Liren Large Software Subsidy 16/16.iso/t/t191/3.img/TRANS.ZIP/TRANS.DOC

Text File | 1990-10-22 | 13.3 KB | 362 lines

It is advisable to read the file "trans.upd" to get a list of the
updates with this version.



A description of how to use the TRANS program.
***********************************************************************

BEFORE GOING ANY FURTHER:
***********************************************************************
Before running the program, you must have a directory called \tmp
on your disk for the scratch files.
To make this , type in the following command:
MKDIR \TMP

This directory may need cleaning of scratch files if you crash out of the
program. Due to the large size of some IGES files, these scratch files
may also be large, so it is a good idea to clean up this directory each
time you boot the system. Put the lines:
DEL \TMP\*.* <AUTOEXEC.DAT >TEMPFILE
DEL TEMPFILE
into the file \AUTOEXEC.BAT
and put the line :
Y
into the file \AUTOEXEC.DAT

This will automatically delete any files in the \tmp directory.

The TRANS program should be in the \qd2d\trans directory, but if not, put
the line
TRANS=\directory path\
into the AUTOEXEC.BAT file  where directory path is the actual directory
where you have put TRANS

You can make a defaults file called
TRANS.QDA

This can be in the QIKDRAW directory (usually \QD2D on DOS) or the TRANS
directory as described above.
Here is an example file:

textfile     * input file name
textfile     * output file name
15000        * point limit
15000        * line limit
3000         * circle limit
2000         * curve limit
8000         * symbol limit
2000         * plane limit
500          * dimension limit
7            * output format (number of decimal places)

This sets the default values for the prompts.


MODES OF OPERATION
***********************************************************************

The TRANS program has 3 modes of operation:
IGES translation, DXF translation and QikDraw translation.

IGES MODE
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In iges iges mode, it reads in an iges file and converts it to a QikDraw
file. The iges file must have the name suffix ".igs", and the text file is
automatically named with a suffix of ".TX2".

The command is entered in unix standard:

trans modifier file file

where

modifier is:
-t     translate to Iges (from QikDraw text file)
-f     translate from Iges (to QikDraw text file)

file is:

the file names for the source and the destination, in that order.

If you don't specify the destination file, but specify only a directory,
the source is used for the first part of the name. eg:

trans -f data\highway.igs \qd2d\
is the same as:
trans -f data\highway.igs \qd2d\HIGHWAY.TX2

NOTE: you have to put in the trailing "\" for directories.
(The uppercase is only relevant for unix OS, and is ignored for DOS)

You don't have to complete the file name with the suffix, the program will
do that, and also will change to the correct suffix. eg:

trans -f c:\iges\data\highway a:\highway.junk
is the same as:
trans -f c:\iges\data\highway.igs a:\HIGHWAY.TX2


When the program is running, it will show where it is at, and in the bulk
of the transfer, it will keep updating a status line at the bottom of the
screen.
Any error messages that are worth noting will remain on the screen.
(Not be over-written by the next status update).

If the iges file has a lot of levels of nesting in entities, the TRANS program
can run out of stack space (which is only 64k on DOS). This would cause a
crash out of the program, and leave some scratch files on the disk. These
scratch files are all in the \tmp directory.


***********************************************************************
IMPORTANT: When writing a textfile from QikDraw which you intend to use for
converting to iges you must unpack all symbol entities which are not text.
eg. a door symbol, or a bed must be unpacked to individual lines before
the transfer, otherwise it will be converted to it's ASCII equivalent.
***********************************************************************


A DESCRIPTION OF THE STEPS USED IN READING AN IGES FILE:

1. get the iges file onto the disk with the correct name. (It must be suffixed
   by .igs) eg. pump.igs

2. execute the TRANS program: eg. trans -f pump a:\
   The program may come up with some prompts you will need to answer, or
   accept the defaults.
   It may find that the units of the iges file were inches, or some other unit
   and suggest a scale factor in translating.
   If the co-ordinates in the file are large values, it will suggest scaling
   down by factors of 10.

