Copyright: Visual Help Copyright® 1993 Firas Bushnaq


Contents

Design-A-Room Version 2.3

Copyright 1994 Robert Scott Mace and Robert A. Mace. All Rights Reserved.

Introduction

Getting Started

Legal Notice

Design-A-Room is a copyrighted program. It may not be changed or modified in any way except by the authors.
.
All warranties are disclaimed, including damage to hardware and/or software from use of this program.  In no event will we be liable to you for any damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of your use or inability to use the
program, or any other claim by any other party.  In any event, the extent of our liability is limited to amount of money received by us from you.

Every effort has been made to ensure that Design-A-Room is as clean and free of bugs as possible.  However, no program can ever be guaranteed to be free of all defects.

The program, Design-A-Room, including the code, appearance, documentation, organization and structure, is a copyrighted product, and is the sole property of Epsilon Computing and is protected by the Copyright laws of this country. Your use of the product consitutes a license to
use the program under the following conditions:

You may:

Use Design-A-Room on one computer. If at any time, you decide to change computers, you must delete or erase from the first computer, after copying to the second computer, any and all files belonging to or relating to the program Design-A-Room and the files contained herein. Under no circumstances may this program be used on more than one computer at a time.

Make one copy to use as a backup or archival copy. This copy is to be used ONLY in case of accidental destruction of the original.

Transfer the program Design-A-Room to another person, providing that you transfer the whole of the product, including all files, disks, and  ocumentation. You may NOT keep any copies of the program. This includes any backup or "archival" copies. This person must also agree to the conditions set forth by this document.

You may not:

Transfer or rent the program Design-A-Room, or any parts thereof, or use, copy or modify the program, except as expressly permitted in this document.

Decompile or reverse assemble the program, Design-A-Room, or any parts thereof.

Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

WARRANTY

Design-A-Room  is supplied "AS IS."  The authors make NO warranties, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, fitness for particular purpose.  The authors assume no liability for damages, direct or indirect, from the use of   Design-A-Room.  The user assumes full responsibility for the use of this program.

Epsilon Computing warrants that the program, Design-A-Room, will substantially perform the stated in the program documentation, or generally comform to the specifications included in the enclosed program documentation. Also, the enclosed disk will have the stated program files on it, and will be free of physical defects which would cause the program not to load. If this is not the case, you only recourse is to return the program disk to us, and we will then send you a replacement disk, free of charge.


Introduction

This is a fully functional Registered version of Design-A-Room.

This version includes several enhancements to this program not

in the Shareware version.

Design-A-Room was designed to take full advantage of the benefits of Microsoft Windows.  Practically everything that you do in Design-A-Room you do with a click of a mouse - no typing in commands - no trying to remember strange key commands in order to do everything. About the only time you will need the keyboard is to type in the name of your room!

Design-A-Room lets you draw a room, put all the furniture in it, in exactly the right dimensions, and then move the pieces around to your heart's content-- without ever getting up from your chair!
this is a test

Put walls wherever you want-- move them, resize them, make any shape and size room up to 40 x 25 feet.  Put several rooms together on the same page - or put the same room on twice to see what different arrangements look like.

Design-A-Room comes loaded with 17 different wall, doors, fixtures, etc., plus 31 different furniture pieces.  Couches, pianos, tables, even a pool table and fireplace.! All professionally drawn so that you know exactly what you are looking at when you view the room. You can re-size each piece to the nearest inch, so you can design your room to your exact dimentions.

The "Snap-to-Grid" option lets you quickly put your furniture and fixtures in the room. Then turn off "Snap-to-Grid" to let you arrange the pieces precisely where you want them. "Snap-to-Grid" also makes putting walls up a "snap."

Design-A-Room shows you the exact sizes of your furniture pieces, and also the exact location of each piece in the room to the nearest inch.  No guessing necessary!

When you are finished with your room, you can save it to disk and print it out on any  Windows 3.1 supported printer.

With Design-A-Room you know what your room will look like BEFORE you spend all your time and energy moving heavy pieces of furniture around!

