X-CAD 2000 ========== Thank you for purchasing X-CAD 2000. This file contains some general notes and additional information that we were not able to include in the manual, before its printing. Making directory assignments manually ===================================== If you wish to make the directory assignments, for X-CAD 2000, manually, or you have an unusual system set up, you should add the following to your StartupII or User-Startup file. ASSIGN MENUS: XCAD2000/MENUS ASSIGN XCAD20003DPMODS: XCAD2000/PMODS ASSIGN XCAD20003DHANDLERS: XCAD2000/HANDLERS ASSIGN DRAWINGS: XCAD2000/DRAWINGS ASSIGN XSDATA: XCAD2000/XSDATA ASSIGN XSFONTS: XCAD2000/XSFONTS ASSIGN XSLOVLY: XCAD2000/XSLOVLY ASSIGN XSMODS: XCAD2000/XSMODS ASSIGN XSPOVLY: XCAD2000/XSPOVLY ASSIGN SYMBOLS: XCAD2000/SYMBOLS ASSIGN XCAD20003D: XCAD2000 FOR THE PROGRAM TO WORK, EXECUTE THE FILE "Xcad_Dongle" BEFORE RUNNING XCAD IF YOU HAVENT SELECTED, AUTO INCLUDING IN YOUR USER-STARTUP Where is your hard-disk path name. e.g. "DH0:", "SYS:CAD/" or "JH1:" HPGL Plotter - Tricks & Tips ---------------------------- Most Hewlett Packard plotters use the serial interface. Unfortunately, both Hewlett Packard plotters and Amigas sometimes have "unusual" aspects in their serial communications. The following are various tricks and tips that X-CAD users, with HPGL plotters, have passed onto us, over the years. You will find that almost all Hewlett Packard plotters, using a serial interface, will require some form of initialisation before use with X-CAD. Naturally, this does not normally apply to plotters using the parallel interface. HP7475A Plotter --------------- The HP7475A requires Xon/Xoff handshaking which is not used in its default mode. In order to activate the handshaking, the following escape sequence must be loaded into the plotter. This can be done by sending a file to the plotter to initialise it. This file can be created as follows: COPY * to ram:HPXON .M;10;10;13: .N;19: .180;;17: COPY ram:HPXON to s:HPXON Note - The symbol refers to the escape key. The symbol refers to the return key. The symbol refers to the keystroke produced by holding down the CTRL key and hitting the (\) backslash key. Set your plotter for 9600 Baud. 8 data bits. 1 stop bit. No parity. Run thew preferences tool and set the Amiga for custom/generic printer and serial port output. Go into change serail to match the Amiga to the plotter. Set handshaking to XON/XOFF and save the preferences. To use the HPXON file in your Startup-Sequence add the following line before the LOADWB command: COPY s:HPXON to ser: Initialisation using Amiga BASIC -------------------------------- Another way of creating the necessary initialization file is to use Amiga BASIC, or a similar program language. A program to do the same as the above in Amiga BASIC would look like this: REM ******************************** REM set up program for hpgl plotters REM by Tim Gathercole - 8/6/92 REM ******************************** OPEN "RAM:HPSETUP" FOR OUTPUT AS #1 PRINT #1, CHR$(27); PRINT #1,".(;"; PRINT #1,CHR$(27); PRINT #1,"."; PRINT #1,"I81;;17:"; PRINT #1,CHR$(27); PRINT #1,".N;19:" CLOSE #1 The above has the advantage of being able to be re-written so that the output file goes directly to the serial port. This can be done by substituting "SER:" for "RAM:HPSETUP", in the program. This will enable initialisation to be carried out by clicking on an icon. We have found that most Hewlett Packard plotters will work correctly if the above initialisation file is used. A compiled copy of both versions of this program are in the utilities draw. However, for those who prefer to write their own initiation file, further details, on other plotters are provided below. HP7448 Colour Pro Plotter ------------------------- To use XON/XOFF with the above plotter you will have to create a small initiation file. This file can be created as follows: If your plotter has an add-on buffer use the following: COPY * to ram:HPXON .P1:.T1900;74:.@1900 COPY ram:HPXON to s:HPXON If your plotter does not have a buffer use the following: COPY * to ram:HPXON .P1: COPY ram:HPXON to s:HPXON Note - The symbol refers to the escape key. The symbol refers to the return key. The symbol refers to the keystroke produced by holding down the CTRL key and hitting the (\) backslash key. Set your plotter for 9600 Baud. 8 data bits. 1 stop bit. No parity. Run thew preferences tool and set the Amiga for custom/generic printer and serial port output. Go into change serail to match the Amiga to the plotter. Set handshaking to XON/XOFF and save the preferences. To use the HPXON file in your Startup-Sequence add the following line before the LOADWB command: COPY s:HPXON to ser: Pausing Plotters ---------------- If using a large data buffer between your Amiga and plotter, then by creating a file containing the following HPGL commands and sending it to the plotter before sending a second plot to the buffer, it will be possible to store more than one drawing in the buffer. SP; EC; PG; EC1: DE; This series of commands should put the plotter into pause mode. An Amiga BASIC program to create a file containing these commands, would look like this: REM ******************************** REM Pause program for hpgl plotters REM by Tim Gathercole - 8/6/92 REM ******************************** OPEN "RAM:HPPAUSE" FOR OUTPUT AS #1 PRINT #1,"SP;EC;PG;EC1:DE;" CLOSE #1 Again this output file can be sent directly to the serial port by substituting "SER:" for "RAM:HPPAUSE", in the program. HP7570A DraftPro ---------------- COPY * to ram:HPXON .M;10;10;13: .N;19: .I80;;17: COPY ram:HPXON to s:HPXON Note - The symbol refers to the escape key. The symbol refers to the return key. The symbol refers to the keystroke produced by holding down the CTRL key and hitting the (\) backslash key. Set your plotter for 9600 Baud. 8 data bits. 1 stop bit. No parity. Run thew preferences tool and set the Amiga for custom/generic printer and serial port output. Go into change serail to match the Amiga to the plotter. Set handshaking to XON/XOFF and save the preferences. To use the HPXON file in your Startup-Sequence add the following line before the LOADWB command: COPY s:HPXON to ser: Suggested DIP switch settings are: ------------------------- | 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 | | |-||-||-||-||-||-||-| | | | || || ||\|| ||\|| | | | |\||\||\|| ||\|| ||\| | | |-||-||-||-||-||-||-| | ------------------------- RTS-CTS Protocol on HP7585B --------------------------- The suggest cable configuration is as follows: 1 2 3 4 6 5 7 | | | |__| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1 3 2 20 7 Handshake: RTS-CTS Read bits: 8 Write Bits: 8 Stop Bits: 1 Baud Rate: 9600 Buffer Size: 1024 General Note ------------ The above pieces of information have been passed onto us by our users. However, we cannot guarantee that they will work with all models of Hewlett Packard plotter, or even up dated versions of the plotters mentioned.