Club Amiga de Montreal - CAM/CAM_CD_1.iso/files/544b.lha/Loom_v1.0/Docs/Loomv1.doc

Text File | 1991-09-06 | 9.3 KB | 366 lines

         LOOM Version 1.0



         User Guide



         by

         Martin Kees





INTRODUCTION



Loom simulates an eight harness loom.  With LOOM you can
experiment with pattern design in an instant feedback
environment.



Load Loom from the CLI by typing:



  Loom



when in the LOOM directory or double click on the LOOM icon
from the WORKBENCH.



LOOM will come up in a custom 320x200 LORES screen that can be
toggled with WORKBENCH by using the Left-Amiga N and M keys.
The various rectangles you see are gadgets that allow you to
control aspects of the woven pattern.







GRAND GADGET TOUR



THREADING BOX

Starting at the top of the screen is a large rectangle with
arrows and a slider gadget above it.  This is the THREADING
box. It controls the vertical threads or WARP threads. When
you click in the threading box you create a new warp thread of
the current color. There are eight invisible levels in the
threading box. You can see them after you click a warp thread
into existance. The thread will extend down the screen and
above it will be a small colored box. If you click above or
below the box you will see it change position.  The position
of the box selects the HARNESS that this warp thread is
attached to.



The threading box is a window into the full width of the
fabric we can weave. We can use the arrow buttons or slider to
scroll our view of the fabric to the left and right. When LOOM
opens memory has been set for 300 warp threads but more can be
added if needed.  The only limit is available memory in your
Amiga.





TREADLING BOX

At the right side of the screen is a vertical rectangle and
it's arrow and slider gadgets.  This is the TREADLING box. It
controls the horizontal WEFT threads.  Clicking in the treadle
box creates a weft thread or PICK of the current color.  There
are eight horizontal positions for each pick as indicated by
the small colored box.  The position of this box determines
which TREADLE or pedal was depressed when weaving this thread.





TIEUP BOX

The square that connects the threading and treadling boxes is
called the TIEUP box. It is an array of 64 little squares that
can be toggled on or off by clicking on them. When a tiemark
is displayed in the tieup, it represents the linking of a
harness and a treadle. Each harness can be tied to any or all
of the eight treadles and vice versa.  The pattern of the
tieup is an important control of the fabric design.



The tieup is the main control for each weft thread going OVER
or UNDER a warp.  When LOOM opens, a tiemark above a treadle
causes a pick woven to pass OVER any warp whose harness is
tied to that treadle.  That behavior is called a FALLING shed,
since the warp falls below the weft thread as it crosses the
loom.



A toggle of any tiemark in the tieup causes the display to
update any changes to the fabric in view.





COLOR CONTROL

Above and to the right of the tieup are color select patches.
Clicking on a color patch will cause it to be the CURRENT
color. The current color is displayed in the larger square in
the  extreme upper right corner.  Clicking in this box calls
up a color control window.  You  can change any of the default
colors by adjusting the RGB sliders in the color window. The
color window can be left open if you wish and dragged.  The
"D" box will return you to the default palette.





CLOTH DISPLAY

The last area of the screen, the large open area at the lower
left is where the design is displayed. It also is a gadget.
When you click on any threads in this area, the color of the
thread becomes the current color. This could save some mousing
mileage. No change will occur if you click in the non-thread
background area.





MENU GRAND TOUR



LOOM MENU

The LOOM menu controls input and output of various types. When
any subwindow is selected, a double click of the right mouse
button will display the menu bar. Every menu option has an
alternate keyboard key shortcut using the Right Amiga key.
I've tried to make them either start with the same letter as
the menu command or at least have some mnemonic relationship,
but there are oddballs.



NEW

New erases everything. No second chance either. SO SAVE YOUR
HARD WORK OFTEN!



LOAD

Load loads a loom file into the loom. When asked for the file
name include the complete path from the current directory. You
might wish to ASSIGN some directories for pattern storage to
avoid typing long file names. If the file isn't found or is
not a LOOM file, the pointer will indicate the problem. Of
course the previous LOOM contents are lost by the Load.



