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- Page A-1
-
- COMMANDS.DOC
-
- The keys are listed in alphabetical order with their key number. All key name
- and number combinations are unique. Since some of the commands are deep into
- the key tree, we will list after some of them the path in the form used in
- QUICK.DOC
-
- 5ALL
-
- Resets the screen parameters so that subsequent redraws will display all (well
- most) of the work area. The cursor moves to its present x,y position in the
- new space. If data is entered before a redraw, it is entered in the new space
- so beware! Best to redraw immediately after a change of screen area. We don't
- immediately redraw because redraw takes a long time and you might change your
- mind.
-
- 2ARC
-
- Arc requests entry of three points counter clockwise. An arc is generated
- which starts at the first point, passes counterclockwise through the second
- point, and ends at the third point. The algorithm used is to draw
- perpendiculars to chords between point 1 and 2 and between 2 and 3. The center
- is placed at the intersection and the arc starts at point 1 and ends at point
- 3. The center is placed on the current grid at the expense of having the arc
- pass through the points. This is because the find operation searches only on
- the current grid. If the center was placed exactly, you would need to search
- on a one-mil grid to find arcs and circles. If you want to place an accurate
- arc, place it on a one-mil grid. But be warned, it could take thirty years to
- find a worst placed object searching on a one-mil grid. So get very close
- before starting such a search. Arc line width is determined by the current
- setup.
-
- 3AUTO
-
- Auto allows setting up the window seen by the screen of the whole working
- space. It is usually used to go from a big view of the job to select a smaller
- area. For use the cursor is placed at the upper left hand corner of the
- desired viewing area. When AUTO is pressed, the screen prompt asks for a
- screen width. When entered, The cursor immediately moves to its new position
- in the altered view, but the screen is not redrawn. Beware! Data entered after
- a view change and before a redraw will be entered in its position on the new
- screen view. It probably will not be where you want it. We do not redraw
- automatically to give you a chance to change your mind.
-
- 9BACK
-
- The F9 key backs up one menu. It is one of the primary means of getting around
- the menus. Except for two places where it produces a prompt, it terminates
- the present operation and backs up one menu. In the two cases, leaving a
- symbol and leaving a job, where work or time would be lost a prompt asks "are
- you sure?". Answering anything but "y" will stop the backup. Backup (F9)
- stops most long operations. In particular it stops a search operation and a
- redraw. If a line has been started but not ended it ends the line.
-
- 4CENTER
-
- Select lines drawn in the dot - long dash format used by draftsman to indicate
- center lines. Centerlines are not presently supported on anything but the
- Page A-2
- screen and the DOS screen dump. No effect on pads, symbols, lettering, or
- arcs.
-
- 5CHANGE
-
- Change the entry in the redraw menu. When change is pressed, the current
- screen view parameters are loaded into the redraw table at the currently
- selected number. A prompt asks for the name for this screen view which it
- enters. F10 will cause redraw at the just entered view, or UP DWN may be used
- to select another view. 4SETUP can be used to get to the area selection menu
- without redrawing each time if you can use the cursor position to select views.
-
- 1CIRCLE
-
- The prompt asks for a radius. After the radius is entered, the FIND, DELETE,
- Circles can also now be found, deleted, etc.. When a circle is found with a
- different radius, the radius is changed to the found radius. The last radius
- is remembered until arc entry is left. Circle line width, color, and level are
- determined by the current setup.
-
- 3CREATE
-
- Do something creative to a symbol. This path takes you to the creation of a
- new symbol or the the addition or deletion of material from an old one. This
- is also the path to kill (delete) a symbol and the path to make a symbol a
- library.
-
- 3DASH
-
- Select lines drawn dashed. Dashed lines are not supported presently on
- anything but the screen and the DOS screen dump. No effect on pads, symbols,
- lettering, or arcs.
-
- 2DELETE
-
- Deletes a found object. No effect if nothing is currently found. The entire
- object is redrawn in the background color. Note that this may black out data
- that is still retained if two objects intersect.
-
- 2DOT
-
- Lines are drawn dotted. No effect on pads, symbols, lettering, or arcs.
-
- 2DOWN
-
- Decrements to the next lower numbered selection. Numbers wrap around after
- reaching one. The selected number is displayed on the UP and DWN keys.
