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============================================================================= Premise DesignView - Version 2.0 Release Notes Revised 9/21/90 - Premise, Inc. ============================================================================= Please call (800)888-PREM or (617)225-0422 with questions or problems. ============================================================================= Why you should read this document: This document contains information more recent or more advanced than could be included in the DesignView manual. Here you will find descriptions of undocumented features, suggestions for configuring and optimizing DesignView on your system, and DesignView model trouble-shooting information. Even if you are new to DesignView, browsing through these release notes before you begin solving problems with DesignView (but preferably after you have read the manual) will later provide you with a reference when you are working on something relevant to one of the included topics. For information about IGES, DXF and other file transfer formats, refer to the file IGES-DXF.TXT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONFIGURING DESIGNVIEW ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Optimal System and Configuration: - Although none of the following are necessary to run DesignView, we have optimized DesignView for Windows 3.0, a 20Mhz or faster 80386 CPU, a comparably fast graphics card, 2Mb of RAM, and a math co-processor. Because Windows 3.0 enhanced mode permits a tremendous amount of virtual memory, DesignView will benefit from additional RAM and lots of available hard disk space. It's more likely that solver performance, rather than available memory, will create a practical limit for model size. Other Configurations: DesignView will work reasonably well with different hardware and Windows configurations, but with somewhat reduced performance. In particular, using DesignView under Windows 2 severely limits the number and size of DesignView worksheets that can be open simultaneously. It also limits the size of files that can be imported. Avoid loading Terminate and Stay Resident programs (TSRs), such as NETWORK DRIVERS. Upgrading Windows: - If you upgrade from Microsoft Windows 2.11 to Windows 3.0, after installing Windows, make sure you reinstall DesignView from the original disks. Conflicts with Windows: - TSRs may cause absolute conflicts with Windows and Windows programs. These conflicts may cause an UNRECOVERABLE APPLICATION ERROR in DesignView intermittently or upon startup. Please report these problems to Premise. We will tell you how to configure your machine so that you can run DesignView. * Some examples of memory resident programs include CED, Sidekick, and Prokey. * Many memory manager program manuals provide information about these problems. Check your Windows manual for TSR's supported by Windows. Monochrome Monitor Support: - You may wish to turn the ghost image visibility off when using a monochrome screen. This will avoid confusion between object elements and the ghost image. Use the Visibility... option in the View menu. We highly recommend using DesignView with a color monitor. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- INFORMATION ON UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using DesignView Without a Mouse: - If you find yourself without a mouse (temporarily, we hope), you can select items from the icon tablet and draw on the workspace using the keyboard. [CTRL]+[TAB] moves DOWN the icon tablet, one item at a time; [CTRL]+[SHIFT]+[TAB] moves UP the icon tablet, one item at a time. Once you have highlighted the appropriate icon, use [Tab] to move to the coordinate window. Type the first coordinate for the location of the entity; [Tab], then repeat this as many times as necessary (refer to the documentation line on the screen for prompting), then hit [ENTER]. - Edit focus highlighting (e.g., text you are editing is block-selected, items in dialog boxes that will be activated if you hit [ENTER] are outlined) is not supported for graphic buttons in the color, linestyle, and hatching dialog boxes. If you use your mouse, this is not a problem. If you select via the keypad, you can navigate through the dialog box via the [TAB] key, but you may find that it will be easier to use the underlined letter in the name of a button group from which you wish to select. After moving to the button group by this method, you can use the arrow keys to move through the buttons. In the case of arrowhead selection on the linestyle menu, you must use the [TAB] key to move between the check boxes, and the [SPACEBAR] to toggle the checkmark. Fillet/Chamfer: - The fillet and chamfer operations will perform group fillet and chamfer operations on all selected lines, but only if there is no ambiguity as to which pairs of lines are to be trimmed. If more than two selected lines meet at a point, there is no unique way of pairing them. Therefore, DesignView will abort the command and warn the user. Similarly, if any pair of lines share the same endpoints, DesignView will generate an error message and abort the command. Hatching: - There are two flags which may be added to the [DesignView] section of the WIN.INI file to alter the appearance of hatched regions: HatchStyle: Default value is 0 for Windows 2, and 1 for Windows 3. HatchStyle=1 will generally look better but takes longer in Windows 2. For example, the overlap of two circles in a region is hatched if HatchStyle=1, but not if HatchStyle=0. PrintHatchStyle: Default is 1. If PrintHatchStyle=1, hatching is printed as it is displayed (using HatchStyle). Setting PrintHatchStyle=0 always prints as if HatchStyle=0, which is useful for HP plotters which don't work well with the other HatchStyle. Interupting Lengthy Operations (Windows 3.0 only): - It is often possible to interrupt a long recalculation by hitting the [PAUSE] key. DesignView will stop the calculation and