SAVE

Save saves all the current data as a LOOM file to be loaded
later on by the LOAD command. Will overwrite a file of the
same name without warning.  If you are interested in the
format of the LOOM file, read the LoomFile.doc file (Sounds
like RAP lingo?).



SAVE-IFF

Saves a graphic dump of the screen in IFF-ILBM format to the
given filename. Will overwrite a file of the same name without
warning. If you want to print a draft draw down use this
format to save and use one of the many IFF graphic/print
utilities to print out your design.





PRINT

Prints a traditional draft document giving threading, tieup,
and treadling information in block format. No draw down of the
design is printed. Uses the PRT: device so preferences must be
set for your printer. Sorry no abort available.



QUIT

Do not pass GO, do not collect $200, just QUIT.





PREFS MENU



Prefs selects options for the appearance of the display. Size,
Resolution, Color, and shed-type are changed from this menu.



RESOLUTION

Resolution toggles the display between 320x200 LORES and
640x400 HIRES INTERLACE. Any open subwindows will be closed
before the change and not reopened. The visible threads will
change after the resolution switch though the leftmost and
topmost threads will be maintained if possible.



COLOR

Color has two subitems: CONTROL which opens the color window
and DEFAULT which restores the default palette.



SIZES

Sizes opens the SIZE window. The size window controls the
width of the warp and weft threads. The SETT control adjusts
the spacing between the warp and weft. The three slider
controls will cause an update of the screen to reflect the new
setting. Since full screen updates take more time with tiny
settings and when in HIRES, you might want to optimize the
order you make size and resolution changes. The size window
can be left open and dragged to any convenient place on the
screen. Odd sizes will cause partial threads at the right and
bottom of the screen to not be drawn. Clicking in that area
will affect the thread to the left or above, NOT the unseen
partial. They are still present and can be scrolled into view.



SHED-TYPE

The two subitems select between a FALLING and RISING shed.
Note that toggling between the two is the same as looking
through to the back side of the fabric!  Changing shed-type
reverses the effect of the tiemarks in the tieup box.





MODES MENU



The MODES menu determines what happens when you click in the
threading and treadling boxes.



OVERWRITE

Overwrite is the default mode when LOOM opens. There are three
subitems in the overwrite category. Overwrite BOTH means that
a click will overwrite a thread and change it's color and
harness or treadle position. Overwrite COLOR will only change
the color of the thread, not it's harness or treadle.
Overwrite POSITION will only change the harness or treadle the
thread is associated with. The three options are mutually
exclusive. Selecting one deselects the others. Use of the
modes might make design easier in logical steps. You could
first choose the positions in BOTH mode using a constant
color. Then with COLOR selected you could go back and add
color patterns without having to worry about messing up the
positions.



INSERT

Insert acts like Overwrite BOTH but the new thread is inserted
into the display. The old thread at the insertion point is
pushed to the right or down. There is a full screen update
after an insert so you probably will want to insert with a
large warp and weft size setting to speed things up. Insert
deselects any other MODE.  Insert is the only way to increase
the total number of threads. More memory will only be
allocated when insert causes colored threads to extend past
the 300th warp or pick position. It is possible to die when
inserting because of memory fragmentation.  So with large
designs saving often is advised. Loading a large pattern after
a fresh boot can help avoid the fragmentation problem.



DELETE

Delete deletes the thread clicked on and causes all threads to
the right or below to be pulled into the gap. Delete also
triggers a full screen update and deselects any other MODE.





That completes our tour of LOOM.  I hope you find it useful
and entertaining.   LOOM 2.0 is in the planing stages. I hope
to improve editing ease with cut and paste commands,
operations on selected ranges, and add more harnesses and
treadles.  I welcome any comments or questions about LOOM.
LOOM was written in JFORTH Professional 2.0 by Delta Research.
Anyone looking for a fast and friendly programming environment
should give JFORTH a look.





Martin Kees

1116 Road 68

Pasco, WA 99301

509-545-6262