-
- KP2 DOWN ARROW
-
- Moves the cursor toward the bottom of the screen. When the cursor reaches the
- screen bottom, it hangs there although the virtual cursor position as indicated
- by the X= and Y= indications at the top of the screen continues to move. Data
- is entered and found based on the X= , Y= cursor positions. Thus it is
- possible, and sometimes desirable to enter items off the screen. This is
- particularly handy for long interconnections where the position of the remote
- end is known.
-
- 1DR@L
- Page A-3
- 1DR@W
-
- Pressing this key causes it to alternate between DR@W and DR@L. DR@L
- causes all lines to be drawn at the minimum width regardless of the specified
- line width. This results in a significantly faster redraw particularly when at
- high magnification. DR@W causes the lines to be drawn at the specified width.
-
- 3EDARC
-
- Moves immediately to the menu:
-
- 1FIND 2DELETE 3*MODFY 4SETUP 5REJECT
-
- without selection of CIRCLE or ARC. This allows find and delete operations on
- arcs without setting up one.
-
- 4EDAPER
-
- Selecting 4EDAPER displays the following menu:
-
- 1 UP 2 DWN 3 4 5*APER
-
- The key 2EDAPER gets an UP DOWN menu with key 5 showing *APER to
- indicate that aperture is being selected. As the aperture is cycled it
- changes the table entry on the selected setup and level. See 1EDSET.
-
- Pushing the UP and DWN keys causes the aperture to cycle through the available
- selection. The selection wraps around. The top of the screen displays the
- current SETUP, LEVEL, COLOR, and APER; and their current values. Note that
- SETUP and LEVEL only select table entry positions while COLOR and APER change
- them. Since this table has so many entries, it is too big to allow full
- disclosure of the present entry status without filling the screen and needing
- constant redraws. We recommend that you list the setup table with the LSTSET
- command and post it near your terminal. Most of the entries should be reserved
- for frequently used operations. We recommend that you reserve one for special
- purposes and never count on it being set for any particular combination.
-
- A photoplotter can contain multiple apertures. An example might be a square
- 62 mil pad with rounded corners and a 15 mil drill spot in its center. This
- item can be drawn all at once by positioning the aperture at a selected
- location and flashing a light behind it. We call such an operation a Pad. The
- same object might be moved while the light is on, causing a line to be drawn on
- the film. We provide a selection of fifteen apertures most of which can be
- used as either lines or pads. We would not recommend drawing a line with the
- target aperture which is intended for registration marks, but we allow it. For
- those not having access to our (or someone else's) photoplotter, one can think
- of aperture changes as pen changes on a pen plotter. Since there is access to
- the plot files it should be easy to write editing programs to edit the
- aperture changes to whatever commands the available plotting device requires.
- As inspiration and information is made available these conversion programs will
- be included. The present aperture list includes round apertures from 5 mils
- to 125 mils, several square apertures and a target. Subsequent plotting
- programs allow one for one exchange of apertures so we would have no problem
- (except cost) changing apertures if requested at plot time. Write us if you
- have a special problem (like surface mount devices) and need custom apertures.
-
-
- 3EDCOLR
-
- Page A-4
- Selecting 4EDCOLR displays the following menu:
-
- 1 UP 2 DWN 3 4 5*EDCOLR
-
- The key 2EDCOLR gets an UP DOWN menu with key 5 showing *COLOR to
- indicate that color is being selected. As it is cycled, color changes the
- table entry. Color is changed only on the selected setup and level. See
- 1EDSET.
-
- Pushing the UP and DWN keys causes the color to cycle through the available
- selection. The selection wraps around. The top of the screen displays the
- current SETUP, LEVEL, COLOR, and APER; and their current values. Note that
- SETUP and LEVEL only select table entry positions while COLOR and APER change
- them. Since this table has so many entries, it is too big to allow full
- disclosure of the present entry status without filling the screen and needing
- constant redraws. We recommend that you list the setup table with the LSTSET
- command and post it near your terminal. Most of the entries should be reserved
- for frequently used operations. We recommend that you reserve one for special
- purposes and never count on it being set for any particular combination.
-
- 1EDLAB
-
- Go to the enter data menu to enter the label that has been set up.
