IN REVIEW.....

    HiRez 9, Version 2.0,  from PSA/Graftek.

This piece of software has been reviewed recently elswhere in the trade
press, and has received some favorable comments.  In addition, several
members of the Club have been using it for some time, and have found it
to increase productivity by a margin more than worth its price.  With
only a few exceptions, it installs easily, and is quite adaptable to a
number of environments.  The only hardware requirements are an EGA or VGA
graphics card, and a monitor capable of the desired resolution.

It can be configured to run with default values, set with a "Configure"
program, or it can be used with a parameter file, also modified by the
user before actual use.  The parameter file is in ASCII, and the detailed
instructions for modifying it are in a file on the disk.  The printed
manual that comes with the disk no longer contains the technical
information about the program, unlike the prior version.

The whole reason for using this product is to decrease the time spent
waiting for AutoCAD to zoom or pan around a screen full of entities.  The
technology used is the Display List Processor, just like the hardware
products that cost 10 to 20 times more, but do no more for you (other
than give you a bigger write-off at tax time).  The secret is that the
Display List is kept in your memory, which you can configure as either
expanded or extended memory.  This means that you buy your memory as your
budget allows, and the memory can be used by other programs as you wish,
when you're not in AutoCAD.  Compare this with most hardware products
that have very expensive memory, but don't let you use that memory for
anything else besides AutoCAD.  This means that you can use HiRez 9 in an
XT (in expanded mode), as well as an AT .  In fact, you will probably
receive an even greater percentage of decrease in time spent waiting for
AutoCAD to redraw a screen, zoom, pan or restore a view when using HiRez
9 on an XT.  Additionally, if you have no memory now, but want a higher
resolution than your present graphics card will allow, you can still use
HiRez 9 to give you this increase, or you can even use it just for
accessing the pull-down menus, and other features of Release 9.
(Remember that the monitor will have to be able to accomodate any
desired higher resolution.)

Configuration is easy.  Previous versions had you specify a starting
address in extended memory, (not necessary in expanded memory,) and a
number of Kbytes to set aside for the operating files to work in.
Now, in Version 2, you simply assign some amount of memory to a
VDISK, or ramdrive, and tell the "Configure" program which drive
letter designation to use.  Quick and dirty, eh?  If you use an
optional parameter file, a place exists in there for the disk drive
designation, too.  If you have no memory yet, you can use a hard
drive, but obviously this is going to be very slow in comparison with
a ramdrive setup.

As currently shipped from the factory, there are parameter files on the
disk to cover just about all of the EGA cards on the market.  These files
are meant to be a good starting point, but are by no means the end answer
to all possible situations.  You may experiment freely, and in NO way
can you damage any part of the computer system, or the monitor.
Usually you will get a scrambled screen if you don't get the
parameters close enough for the graphics card to work with.  More
often than not you can type in "QUIT", and get back to a text screen
when this happens, without having to re-boot.  About the worst thing
that can happen will be a freeze-up of the graphics screen immediately
after entering AutoCAD's Drawing Editor.  Of course, you haven't
modified any entities yet, so nothing is lost if you have to re-boot.
In addition, many VGA boards are currently supported, though not all,
and several more are "in the chute".

A few tips to pass on that are not in the manual.  Since you are telling
AutoCAD that you are using a large virtual screen, you can set "VIEWRES"
to a value of 15 or 20, and set fastzooms to "NO".  This will decrease
the redraw time even more.  When you enter a drawing for the first time
that you are using HiRez 9 with it, do a "ZOOM EXTENTS", and then set the
APERTURE to something like 256, or maybe a little less.  The reason for
this is that the ADI driver Ver 3.1 will automatically set the
PICKBOX to a value that is one-third of the APERTURE value whenever a
HiRez 9 zoom is performed.  This problem should go away with ADI
Driver 4.0.  The ADI driver Ver 3.1 will work with Release 10, but of
course the multiple viewports will not be available.  You can also
use ADI driver 4.0 (which comes with Release 10), but again, HiRez 9
doesn't yet support multiple viewports.

Operation of HiRez 9 is simple.  You can use any AutoCAD command, and the
results will be as expected.  Additional commands are used for zooming
and panning using two-letter commands recognizable by HiRez 9.  In
practice, using HiRez 9 is like using the ZOOM command with the CENTER
option.   The HiRez 9 commands most often used are "Z0" through "Z5".
The number is the magnification factor, which is assignable to a power of
1 through 40.  You merely choose a "Z" factor, pick a point with a mouse
or digitizer, and PRESTO!, you are there.  You can program the commands
into a pull-down, screen, or a tablet menu.  You can "ZOOM" in or out
by a factor as little as 1, or as great as you wish (up to 40).  You
can also take advantage of the Control-L combination of keys to use
these commands transparently within other AutoCAD commands.  Using
these simple commands, you can expect to see a complete redraw of the
screen in only one-third to one-sixth of the time required by the
"REDRAW" command.  The same holds true, to a slightly lesser degree,
if you have zoomed in to the maximum magnification factor.

One more thing, and that is setting the AutoRegen variable within
AutoCAD.  If you don't normally mess with this system variable,
change it to "OFF".  This will protect you from un-necessary
regenerations caused by accidentally using a "ZOOM WINDOW" or "ZOOM
DYNAMIC" command.  (Old habits do die hard!)  AutoCAd will now warn
you if you are about to cause a regeneration, and ask if you really
want to go ahead.  DON'T DO IT!!  A regeneration will cause the
Display List to lose its current whereabouts in the drawing, and a
"ZOOM EXTENTS" will be necessary to get back to where you were before
the regeneration.  Finally, use the AutoCAD "REDRAW" command only to
flush the Display List, and have AutoCAD calculate a new Display
List.  Otherwise, the "RD" command from HiRez 9 will be more than
sufficient.  A new Display List will be necessary only after a lot of
modifications to the drawing have been made, or if the buffer is
nearly full.  The status line (top line of the screen) contains a
progress report on the number of bytes being used from the buffer,
and the current magnification factor.

Next month we will take a look at the new product from PSA/Graftek,
called HiRez 9 Plus.  A few more dollars, but a some worthwhile features.
In the meantime, if you have any questions on pricing, update policy, or
where to get HiRez 9, see me at the meeting, or call me at 742-6564.


                                             Al
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