ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± FXdraw ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 52 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Welcome to the Tel-FX Drawing Designer by Hamilton TeleGraphics Inc. FXdraw is a full featured 256 colour high resolution drawing, painting and graphics assembly package intended for use with RoboBOARD/FX. Every RoboBOARD/FX can be totally original in design and concept from any other Sysops BBS. You can use FXdraw to create screens, menus and art work that will make your BBS system unique. We have accomplished a natural feeling Graphics Designer by using a mouse driven interface, intuitive icons, flyout sidebar menus and dragging dialogue boxes. This section of the RoboBOARD/FX Technical Documentation is designed to introduce you to the features of FXdraw, by first providing you with an overview, then taking you on a Tool by Tool tour of FXdraw. FXdraw is easy to use so try it out and become an expert! ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± An Overview of FXdraw ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ FXdraw is used to create custom screens for your BBS. A screen may consist of icons, buttons, bit font text, mondo font text, drawing primitives, and photographic images. You can use custom screens to create your own unique GUI (Graphical User Interface). Your GUI is the interface your users use to navigate between the menus, features, and forums on your system. Screens are easily created to cover BBS functions like Welcome, News, Bulletins, Menus, Forums, Art Galleries, Telemarketing, and Customer Support just to mention a few possibilities. The screens you create are used in conjunction with ROBOCFG to set access levels, set language attributes, assign commands to buttons and assign menu names to screens, giving you absolute control over your BBS. FXdraw comes complete, packed with many unique and innovative features. FXdraw is a high resolution 256 colour Super VGA drawing, painting and image assembly package. FXdraw introduces mondo fonts; large fillable banner fonts, that can be dragged and morphed into any rectangular shape. Mondo fonts also come with a very complete multilingual character set. FXdraw has an intuitive 3 point arc. Just pick 3 points on the screen and an arc is drawn from beginning to end and passing through the middle point. There are morphable ellipses that can be dragged into virtually any elliptical shape. FXdraw includes splines (like Beziers) that make drawing curved shapes very easy. Also included in FXdraw is a very sophisticated pop up icon editor, that gives you the tools to easily draw, transform, and visually merge icon files. FXdraw makes online photographic imaging a reality by implementing JPEGs (Joint Photographic Experts Group). You can let your users view a full 256 colour image in realtime or let them preview images using our lighting fast GreyPEG images. FXdraw is an Animation Mode package, meaning entities are displayed in exactly the same sequence they are drawn in. Animation mode is often times used to move icons around the screen and create many special effects (FX). FXdraw gives you the powerful online design tools, to easily design your own leading edge BBS. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± System Requirements ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 53 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ As with most windowed software FXdraw has fairly high system expectations. FXdraw is developed to run under DOS or MSDOS, and can be operated on any IBM or true IBM compatible clone providing it is a 386SX or greater. FXdraw is NOT a Microsoft Windows Application, it is a DOS application. If you are intending to use Microsoft Windows or OS/2, FXdraw can only be run as a DOS Application. FXdraw requires 450k of free RAM and will take advantage of EMS or XMS through its memory manager. FXdraw requires a minimum of 2 MEGs of free hard drive space at startup. FXdraw expects a VGA or SVGA video adapter and supports many popular graphics cards directly. This means that if your video card has 256k of video memory it will support 16 colour VGA graphics card and if it has 512k of video memory or more, it will support 256 colour SVGA graphics. The video cards directly supported by FXdraw are ATI, Paradise, Trident, Tseng 3000/4000 and Video7. IF you do not have one of these VGA graphics cards but instead, you have another brand name of VGA video card there is no need to worry. FXdraw supports both 16 and 256 colour VESA drivers. VESA drivers are TSR (terminate and stay resident) software programs that are included with virtually every VGA graphics card manufactured. Please see the documentation included with your VGA card for VESA software installation. FXdraw performs a system check upon initialization, and if it does not find the required hardware, it will simply return you to the DOS prompt with an explanatory message. A software CACHE is recommended, and there is a very substantial increase in FXdraws performance speed if a math coprocessor is present in your system. Much of the power demonstrated by FXdraw is attributed to its use of floating point mathematics. In order to use FXdraw it is required that you have a Microsoft Mouse or a Microsoft compatible mouse. Your mouse is your main method of communicating with FXdraw. The rules are simple: Your Left mouse button is used to pick points or tools and to accept input. Your Right mouse button cancels the operation you are in or backs you up one step at a time in the active operation. Using a mouse to pick on tools and for input makes FXdraw a very quick drawing package to use. The FXdraw mouse cursor is a context sensitive small hand. You will only see this small hand whe you are outside of the active drawing window. If you are within the active drawing window you will have access to drawing cross hairs. The small hand has 2 modes. If your small hand is on top an action command or tool you will see a Pointing Finger. Clicking your left button will activate the event or function under that area of your screen. If you are not on top of an action command or tool you will see a Stop Hand. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ RoboBOARD/FX supports 16 colour VGA, 256 colour SVGA, 16 ³Colour³ colour ANSI and monochrome ANSI. We realize that the last ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ thing SysOps like you want to do, is create a 16 and a 256 colour version of every screen. The Tel-FX Terminal and FXdraw ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± An Overview of FXdraw Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 54 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ automatically convert 256 colour SVGA to 16 colour VGA graphics if only a 16 colour VGA graphics adapter is detected. We decided that 16 colour VGA was too limiting for users who do not have SVGA, so we extended the VGA palette to create a virtual 64 color spectrum. We also chose our 256 colour palette very carefully. We derived it mathematically to ensure a wide range of colours. The FXdraw palette not only lends itself very well to drawing, but also produces excellent results when displaying JPEG photographic images. There is also a complete grey scale in our 256 colour palette, perfect for displaying black and white photographs. With FXdraw we have created virtual VGA device independence for you! If you have a 256 colour SVGA card but choose to work on graphics in 16 colour mode, type "FXDRAW 16COL " at the DOS prompt to force 16 colour mode. If you want to provide an interface for your users who do not have at least 16 colour IBM VGA graphics you are required to create ANSI screens. ANSI screens will be displayed in the place of VGA screens providing that the user calls using a terminal that emulates ANSI. ANSI terminal emulation is extremely common, so we do not feel this will present any hardship to your users. There are a number of excellent Shareware ANSI drawing programs, that can be found on BBS systems everywhere. Very basic non-colour screens can be created using DOS Edit. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ Since RoboBOARD/FX is a windowed BBS package ³The FXdraw window ³ designed for DOS, it designed for DOS, it ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ it stands to reason that all screens created in FXdraw will be drawn within a window. By creating a windowed BBS your users can drag windows around their screen totally independent of your system. If a Tel-FX Terminal (FXterm) user has a 21" monitor and wants to run it at a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 'no problem', your user simply has a larger playing field then the standard 640 x 480 screen resolution. Users can have multiple Bulletins up on their screen at the same time, the main menu, a template etc. These are just a couple of examples that demonstrate the flexibility of a windowed interface but most importantly it brings a new level of design power to you the SysOp. Since 640 x 480 is the RoboBOARD/FX minimum screen resolution, you are required to create all drawings at a screen resolution of 640 x 480. We have made using windows as simple and configurable as possible; you can resize them, drag them around, change the background colour, and change the window ID line on the fly. If you resize a window after you start drawing in it, FXdraw simply ignores any entities outside the window and takes care of any edge clipping for you. RoboBOARD/FX and FXdraw bring the power of a windowed online graphical user interface to you and your users! ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± An Overview of FXdraw Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 55 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ A polyline is made up of any number of ³Polylines and Polygons³ lines, arcs and splines that are chained ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ or linked together in an end to end manner. Polygons are exactly the same as polylines except that they are closed and must have at least 2 sides. When a polygon is closed the last point picked with your mouse is in exactly the same place as the first point you picked. Polygons and polylines are used by most high end graphics packages or systems like Microsoft Windows, CorelDRAW and Harvard Graphics. Polygons and polylines allow us to perform such powerful functions to lines, arcs and splines as grouping, rotating, mirroring, stretching, scaling and morphing. Polygons and polylines give us some of the necessary ingredients, to address the complexities of screen resolution independence, colour independence, and multi platform comparability. Polygons allows for perfect colour fills every time. Drawing with polygons is not unlike using the continuous line function found in most drawing and painting packages. We have made polygons very flexible allowing for the combining of lines, arcs and splines in a polygon. Polygons are automatically filled with colour. At the bottom of the screen there are 2 colour bars. The one on the left controls the polygon Outline colour and the colour bar on the right controls the polygon Interior colour. We have created powerful polygon editing tools, to break, join, and drag segments. There are also tools to move polygons to the top or the bottom of the drawing database. A drawing window can be resized in the middle of a drawing session and all filled polygons and polylines will be clipped as required to fit the new window size. When you start dragging and twisting mondo fonts around your drawing window, remember that each character you see is a polygon or a polyline. This will provide a quick visual demonstration of some polygon and polyline powers. Polygons and polylines provide many drawing and data management advantages, and lend themselves very well to upward comparability in the future which has always been a weakness of drawing packages in the past. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The FXdraw Drawing Environment ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 56 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ If you have not installed FXdraw this would be a good time to run the install program included with FXdraw. This chapter takes you on a tour of the FXdraw Drawing Environment. We will explain the screen layout and quickly identify the functions found on the flyout menus. Before we get started there are a couple of things to check. 1) Is your Microsoft compatible mouse loaded? As we discussed earlier in order to use FXdraw it is required that you have a Microsoft Mouse or a Microsoft compatible mouse. Your Left mouse button is used to pick points or tools and to accept input. Your Right mouse button cancels the operation you are in or backs you up one step at a time in the active operation. The FXdraw mouse cursor is a context sensitive small hand. You will only see this small hand when you are outside of the active drawing window. If you are within the active drawing window you will see drawing cross hairs. The small hand has 2 modes. If your pointer hand is on top of an action command or tool you will see a Pointing Finger. Clicking your left button will activate the event or function under that area of your screen. If you are not overtop of an action command or tool you will see a Stop Hand. 2) If you are using a VESA graphics driver, is it loaded? You may want these drivers to load automatically when you BOOT your computer. If so use your text editor to include them in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. If you are using the standalone version of FXdraw, type 'FXDRAW' at the DOS prompt. FXdraw will display its' Identification Screen briefly and then load the design environment. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ Lets identify the key components ³The Tel-FX Draw Screen Layout³ of the FXdraw drawing environment. ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Across the top of your screen is the Status Bar and along the left side is your Toolbox. The Toolbox gives you access to all the operations in FXdraw by using quick flyout menus. Along the bottom of the screen are 2 Colour Palette scroll bars. Just above the Colour Palette scroll bars is the Special Tools Area, at this time showing Grid Spacing and Line types. On a black background, in the centre area of your screen is your design window. Lets start at the upper left hand corner of your monitor screen and briefly identify the various tools and screen functions. Don't be afraid to try tools out, you can't do anything damaging to FXdraw. Remember! Your left mouse button picks and your right mouse button cancels. Proceeding counter clockwise at the Toolbox. [ The Edit Tool ] The edit mode tool is represented by a black node or square on a diagonal line. The edit mode tool toggles the screen from drawing mode to edit mode. In edit mode the drawing will be displayed as a wire frame with edit nodes highlighted. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The FXdraw Drawing Environment ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 57 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ [ The Draw Flyout ] The Draw Flyout is quite naturally depicted by a pencil. The tools on this flyout menu are: The Polymorphic Ellipse Tool, is symbolized by a circle within a square. The Rectangle Tool, is symbolized by a filled rectangle placed overtop of another rectangle. The PolyLINE Tool, is symbolized by an irregularly shaped polygon. The Spline Tool, is symbolized by an S shaped line with a handle bar on each end. The PolyARC function, is symbolized by an irregularly shaped polygon made up of arcs. [ The Text Flyout ] The Text Flyout is represented by a large letter 'T'. The tools on this flyout menu are: The Mondo Font Tool, is symbolized by a large letter 'A' being stretched. The BIT Text Tool, is symbolized by the letters 'Ab" within a dashed rectangle having an insertion point in the upper left hand corner. [ The BIT Map Image Flyout ] The BIT Map Image Flyout is depicted by a camera. The tools on this flyout menu are: Insert Icon Tool, is symbolized by a picture of a tree. The Draw Icon Tool, is symbolized by a pencil. The Insert JPEG Tool, is symbolized by a photograph of a face. [ The Menu Flyout ] The Menu Flyout is depicted by a small window. The tools on this flyout menu are: The Embossed Button Tool, is symbolized by a raised button. The Flush Button Tool, is symbolized by a flat button. The Ghost Button Tool, is symbolized by a ghost on a button. [ The Files Flyout Tool ] The Files Flyout Tool i s depicted by a diskette. The tools on this flyout menu are: Preview Mode Tool, symbolized by a flasher. The New Drawing Tool, symbolized by a pencil eraser on a window. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The FXdraw Drawing Environment ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 58 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The Save Tool, is symbolized by an arrow pointing at a diskette. The Load Tool, is symbolized by an arrow pointing away from a diskette. The Exit Tool, is symbolized by an arrow pointing towards an open door. [ Erase Last Tool ] The Erase Last Tool, is depicted by an pencil eraser on a piece of paper. It deletes the last entry in the database. The erase tool can be repeatedly pressed to remove a few or all the entries in the drawing database. [ Grid Spacing Rollers ] FXdraw allows you to draw on a grid. Simply press on the up and down Roller Buttons to change the grid spacing. The allowable settings are 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30. The drawing cross hairs will snap to the nearest coordinates on the grid providing the grid spacing is set to anything above one. Grid spacing five is a very useful when placing icons on buttons, grid spacing ten is a great when working with mondo fonts and grid spacing thirty is excellent if you are laying out patterns of icons. [ Line Styles ] Just to the right of the grid spacing rollers are six line style buttons. The active line style is drawn in red and the other styles are drawn in black. Simply click on a Line Style button with your pointing finger to make it active. If you do not see the Line Style buttons just click on the Draw Flyout. The Line Style buttons are sometimes replaced by other tools in the Special Tools Area of your screen depending on which tasks are active. [ Polygon Outline Colours ] The active Outline Colour is displayed in a small box in the lower left corner of your screen with the word OUTLINE written directly above it. This is the colour that polylines, polygons, mondo text, BIT text and buttons will be drawn in until it is changed. To the right of the Outline colour is a bar of selectable colours with a scroller on each end. Press