**************************************************************************** * The XCad System * * from * * Digital Multimedia Europe * * 48, Beukenlaan * * 1560 HOEILAART * * BELGIUM * * Tel (32)-2-657-5803 * * Fax (32)-2-657-5652 * **************************************************************************** Overview -------- XCad is an advanced Computer Aided Design (CAD) system enabling two and three dimensional design, drafting and visualisation of design projects. It is extremely powerful and versatile, yet easy to use. XCad enables the creation of two dimensional drawings and/or three dimensional models, of an almost infinite size and an accuracy to a millionth of a millimetre or inch. XCad can import and export drawings in a number of formats, including DXF and IFF. Supplied with XCad are a number of utilities that enable standard drawing file formats to be converted for use with other programs. These can be found in the XCad-utils directory and include translators to Postscript, Sculpt 3D/4D and Aegis formats. XCad comes in two parts :- XCad 2D, the two dimensional section of the program and XCad 3D, the three dimensional section of the program. Each of these are separate programs thus reducing the demands made by XCad on your system. There are two different products in the Amiga XCad range. These are XCad 2000 and XCad 3000 and both contain the 2D and the 3D sections of the program. They differ in the amount of functionality that they provide as follows :- XCad 2000 :- This is a low cost entry level CAD product with many of the 2D drawing features, but limited 3D functionality. XCad 2000 is ideal for the first time user and for educational applications. Transition to XCad 3000 is painless as both versions have the same look and feel and complete database compatibility, plus full Autocad DXF file transfer compatibility. XCad 2000 will run on any type of Amiga computer with at least version 1.2 kickstart and 1 MB of memory. The minimum configuration however that is recommended is 1.5 Mb of memory, a colour monitor, and any Amiga supported printer or a HPGL pen plotter. XCad 3000 :- This is a fully featured CAD product offering the full 2D and 3D features of XCad and is aimed at professional designers, draftsmen or engineers who want to make the most of the Amigas powerful graphic capability. XCad 3000 contains over 1000 3D command combinations. It includes point, line, string, arc, polygon, and patternfill entities with planar surfaces and surfaces of revolution as standard primitives. Modification commands include copy, rotate, move, mirror, scale, and project, and location input features include grid snap, entity snap, origin, intersection, layer, colour etc. It also includes user defineable construction planes, automatic perspective views, support for HPGL, CPGL, and BGL pen plotters, and direct output to Imagine for colour shaded images. XCad 3000 will run on any type of Amiga computer with at least version 1.2 kickstart and 1.5Mb of memory. The minimum configuration however that is recommended is 2 Mb of memory, a colour monitor, and any Amiga supported printer or a HPGL, Calcomp (906/907), DMPL or Oce (BGL) pen plotter. Installing XCad on your Hard drive ---------------------------------- In order to install XCad merely change to the drive that contains XCad and enter the command :- EXECUTE HDINSTALL yourdrive: Where :yourdrive is the harddisk partition where you want to install XCad. The procedure will ask a number of questions. Unless you are using an NTSC system then answer yes to the question about running a PAL system. A new directory will be created on your harddisk and all of the relevant program files will be copied into it. The installation procedure will also make the relevant additions to your startup file if required (it will make a copy of the original file before doing this). Running XCad ------------ XCad may be run from either the Workbench icon or the CLI. To start XCad from the Workbench simply double click on the icon in the normal way. There are several XCad icons and each is labelled to show what section of the program (2D or 3D), and what screen resolution (Highres or Medres) and how many colours will be available (8 or 16). Just choose the one that suits your needs. Both the PAL and NTSC screen displays are supported. To start XCad from the CLI, enter the command XCad20003D or XCad30003D to run the 3D section, or enter XCad2000 or XCad3000 to run the 2D section of the program. Entering XCad commands ---------------------- All of the XCad programs accept input in the form of a VERB (what you are doing) followed by a NOUN (what you are doing it to) and then an identifier or IDENT (the locational input). There are also optional modifiers which may be entered with many commands. The command structure is therefore