Prototyper V1.42 UK Demo Document ================================= Electronic Vero Board Design Tool. ================================== (c) Micro Image 91/92. ====================== By Derek Pell. ============== See Read Me Doc For Price List Hello, and welcome to Prototyper. This is a demonstration version of my vero board CAD system. It's aim is to show you how easy vero board design can be made with the use of this software, some functions are not included with this version. If you require any assistance with this program or wish to make any inquiries don't hesitate to do so, but please include a self addressed envelope for my reply to your letter. Or why not contact me on the telephone number below. Derek Pell Micro Image 58 Ash Road Newport Isle of Wight PO3O 2AG. Tel: 0983 826006. An Important Accessory! ======================= I feel the Custom Library Creator is a necessary program to have with both E-CAD and Prototyper as I can not possibly include every symbol/package on a library disk, new packages are dreamed of by the minute so the library creator gives you infinite coverage of all things electrical and indeed mechanical if you wish. About ===== Prototyper is a CAD program specially designed for 'Vero' strip board layouts. I assure you this program is a lot easier and quicker than design- ing layouts on paper and safer than taking pot luck and designing as you build. The program includes a component package library, loadable custom libraries facility, brushes, powerful zoom editor, all disk activities and a printer dump function and much more. In fact as long as you have an Amiga and Prototyper you will never go back to conventional methods again! A word about the component symbols ================================== The matrix snap shifts every 8 pixels and not every 16 pixels, this means its possible to place components with there legs in between holes. This has a memory saving advantage, a maximum of a 15 pixel boundary around symbols takes extra memory thus reduces the maximum number of symbols in a library. This 15 max. pixel boundary is a must for 16 pixel snap as it is now I only have to use a maximum of 7 pixels. Prototyper Instructions ======================= Always boot from this demo disk, Prototyper will NOT run from your standard workbench disk. Before clicking on the Prototyper Icon you should first click on the Proto_Boot icon, wait for CLI window to disappear and click on the Prototyper Icon. YOU ALSO NEED 1MB OF MEMORY FOR THIS PROGRAM. The Icon Bar ============= Once the program has loaded you will be presented with an Icon control bar. This is used to select library symbols in the normal clicking manner. Use the left mouse button to rotate the symbols one way and the right the other way. Once you have the desired symbol simply move the mouse pointer away from the icon bar and the pointer will change to that symbol. There are four other relevant icons on the bar these are......... Pencil..... Used for drawing elastic type lines for connections etc. Shape Draw. Draws elastic boxes, circles and ellipse! Pen........ Used for labelling your components etc. Undo....... Tackles that last error in the usual way. Holes ===== The shape drawing device can be used to drill holes in the vero board. As you know holes are needed for screws etc, to drill a hole hold down one of the shift keys while drawing a circle. The Track Cutting Device ======================== This can only be used whilst the mouse pointer is on the screen and it is activated like this. Move the mouse pointer to the cut position, hold down either shift key and click the left mouse button. The track cutter will also cut in between track holes as this is a favored trick of mine to save space. If you should happen to find you have cut the wrong track, then repeating the cutting operation over an already cut track will repair that track. The undo may also be used if the cut was the last operation. Do not use the rubber to remove cut tracks. Although this will work, the rubber will not update the cut tracks map. This can create difficulties! The purpose of the map will be reviled in the section on brushes. The Menu ======== The menu bar can be activated when the mouse pointer is not over the icon bar by holding the right mouse button in, the rest works in the normal manner. The menu bar is split into eight separate sections these being... Trashcan, Disk, Print, Colour, Shape, Symbol, Zoom and Preferences. Here's an over lay of the various menu functions...... Trashcan Menu ============= Rubber: This rubs out mistakes and replaces them with strip board tracks. This is used when the mistake has gone past the Undo stage. Clear Board: Clears the current layout to start a fresh one. Disk Menu ========= Load Board: Loads a Prototyper layout. When the file selector opens clicking the right mouse button will display the available devices. Clicking on