-
- 2EDLEVL
-
- Selecting 4EDLEVL displays the following menu:
-
- 1 UP 2 DWN 3 4 5*LEVEL
-
- The key 2EDLEVL gets an UP DOWN menu with key 5 showing *LEVEL to
- indicate that level is being selected. Level does not change the setup. It
- only selects the level on the selected setup which will be changed by the color
- and aperture selection. See 1EDSET.
-
- Pushing the UP and DWN keys causes the level to cycle through the available
- selection. The selection wraps around. The top of the screen displays the
- current SETUP, LEVEL, COLOR, and APER; and their current values. Note that
- SETUP and LEVEL only select table entry positions while COLOR and APER change
- them. Since this table has so many entries, it is too big to allow full
- disclosure of the present entry status without filling the screen and needing
- constant redraws. We recomment that you list the setup table with the LSTSET
- command and post it near your terminal. Most of the entries should be reserved
- for frequently used operations. We recommend that you reserve one for special
- purposes and never count on it being set for any particular combination.
-
- It is convenient to think of this system as consisting of 12
- transparent layers each 65536 points square stacked on a drawing board. A
- point could mean anything, but in the USA it is convenient to think of points as
- thousandths, at least for printed circuit layout purposes. Since scale factors
- can be applied during the plotting process it is easy to consider the points as
- fractional millimeters feet or even light years. The system allows display of
- as few or as many layers as desired. In addition, one can draw objects on any
- number of selected layers at once. Drawn objects can be different sizes on
- different layers. One of the available colors can be attached to a layer
- causing it to be shown. Drawing and showing a layer are independent
- operations. We can draw on a layer that is not shown and vise versa. For
- example we could draw a red 10 mil line on layer one and a green 15 mil line on
- layer two at the same time. The result will be a white 15 mil line on the
- Page A-5
- display, however later redraws of single layers would show the lines in their
- proper widths and colors.
-
- 1EDSET
-
- Selecting 4EDSET displays the following menu:
-
- 1 UP 2 DWN 3 4 5*SETUP
-
- The key 2EDSET gets an UP DOWN menu with key 5 showing *SETUP to
- indicate that setup is being selected. Setup does not change anything. It
- only selects the setup that will have its entries changed by subsequent level,
- color, and aperture selections.
-
- Pushing the UP and DWN keys causes the setup to cycle through the available
- selection. The selection wraps around. The top of the screen displays the
- current SETUP, LEVEL, COLOR, and APER; and their current values. Note that
- SETUP and LEVEL only select table entry positions while COLOR and APER change
- them. Since this table has so many entries, it is too big to allow full
- disclosure of the present entry status without filling the screen and needing
- constant redraws. We recommend that you list the setup table with the LSTSET
- command and post it near your terminal. Most of the entries should be reserved
- for frequently used operations. We recommend that you reserve one for special
- purposes and never count on it being set for any particular combination.
-
- 8END
-
- Ends the current operation. Usually a line. A number of other operations do
- the equivalent of a line end if their operation would result in some confusion
- about the data.
-
- 1ENTER
-
- Go toward entering data. This is on the first menu and is the choice between
- non data entering operations and data creation operations.
-
- 2FILE
-
- Go toward some file operation. This is on the first menu and selects the file
- system to load or to store data.
-
- 1FIND
-
- Find the current object type. Only lines are found in line mode, pads in pad
- mode, etc.. A square search is performed on the current grid, starting with
- the present location of the cursor. Lines are found by any point on the line.
- When a point on a line is found, the cursor moves to the line starting point
- and the message displays "line found at " current x,y. The line is drawn
- dashed. Pads are found by their center. Symbols are found by their tag. The
- tag is the position of the cursor when the symbol origin was located when the
- symbol was created. Symbol data is located relative to the tag position.
- Labels are located at the lower left hand corner of their first letter. Arcs
- are located at their center.
-
- The search for an object starts at the current cursor location and continues in
- a square search on the current grid. Note the difference between the current
- grid and the M indication at the top of the screen. The M indication shows the
- current step taken by the cursor when an arrow key is pressed or held. M is
- always some multiple of the grid as selected by the 6SPEED and KP5 SPEED SHIFT
- Page A-6
- keys. If an object is not on the current grid it will not be found.
-
- When an object is found you may then 2DELETE it or 5REJECT it to continue the
- search. 9BACK will abort the search next time the search reaches the upper
- left hand corner of its square search pattern.