3. Read the text file into QikDraw. Select the menu squares FILE READ TEXT
   then type in the file name. eg. FILE READ TEXT a:pump

4. Scale the drawing:
   When the drawing is read in you may not see anything on the screen.
   That is because the entities may be drawn somewhere off screen at the
   present scale.
   I suggest using UTIL ZOOM and answering Y to the first prompt (for scale
   to fit extents). Then note the scale, use UTIL VIEW to return to the initial
   scale and then SET SCALE, and type in your noted scale value.
   The reason for using SET SCALE is to make the line styles appear correct.

A DESCRIPTION OF THE STEPS USED IN WRITING AN IGES FILE:

1. get the QikDraw text file onto the disk with the correct name.
   (It must be suffixed by .TX2) eg. TEXTFILE.TX2

2. execute the TRANS program: eg. trans -t textfile new
   The program may come up with some prompts you will need to answer, or
   accept the defaults.
   It will ask if you wish it to force conversion of points so that the
   QikDraw points are converted to pointe entities in the iges file.
   This will make the file large, and may cause problems with the CAD
   program attempting to read in such a large database.
   In most cases you should answer NO to this prompt.

3. Read the iges file into the other CAD program.


DXF MODE
***********************************************************************

In DXF mode, it reads in a DXF file and converts it to a QikDraw
file, or the other way. The DXF file name must have the name suffix ".dxf",
and the text file name must be appended with ".TX2".

The command is entered in unix standard:

trans modifier file file

where

modifier is:
-d     translate DXF file to QikDraw file
-a     translate QikDraw file to DXF file

file is:

the file names for the source and the destination, in that order.

A DESCRIPTION OF THE STEPS USED IN READING A DXF FILE:

1. get the AUTOCAD DXF text file onto the disk with the correct name.
   (It must be suffixed by .dxf) eg. shuttle.dxf

2. execute the TRANS program: eg. trans -d shuttle.dxf TEXTFILE.TX2

3. Read the text file into QikDraw. Select the menu squares FILE READ TEXT
   then type in the file name. eg. FILE READ TEXT textfile

4. Scale the drawing:
   When the drawing is read in you may not see anything on the screen.
   That is because the entities may be drawn somewhere off screen at the
   present scale.
   I suggest using UTIL ZOOM and answering Y to the first prompt (for scale
   to fit extents). Then note the scale, use UTIL VIEW to return to the initial
   scale and then SET SCALE, and type in your noted scale value.
   The reason for using SET SCALE is to make the line styles appear correct.


A DESCRIPTION OF THE STEPS USED IN WRITING A DXF FILE:

1. get the QikDraw text file onto the disk with the correct name.
   (It must be suffixed by .TX2) eg. TEXTFILE.TX2

2. execute the TRANS program: eg. trans -a textfile new

3. Read the DXF file into the other CAD program.


NOTES ON TRANS:
***********************************************************************

Some iges translators will not convert all entities: for example AUTOCAD
(At the time of writing this file)
will convert curves into composite entities consisting of circles and lines,
and will write ellipses as circle segments also. QikDraw will not write out
dimensions, and when it reads them in, they no longer are dimension entities
but a representation using lines and symbols.
In some cases it is better to use another file transfer program, or the DXF
translator mode of TRANS.
***********************************************************************
IMPORTANT: When writing a textfile from QikDraw which you intend to use for
converting to iges you must unpack all symbol entities which are not text.
eg. a door symbol, or a bed must be unpacked to individual lines before
the transfer, otherwise it will be converted to it's ASCII equivalent.
***********************************************************************


There are a number of data files used by trans:

trans        a shell script (UNIX only).
trans.exe    The actual program.
trans.dim    DIMension dummy block.
trans.upd    UPDates listed for the users information.
trans.dat    DATa used by the program.
trans.doc    DOCumentation called up by the help facility.

The following files are optional:

trans.qda    Qikdraw DAta specifies number of entities (user definable).
trans.lnk    LiNK between AUTOCAD BLOCK and Qikdraw symbol (user definable).
trans.nga    Non Graphic Attribute link to AUTOCAD ATTRIB (user definable).
trans.lst    Line Style link from AUTOCAD LTYPE to QikDraw style (user definable).
trans.lay    LAYer assignment from AUTOCAD LAYER to QikDraw pen (user definable).

