Liren Large Software Subsidy 16

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Text File | 1989-03-17 | 22.3 KB | 574 lines

UTLIL, Introduction Utility commands are used to manipulate the drawing entities as a whole, as a group or as individuals. Entities can be transformed and the view of the current drawing can be manipulated as desired. A part can be dynamically rotated, the user can zoom in or out of the drawing or pan across at any time. "UTILI OPT" When this command is selected, a display of UTILI options appears in tertiary menu. The user is prompted to choose one. These options are: Option Nature of Option CHAMFER This command joins two lines with a line called a chamfer. The user must specify the length of the chamfer line, then locate the two lines to be chamfered. The lines must be located near the ends furthest from the chamfer, ie the ends to remain as they are. FILLET This command joins two lines with an arc of user specified radius. The user specifies the fillet radius and locates the two lines to be filleted. The lines must be located near the ends furthest from the chamfer, ie the ends to remain as they are. SDUMP This command allows the user to dump the contents of the current screen to a file which can later be sent to a dot matrix printer. Currently this is only available on Apollo Domains for the ML84 dot matrix printer. BLK DEL This command allows the user to delete whole blocks of entities at once, rather than locate them separately. When this command is selected a tertiary menu is displayed as follows: Locate Block Fence Elements Line Circle Curve Plane Sub-part Cylinder Rev. Arc The first tertiary menu option acts a toggle switch between the three ways of locating entities to delete; block is used to locate entities using a dynamically generated box; fence is to locate using a user defined boundary; elements is to locate entities separately using the PUCK. The next six options act as toggle switches for whether or not to delete those entities located within the defined area. They refer to line, circle, curve, plane, sub-part and cylinder respectively. Once these have all been set as desired, press the termination button and locate the termination entities in the way chosen. COMPILE This option allows the user to run a program written outside QD3D in the interfacing language Opal. Select the type of program to run, user, electrical, mechanical etc. depending on the packages purchased or written. Then select the actual program from tertiary menu and run. At the present time, Opal is not available on MS/PC DOS machines due to inherent memory restrictions. "UTILI VIEW" A view is defined by a reference point, an eye location and a vector specifying the upward direction. It really defines the exact position of the user relative to the current part. A view may either be a perspective view, or an orthogonal view. In a perspective view, objects which are the same size, but further away are displayed smaller on the screen. In an orthogonal view, objects which are further away are not smaller on the screen. All VIEW commands are used to manipulate the angle and reference point from which to view the current drawing. A tertiary menu of options appears and the user is prompted to select one. Option Nature of Option Recall A previously stored view can be recalled and displayed to the screen. Before the user actually stores any views, five views have already been defined. These are: TOP - Top view LEFT - Left view FRONT - Front view ISO - All axes are at 60 degrees to the user's eye. OTHER - Side view slightly rotated. Each of these views can be displayed by selecting them from tertiary menu. If the user has stored any views of his/her own, then these can also be selected from tertiary menu in the same way. Store To store a current view, just select this command, select a location in tertiary menu to write the view to, and supply the view with a name as prompted. Then the user should update the model file by "FILE Write Part". To overwrite another view, select the location that view occupies and confirm the wish to overwrite, otherwise just pick an empty location. The predefined views listed above can be overwritten but it is not recommended. Delete This command is used to delete a view from the list that appears in tertiary menu. Just select the view to delete from this list. Eye & UpV This command is used to change the current orientation of the drawing on the screen as viewed by a observer. - Locate a new eye point. - Locate a new reference point. - Locate a new upwards direction vector. - Confirm if view to be perspective or not. The eye point is the observer's eye. The reference point is the point the eye is looking at. The upward vector is used to define the rotation of the axes relative to the present. When in perspective view, the drawing appears to decrease in size as the distance increases. The default for this is off. If the user requires any of these points\vectors to be unchanged then a "y" character from the keyboard will suffice (rather than retyping the co-ordinates). Rot & Pan This command allows the user to specify an angle to move or rotate to the left, and a distance to move the reference eye point upwards. If the user supplies a negative angle, then the eye point will be rotated to the right. If the user supplies a negative distance then the eye point will be moved down. *Plane If this command is selected with the central button then the user must locate four points. The first pair of points define a vector which will be positioned from left to right near the bottom of the screen. The