-
- 2GETFIL
-
- Get a file from the file system. You may load a job or a library. The major
- difference between jobs and libraries is that the job carries with it all the
- screen setup parameters, and data located in the job area. Libraries are
- single symbols or collections of symbols. Note that it is usually advisable to
- put your entire job in a symbol sine it is then more portable.
-
- 5GRID
- Selects the current grid. Any integral grid is allowed. How about a
- sixteenth (.0625) you ask? Sorry, to get a sixteenth you need to multiply
- everything by two in your head or something. Nice for laying out connectors
- with 0.156" spacing. But WARNING, CAUTION, LOOK OUT!!!!! Search only finds
- things on the current grid. If you have used a funny grid and can't find
- something, look for it on a 1 mil grid. Better get close to it. A search on a
- 1 mil grid to find an object in the least fortunate position could take
- thirteen years if the data base is not too full.
-
- 4JOBFIL
-
- Lists on the screen the job files on the default disk.
-
- 4KILL
-
- Removes a symbol from the data base. When a symbol kill is attempted, the
- system searches through the entire data base for uses of the symbol. This may
- take a while. If any uses are found you are told which symbol they are used in
- so that you can find and delete their use. If any symbol uses are found, kill
- is not performed. You must go through and delete every use before a kill is
- executed. This is necessary because nesting is allowed and deleting a symbol
- which calls other symbols would create a mess.
-
- 4LABEL
-
- Go to enter lettering. Be sure to see NOLAB/SHOLAB. You must have loaded an
- alphabet library. If you don't have the alphabet library in place lettering
- will be drawn as dots. If you have only a partial library in place,
- unavailable letters will be drawn as a dot. If you are not going to do
- lettering everything goes faster without the alphabet library in place,
- particularly loads and saves. It is best to save the lettering for the end of
- the job. Labels are also drawn slowly. This is because they are drawn line
- segment by line segment. While this is slow, it has some advantages. See the
- 3MAKLAB command for some astounding things that can be done with labels.
-
- KP4 LEFT ARROW
-
- Moves the cursor toward the left of the screen. When the cursor reaches the
- screen left side, it hangs there although the virtual cursor position as
- indicated by the X= and Y= indications at the top of the screen continues to
- move. Data is entered and found based on the X= , Y= cursor positions. Thus
- it is possible, and sometimes desirable to enter items off the screen. This is
- particularly handy for long interconnections where the position of the remote
- end is known.
- Page A-7
-
- 1LINE
-
- Select line entry and edit.
-
- 3LIBFIL
-
- Lists on the screen the library files available on the default disk.
-
- 2LIBSYM
-
- Make a library from the open symbol. This is actually a very complicated
- process. The symbol may call other symbols, and they in turn still others.
- When 3OPRSYM is selected a redraw of the symbol is initiated, during which a
- list is kept of all the symbols used in the open symbol. This enables creation
- of a library containing all the symbols used in the open symbol.
-
- 1LIST
-
- Lists the symbols used in a symbol. The symbol itself is included and is
- considered to be on level zero. All the symbols used are named and the number
- of times they are used at level one, level two, and levels greater than two are
- listed in a table. If you use distinctive symbols for each type of part this
- is a good way to get a parts count. Likewise if you use a symbol for component
- pads, you will also be able to get a hole count.
-
- If, as we do, you use many layers of symbols; it is easy to loose track of
- where symbols are. Since you can only find symbols that are one level down
- from the present, a table like this is useful for complicated jobs.
-
- 7LOCATE
-
- Enter the currently selected type of object into the data base at the current
- cursor position. For a line this produces a line start if none has been
- started, or a line mid point otherwise. Line starts only generate a tick sound
- to indicate that the line has started. Lines are not drawn until two points
- are accumulated. For other objects the entry is made and the object is drawn.
- Locate does nothing if you are not properly set up to make an entry. You are
- not always told that nothing has happened though if nothing is drawn you might
- suspect a problem.
-
- 1LOCLIN
-
- Select entry of lines. This gets the menu that allows find, delete, etc..
-
- 2LOCPT
-
- Select point mode. This gets the menu that allows find, delete, etc.. For the
- time being this is only useful for the deletion of single points from an
- existing line. Later we will make this menu more useful by allowing the
- insertion of points in an existing line. Users will quickly discover why we
- want to be able to do this.