may bring up a "calculation interrupted" message. Not all solver operations can be interrupted in this way. Using [PAUSE] will only interrupt recalc while DesignView is performing a recalc; otherwise, it may interrupt redraw instead. - During a redraw, the [PAUSE] key will also interrupt further repainting of the screen, but only after DesignView finishes with all elements of the current type (object elements, construction elements, etc). [CTRL]+ [SHIFT]+"q" will turn automatic redraw off. To re-enable automatic redraw, use [CTRL]+"q". Using [PAUSE] will only interrupt redraw while DesignView is performing a redraw; otherwise, it may interrupt the recalculation instead. Numerical Integration: - "old_<variable>" is a little-known compliment to "new_<variable>", and will retain the value of <variable> from its N-1 state following an animation step invoked with <Ctrl>+"a". (If you're not familiar with animation equations, take a quick look in the manual before reading further). "old_<variable>" can only defined when <variable> and "new_<variable>" are also defined. For instance, entering the following system of equations causes DesignView to define all three: new_x = x + 2 a = old_x This is what happens when you animate with <Ctrl>+"a": Before the <Ctrl>+"a", DesignView evaluates new_x as whatever x happened to be plus 2.0. (If "a" and "x" didn't exist previously, then DesignView gives each a ramdom value; similarly, if "old_x" wasn't defined previously, "old_x" will also get a random value".) When you hit <Ctrl>+ "a", "old_x" gets the current value of "x", "x" gets the value of "new_x", and "new_x" is re-evaluated. Before After 1 ^a After 2 ^a's ------ ---------- ------------ a 0.577 a 0.077 a 1.077 old_x 0.577 old_x 0.077 old_x 1.077 x 0.077 x 1.077 x 2.077 new_x 1.077 new_x 2.077 new_x 3.077 Before you begin iterating, you can initialize "x" and "old_x" in "Constrain...Set Variables". (Note that you cannot initialize "a" and "new_x", as DesignView immediately evaluates these quantities based on the current values of the other two.) - The Step function is another useful, undocumented function. Syntax: step(x) Returns: 1, if x > 0 0, if x <= 0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- TROUBLESHOOTING ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Modeling Technique: - As with any other design methodology, appropriate modularization of the design will yield the quickest convergence to a solution. Remove unnecessary detail from a model to improve performance (you will notice the effect immediately). Whenever possible, recognize symmetry to avoid redundant geometry. (For example, don't draw both sides of a cylindrical pressure vessel). Inverted Geometry: - DesignView sometimes finds underconstrained solutions that are mathe- matically correct but unacceptable for modeling a particular system. Use Undo to restore inverted or collapsed geometry. Add more con- straints to the design to prevent similar underconstrained solutions before trying again. In many cases, inequalities can be used to rule out undesirable solutions. (For information on inequalities, refer to chapter 9 of the manual). When DesignView Can't Find a Solution: - In some cases, DesignView will not find a solution where a point is on two construction lines that become coincident (since the point would no longer be defined by the two lines). Adding an additional line constrained to go through the point will eliminate this problem. - In some cases, DesignView will not find an acceptable solution for large changes in a variable. Try incrementing the variable in 25 percent steps until you reach the desired value. - When creating angular dimensions, be careful not to place the first and last points on the same horizontal or vertical construction line. This will not allow the angle to approach 0, 90, 180, or 270 degrees because of a singularity introduced by making the points coincident. - When working at extreme scales, solver performance may be erratic at the default tolerance value. Two common indications of this problem are that DesignView will tell you that, for no apparent reason, your model is overconstrained, or that the solver can't find a solution. To correct this behavior, choose a finer Solution Tolerance in the Set... Preferences box. Turning Auto Recalc Off: - It is easy to accidentally overconstrain a drawing when Automatic Calculation is turned off, because DesignView does not check each added dimension and constraint for conflicts in this mode. Use this feature with care. See chapter 7 of the manual for further information on the Automatic Calculation function. - When Automatic Calculation is turned off, fixed points may move under certain operations (like dragging or adding constraints through the point). DDE/CLIPBOARD: - If you are experiencing difficulty creating or re-establishing dynamic data exchange links (DDE links), you may want to add the parameter DDEtimeout to the [DesignView] section of the WIN.INI file. DDEtimeout specifies how long DesignView will wait while estalishing DDE links. The default DDEtimeout period is 3.5 seconds. - When cutting from DesignView and pasting into Micrografx Designer, circles will deflate and arrowheads will not transfer correctly. To get around this problem, try pasting into Microsoft Paint (to convert the clipboard metafile into a bitmap), then cutting and pasting it into Designer. - If you use the Microsoft DDE POKE command, you may find that a variable in one DesignView worksheet which is externally POKEd by another application will not update correctly in another, paste-linked reference when the POKEd variable is referenced directly by the paste- link. For instance, assume that you have opened two DV worksheets and an Excel macro. The Excel macro POKEs the variable "x" in the first DV worksheet. By paste-linking "x" into the second worksheet, you expect to see the current value of "x" there as well; but the paste- link fails to update. To get "x" to update correctly, you