second pair of points define a vector which will be as near to vertical as possible on the screen. If this command is selected with the left button then the user must locate an existing plane in the model. The user is then prompted to decide whether the plane normal, points towards or away from the eye. Fit This command adjusts the current view so that the part fits exactly into the drawing view-port. Only the distance of the eye point from the object is altered, not the angle of the axes etc. Clip This command allows the user to set the front and back clipping planes. These planes are such that only those elements in the current model that fit between these two planes are drawn to the screen. The user must specify the distance of the front and back clipping planes. These planes are used parallel to the screen. Con Plan The construction plane will be placed flat to the viewer. The active depth is 0 with respect to the construction plane. Perspect This allows respecification of the reference to eye distance and the option of continuing with perspective. When manipulating the drawing using any of the view commands, the actual coordinates of the drawing are not changed, just the perspective and orientation relative to the user. "UTILI DYNAM" This command allows the user to either dynamically translate, rotate or ``walk through'' the model. If rotating, then the drawing is rotated about a user defined axis by a user defined angular increment. The user locates two points to specify the rotation axis and the part rotates using the right-hand rule (i.e. +ve is anti- clockwise). If the model is rotating, the alternate button can be used to slow down the rotation. The selection button can be used to speed up the rotation. The termination button is used to halt any movement; it should be depressed until the user is prompted to release it. Procedure . Select translate, rotate or path from the tertiary menu. If rotate then: . Locate the first end of the rotation axis. . Locate the end of the rotation axis. . Specify the angle to rotate per segment. . Press the termination button to finish rotaing. . Confirm the wish to finish. If translate then: . Locate start point of move. . Locate end point of move. . Specify the number of jumps between the start and end points. . Specify the distance from the eye to the screen. If path then: . Locate path by snapping to one of its points. . Answer Y or N to perspective. . If perspective: specify reference point to eye distance. . Specify the back clipping plane distance. . Specify the number of steps per line in the path. "UTILI ZOOMI" This allows the user to zoom in on the drawing by a factor of two. It enables the user to examine a particular part of the model in more detail. The zoom is in on a user defined screen location. The position located will be placed at the centre of the screen, after the operation is complete. Procedure . Locate point to zoom in on. "UTILI ZOOMO" This allows the user to zoom out from the drawing by a factor of two. It enables the user to examine more of the part, but in less detail. The zoom is out from a user defined screen location. The position located will be placed at the centre of the screen, after the operation is complete. Procedure . Locate point to zoom out from. "UTILI PAN" This command allows the user to translate the drawing across the screen without changing the actual drawing coordinates just moving the users eye point across the part. This is the same as the equivalent command in QikDraw 2D. Procedure . Locate a screen point. . Locate a point to move that screen point to. "UTILI WINDO" This command allows the user to zoom in on a current drawing by defining a window. That window is then adjusted so that it fits into the whole screen. It allows the user to examine the current part in more detail. Procedure . Locate the corner of a dynamically generated box. . Locate the opposite corner of the box. "UTILI HLIN" This command displays a representation of the current model with coloured in surfaces, all corrected overlap. Entities included are planes, cylinders, revolved arcs and opaque lines. When planes are intended to be used for hidden line removal, they must be definded so that the points located define the outline of the required shape. Plane trace can be used for this. Procedure . Enter overlap quality. . Enter contrast. . Confirm "Write to file"? . Enter width of raster (of hardcopy) } . Enter height of raster } (If writing to file) . Confirm "Laser printer or TX2 file}" . Enter output file name . Confirm "Refresh the screen"? If the output is to "Laser Printer" then it can be sent to a printer; alternatively a TX2 file can be read in by QD2D if the computer has enough memory. "UTILI *HLIN" This command displays the current part with the hidden edges removed. The hidden line removal is based on planes, cylinders, revolved arcs and opaque lines. When planes are intended to be used for hidden line removal, they must be defined so that the points or elements located define the outline of the required shape. Procedure . Confirm "writing output to a file?". If writing to a file then: . Enter output file name. . Confirm "display hidden lines as dotted?". . Confirm "Refresh the screen"? The file written to is a 2D text file and can later be read into QikDraw 2D and manipulated as desired. "UTILI COPY" When this comand is selected, a tertiary menu is displayed, and the user prompted to select an option. In all of the selections, a copy of a selected group of entities is made and either rotated, scaled or mirrored. In all options, at some stage, MENU1 