-
- 1LOCSYM
-
- Select entry of symbols. This gets the menu that allows find, delete, etc..
- If nothing happens when you locate a symbol you have probably forgotten to name
- one.
-
- Page A-8
- 1LODJOB
-
- Load a job from the default disk. This can take a while. About 3 minutes for
- a full sized job with this demo program on a PC, much less with an AT as the
- loading process is mostly compute limited. If you plan to work with really big
- jobs on our full sized program you will want an AT. During the loading process
- the job is assembled from scratch and everything is linked and relocated.
- After a load operation "what you see is what you have". If the job loads
- without complaint you can be pretty sure that everything is OK. Only one job
- can be loaded and it must be loaded first. The setup files on the job
- overwrite those of the setup files. This means that the aperture and view
- tables on the saved job are restored with it, as well as the cursor position
- and a few other things. If you want to preserve the setup parameters, save
- your entire job as a symbol (you can only do this if you have created it as a
- symbol - which we recommend) and load it as a library.
-
- 2LODLIB
-
- Load a symbol from a library. If you are going to load a job you must do that
- first. There is no limit to the number of libraries that can be loaded except
- by the length of the symbol table which is 300 symbols in this demonstration
- version. The first symbol in memory wins, and other symbols with the same name
- are ignored. See "HOW TO REPLACE A JOB SYMBOL WITH A LIBRARY SYMBOL" in the
- HOW TO section for a way around this. The system ignores duplicate names
- since otherwise many replications of common symbols would occur.
-
- 2LROT=
-
- Rotates individual letters in a string. Each time hit it steps by one wrapping
- around to zero and rotates the letters 90 degrees counter-clockwise. By using
- LROT=1 and SROT=3 you can produce an "hotel" sign type label.
-
- 5LSTKEY
-
- Lists the labels assigned to the keyboard along with their sequential and hash
- positions. Nothing prevents you from editing the keyboard labels. If you
- don't like the way we draw a "G" for example then just open the symbol G$BOLD
- and have it your way.
-
- We hope to get wonderful alphabets to distribute to our users. How about
- something in Gothic?
-
- 4LSTLAB
-
- Lists the labels that you have created. These all start with the entered
- string and end with $LABEL.
-
- 4LSTSET
-
- Lists the sixteen setups. It takes two pages but we find it necessary to print
- this and post it by our terminal. We can never remember if we have used odd
- or even setups for level 1 or where we put the green 15 mil lines.
-
- 3LSTSYM
-
- Lists the symbols. The labels and keyboard symbols are listed separately, see
- above. You are given a rough measure of their size and their sequential and
- hash positions.
-
- Page A-9
- 3MAKLAB
-
- When 3MAKLAB is pressed you are asked to enter a label. You may then type an
- arbitrary string from the keyboard. This string is then taken apart character
- by character and a search is made of the symbol table for (character)$BOLD. If
- such a symbol is found, it is scaled and rotated according to the parameters
- set by 2SETLAB and assembled into a new symbol named (arbitrary string)$LABEL
- which is again rotated and assigned color and level from the current setup. If
- some of the keystrokes in the arbitrary string entry are not found in the
- symbol table, they are replaced by a dot. After this process is complete your
- are put into the 1FIND 2DELETE ... menu where you can locate the string as
- often as you want. A future entry of the same string will find it in the
- symbol table and thus conserve space.
-
- This scheme allows interesting translation possibilities. When "A" is entered
- in a string, the system looks for the symbol A$BOLD. The system has no way of
- knowing that A$BOLD represents an "A". There is nothing to prevent you from
- editing the A$BOLD symbol to make it, for example, a Chinese character. Or a
- small circuit board, or the drawing of a house or ...
-
- We will welcome font libraries of other designs.
-
- 1MIR=
-
- Mirrors labels. Cycles between MIR X, MIR Y, and MIROFF. You want to mirror
- some of the labels so that when you plot the back side of the board with the
- emulsion side up, the labels will be "right reading" when viewed through the
- emulsion from the back side. STANDARD.DOC lists one way to do everything so it
- will come out right. It is easy to find a combination which gets you a mirror
- image of the board you want.
-
- 2NAME
-
- Accepts a symbol name for later symbol entry. The name stays in memory as the
- current symbol unless some other symbol is found. Then the found symbol
- becomes the current symbol for entry. This is so a symbol can be moved by the
- find, delete, locate sequence.