the Change Dir icon before choosing a file will make directory you are in the current directory. Hence this directory will be displayed when you next use the file selector. You will find an example vero board layout in the 'Examples' directory on this disk, load it and have a look! I said this was a demo didn't I! and it is, all functions on the disk menu below have been admitted from this demo version. Save Board: Save a Prototyper layout by passing the file selector and saving the file under the current name, saves you time! Save Board As: Save layout under your name specified using the file selector. Erase Board: Deletes an unwanted layout. Snap Shot: Save the section of the layout currently displayed on the screen for importing into DPT's etc. Print Menu ========== Full version only. Prototyper uses the workbench printer dump routines and therefore realize on the workbench printer preferences for its parameters. This disk has been supplied with the preferences set so that two horizontal screen dumps will fit nicely on a USA standard document sheet (21.6x28mm), the two screen dumps being component and solder side of the vero board respectively. You have a choice of two print modes 'Fixed Scale' and 'Scale Adjust'. After selecting either you will be presented with a printer settings window, this is the same in both print modes. Look to the bottom of the window, you will see four size control gadgets. The numbers in the centre of the gadgets match the coordinates displayed as part of the icon bar, so you will need to take note of the X and Y coordinates of the top left and bottom right of the section of board you are using. The gadgets are adjusted using either the left mouse button for raped movement or the right for slow movement, the clicking area being at the top and bottom of the gadgets. To the left of the window is a image representing the board area and the section to be printed. As you adjust the gadgets at the bottom the image will be updated. There is a minimum board section size for printing, when either axis reaches the minimum size it will no longer move in that direction. Moving the opposite side to the one which has become fixed in the same direction will enable the fixed side to move again in that direction. In this way the print section can be moved around the board. Again I suggest you have a play with the gadgets to familiarize your self with there directional operations. Directly below the vero board image are two printer preference settings, like all other preference setting these will be stored by the save prefs. function. Clicking on these settings will cause them to toggle between to states. The left setting lets you chose between the 'default printer palette' and the 'user palette'. The default palette gives the best results with mono printers and if you have a colour printer you may wish to use the user palette which produce a printout approximately the same colour as the screen. The right setting lets you chose between printing both the component side and the solder side or just printing the component side. Hence you may not always need to print the solder side. Now for the two printer modes... Fixed Scale: With fixed scale the area printed is always the whole board area, the sizing gadget just defines the area which will not be masked off. The rest of the area outside of the perimeter of the sizing boundary will be masked off and thus will not be printed. Scale Adjust: With scale adjust, only the sized area is printed. The printout will be stretched out to cover the size stipulated by the workbench preferences, hence the term scale adjust. There is one thing to be aware of with this mode, because the scale is adjusted accordingly on both axis it is possible to have a printout with say a larger or smaller scale on the 'Y' axis than on the 'X'. This mode is good for boards which are oblong, being longer in the 'X' axis. Square boards are best printed using fixed scale. Use the workbench preferences for further control over the printer dump function, density of print, size etc. can be adjusted from there. For information on printer preferences V1.3 users should read chapter 6.11 and V2.0 users should read chapter 3.36 and 3.42. Colour Menu =========== Changes the current drawing colour, symbols and brushes will be re-coloured to the new colour. Shape Menu ========== This changes the current shape to be drawn by the icon shape drawing device. The current shape also forms part of the preference setting and hence is saved with the config. file. Symbol Menu =========== Flip Horz: Flips a symbol/brush on the horizontal axis. Flip Vert: Flips a symbol/brush on the vertical axis. Vert/Horz: Rotate the symbol ONLY axis by 90 degrees. Load Custom: Load a custom library which has been defined using the Custom Library Creator. These libraries are exactly the same format as the default library, so they come with