Electro Cad V1.2 Instructions ============================= (Useable Demo) ============== By Derek Pell (c)1991 ===================== About: ====== Electro Cad is an electronics schematic drawing system. schematic may be drawn and saved to disk, loaded and edited from disk and printout me be obtained.(Full version only.) Also PCB design facilities are planed, see custom library section in this document for details. The Work Bench ============== The workbench on this disk is fairly limited, but it will let you format blank disks to store schematics on. You will also be able to change the work- bench preferences. Useable Demo ============ This version is intended to be a useable demo, hence it is not the full version of Electro Cad. Non-demo Functions ================== These are certain functions which have not been included in this demo version, for these functions you may perches a full copy of Electro Cad from me. Please send a cheque or postorder for £7.99 made payable to: Derek Pell 58 Ash Road Newport Isle of Wight PO3O 2AG. Description of Non-demo functions Loading and Saving Brushes ========================== Yes Electro Cad (like D-Paint and Photon Paint) has brushes, these can be grabbed from the screen and manipulated like the predefined symbols. These brushes can be saved to disk for further use. Print Schematic =============== Once your schematic is fully drawn a printout of it may be obtained from a dot matrix printer. If your drawing is in four parts then it will have to be stuck together. Inverting Schematic =================== This is a very useful function (if you own a copy of Kind Words), particularly if your a student like me who has to do lots of assignments which have to be word processed and contain drawings. For those of you who have kind Words you will know that it can include graphics in your text files, you will also know that it uses an unusual format of white background (pen 1) and black text (pen 0). I wanted to be able to use my schematics with Kind Words, however I decided to stick to the standard format for Electro Cad which is why I have included this function in the full version. This function simply inverts your schematic drawing making it Kind Words compatible. There is also another useful program you will need if you intend to do this kind of work and make it look professional. I call this program Kind Words Screen Sizer, as it suggests it simply lets you cut your drawings to a convenient size. If this is not done you will end up with big gaps between your text and drawings. When you buy the full version of Electro Cad I will give you the screen sizer free. Save Schematic ============== This function lets you save your schematic circuit diagram after you have drawn it. How to Use The Demo Version =========================== The Icon Bar ============ This is used to select the predefined symbols, simply keep clicking on the appropriate icon until the symbol that you need appears. All the common component symbols (and more) have been included. When you have the right one pull the mouse away from the bar. The left mouse button rotates the symbols forward while the right rotates them backwards. The four icons at the end are Pencil, Shape Draw, Pen and Rubber. Pencil ====== This is a simple elastic line drawing device just click on one point and stretch the line to the other. Shape Draw ========== This can be used to draw boxes, circles and ellipses. The shapes are set on the menu, more about the menu latter. Pen === This is for labelling your schematics. Type in the label push return and use the mouse to position the label. Rubber ====== This will rub out the are under the rubber cursor (about a square cm.) Pressing the return key will abort each function or swap the current symbol with the mouse pointer. The Drawing Area ================ This is four screens (2 by 2) and the cursor keys are used to scroll around the area. Each screen is referred to as a page in screen operations such as load/save. Before a screen operation is carried out the status of each page can be changed. This is done by high lighting and clicking on the particular page in the screen operations window, there are three settings: 'Yes' Page will be effected. 'No' Page will be unaffected. 'N/A' Page is not available. The operation can also be cancelled at this point. The Menu ======== The menu is activated by the right mouse button when mouse pointer is not positioned over the icon bar. Trashcan Menu ============= Clear Screen ============ This allows you to clear one or more pages at once, use the screen operation window to chose which screen are cleared. Erase a Schematic ================= Same as above, only this time you can erase pages that are stored on a disk. Load a Schematic ================ Load schematics pages. When the file selector appears the various drives and directories may be displayed by pressing the right mouse button. There is an example schematic file on this demo disk, it has been saved under the name 'Examplescr.Elec' try loading it. Move Menu-Move Schematic ======================== This lets you change the position of your actual drawing with respect to