-
- 1NEW
-
- Initiates creation of a new symbol. You will be asked for a symbol name.
- Because of the lettering features, symbol names are different if the case of
- any of their letters is different. If a symbol with the same name (and
- identical case) is found in memory you get the "symbol already created must
- open to edit" message.
-
- 2NOLAB
- 2SHOLAB
-
- Since labels are drawn out of individual lines they can take a long time to
- draw. Usually the labeling is not interesting on a drawing except when being
- modified. This key alternates as pressed an causes subsequent redraws to show
- or not show the labels as indicated.
-
- 5OPEN
-
- Prompt asks for the symbol name. Remember case must match. If the symbol is
- found in the symbol table, it is drown on a scale that attempts to fill the
- screen. You may now select the type of entry to be made.
- Page A-10
-
- 3OPRSYM
-
- Redraws the open symbol while keeping track of the nested symbols used in the
- open symbol. You are then given the opportunity to make a library of the
- symbol, to list the symbol and its nestlings, or to change its name or replace
- it with another symbol. Note that while you are allowed to abort the OPRSYM
- redraw, the only way that you can get to the next menu is to allow the redraw
- to run to completion. This is necessary to allow proper generation of the
- symbol lists.
-
- 3ORIGIN
-
- When a new symbol is named, you are asked to locate the origin. The origin can
- be located anywhere in the work space. Data entered into a symbol is located
- relative to the origin.
-
- 5OTHER
-
- Select arc entry and edit. Later we will add other things through this menu,
- thus the name.
-
- 2PAD
-
- Select pad entry and edit.
-
- 5PALET
-
- Pushing this key causes the display to alternate between the two available
- medium resolution palettes.
-
- 3PLOT
-
- Select creation of plotter output.
-
- 3PLTFIL
-
- Create a plotter output file.
-
- 1PUTFIL
-
- Select creation of a job or library save file.
-
- 10REDRAW
-
- Function key 10 always initiates a redraw sequence. It always destroys
- the current screen display, first by writing a menu over it, and then by the
- redraw operation. Redraw causes the key display below and puts up on the
- screen 15 preselected display areas. The distribution copy has some of these
- labeled while others are blank. You will want to customize this menu to suit
- your style and your job. The storage area contains +- 32,768 data points in X
- and Y. It is usually desirable to display only a fraction of this space. By
- using the SETUP key, which shows up on many of the menus, it is possible to
- specify the x and y coordinates of the upper left hand screen corner and the
- screen width. See "HOW TO SET UP REDRAWS" in the "HOW TO" section. Once you
- have done this, REDRAW allows saving this setup with the name of your selection
- - like "memory section". It is then possible to quickly switch from one
- section of your layout to another by pushing redraw (F10) using the UP - DWN
- keys to select a pre-stored selection then pushing SELECT (F3) to initiate a
- Page A-11
- redraw of the selected area.
-
- Pushing redraw a second time after the selection menu is presented
- causes a redraw at the current screen layout.
-
- Redraw can take a long time.
-
- 4REGION
-
- This key allows setting up the area of the 65536 x 65536 space that
- will be displayed. Region allows selection of x and y offsets and the screen
- width. ALL selects nearly the entire screen. AUTO asks for a screen width,
- then scales the display for the entered width with the present cursor position
- at the top left corner. SPACE asks you to specify the top left hand corner and
- a screen width.
-
- 5REJECT
-
- Rejects the result of a search operation. The search continues from the point
- of the found object. F9 will stop the search and back up the menu.
-
- 4RENAME
-
- Renames a symbol. See "HOW TO REPLACE A JOB SYMBOL WITH A LIBRARY SYMBOL" in
- the HOW TO section.
-
- 3REPLAC
-
- Replace a symbol with a different symbol. This is a global edit so be careful.
- Remember "replace A with B whoops-replace B with A" can create an unsolvable
- mess. See HOW TO above.
-
- KP6 RIGHT ARROW
-
- Moves the cursor toward the right of the screen. When the cursor reaches the
- screen right side, it hangs there although the virtual cursor position as
- indicated by the X= and Y= indications at the top of the screen continues to
- move. Data is entered and found based on the X= , Y= cursor positions. Thus
- it is possible, and sometimes desirable to enter items off the screen. This is
- particularly handy for long interconnections where the position of the remote
- end is known.