Design-A-Room's intuitive interface makes rearranging furniture almost a pleasure!

Registered version only---

The "Custom Toolbar" option lets you add up to 18 of your own icons. You can create these icons through the program.

Text can be added in any size using any font you have installed. Effects such as bold, italics, underline, and strikethru can be used. In addition, text can be placed in any color.

You can increase your room sizes - this is limited only by your screen resolution up to 100x100.

You can turn off the scales and the grid.

To reach us:

We can be reached for questions, comments, etc.
at the above address or:

by calling (513) 563-4871

by calling The Epsilon Computing Board at (513) 563-6475 (our BBS)
N-8-1   2400-14,400 bps - U.S.Robotics Dual Standard.

by Netmail to Scott Mace or Bob Mace at Net/Node 006/042 on the GT Power Network

on CompuServe (user ID: 72712,2320)

on Internet (macers@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu).

on America Online - through the Internet connection - same address as above.

Call The Epsilon Computing Board for information

for information and new programs.

Thank you for registering Design-A-Room!


Getting Started

To Start a Room:

Measure the actual walls and furniture pieces of the room you want to design. This is the most critical step. The more accurate your dimensions are, the more accurate you final room will be.

When measuring, measure the length and the width, looking down from the top. When measuring odd-sized pieces, such as a grand piano, or a round table, measure the longest dimensions each way.

Start with the top wall. Click the left mouse button on the left/right wall icon to put it in the room. This will put the icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the room. Drag the wall icon close to the left-hand-side of the room. Let go of the mouse button. Then, by clicking the left mouse button just to the right of the icon, and holding the mouse mouse button down, drag the end on the wall icon to the right, watching the botton of the screen until you get to the correct length and let go of the mouse button. Then use the mouse to drag the piece exactly into place. The numbers at the bottom of the screen will show the exact position of the mouse cursor.

Repeat the above steps to add other walls, doors, windows, and other fixtures.

To change the size of the possible room (screen size)

The size of the room has been enlarged from the Shareware version. It is only limited to 100' by 100', or the screen resolution of your system.

To increase the screen resolution, it is necessary to run the Windows Setup program, and change your resolution from 640x480 to either 800x600 or 1024x768. You must have a monitor and video card capable of displaying this resolution to do this. You may also need the Windows installation disks, or the display drivers that came with your video card for the desired resolutions and colors. See your Windows 3.1 manual and the manual for your graphics card and monitor for information on how to change your screen resolution.

With the larger resolutions, you can "mazimize" the Design-A-Room window in order to see a larger work area. It may be necessary to use the "Windows" menu in order to see and use the icon bars.

To Place Furniture in the Room:

After you have the fixtures place, add all of your furniture following the same procedure as above. After a piece is in place, it can be easily moved to another location by dragging it, or re-sized by dragging just outside the icon.

To Move a Piece of Furniture or Fixture:

Simply drag it to the new location with the mouse.

To Re-size a Piece of Furniture or Fixture:

Move the cursor over the desired item.  Then, placing the mouse cursor just outside the furniture box, and holding the left button down, move until desired size is achieved.

To Duplicate of Piece of Furniture or Fixture:

Click on the piece of furniture with the RIGHT mouse button to select it. Go to the "Edit" menu and choose "Copy." Then choose "Paste." A duplicate of the piece of furniture will appear at the top corner of the room. Click on this piece of furniture and then move or resize it as necessary.

To Cut Out a Piece of Furniture or Fixture:

Click on the piece of furniture with the RIGHT mouse button to select.  Go to the "Edit" menu and choose "Cut."  Then the piece can be pasted in a new location with the "Paste" command.

To Delete a Piece of Furniture or Fixture:

Click on the piece with the RIGHT mouse button, then go to the "Edit" menu, and choose "Delete".

To Turn Snap-to-Grid On or Off:

Go to the "Options" menu, and click on "Snap to Grid."  This will turn "Snap-to-Grid" off. Clicking on it again turns it on.  With "Snap-to-Grid" on, furniture and fixtures automatically "snap" to the nearest grid line as they are moved or resized.  These lines are six inches apart.  With "Snap-to-
Grid" off, pieces can be moved to the nearest inch.