should add an additional variable to the first DV worksheet: "export_x = x". Now paste-link "export_x" instead of "x". Alternately, instead of modifying "x" and the DDE paste- link, you could use the equation "import_x = x", and POKE "import_x" instead of "x". Font File (~DVFONT.TMP): - Under some circumstances DesignView leaves behind a file called ~DVFONT.TMP. This can occur when you close Windows and Windows closes DesignView (or multiple instances of DesignView) for you. Normally, the first instance of DesignView you start creates the file, and the last one closed deletes it for you. If its lingering presence bothers you, feel free to delete it; otherwise, if you explicitly close DesignView follow- ing your next session, DesignView will delete it for you. - Movie Feature: For DesignView to recognize a movie file you have created with a text editor, the file must have the extension .DVM. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- KNOWN BUGS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Out-of-Memory Handling: - While we have made every effort to provide DesignView with the ability to recover gracefully from out-of-memory situations, you should be careful not to try to work close to this state. In Windows 2, with very large models and/or with more than one DesignView window running, save your files often and heed symptoms of low memory. These symptoms include events such as: * out of memory warnings appear (MAY NOT BE A SYMPTOM - SEE BELOW). * your hard disk light comes on far more frequently than normal. * icons change to black rectangles or alphabet letters. * dialog boxes fail to appear or are incomplete. * DesignView windows are created with no menus. * fonts change to the system (simple, low-resolution) font. * performance slows markedly. You can check available memory from Windows. In Windows 3.0, look in Help...About Program Manager; in Windows 2, look in File...About MSDOS Exec. If you have plenty of available memory, DesignView has made a mistake, and you may disregard the low memory warning. (To continue, you may have to close and restart DesignView. Future releases of DesignView and/or Windows should fix this problem.) If indeed you have very little available memory, you risk incurring an UNRECOVERABLE APPLICATION ERROR (UAE). In the event that you encounter a UAE, any work done since you last saved your worksheet will be lost. In the event that such an error occurs, you may find that DesignView cannot be restarted properly. Known symptoms include: * the icon tablet contains letters of the alphabet. * Windows claims that it can't read from from your hard disk (e.g., "Cannot read from drive C:"). These problems will disappear if you restart Windows, and shouldn't be a problem in future releases of DesignView. - We recommend that you save your files early and often. Zooming: - Some circles, arcs, and dimension graphics will not be visible when near the "zoom in" limit. Scrolling: - If you click rapidly on a scroll bar arrow and then hold the mouse button down steadily (on the arrow), a section of the worksheet will not redraw completely. Use Redraw (F3) in the View menu if this happens. Rough Graphics: - Occasionally, some elements of the DesignView worksheet may look like they are dislocated by a single pixel. This occurs most frequently with fillets, scrolling, grid points, and hatching of splines, circles and circular arcs. These are purely graphic problems and in no way indicate distortion of your worksheet's data base. These off-by-one-pixel problems appear to be the result of graphics speed optimization in Windows and/or DesignView and should go away in future releases. Printers: - Some printers and plotters may print incorrectly if not set up properly using the Control Panel. Detailed instructions on how to set up your printer are in READMExx.TXT files on the runtime installation disks. For example, information on HP plotters is contained in the file READMEPL.TXT. If you are using Windows 3.0, refer to the readme files that are installed with Windows 3.0. HP Plotters: - The Windows drivers for HP plotters seem to have timing problems, which can cause problems when printing out large files. If you are having problems printing with an HP Plotter, there are several things you can try: 1. If you are using Windows 2, be sure to disable Spooler in the WIN.INI file. Change the line "Spooler=yes" to read "Spooler=no". For whatever reason(s), printing rarely works with Spooler enabled. 2. Change the default setting of Transmission Retry in the Printer Setup dialog box to a very large number, like 200 seconds. 3. If you are using Windows 3.0, make sure the port setting on the plotter port has "Xon/Xoff" handshaking under the flow control. This is set using the Settings... menu under the Ports section of the Control Panel. 4. Try printing with the print manager off (Windows 3.0 only). Some large format plotters, like the DraftPro DXL, can only print large drawings when using the print manager, whereas some of the smaller plotters, like the 7475A, work better when printing directly, without the print manager. If you do use the print manager, it has a tendency to stall when the plotter buffer becomes full. When this happens (and it may happen four or five times on very large files), you will have to open the print manager window and click on the "resume" button. It is a good idea to print from DesignView without the DV window occupying the entire screen so you can see the print manager icon when it appears and attend to it if it has any problems. 5. If you are unsuccessfully trying to print a multiple page file, try printing it one page at a time. 6. Connect the printer driver to one of the file names listed in the printer connections box (e.g., "FILE"). Print. Make sure the baud rate for the port is set correctly by entering "mode com1:9600,p,n,1,8". Exit Windows (or open a DOS shell in Windows 3.0) and send the file directly to the printer (e.g., "type filename > com1:").