-
- 5ROT=
-
- Pushing this key causes it to gain a label of 0 to 3. It is at zero initially.
- Symbols entered with ROT= other than zero will be rotated in 90 degree
- increments with 1 being 90 degrees counterclockwise.
-
- 1SAVJOB
-
- Saves the entire data base as a job. You are asked to enter a job name. Two
- files are created. (Jobname).PCD and (Jobname).PCS. Names are restricted to 8
- characters per DOS rules. (Jobname).PCD contains all the setup parameters.
- (Jobname).PCS contains all the job symbols, and one special symbol which is the
- data in the job itself.
-
- This is the normal way to save your work when you wish to continue and restore
- everything like it was when you discontinued work. Everything is saved, all
- the job date, the current screen layout, and even the cursor position.
- Page A-12
-
- 2SAVLIB
-
- Saves all the job symbols as a library. Note the difference between SAVLIB and
- LIBSYM. SAVLIB saves all the symbols on the job as a library. Even unused and
- abandoned ones. LIBSYM saves all the symbols in one given symbol as a library.
- Only those used are saved. If you make the whole working job a symbol, LIBSYM
- provides a nice way to condense the job removing all the accumulated junk.
-
- 5SCALE
-
- Provides for scaling labels variable symbols. The alphabet we provide has been
- drawn 0.125 high. SCALE allows multiplying this size over a range of 100 to
- 0.01.
-
- 4SCREN
-
- SCREN is accessible through SETUP which appears many places on the key
- tree. It provides a means for setting how and where items are displayed on the
- screen. It introduces two layers of menus.
-
- 3SELECT
-
- Causes a redraw with the area parameters that were in place when the
- numbered selection was stored. When the redraw is complete, the menu is
- restored to the menu in place when redraw was pressed.
-
- 2SETLAB
-
- Accesses a menu which allows rotating letters, rotating an mirroring strings,
- and scaling labels.
-
- 4SETUP
-
- SETUP appears many places on the screen. It provides access to menues which
- control data level entry, object display color and size, and screen size and
- position in the data space.
-
- 1SET=
- 2SET=
- 3SET=
- 4SET=
-
- Display the four preset SETUPs when in the STITCH mode. The keys display the
- preset SETUPs. After a line is started in stitch mode, pushing a SET= key
- which has a setup different from the current one will cause the via symbol to
- be located and the line continued with the new setup parameters.
-
- 2SHOLAB
- 2NOLAB
-
- Since labels are drawn out of individual lines they can take a long time to
- draw. Usually the labeling is not interesting on a drawing except when being
- modified. This key alternates as pressed an causes subsequent redraws to show
- or not show the labels as indicated.
-
- 1SOLID
- Pressing this key produces a beep to indicate something has happened
- and subsequent lines are drawn solid.
- Page A-13
-
- 1SPACE
-
- Allows selection of the redraw display by manual input of the x,y coordinates
- of the upper left hand screen corner and the screen width.
-
- 6SPEED
-
- Selects cursor movement as the number of times the grid spacing that it moves
- for each key press. The speed cycles in a 1,2,4,5,10,20,40,1... sequence.
-
- KP5 SPEED SHIFT
-
- Speed shift multiplies the current speed by 10. We operate with the SPEED set
- to the current grid we are using for locating objects. Usually this is 0.025
- or 0.100. This works well in a small area. When we have to move a big
- distance we hit SPEED SHIFT and move until we get close, then we shift back.
- We find it convenient to operate with one hand on the function keys for
- operation selection, and one hand on the keypad for movement. Caps lock must
- be on and num lock and scroll lock off for SPEED SHIFT to work. We have
- resisted making monitor calls to find the state of these keys till they are
- provided by the system.
-
- 3SROT=
-
- Rotates an entire string (or variable symbol). When the key is pressed it
- displays its value from an initial value of zero. Rotations are in 90 degree
- steps from horizontal to the right.
-
- 5STITCH
-
- Move to stitch mode. Stitch allows the entry of printed circuit traces while
- moving between layers of a multi-layer board without the need to switch between
- lines on different layers and pads. You are allowed to preset four setups and
- a via symbol which are presumably used to switch between traces on a four
- level board. These setups appear on function keys 1-4. Pushing any of these
- four keys instantly switches to the indicated setup. You may now start and end
- a line in the conventional way. In addition, pushing a setup key that is not
- the currently active one, ends the current line, locates the via symbol at the
- current cursor location, switches the setup to that of the key pressed, and
- starts a line with the new setup. Note that in the usual generality of
- symbols in this program, anything is allowed as a via symbol.