To Show Pieces Without Outlines:

Go to the "Options" menu, and click on "Show Outlines."  Use "Show Outlines" to easily set up your room then turn them off to view the finished product.

Note: It is much easier to set up your room with "Show Outlines" turned on.

To turn the grid or scales on or off:

Go to the "Options" menu, and click on "Display Grid" to turn the grid on or off, or click on "Display Scales" to turn the scales on or off.

Note: On slower computers, turning the grid on or off may take up to 15-20 seconds.

To create your own icons:

Go to the "Options" menu, and choose "Custom Toolbar." Click on a blank icon, and choose "edit." Design-A-Room will then automatically run Windows Paintbrush, and load the icon onto the screen. Note: you must have Windows Paintbrush on your system for this option to work.
This program is included with Windows 3.1, so consult your manual if it is not available.

Click on "View", then "Zoom in,"  then click on the blank icon. This will enlarge the icon to a series of small squares. You can then use Paintbrush to draw your icon, using the colors at the bottom of the screen. When you are finished editing your icon, click on "View" then "Zoom out."
Then click on "File," then "Save," then "File," then "Exit."

To edit another icon, click on the desired icon file, then click on "Edit." Otherwise, click on "Done," to return to Design-A-Room.

To change the names of the icons, click on a name in the list (e.g. "Custom #1") then type the new name (e.g. "Workbench") in the box labeled "Name:."  Whenever you select this icon in the future, it's new name will be shown on the screen.

The custom icons can be re-edited or changed as often as desired.

The custom icons work on the screen just as the regular ones do.

The Cutom Toolbar is not shown on the screen by default.  To show the Custom Toolbar, select "Custom" from the "Window" menu.
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Note: Design-A-Room uses the same custom toolbar for all files.

Therefore, changing the icons will cause them to change in all

previously saved files. Do not attempt to change the filenames

of any of the Design-A-Room files outside of the program, as

doing this will cause errors while running the program.

To add text to your rooms:

Go to the "Text" menu, then click on "Fonts..."  This will bring up the Fonts dialog box which will alow you to select the font, size, and color of your text.  You can also select special effects such as bold, underline, italics, and strikethru.

Once you have selected a font, go to the "Text" menu, then click on "Add text." This will put a small, blank rectangle in the bottom right-hand-corner of the screen. Move the box into place and enlarge it by d agging the bottom right-hand-corner to the desired size. Type in your text as
desired. When you are finished, you can move and re-size the text box as you would a regular icon. You can also put the text box on top of a regular icon box, if desired.

If your text is longer than the box you have made, use your left arrow key to move to the beginning of the line. Then re-size the text box as necessary.

Once a text box is on the screen, you can Cut, Copy or Delete it just like an icon.  Simply select the text box by cli king on it with the RIGHT mouse button.  Then you select "Cut," "Copy," or "Delete" from the "Edit" menu.  Once the text has been cut or copied, you can use the "Paste"
command to place it anywhere on the screen.

Note: The "Show Outlines" command does not affect text boxes. To better see where the text box is, be sure to turn the grid on from the "Options" menu.

To Save a Finished Room:

Go to "File" menu and choose "Save" or "Save As."  "Save" will save the current room with the current filename. "Save As" will let you save the file under a different name.

Design-A-Room automatically adds the extension "ROM" to all saved room files.

To Load a Previously Made Room:

Click on the "File" menu. Choose "Open."  Click on the the desired file, and then click on "OK."

Note: This version of Design-A-Room introduces a new,

enhanced file format. It will read files from all previous versions

and, when they are saved, they will be saved in the new format.

To Start a New Room:

Click on the "File menu. Choose "New."

To Print the Room:

From the "File" menu, choose "Print."

Note: The room will print as it appears on the screen. To print without outlines, grid or scales, simply turn them off from the "Options" menu before printing.

To Exit the Program:

From the "File" menu, choose "Exit."