TRANS.QDA:

textfile     * input file name
textfile     * output file name
3000         * point limit
3000         * line limit
1000         * circle limit
500          * curve limit
3000         * symbol limit
1000         * plane limit
500          * dimension limit
7            * output format (number of decimal places)

The .QDA file is normally created for the trans program so that it matches with the
current release version of QikDraw for tha particular machine and operating system.
The operator should not need to change this file.

TRANS.LNK:

This file provides a link between AUTOCAD BLOCKs and QikDraw symbols.
AUTOCAD blocks are normally exploded out into individual entities as they
are called up in the DXF file as INSERTs, but if the block name is listed
in the .LNK file, then a QikDraw symbol will be inserted instead of
exploding the block definition. The format of the file is as so:

{block_name} {QikDraw_symbol_file_name} {ASCII_character_string}
...
...

where {block_name} is the AUTOCAD BLOCK name
      {QikDraw_symbolFile_name} is the symbol file name
      {ASCII_character_string} is the string of ascii equivalents
         for the symbol to be inserted.
eg:

BED1 HOMESYM !
OPEN_A HOLOFSYM A

This file will convert the DXF BLOCK INSERT of BED1 to the symbol with
the ASCII equivalent of '!' in the symbol file 'HOMESYM.SYM', and similarly
for the open A character.

The INSERT Xscale and Yscale will be translated so that the Symbol's height
= the Yscale, and the Symbol's width-scale = the Xscale / Yscale.

TRANS.LST:

This file contains a list of AutoCad DXF LTYPE names and the correspondig
line style in QikDraw. When the translator finds a line type named in the file,
it will use the QikDraw line style when creating the new entity.

The format of the TRANS.LST file is as so:

{font name} {Qikdraw line style number} {symbol line style number}
{font name} {Qikdraw line style number} {symbol line style number}
...etc

{font name} is the name of the DXF font (must be in lower-case)
    eg. phantom
{Qikdraw line style number} is the qikdraw line style menu position
{symbol line style number} is the menu position in QikDraw equivalent to
selecting via the QDLINE1.SYM QDLINE2.SYM etc menus.

eg. TRANS.LST:

slashes 11 1
fence 11 3

Using a symbol line style number of 100 + n will use the second line style
file QDLINE2.SYM, use 200 + n, and it will refer to QDLINE3.SYM and so on.

TRANS.LAY:

Trans normally converts each layer name to a unique QikDraw pen number, unless
the limit of 64 pens is exceeded, then new layers will be mapped to pen 63.
If a QikDraw layer name is listed in the trans.lay file, then it will be mapped
as specified in the file.

The format of this file is as so:

{Autocad layer name} {QikDraw pen} {Qikdraw style} {Qikdraw user defined style}
.....
....

where {Autocad layer name} is the layer name in AUTOCAD
      {QikDraw pen} is the pen number this layer is to be mapped to
      {QikDraw style} is the default line style for this layer
      {QikDraw symbol style} is the symbol style from QDLINE1.SYM etc as in
         TRANS.LST

eg.

17-1 62 0 0
17-2 62 0 0
FENCES 10 11 3

The user defined style number is the same as in the TRANS.LST file. For
User defined styles, the Qikdraw style number must be 9 or greater.
The style and user defined style name refers to the box position in the
menu. The first box (at the top of the screen) is box number 0.

TRANS.NGA:

This file lists the names of AUTOCAD ATTRIB or ATTDEF attribute entity types
which should be converted to Non Graphic Attributes in QikDraw. The file also
specifies a pen number for the ATTRIB. This is because although an NGA entity
has does not have a pen specification, it is possible to create text symbols
from the ATTRIB type and value. There is a command line prompt which enables
or disables the feature of creating text.

It is possible to plot NGA's from QIkDraw by using MODE DRAW to turn on NGA's
then SET PLOTTER, and DRAW PLOT SUBDRAWING (not DRAWING).