-
- This allows fast insertion of traces which must move from layer to layer over
- their length.
-
- Note that there is no rule that stitch must be used to stitch. The via symbol
- is only inserted if a setup is changed while a line is in progress. Thus
- stitch can also be used for four quick setup changes while in line entry mode
- if care is taken to only change setups when a line is not in progress.
-
- 5STSET
-
- Switch to stitch setup mode. Tells you that pushing function keys 1-4 will
- allow assigning setups to those keys. Push as many as you will need and enter
- a setup. Then push VIASYM to assign a symbol to the via between board layers.
- When you have things the way you want them use back (F9) to go back to the menu
- where stitch is active. Stitch stays setup until you change it, though
- presently the stitch setups are not saved from session to session.
- Page A-14
-
- 3STYLE
-
- Style presents a menu which allows selection of the way in which an
- entered line is shown. This is intended for mechanical drawings reproduced on
- the dot matrix printer. All photo and pen plotters may not respond to this
- option.
-
- 3SYMBOL
-
- Select entry of symbols or other symbol operations. Symbols may be entered
- into symbols, but not into themselves. We do not yet protect for all possible
- loop conditions, i.e. A calls B which calls C which calls A, but we do protect
- for the more common cases. If you do succeed in creating such a loop we die
- gracefully at level 20 and put you back into the main menu, where you should be
- able to rescue your work.
-
- 5SYMLST
-
- Lists the symbol contents as stored in memory. For guru's only.
-
- 1UP
-
- Advances to the next higher numbered selection. Numbers wrap around on
- reaching maximum. The selected position is displayed on the UP and DWN keys.
-
- KP8 UP ARROW
-
- Moves the cursor toward the top of the screen. When the cursor reaches the
- screen top, it hangs there although the virtual cursor position as indicated by
- the X= and Y= indications at the top of the screen continues to move. Data is
- entered and found based on the X= , Y= cursor positions. Thus it is possible,
- and sometimes desirable to enter items off the screen. This is particularly
- handy for long interconnections where the position of the remote end is known.
-
- 5VARSYM
-
- VARSYM asks for a symbol name then gives you the edit menu. Note that variable
- symbols are "labels" and are found as such.
-
- Variable symbols are an essentially useless but fun adjunct to the way we do
- labels in this program. Keyboard label characters used to make labels are just
- symbols, with all the characteristics of regular symbols. When you enter a
- label, you are allowed to assign an arbitrary level, color, scale, and aperture
- to it. The way we handle this is to separate the form of the label symbol from
- the level, scale, aperture, and color that happened to be assigned to it when
- it was created.
-
- Any symbol can be used as a variable symbol. When entered, the symbol form is
- scaled, rotated, colored, and drawn with the assigned apertures on the assigned
- levels. Note that only its form is used. If the original symbol was a printed
- circuit with different apertures on different levels, all this is ignored.
-
- Obviously this is nonsense for printed circuits. It would, for example, allow
- scaling a standard screw drawing which could then be placed on the desired
- level in the desired color. We have used this for mechanical assembly drawings
- where the ability to change a symbol's color allows distinguishing it for study
- of clearances.
-
- Page A-15
- 5VIASYM
-
- Pushing this key allows entry of the name of the symbol to be used as a via
- when in stitch mode.
-
- 5*APER
- 5*COLOR
- 5*LEVEL
- 5*SETUP
-
- These labels appear in the setup menu to indicate the item that is being
- changed.
-
- 2*MAKE
-
- Nothing implemented. Here we plan to allow making some area of a job into a symbol.
-
- 3*MODFY
-
- Nothing implemented. This appears on the edit menu. We plan to allow
- insertion of line points and move and copy of lines and symbols.
-
- 1*PLOT
-
- Nothing implemented. Provision for direct output to a plotter.
-
- 2*PRINT
-
- Nothing implemented. We plan for output to a dot matrix printer. For the time
- being use the shift-print screen function of DOS 2.0 and higher.
-
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- Page A-16
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