there own icon bar and every other feature of the default library. See near the start of this document for information on the Custom Library Creator. In short the CLC is a very valuable tool! Exit Custom: Exit from a custom library and re-loads the default one. I regret there is no custom library on this disk to show you, but their just like the default lib, so I guess you could say you've seen one already! Grab a Brush: Grabs a rectangular area of the screen which can be used as a brush. The left mouse button copies the section of the screen into a brush whilst the right lifts the section away from the board so you can just move it a bit giving you more room instantly. I used to swear when I had to rub a big section out because I'd forgotten something! Brushes are perhaps one of the most powerful features of Prototyper, when a brush is grabbed the section of the cut track map under that brush is copied into the brushes personal map. When the brush is pasted on the board this map enable the the tracks underneath to be cut automatically for you. This personal map will be saved with the brush if you chose to make it part of your collection. The map will be flipped on ether axis when the horizontal or vertical flip functions are used with a brush. When a brush is lifted from the screen that section of the main map will be reset. In short the map keep record of all your cut and uncut tracks. Load a Brush: Loads an Prototyper/Electro CAD brush from disk. For a demo. of just how powerful Prototyper brushes are, load the 'ExampleBrush' from the 'ProtoBrush' directory on this disk. Try placing it somewhere on the screen. Save a Brush: Saves the current brush in use. Full version only. Zoom Menu ========= Prototyper includes a brand new powerful zoom editor. As always it is easy to use, icon driven and was a pig to program! After selecting this, a square box will appear in place of the mouse pointer, position this on the area you whish to zoom in on and click the left mouse button. Zoom Editor II ============== Icon 1: Provides a selection of different sized pixel blocks for free hand drawing. The X key provides an X axis lock and the Z does the Y axis, so you don't necessarily need a steady hand. Icon 2: Lets you grab a brush in zoom mode. This functions the same as the menu version. If a brush is currently being used in Prototyper it may be load into the zoom editor by clicking on this icon with the right hand mouse button. Icons 3-4: Provide horizontal and vertical flip with brushes. Icon 5: Elastic line drawing device. Icon 6: Elastic box. Icon 7: Elastic circle. Icon 8: Elastic ellipse. Icon 9: Changes the current drawing colour. Brushes will be re-coloured. Icon 10: The vital Undo. Icon 11: Restores screen to normal display mode. Arrows: Scrolls other areas of the screen in to the zoom rectangle. Filling an Area: This can be done by selecting icon 1, the pre defined blocks. Now move the block to the area you wish to fill, hold down the 'F' key and click the mouse button at the same time. The area will be filled using the current colour. Now it so easy to define brushes inside Prototyper and Electro CAD is getting this new function soon! Note Zoom Editor II is totally icon driven and the menu can not be accessed. Preferences Menu ================ Coordinates: Turns coordinates on/off. Relative: Specifies weather the coordinates are displayed as relative or absolute matrix positions in the pencil and PCB modes. Memory Check: Enables you to see the current memory available. Matrix Snap: Turns the matrix snap on/off. Auto Track Cut: Turns the automatic track cutting with brushes on/off. Clean Up: This will add a slight perimeter to the area to be cleared when the lift brush function is used with matrix snap on. This can be used to clean up any tracks which are cut right on the edge of the brush. Its probably a good idea for you to experiment with this one. You may find in some cases if better to keep it turned off. Set Font: Set the font style to be used with the icon pen. Set RGB: Used to adjust the RGB levels on the colour palette. Set Inverse RGB: Used to set the inverse snap shot palette, see the section on snap shots. (Disk menu.) Open WorkBench: Opens and closes the work bench for multi tasking Prototype with other programs. To open the work bench Prototyper checks to see if there's a suitable amount of memory to do this. Holding down the left Amiga key and pressing 'A' at the same time will toggle in between the workbench and Prototyper. One handy aspect of this is to run Prototyper and flick back to the workbench and open the manual book and then if you get stuck you can consult the manual just be pressing to keys. Exit System: Exits Prototyper to the workbench. Save Prefs: Save all the above preferences to the disk so Prototyper can boot up how you last set it! About: Last but not least the all important credits. End of Document.