down on the scrollers with your pointer finger and the colour bar will shift left or right. To change the active colour simply click on a new colour with your pointer finger. The selected colour box will be highlighted and the Outline colour will be updated. As explained in the section labelled '16 COLOUR VGA and 256 COLOUR SVGA' FXdraw will autodetect on startup whether you have a 16 colour VGA graphics card or a 256 colour SVGA graphics card. You will be able to scroll through the range of colours that FXdraw supports for your video card. [ Polygon Interior Colours ] The active Interior colour is displayed in the bottom centre of your screen and has the word INTERIOR directly above it. This is the colour that a polygon, rectangle, ellipse or mondo font will be filled with. To the right ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The FXdraw Drawing Environment ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 59 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ of the Interior colour is a bar of selectable colours with a scroller on each end. Press down on the scrollers with your pointer finger and the colour bar will shift left or right. To change the active colour simply click on a new colour with your pointer finger. The selected colour box will be highlighted and the Interior colour will be updated. [ Tel-FX Identification ] In the lower right hand corner of your screen is the Tel-FX button. The Tel-FX logo is a telephone pole straddled by the letters 'FX'. Clicking on the Tel-FX button pops up an information window in the middle of your screen. Version Number, Copyright, and Trademark information are found in this window. As with all FXdraw windows this window can be dragged around your screen. Keeping your left mouse button pressed on the windows Title Bar, you can drag the Tel-FX information window around the screen. To drop the window take your finger off the left mouse button. [ The Cross Hair Coordinates ] When your mouse pointer is within the active drawing window the pointing hand is replaced with cross hairs. FXdraw tracks the location of your cross hairs within the drawing window. Coordinates are displayed on the status bar, in the upper right corner of your screen. As you move your cross hairs within the drawing window, you will see the coordinate values are changing. X values are affected by left to right or horizontal cross hair movement and Y values are affected by up and down or vertical movement. Coordinates of 0,0 are referenced to the upper left corner of the drawing window. When the drawing window is maximized, the largest coordinates possible are 590,350. If your grid spacing is set to a value that is greater than one, your cross hairs and coordinate values will jump by that value. [ The Drawing Window ] As we discussed in the section named "WINDOWS", all screens created in FXdraw are drawn in windows, complete with borders and a title bar. When you start a new drawing the drawing window is centred on the screen and is about 75% of its' maximum size. The design window is quite configurable. In the upper left corner of the drawing window is a minus sign. Click on the minus sign with your pointing finger, and two windows will pop up. The top one is titled WINDOW COLOUR and allows you to choose one of sixteen background colours for your window. With your pointing finger choose a background colour, then press the DONE button. The remaining window is named WINDOW TITLE and allows you to assign text to the title bar of your window. Type the text you would like displayed into the text field and then press DONE. The active drawing window will be titled and have the background colour you selected. The title bar can be used to move the drawing window around the screen. Lets maximize the size of your drawing window. Press on the title bar with the pointing finger. Keeping your left mouse button pressed move the drawing window to the upper left corner of your screen. To drop the window take your finger off the left ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The FXdraw Drawing Environment ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 60 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ mouse button. Move your stop hand just below the lower right corner of the drawing window. With the pointing finger active hold the left button of your mouse down and drag the lower right corner of the window towards the lower right as far as you can. With this simple method of sizing windows you can create windows of any rectangular size for your RoboBOARD. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Drawing with FXdraw ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ This chapter is intended to familiarize you with the FXdraw Drawing Tools found on the flyout menus. You will learn how to draw ellipses, rectangles, polylines, splines, polyarcs, use mondo fonts, use BIT Mapped text, draw menu buttons, insert icons, and preview your drawing. We will also use the Erase Last tool throughout this chapter to clean up the screen. Creating a drawing in FXdraw is similar to drawing a comic or painting with oil paints. As with an oil painting, background shapes are drawn and filled with colour first and detail is added to the surface. In FXdraw background shapes are polygons and polylines of different colours and shapes. Polylines and BIT Maps provide the fine surface detail. FXdraw is an Animation Mode package, meaning entities are displayed in exactly the same sequence they are drawn in. Animation mode is often times used to move icons around the screen and create many special effects (FX). As discussed earlier in order to use FXdraw it is required that you have a Microsoft Mouse or a Microsoft compatible mouse. Your mouse is your main method of communicating with FXdraw. The rules are simple: Your Left mouse button is used to pick points or tools and to accept input. Your Right mouse button cancels or backsteps the current tool you are in. Using a mouse, to pick tools, activate commands and for input makes FXdraw a very quick package to use. The FXdraw mouse cursor is a context sensitive small hand. You will only see this small hand when you are outside of the active drawing window. If you are within the active drawing window you will have access to drawing cross hairs. The small hand has 2 modes. If your pointer hand is on top of an action command or tool you will see a Pointing Finger. Clicking your left button will activate tool under that area of your screen. If you are not overtop of an action command or tool you will see a Stop Hand. In FXdraw all temporary or working points are described as Nodes and are displayed as small circles. These points are placed on the screen as you draw, and in some functions like the ellipse and mondo fonts, Nodes are used to stretch them into shape. Many references will be made to Nodes as we draw, and their usefulness will become completely clear. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Drawing with FXdraw ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 61 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Note If at some point you want to quit FXdraw click on the Files Flyout which is depicted by a diskette. Then click on the Exit Tool, symbolized by an arrow pointing towards an open door. A dialogue box will pop up, with the prompt EXIT FXDRAW? Yes or No. Simply click on the Yes button and exit to DOS. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The Polymorphic Ellipse Tool is ³The Polymorphic Ellipse Tool³ found on The Draw Flyout, and is ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ symbolized by a circle within a square frame. In FXdraw all elliptical shapes can be drawn using this one simple, yet powerful ellipse tool. They can range in shape from a perfect circle to a figure eight. The easiest way to describe the ellipse tool is by trying it. Before we draw an ellipse on the screen set your Grid Spacing to five. Now click on the Polymorphic Ellipse Tool. Pull your mouse into the centre of the active drawing window, position your cross hairs and click your left mouse button. A dashed or XOR circle is drawn in the centre of your active drawing window. It is 40 x 40 drawing units and is within a square frame, which has a node on each corner. Lets take a moment to describe the mouse functions; If you were to click your right mouse button the ellipse function would be cancelled, and the shadowed ellipse would be erased from the active drawing window. If you clicked your left mouse button the ellipse would be drawn on the screen. The ellipse would be outlined with the Outline Colour and it would be filled with the Interior Colour. Lets use your mouse to unlock the power of the ellipse tool. Carefully place your cross hairs in the centre of one of the nodes that make up the square ellipse frame. Click your left mouse button and begin dragging. You will notice that the ellipse and the frame are tracking your cross hairs. Click your left mouse button to accept the new position. You can drag every node around until you have created an elliptical shape you are happy with. To accept the shape simply pick a point within the active drawing window that is not directly above an active node and click your left mouse button. The ellipse is drawn outlined in the Outline Colour and will be filled with the Interior Colour. The ellipse tool will remain active until you choose another function or tool. To draw another ellipse simply pick a point in the active drawing window and click your left mouse window. You may want to draw a few more ellipses and experiment with the Outline and Interior Colour scrollers. Outline and Interior colours may be changed at any point up to the time you accept the shape of an ellipse by clicking your left mouse button. You can clean up your screen by using the Erase Last Tool. It is depicted by an pencil eraser on a piece of paper and is found at the bottom of the toolbox bar. It simply deletes the last entry in the database. The Erase Last tool can be repeatedly clicked to remove a few or all the entries in the drawing database. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Drawing with FXdraw ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 62 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The Rectangle Tool is found on The Draw ³The Rectangle Tool³ Flyout, and is symbolized by a filled ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ rectangle placed overtop of another rectangle. The rectangle tool simply provides a quicker way to draw squares and rectangles then drawing all four sides with the polygon function. In the rectangle function your mouse has only two functions; the left button picks and the right button cancels. To draw a rectangle first pick the rectangle tool. Click anywhere in the active drawing window to draw the first corner. A node will be placed to mark that spot. Now pull your mouse away from the first point you picked. A shadowed or XOR rectangle is being traced on the screen tracking your mouse movement and a node is at the intersection of your cross hairs. To accept the rectangle pick a point within the active drawing window. The rectangle will be drawn using the Outline Colour and filled with the Interior Colour. The rectangle tool will remain active until you choose another function or tool. If you are drawing perfect squares, you will find they are much easier to draw if you set the grid spacing to a value greater than one. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The Polyline Tool, found on the Draw Flyout, ³The Polyline Tool³ is symbolized by an irregularly shaped ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ polygon. The polyline tool is used in FXdraw to draw polylines and closed polygons. A polyline is an open ended chain o entities (lines, arcs and splines) whereas a polygon is closed and filled with colour. The rectangle and the ellipse are both examples of closed polygons. They are both closed shapes. To draw polylines, first pick the polyline tool, then click anywhere in the active drawing window. A node will be placed to mark the spot. Now pull your mouse away from the first point you picked. A shadowed XOR line is being traced on the screen tracking your mouse movement and a node has been placed at the intersection of your cross hairs. To draw a line click your mouse within the active drawing window. A line will be drawn on the screen. A shadowed XOR line will still be tracking your mouse movement, except now it will be hinged off the second point you picked. The polyline tool will draw lines and track your mouse until you click your right mouse button to cancel the command or until you close the shape. Now that you have a few lines on your screen lets close the polyline and create a polygon. Click on the very first point you picked on the screen. A dialogue box will pop up, with the prompt CLOSE AND FILL POLYGON? YES or NO. Simply click on the Yes button and the polygon will be drawn outlined with the Outline Colour and filled with the Interior Colour. Now that you are familiar with the polyline tool, draw a few open ended polylines. You can continue drawing from where you left off on a polyline. Lets try it out; Click on the end of any polyline. A dialogue box will pop up, with the prompt CONNECT TO POLYGON? YES or NO. Click on the YES butto and an XOR line will begin ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Drawing with FXdraw ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 63 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ tracking your mouse movement. You can continue drawing and eventually close the polyline if you wish. Notice that a node is left on the screen at the closing point of the polygon. This makes it is easy to continue drawing from the end point of a polyline or the closing point of a polygon. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The Spline Tool, is found on the Draw Flyout, ³The Spline Tool³ and is symbolized by an S shaped line with ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ handle bars. Splines, are similar to Bezier curves. They are linear approximations of curved surfaces. Splines can also be described as lines that have been chained together to look like curves. The splines in FXdraw are very easy to use and a high degree of drawing flexibility is provided using dragable control nodes and handle bars with nodes. The nodes on the end of these handle bars can be grabbed and dragged to twist and turn splines into curved shapes. Splines can be chained together with arcs and lines to form polylines and polygons. To draw splines, pick the spline tool, then click anywhere in the active drawing window. A node will be placed to mark that spot. Now pull your mouse away from the first point you picked. A shadowed XOR line is being traced on the screen tracking your mouse movement and a node has been placed at the intersection of your cross hairs. Click your second point within the active drawing window. A straight spline is drawn between the two points you picked. There are four nodes on this spline, one at each end and two spaced evenly along the spline. The two nodes that are spaced evenly along the spline mark the ends of the handle bars. Click in the centre of a handle bar node and move your mouse. You will see a spline has begun tracking your mouse, and its shape is changing as you twist the handle ba r around the screen. Click a new location on the screen with your left mouse button to stop the dragging and accept the new shape. Now try picking the other three nodes, drag them around the screen and turn the handle bars until you have a spline that looks good. To accept the completed spline click your left mouse button anywhere in the active drawing window. The spline is a continuous function and will draw splines until you click your right mouse button to cancel the command or until you close the shape. Try drawing a few more end to end splines. Lets close the shape and create a polygon. Click on the very first point you picked on the screen. Position the spline by moving the nodes and turning the handle bars until you are happy with the shape. Be sure not to move the end node of your spline off the closing point. Click anywhere in the drawing window to accept the closing spline. A dialogue box will pop up, with the prompt CLOSE AND FILL POLYGON? YES or NO. Simply click on the YES button and the polygon will be drawn with the current Outline Colour and filled with the Interior Colour. You may have noticed that the order of operation to close a spline polygon is slightly different then a polygon made up of arcs or lines. This was done so that a spline can be shaped before the polygon is closed and filled. Also notice that a node is left on the screen to mark the closing point of the polygon. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Drawing with FXdraw ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 64 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Now that you are familiar with the spline tool, draw a couple more open ended splines. You can continue drawing from where you left off on any spline, arc or line. Lets try it out; Click on the end of any spline. A dialogue box will pop up, with the prompt CONNECT TO POLYGON? YES or NO. Click on the YES button and an XOR line will begin tracking your mouse movement. Continue drawing using the spline and line tools until you have closed the polygon and filled it with colour. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The ARC Tool is symbolized by an irregularly shaped ³The Arc Tool³ polygon made up of three point arcs. The arc tool ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ is used to create curved arcs and polygons. As the name suggests, three point arcs require that you pick three points, a start point, a point on the arc and a closing point. The arc will then be drawn in the direction you picked, starting at the first point, drawing through the second point and ending at the third point. To draw polyarcs, pick the polyarc tool, then click anywhere in the active drawing window. A node will be placed to mark the spot. Now pull your mouse away from the first point you picked. A shadowed XOR line is being traced on the screen tracking your mouse movement and a node has been placed at the intersection of your cross hairs. Note that this is a line and will not become an arc until you pick the second point. Click on a second point within the active drawing window. A shadowed XOR arc will begin tracking your mouse movement around the screen. Complete the arc by picking a third point. The polyarc is a continuous function and will draw arcs until you click your right mouse button to cancel the command or until you close the shape. After the first complete arc is drawn on the screen only one more point is required to complete an arc, because arcs inherit some of their geometry from the previous arc. Try continuing the arcs for a couple more segments. As you can see it is not always advantageous to inherit the previous arcs geometry. Actually the bulge can get out of control in places. In order to disinherit the previous arcs geometry click your right mouse button. Now you are required to pick the next two points to complete an arc. Try this out on a few more arc segments. Now that you have a few arcs on your screen lets close the polygon. Click on the first point you picked and a dialogue box will pop up, with the prompt CLOSE AND FILL POLYGON? YES or NO. Simply click on the YES button and the polygon will be drawn outlined with the current Outline Colour and will be filled with the Interior Colour. Notice that a node is left on the screen at the closing point of the polygon. Now that you are familiar with the polyarc tool, draw a couple open ended arcs. You can continue drawing from an existing arc where you left off using arcs, splines or lines. To try it out click on the Line Tool found on the Draw Flyout. Click on the end of any arc. A dialogue box will pop up, with the prompt CONNECT TO POLYGON? YES or NO. Click on the Yes button and an XOR line will begin tracking your mouse movement. You can continue drawing and eventually close the polyline if you wish. As you have just seen lines, arcs and splines can be chained together to draw an open polyline or closed polygon. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Using Text ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 65 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Fxdraw supports both Mondo Font and BIT Mapped text. Mondo Fonts are large vector text characters that are made up of end to end lines, arcs, and splines (polygons). Mondo Font text can be obliqued and stretched into virtually any rectangular shape, at any angle. There are a number of Mondo Font styles included with FXdraw. They range from the Classic Roman font, and the super bold Bossfont to the fast Sys font. Mondo Fonts come complete with a multilingual character set. For a complete listing of the FXdraw Mondo Font character set see the Appendix. Mondo Fonts make creating professional looking screens very quick and an enjoyable process. BIT Mapped text is very similar to the DOS system text. BIT Mapped text is fixed in height and can only be placed horizontally on the screen. There are 3 styles of BIT Fonts included with FXdraw. They are Tiny_6x6, Sys_8x16 and Sys_7x16. BIT text should be used if you are labelling buttons or using a lot of text in a screen. These three BIT Mapped font libraries are included as part of every FXterm distribution archive, so your callers should have a copy on their end. This makes sending BIT text very quick. This chapter will show you how to use the Text Tools found on the text flyout menu in the FXdraw Toolbox. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The Mondo Font Tool is found on The Text ³The Mondo Font Tool³ Flyout, and is symbolized by a stretching ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ 'A' within a rectangle. Drawing with mondo fonts is extremely easy, so lets try it out. When using the mondo font tool your left mouse button is used to pick and drag nodes. It is also used to accept the final text shape. Your right button cancels the input. Before we draw a Mondo Font lets set your Grid Spacing to five. After you click on the Mondo Font Tool you will notice the Special Tools Area of your screen has changed. On the left side is the Font Name Roller and in the centre is the Font Preview Window. As you roll through the list of fonts you will see that each font is being drawn in the Font Preview Window. To the immediate right of the Font Name rollers is a small file folder. If you click on this file folder a Files dialogue box will pop up on your screen. If you have many files the Load File dialogue box provides a quick way to scroll through your list. When you select a font file it is displayed in the area labelled SELECTED FILE. All the available font files are displayed in alphabetical order in the file listing window. To open a font file, quickly click twice on the file name or highlight the file name with a single click and then click on the OPEN button. The dialogue box will disappear and the font file you chose will be displayed in the Special Tools Area. If you want to exit the Load File Dialogue box without choosing a file just click on the CANCEL button. Pull your mouse into the centre of the drawing window. Position your cross hairs and click your left mouse button. A dashed or XOR ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Using Text ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 66 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ mondo font frame will be drawn where you clicked. The frame is 40 x 40 drawing units, and has a node on each corner. Notice that there is also a carpenters square in the lower left corner of the frame. The horizontal bar is blue and the vertical bar is red. This carpenters square lets you stay orientated as you morph mondo fonts. Lets position the mondo font frame using your mouse. Carefully place your cross hairs in the centre of one of the nodes on the mondo font frame. Click your left mouse button and begin dragging. You will notice that the frame has begun tracking your cross hairs. Click your left mouse button to accept the new position. Drag the nodes around until you have a shape that looks good. To accept the shape click your left mouse button. A Text Input box will pop up on your screen. Type the text or words you want to write into the input box and click DONE. The mondo font text will be drawn within the frame you picked. Each character is drawn outlined with the Outline Colour and is filled with the Interior Colour. The mondo font tool will remain active until you choose another tool. You can draw more mondo font text simply by clicking on another point in the active drawing window. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The BIT Text Tool is symbolized by the letters ³The BIT Text Tool³ 'Ab'. BIT Mapped text is fixed in height and ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ can only be placed horizontally on the screen. There are three styles of BIT Text included with FXdraw. Tiny_6x6 is a small font that only has uppercase characters. Sys_8x16 and Sys_7x16 are the same height. Sys_7x16 is a narrow font and is ideal to use where width is an issue. Adding BIT Text to a screen is simple, so lets give it a try. When using the BIT Text tool your left mouse button positions text on the screen and your right button cancels input. Before we draw BIT text, first set your Grid Spacing to ten. When you click on the BIT Text Tool, you will notice the Special Tools Area of your screen will change. On the left side is the Font Name Roller and in the centre is the Font Preview Window. As you list the names of the available fonts using the roller buttons you will see the fonts are being drawn in the Font Preview Window. To the right of the Font Name rollers is a small file folder. Click on the file folder and the Files Dialogue Box will pop up. When you select a font file it will be displayed in the area labelled SELECTED FILE. All the available font files are displayed in alphabetical order in the file listing window. To open a font file, click twice on the file name quickly or highlight the file name with a single click and click on the OPEN button. The dialogue box will disappear and the active file will now be displayed opposite the area labelled Font Name. If you want to exit the Load File Dialogue box without choosing a font file just click on the CANCEL button. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Using Text ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 67 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The BIT text tool behaves differently then the mondo font tool. The BIT text tool needs to know what Text or Words you want to write first so that it can calculate a string width before positioning it on the screen. This way you can will see an exact outline of the text before you position it. Pull your mouse anywhere in the drawing window and click your left mouse button. The Text Input box will pop up on your screen. Type the text you want written, into the Text Input box and click DONE. A dashed or XOR BIT text frame will now track your mouse movement. You can see that the insertion point for BIT text is the upper left corner of the dashed rectangle. Carefully place your cross hairs where you want the text written and click your left mouse button. The BIT text will be drawn on the screen in the current Polygon Outline Colour. The BIT text tool will remain active until you choose another function or tool. You may want to draw more BIT text on your screen and try out the different styles. You could also try using different grid lock settings to place the text in neat columns and rows. Note If you are stepping through our tutorial DOCs you have tried all the drawing primitives now and you have most of the information you need to create drawings. If you are only interested in FXdraws' drawing capabilities you may want to skip ahead to the chapters on Files and Editing. The chapter on Files will give you the information you need to Save and Load file and the chapter on Editing will teach you how make changes to your drawings. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± BIT Mapped Images ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Much of power and appeal of FXdraw comes from its ability to successfully merge vector and BIT Mapped Image technology. Vector graphics such as lines, arcs, splines and mondo fonts are extremely efficient data to send in realtime between computers via modems. A screen can be filled quickly with vector graphics even at 2400 baud, making vector graphics the preferred way to send graphics. There are images, like icons, photographs and GIFs that can not be portrayed efficiently or realistically with vector graphics. These types of images must be displayed as BIT Mapped Images. FXdraw provides a high degree of design power by supporting two types of BIT Mapped Images, Icons and JPEG photographs. Icons are used by FXdraw to create menu buttons, detailed screens and to tile the background of screens. Icons are the second most efficient graphical data type provided by FXdraw. All icons are compressed in realtime and decompressed on the users end in realtime. Compression ranges from between 5% and 95% of the original icon size, and generally is around 25% of the original size or about 75% compressed. An example of efficient icon use is: ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Bit Mapped Images Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 68 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ If you were to tile the background of a screen with a pattern created using four icons then only four icons would be sent to the users end. The background screen pattern would be displayed as fast as the hardware on the users end. FXterm stores and time manages icons on the users end. Before an icon is sent some communication takes place between the BBS and FXterm. FXterm checks to see if an icon exists on its end, and notifies the BBS preventing icons from being sent more than once. Icons are stored in libraries which can contain up to 64 icons. The icons within these icon files are named by their CRC value. This means that a unique name is given to every icon based on its pixel values so you do not have to worry about naming icons. FXdraw is an Animation Mode package, meaning entities are displayed in exactly the same sequence they are drawn in. Animation mode is often times used to move icons around the screen and create many special effects (FX). Companies providing online services, SysOps with marketing ideas, special interest groups and BBSs that offer GIFs will benefit from FXdraws unique photographic BIT Mapped graphics. FXphoto is a standalone image processor included with FXdraw which is used to convert GIFs to either colour or grey scale JPEG photographic images which then can be included as part of a screen created in FXdraw. When compared with drawings and icons JPEG Photographic images are a less efficient way to send graphical data, however JPEGs are also the most graphically explicit data that can be sent. We suggest for efficiency sake that whenever possible images are kept to a small size. Images are precompressed using our image compressor named FXphoto. We provide direct support for the GIF or graphic interchange format only. If you intend to do much image processing you will want to purchase an image converter/manager/manipulator. This way you can convert from any of the many other image formats, and crop or scale your images to an appropriate size to send them over a modem. Some example applications for JPEGs are: A SysOP creates a preview screen of this weeks four hot new ray traced images he has for download. A car collector association wants to put people all over the world on the trail of a rare car. A realty company is showing a floor plan and a photo of a cottage retreat they have listed. In these three cases a more complete information package could be made available for download and viewing or a larger image could be available for viewing in realtime. This chapter will demonstrate how to use the Tools found on the BIT Map Flyout. We will also use the Undo edit tool throughout this chapter to clean up your drawing screen. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The Insert Icon Tool is found on the BIT ³The Insert Icon Tool³ MAP Flyout under the camera, and is ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ symbolized by an icon showing a panorama of a tree in a field. All the Tools you find in the FXdraw toolbox are represented by icons which are placed on buttons. Used in this manner icons provide a very intuitive and efficient interface for users. Icons are chosen from icon libraries that either you or someone else has created. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Bit Mapped Images Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 69 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The standard FXdraw icons are 30 x 30 drawings units. This is a fixed size, however more that one icon can be placed side by side or overtop of each other to create different effects. Icons can be drawn in the Icon Editor using up to 16 VGA colours. When using the Insert Icon Tool your left mouse button positions icons on the screen and your right button cancels input. Before inserting any icons, first set your Grid Spacing to thirty. When you click on the Insert Icon Tool you will notice the Special Tools Area of your screen will change. On the left side is the Icon File Roller and in the centre is the Icon Preview Window. As you list the names of the available icon files using the roller buttons, you will see the first icon from each file will be drawn in the Icon Preview Window. To the right of the Icon File Rollers is a small file folder. If you click on this file folder the Files Dialogue Box will pop up on your screen. The Load File dialogue box provides a quick way to choose an icon file. When you select an icon file it is displayed in the area labelled SELECTED FILE at the top of the dialogue box. All the available icon files are displayed in alphabetical order in the file listing window. To open an icon file, quickly click twice on the file name. You can also highlight the file name with a single click and then click on the OPEN button. If you want to exit the Load File Dialogue box without choosing a file just click on the CANCEL button. Now that you have chosen an icon file you may want to view the icons in that file or choose a different icon to insert. Simply click on the Icon Preview Window in the Special Tools Area. A large window that is divided into 64 squares will pop up on your screen. Click on any icon displayed, the Icon Selection Window will drop and the icon you chose will be drawn in the Icon Preview Window. Pull your mouse anywhere in the drawing window and click your left mouse button. The icon you chose will be drawn on the screen. The Insert Icon Tool will remain active until you choose another function or tool. Try inserting more icons on the screen and with your grid lock set to thirty try placing icons in patterns. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The Icon Editor Tool found on The BIT Map ³The Icon Editor Tool³ Flyout is pictured by a Pencil. The Icon ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Editor in FXdraw is both simple to use and powerful. Icons can be copied, moved, mirrored, rotated, shifted and file merged. All the icon management tools are represented visually by icons and the interface is mouse driven making the Icon Editor a natural tool to use. When you choose the Icon Editor Tool, a Files Dialogue box will pop up on your screen. All the available icon files are displayed in alphabetical order and you can scroll through them in the file listing window. When you select an icon file it is displayed in the area labelled SELECTED FILE at the top of the dialogue box. To ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Bit Mapped Images Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 70 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ open an icon file, quickly click twice on the file name. You can also highlight the file name with a single click and then click on the OPEN button. To start a new icon file click on the NEW button. The File Name input window will pop up. Type in the name for your new file, then click DONE. If you want to exit the Files Dialogue box without choosing a file just click on the CANCEL button. After you have chosen an icon file the editor will pop up on your screen. The Icon Editor is in a window and the icon file you chose will be listed on the title bar. Before we try using any of the features of the icon editor, lets take a few minutes to become familiar with the icon editor buttons and tools. Starting in the upper right hand corner and proceeding clockwise. [ LOAD Button ] To load an icon into the drawing area of the editor click on the LOAD button. The Icon Selection window will pop up on your screen. The Icon Selection window has 64 squares, however there may not be an icon in every one. To select an icon click on it with your pointing finger. The Icon Selection window will drop and the icon you clicked on will drawn in the drawing area of the Icon Editor window. The icon will be substantially enlarged so that you can edit each individual pixel. [ SAVE Button ] To save an icon into a file click on the SAVE button and the Icon Selection window will