your drawing is to start the drawing by drawing the basic skeleton (the skeleton can be the drawing made up to the point that curves and lettering are to be added, that is less than 2000 mostly long straight line segments) and then saving the skeleton to disk. You can load the skeleton element and draw over it until the workspace is full then save the workspace as a set of elements, initialize, load [DANCAD3D.DOC-88] [ T I P S O N U S I N G D A N C A D 3 D ] the skeleton element again and draw some more until the workspace is full and repeat the process until the drawing is finished. Although this method takes some thought it allows the program to work much faster since only the lines in the workspace need to be drawn to the screen. After you have built up a collection of sets of Elements files on your harddisk that all belong to one drawing, you can use these following procedures for printing the sets of Elements on your dot matrix printer or HP-PCL type laser printer: 1. Make a Page file with the [M]ake page command (The commands in the [D]ot and [J]et sub-menus of the [H]ardcopy sub-menu are very similar but should only be used with their corresponding *.PRN or *.JET drivers.) With the commands in the [J]et sub-menu of the [H]ardcopy sub-menu of the main menu you must first install the proper LaserJet type driver by using the main menu [C]hange command. 2. Initialize the workspace with the [I]nitialize command. 3. Load a set of elements. 4. Add the lines in the workspace to the page file you made in step 1. above with the [A]dd line segments to page command. 5. Repeat steps 2. through 4. until all the element sets have been added to the page file on your harddisk. 6. Use the [P]rint command to print the page file you added all the line segments to. The steps for printing unlimited numbers of line segments to a plotter or PostScript laser printer are: 1. Use the [I]nstall command in the [P]lot sub-menu of the [H]ardcopy sub-menu to prepare three drivers for your plotter, the first should initialize the plotter, plot lines, but not eject the page, the second driver should only plot lines, and the third driver should plot lines, then send the pen home and eject the page. For PostScript plotters the drivers FIRST.LZR, MIDDLE.LZR, and LAST.LZR are supplied on the disks you have. 2. Initialize the workspace with the [I]nitialize command. 3. Load a set of elements. 4. Plot the elements in the workspace using the [P]lot command in the [P]lot sub-menu of the [H]ardcopy sub-menu. Remember to use the first driver for the first plot, the second driver for next plots except the last plot, and the third driver for the last plot. Not all plotters need three drivers, for instance most flat bed plotters have no problems with being initialized and sent home for each plot since the paper cannot louse register. [DANCAD3D.DOC-89] [ T I P S O N U S I N G D A N C A D 3 D ] 5. Repeat steps 2. through 4. until all the element sets have been added to the page file on your harddisk. 6. Remove the finished drawing from your plotter. I should mention that you should not use thickened lines in drawings that will be plotted on a mechanical pen plotter since the pen tends to poke holes in the drawing! It is better to control the line width in pen plotters by selecting different with pens by using the line color line attribute (the pens in your plotter can be any color or width you want since the color numbers of the line color attribute in DANCAD3D are only numbers between 1 and 127 and can stand for any type of pen you want to use since the color number is just passed to your plotters pen changer.) CLOSING COMMENT FOR SHAREWARE DOCUMENTATION As a closing comment I would like to say that I hope you enjoy using DANCAD3D and are able to get some practical work accomplished with it. I always enjoy hearing from users of DANCAD3D and seeing what kind of tasks they are putting DANCAD3D to. Over the last five years DANCAD3D has evolved into an interesting and in some respects unique tool that has taken on a life of its own and has become independent of my direct control. Please let me apologize if you have any problems with the copy of the program you got from a third party (if the program is not working it is not because I have purposefully sent defective copy to the distributor to make you register, on the contrary I have carefully tested the master disks that I have sent to the distributors to insure that as much as I can that the disks you get will be exact copies of my set of master shareware disks (unfortunately not all distributors write to me for a set of the current master disks).) Feel free to write to me if you are having problems or just have some comments or suggestions. In the past I have answered every letter I have received but the cost of postage and material in answering so many letters of inquiry (I get about 30 letters asking questions for each order for the outfit) has absorbed most of my profit (sending several sheets in a letter to Australia costs $.90 in postage) from the sales of the outfit. So feel free to write, but PLEASE send some stamps or international postal vouchers for the return postage! Please help more people learn about DANCAD3D by sharing good copies of these five shareware disks. Until we work together again, best wishes for happy computing from the author of DANCAD3D. [DANCAD3D.DOC-90]