the whole drawing area, eg centring the schematic in the middle of the screen. The movement is again done by the cursor keys. Colour Menu =========== This lets you change the current drawing colour, all symbols etc will be the chosen colour. Shape Menu ========== This sets the current shape for the shape drawing function. Symbol Menu =========== Flip Horizontal =============== Flip current symbol or brush horizontally (mirror image). Flip Vertical ============= Flip current symbol or brush vertically. Vertical/Horizontal =================== Change the polarisation of the current symbol, ie vertical to horizontal or visa versa. This only works with symbols since each symbol has been drawn in two positions for accuracy. Load Custom =========== This lets you load a custom library of symbols into Electro Cad. You will find a small custom library of flowchart symbols on the disk. further custom symbol library will be available from the above address. I still have to make other libraries up, but in addition to this I am planing on writing a custom library formation package for Electro Cad which will also be available from me. The formation package will be a special image grabber and the symbols will have to be drawn on a screen with D-Paint or Photon Paint and then saved to disk. If you are interested in this additional program please tell me when you perches the full version from me and I will let you know when it is available. The custom library in the full version will be more like the predefined symbols library, each library will have its own Icon bar. So each Icon will represent a different bank of components. The custom library with this demo was my original idea of how it should be. Once I have the new library system up and running and the full version finished I plan to start designing a PCB layout and PCB track library. By laying out a complete plan of a PCB on the screen and selecting the PCB processing function from the menu, Electro Cad will be able to provide you with the art work for your PCB. Grab a Brush ============ This lets you copy a section of the screen so it may be duplicated any where in the drawing area. Unfortunately due to memory the size of the area which can be grabbed had to be limited, so larger sections may have to be dealt with a bit at a time. (That makes it sound worse than it really is.) Zoom Menu ========= This lets you zoom in on selected sections of the drawing area, once the magnified section is complete a close screen editing facility is automatically available. The Restore function on the zoom menu restores the screen back to normal with any changes that may have been done in the editor. Preference Menu =============== Coordinates =========== This allows the current coordinates of the mouse pointer to be displayed. These coordinates are relative to the left and top edges of the drawing area, so they also give an indication to where the screen is positioned over the drawing are. Targeting ========= This is an aide for the pencil or shape draw, when the mouse cross is positioned centrally over a line on the screen a chiming bell will sound repeatedly to help you join the lines with grated speed. The targeting bell will toggle on and off each time its menu is accessed. Set RGB ======= This lets you change the colour setting of all four screen colours. The Reset button will reset the current colour only to its default value. Exit System =========== This lets you exit the Electro Cad system and takes you back to the work bench. Finally, I have tested this demo quite rigorously my self and whilst being pretty sure all bugs have been removed I think its just possible you might find something I missed. Or you might think a particular function should be configurated in a different way, after all I wrote the program how I thought it should be. I do not plan on updating this demo, but the fall version is not quite ready yet. So if something doesn't seem quite right, now would be the best time to correct it. I am hoping to have the full version finished in March (91). So if you spot something please do let me know, (if the mouse pointer disappears on you push the return key, this is the most persistent bug I encountered. I will be investigating this problem before I release the full version, it shouldn't happen to you but if it does don't despair do as I said and remember it wont happen in the full version.) As I said the full version should be available in March. I will handle any order for Electro Cad as swiftly as possible, but please do allow 28 days for delivery just incase I get too many orders at once. The complete package will be on two disks. As with this this demo you will need 1meg to run it and probably a maximum of one external disk drive due to the memory external drives use (it will work with just the built-in drive). If your lucky enough to have more you'll just have to turn them off! If your really lucky and have more than 1meg you should be able to use other external drives, I'm not totally sure about that because I only have 1meg. But I do know that I have problems running the full version with both of my external drives on. End of Document.