of the general form:- VERB NOUN [Modifiers] : IDENTS Examples of Verbs (the doing words) would be DRAW, DELETE, ZOOM, COPY etc. Examples of Nouns (what to do it with) would be LINE, CIRCLE, ENTITY etc. Examples of Modifiers (special conditions to apply) would be DIAMETER n, ANGLE nn, COPY etc. Examples of IDENTS would be (after the action prompt or :) LOC, END, IX etc. There are slight differences in syntax between the commands in the XCad 2D and the XCad 3D modules, but when using the menus this should be relatively transparent to the user. Examples of XCad commands might be as follows :- DRaw LIne : DRaw CIrcle DIAMETER 4 : DRaw LIne : IX 29.1 IY 150.98 in XCad 2D DRaw LIne : IXYZ(29.1 150.98 97.2) in XCad 3D DELete ENTities All Zoom Window : You will notice that the first few characters of each command are in upper case. These are the number of characters that XCad needs to recognise the command and are in fact all that need be typed if using the keyboard for input. You may cancel a command that has been partially entered with C. The Pull Down Menus (PDM) become visible when the top menu bar is selected with the right mouse button. This contains the complete XCad command structure but is not the only menu system available to XCad. User defineable automenus can be created using the OPEN MENU command, and this command is also used to activate a Screen menu or Dynamic menu previously created with the MODMENU command. Tablet menus are also available, if you have a graphic tablet device, via the command OPEN TABLET. How the two Sections of XCad work together ------------------------------------------ Often, when creating a complex design in 3D, it is easier to draw at least part of it in 2D and then bring the drawings into the 3D section of XCad to be combined and finished. Alternatively, if an isometric view of a object is require, then the use of a 3D model is the simplest method. The 3D model, once constructed, can be rotated and viewed from any angle. The view can then be saved to a file and transferred back into the 2D module. The database files of XCad 2D and XCad 3D are not interchangeable since they contain different types of information. The 2D program understands things such as dimensions and text whereas 3D does not, and 3D understands Z coordinates and 3D surfaces whereas 2D does not. Therefore to move data between the two sections of XCad there is a command ADD XCad in XCad 3D which will import the 2D drawing into XCad 3D. Documentation ------------- Both XCad 2000 and XCad 3000 come with extensive user manuals and tutorials. This short README file is intended to provide sufficient information to get you started with XCad, however to fully explore the possibilities of these powerful programs the manual is an indispensable aid. This CD ROM demo version ------------------------ The demo versions of XCad on the CD-ROM are the full working version of both XCad 2000 and XCad 3000. It will not be possible however to save your design or to plot with these versions. These versions are for product evaluation and testing purposes only. Pricing and Availability ------------------------ XCad 2000 and XCad 3000 are available via many Amiga dealers throughout Europe and in many other parts of the world. They may also be purchased directly from Digital Multimedia at the above address at the following special reduced prices :- UK pnds BF DM FR DG SFR USD XCad 2000 34-00 1,800 90.00 300.00 100.00 75.00 60.00 XCad 3000 100-00 5,300 265.00 890.00 295.00 220.00 170.00 A small additional charge will be made to cover postage and packing. The Future of XCad ------------------ Since its first introduction in 1985, XCad has been available as one of the premier CAD products for the Amiga, and it will continue to be supported and enhanced for this platform whilst there is still a demand for a professional level CAD system at a price users can afford. However, in the last year, the XCad technology has been redeveloped for X-Windows and the professional CAD market. This has been not been a mere port, but an extensive re-development of XCad, drawing on the experiences gained from the Amiga, and the new product is now available not only on the Amiga under Unix, but also on SUN, Hewlett Packard, Dec Alpha, Silicon Graphics and the IBM RS6000 platforms. This new version of XCad will also run on the 386/486 pc platform under products such as DESQview/X from Quarterdeck Office Systems which offer the X-Window environment on a pc. Call Digital Multimedia for details. **************************************************************************** * The XCad System * * from * * Digital Multimedia Europe * * 48, Beukenlaan * * 1560 HOEILAART * * BELGIUM * * Tel (32)-2-657-5803 * * Fax (32)-2-657-5652 * ****************************************************************************