appears: The first line in MENU1 determines the method to be used in locating the entities to be manipulated. Each time the selection button is pressed (while located in the first option box) the choices block/fence/entity are toggled in turn. Note that each is mutually exclusive of the other two. The rest of the choices toggle between the answers yes/no. If INC LIN was set to yes and INC CIR set to no, then any COPY manipulation will affect lines but not circles if instances of both were located in the area. Set this menu up as desired then press the termination button to finish. termination The following options appear in the initial menu when UTILI COPY is selected: Option Nature of Option Transla Translates a goup of entities to a user specified location. Either perpendicular to the screen or in a particular direction. The command can be used to give depth to a 2D drawing. Lines, planes and cylinders can be created between points, lines and arcs respectively. Procedure . Enter number of copies . Set up tertiary menu . Locate entities to be moved . Confirm "Direction of translation perpendicular to view"? . Enter projection distance between copies . Identify Reference Point . Identify Final Position of Reference Point . Confirm "Create lines swept between points"? . Confirm "Create planes swept between lines"? . Confirm "Create cylinders swept between arcs"? Scale Rescales a group of entities and redraws them at the new scale. Procedure . Enter number of copies to scale. . Set up tertiary menu. . Locate entities to be moved. . Enter new X scale. . Enter new Y scale. . Enter new Z scale. Mirror Mirrors a group of entities across a defined plane. Procedure . Enter number of copies . Set up tertiary menu . Locate entities to mirror . Confirm "View plane perpendicular to mirror plane"? If Yes {. {Identify first end of mirror line. If Yes { {Identify second end of mirror line. If No {. {Identify plane to be mirrored by. Rotate Rotates a group of entities about a rotation axis. Arcs and cylinders can be added between swept points and lines respectively. Procedure . Enter number of copies . Set up tertiary menu . Locate entities to rotate . Identify beginning point of rotation axis . Identify end point of rotation axis . Enter angle to rotate (+ve for anti- clockwise) . Confirm "Add arcs swept between points"? . Confirm "Add cylinders swept between lines"? . Confirm "Add revolved arcs between swept arcs"? Screw Rotates a group of entities about a rotation axis and translates them along the axis. Procedure . Enter number of copies to screw . Set up tertiary menu . Locate entities to screw . Identify beginning point of rotation axis . Identify end point of rotation axis . Enter the anti-clockwise rotation axis . Identify Reference Point . Identify final position of Reference point . Confirm "Is translation per rot. (y) or per cycle (n)"? Project Projects a group of entities onto an existing plane through a given direction. The direction is defined by locating two points and it must not be parallel with the projection plane. Lines can be added between swept points and planes can be added between swept lines. If a cylindrical surface is required then the arc must be unpacked into chords (using POINT Opt ArcSeg) before projection. Using this command a plan can be created from a 3D model. Cylinders and revolved arcs should be unpacked before projection. A FILE Tidy Procedure . Set up tertiary menu . Locate entities to project . Identify plane to receive projection . Locate reference point . Locate final position of reference point "UTILI FOLD" This command is used to unfold parts. Each surface of the part must have been defined as a plane. In addition there must be a line at which the two planes meet at an edge. The command takes a plane and rotates it onto the same plane as a reference plane. The rotation is about the line specified. A crease, or folding allowance may be specified. The unfolding process may be saved, to be replayed later. This command is generally used to unfold a box made of planes. Before executing this command, it is best to execute the command DRAW PLANE so that all planes are drawn with a small diamond shape at their centroid. The planes can then be located using these diamonds rather than their defining points, which may belong to more than one plane. Also this command is best done in ISO view, so select the command UTILI VIEW RECALL ISO. The unfolding can be saved then replayed as desired also. Procedure . Confirm "normal/save/replay the unfolding?". If save then: . Enter filename to save unfolding to. If replay then: . Enter the file name to reply from. If normal or save then: . Locate plane to unfold. . Locate reference plane. . Locate line representing rotation axis. . Enter crease allowance. This allows for the rotation to take place in the centre of any gap there may be between the two planes). "UTILI PEEL" This command is used to unfold cones, defined by two arcs. The two arcs must be centred on the same axis, and must be perpendicular to this axis. The two arcs must be parallel. The cone is unfolded out onto a plane, along a given folding axis. Procedure . Confirm "normal/save/replay the unfolding?". If save then . Enter filename to save unfolding to. If replay then . Enter the file name to reply from. If normal or save then: . Locate the first arc of the cone. . Locate the second arc of the cone. . Locate reference plane. . Locate line representing rotation axis. . Enter crease allowance. This allows for the rotation to take place in the centre of any gap there may be between the two planes).