pop up on your screen. You can save an icon over top of any icon displayed in the Icon Selection window by clicking on that icons square. You can save an icon as new by clicking on a blank square with your pointing finger. In either case the square will be updated with the icon in the drawing window of the icon editor. Note that if you save an icon overtop of an existing icon the original icon is gone. [ FILE Button ] To change icon files pick the FILE button and the Files Dialogue box will pop up. All the available icon files will be displayed in alphabetical order in the file listing window. To open an icon file, click twice quickly on the file name. You can also highlight the file name with a single click and then click on the OPEN button. To create a new icon file click on the NEW button. The File Name window will pop up. Type in the name you want the icon file to have and then click on DONE. If you want to exit the Files Dialogue box without choosing a file just click on the CANCEL button. After choosing an existing icon file or a NEW icon file, you will notice that the file name on the icon editors title bar has been updated to reflect your choice. Changing icon files does not affect the icon in the drawing area of the editor. If you want to choose a different icon from the file you just opened you have to use the LOAD button. Actually this is the key to moving icons between icon files. To copy the icon in the drawing area of the icon editor pick the SAVE button and click on one of the blank frames. Don't worry about cluttering up your icon files, you can load a blank icon into the editor and copy it over top of any icons you don't want and they will be gone forever. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Bit Mapped Images Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 71 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ [ EXIT Button ] The EXIT button simply closes the icon editor window and returns control to the FXdraw environment. [ Icon Preview Window ] Just below the EXIT button is the Icon Preview Window. The changes you make to an icon in the drawing area of the icon editor are displayed as you make them in this window. Icons are displayed at their actual size in the Icon Preview window. [ CLEAR Button ] The CLEAR button completely clears the icon editor drawing window. [ DRAW Button ] The DRAW button puts the icon editor into draw mode. Pick a colour from the colour bar and start painting in the drawing area with your pointer finger. [ EXCHANGE Button ] The EXCHANGE button changes one colour for another. To exchange colours pick a colour from the colour bar, then click on the target colour in the drawing area. All the pixel or squares that were on the target colour will be exchanged for the colour you picked from the colour bar. [ COLOUR Bar ] Along the bottom of the Icon Editor Window is a colour bar. There are 16 standard DOS colours in the colour bar. On the right end of the colour bar is a grey checkered colour box. This is the see through colour. Any pixel that is drawn using the see through colour will be transparent when an icon is inserted into an FXdraw drawing. On the left side of the colour bar is a small window where the active colour can be viewed. [ SHIFT Buttons ] There are four SHIFT buttons that are shaped like arrow heads. They are located on each edge of the drawing area, and indicate what direction the image will be shifted. Click on any of these shift buttons and the image in the icon drawing area will be shifted one pixel in that direction. Images can be shifted until they are pushed out of the drawing area. Once a row of pixels has been pushed out of the drawing area they cannot be recovered. [ MIRROR Buttons ] There are two MIRROR buttons that are shaped like double headed arrows. They are located in the top left corner and on the top left side of the drawing area. They indicate what direction the image will be flipflopped. Click on either of these MIRROR buttons and the image in the icon drawing area will be mirrored or flipped over. The flip is hinged off the red baselines that indicate the centerlines of the drawing area. [ ROTATE Button ] There is a ROTATE button in the upper left corner that is shaped like an arrow with a right angle bend in it. The arrow indicates what direction the image will be rotated. The image is rotated around the intersection of the two red centerlines. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Bit Mapped Images Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 72 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ One of the powers of FXdraw is ³Inserting Photographic Images³ that you can insert JPEG ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ photographic images into drawings. JPEG is an acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPEG is actually a standard for colour image compression. JPEG compression is known as lossy compression. The user of JPEG technology can adjust the compression parameters to achieve an increase in compression in return for loss of image quality. The actual image compression is performed by a standalone program called FXphoto. FXphoto is included with FXdraw and converts GIF images to colour or black and white JPEGs. If you want to crop or scale GIF images or if you want to convert TIFFs, BMPs etc.to GIFs you will require image processing software. There are a number of good shareware image processing software packages available. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Creating Menus in FXdraw ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Menus for RoboBOARD/FX or Tel-FX DOORs are created in FXdraw. Any screen can be a menu by adding menu buttons and assigning keyboard characters to the buttons. There are three types of buttons supported in FXdraw. The Embossed Button has a raised surface appearance and flattens to become flush when it is pressed. The Flush Button which as the name indicates is perfectly flat, indents when it is pressed. FXdraw also supports a Ghost Button which shows up as a dashed rectangle in FXdraw but is never seen by the end user. The Ghost Button is actually not a button at all but rather it is a HOT area of the screen. The Ghost Button allows a SysOp to set up a menu system where actions are chosen by clicking on icons or text without buttons. Typically menus are buttoned. Icons are usually placed on buttons to represent an action that the user should be familiar with. Text can be written on buttons or placed anywhere around the buttons to indicate the HOT Key and to add clarity to the menu. We have designed a simple system for creating menus that links a keyboard character to a button. After buttons are drawn in FXdraw and HOT Key characters are assigned to buttons, ROBOCFG.EXE is run to attach RoboBOARD/FX Menu commands to the buttons. In ROBOCFG you pick the drawing file and the HOT Key characters are assigned in the configuration template. You can then attach menus and commands to buttons and apply access levels to the buttons. When the Tel-FX drawing file is interpreted by FXterm it automatically attaches the HOT Key character to the button. If a user picks a menu button on the terminal end, the character value is returned to the BBS triggering an event or a command. This is only an overview of menu creation. Creating menus is discussed in more detail in the RoboBOARD/FX DOCs. The Button Tools are found on The Menu Flyout symbolized by a tiny FXdraw Window with buttons on it. Drawing a button is not any ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Creating Menus in FXdraw Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 73 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ different then using the rectangle tool. After you draw a button the HOT Key dialogue box will pop up and request a keyboard character to attach to the button. Try out the different styles of buttons. Buttons can be drawn any size so you will find that it is often advantageous to lock your Grid Spacing and watch the grid coordinates when drawing. This is an especially good idea if you plan to insert icons on top of buttons. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The FXdraw File Functions ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ FXdraw uses a 2 tier file system, source files and compiled files. There is no need for you to understand the inner workings of these files to use FXdraw at an expert level, and the remainder of this section is included for information purposes only. The source code file types have TFX, M FS, JPG, ICO and BIT extensions. They are created for ease of use and understanding by third party developers. The TFX (Tel-FX drawing) file is written in simple plain english instructions which are read and interpreted into drawings by FXdraw. The ICO (icon source files) BIT (bit mapped text) JPG (JFIF compliant files) files are in binary form and will look garbled and have no apparent meaning if you type them to the screen. FXdraw automatically creates a compiled file type used by RoboBOARD/FX to optimize the Tel-FX Graphical Protocol. A BLB (compiled database blob) and an IDX (index file) file are created by FXdraw at Save time. The compiled database blob contains ONLY the information required to reproduce the screen you created, such as mondo font character definitions, icons, and the compiled TFX file. This provides an excellent method for distributing screens and art work in a secure format. The Files Flyout Tool is depicted by a diskette. The tools on The Files Flyout are used to preview drawings, open new files, save files, save file as, load, and to exit FXdraw. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The Preview Mode Tool is symbolized by a ³Preview Mode Tool³ little flasher and is found under the Files ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Flyout. It is used to view a drawing or screen exactly the way that an end user will see it. Click on the little flasher and the screen will be redrawn without nodes. A dialogue box named Preview will pop up in the middle of your screen. You will probably want to drag it to the bottom out of the way so that you can preview the entire drawing. CONTINUE is the only option in the Preview dialogue window, and when you pick it you will be returned to the normal drawing environment. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The FXdraw File Functions Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 74 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The New Drawing Tool is symbolized by a ³The New Drawing Tool³ pencil eraser on a window. It allows you ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ to create a new drawing and abandon the drawing on the screen without saving any changes. Click the Eraser and the Start New Drawing dialogue box will pop up on your screen. Choosing the YES option will clear the drawing area and display the default drawing window with the grey background. You will also notice that the drawing name on the Status Bar will changed to NONAME.TFX. Choosing the NO option returns you to the drawing environment without making any changes. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The Save Tool is symbolized by an arrow pointing ³ The Save Tool³ at a diskette meaning the current drawing will be ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ saved TO the hard drive from the FXdraw editor. The Save Tool allows you to save a drawing by its current name, save a drawing to a different name, or save an unnamed drawing to a name. The current drawings name is always displayed on the FXdraw Status Bar. Pick the Save Tool and the Files Dialogue box will pop up. All the TFX drawings in the DOS directory will be displayed in alphabetical order in the file listing window. The current file name will be displayed in the rectangle under the heading SELECTED FILE. To save your drawing to the name in the SELECTED FILE box, click on the SAVE button. To save your drawing to a different name click on the SAVE AS button. The File Name dialogue box will pop up. Type in the name you want the current drawing to have and then click on DONE. If you click DONE without specifying a file name the drawing will be saved to NONAME.TFX. You will also notice that the drawing name on the Status Bar will change to NONAME.TFX. To exit the Files Dialogue box without saving your current drawing just click on the CANCEL button. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The Load Tool is symbolized by an arrow pointing ³The Load Tool³ away from a diskette meaning the TFX file will be ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ loaded FROM the hard drive to the drawing editor. Pick the Load Tool and the Files Dialogue box will pop up. All the available TFX files will be displayed in alphabetical order in the file listing window. To open an icon file, click twice quickly on the file name. You can also highlight the file name with a single click and then click on the OPEN button. If you want to exit the Files Dialogue box without choosing a file just click on the CANCEL button. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The Exit Tool is symbolized by an arrow pointing ³The Exit Tool³ towards an open door. If you click on the Exit ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Tool a dialogue box will pop up asking if you really want to leave, YES or NO. This gives you an opportunity to change your mind in case you forgot to SAVE your drawing first. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Editing ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 75 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ During the drawing process it often becomes advantageous or necessary to make changes to your drawing. In keeping with the simplicity of FXdraw we have created an interactive point and shoot editing environment. You can change every aspect of absolutely every entity on your screen. You have control over colour, position, text strings, BIT Maps and the TFX database. FXdraw has two modes, they are Draw Mode and Edit Mode. The Edit Tool is symbolized by a black node or square on a diagonal line. The Edit Tool is located at the top of the FXdraw Toolbox. The Edit Tool toggles the screen from Drawing Mode to Edit Mode. In Edit mode your drawing is displayed as a wire frame. Colour fills are not displayed when in wire frame mode making it easy to change entities that are behind filled polygons. The change from drawing to edit mode is very obvious but do not be alarmed, FXdraw reacts almost exactly the same in edit mode as draw mode. Editing will be completely explained in this chapter. First we will cover the general rules and then detail entity editing. ÚÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The mouse works exactly the same in edit mode as draw ³Mouse³ mode. The left button picks nodes, drags nodes and accepts ÀÄÄÄÄÄÙ changes. The right mouse button cancels the edit changes if they have not yet been accepted with the left mouse button. ÚÄÄÄÄÄ¿ Each entity in the drawing database is represented by a ³Nodes³ small yellow ID node. The small square yellow ID node is ÀÄÄÄÄÄÙ placed at the insertion point, midpoint or endpoint of every entity. Many entities used in FXdraw are complex entities or entities that have more than one or two edit points. As you will see displaying only one ID node per entity really cuts down on screen clutter. When you click on one of the small yellow ID nodes that represent an entity all the Edit Nodes associated with that entity will be illuminated and the entity will begin to flash on your screen. If the flashing entity is part of a polygon the remainder of the polygon will light up or XOR for identification purposes. Edit Nodes are slightly larger then ID nodes and are circular in shape. Edit Nodes can be clicked on and interactively repositioned with your mouse. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ It is often advantageous to change the ³Window Background Colour³ drawing window, background colour when ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ editing. Depending on the colour of the entity you are editing, changing the background colour can create better contrast for detailing or for editing. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ It is possible to change the colour of ³ Changing Entity Colour³ polygons, BIT text, mondo fonts, ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ rectangles and ellipses. To change colours simply click on a yellow ID node. When the selected entity starts flashing its current colours will be set on the colour bar. Select new colours and click anywhere in the edit window with your left mouse button to accept the changes. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Editing Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 76 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ FXdraw is an ³ Changing an Entities Position in the Database³ animation mode ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ drawing package and that means that entities or groups of entities are displayed in exactly the same sequence they are drawn. Fxdraw allows you to move an entity to the front or back of the drawing. For example this feature would let you to draw a foreground object and then add the background to the drawing. When you click on an entity ID node and it begins flashing you will notice that the Special Tools Area of your screen has changed. On the right side of the Special Tools Area are four edit buttons. The two top buttons change the position of an entity in the drawing. The button that moves an entity to the back of the drawing is symbolized by a dashed light blue rectangle that is partially behind a dark blue rectangle. The button that moves an entity to the front of the drawing is symbolized by a dashed light blue rectangle that is in front of a dark blue rectangle. When the Move to Front or the Move to Back button is clicked, edit mode is exited. The flashing entity is moved according to your choice the changes are displayed in drawing mode. In the case of a polygon the entire XOR polygon will be moved. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ Entities can be erased from your drawing when ³Erasing an Entity³ you are in edit mode. When you click on an ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ entity and it begins flashing you will notice that the Special Tools Area of your screen has changed. On the right side of the Special Tools Area are four edit icons. The lower right icon, symbolized by a pencil eraser, is used to delete or erase entities from the drawing. You may have noticed that when you click on a polygon while in edit mode that only the segment you picked flashes and the rest of the polygon lights up. If you click on the Pencil Eraser a dialogue box will pop up asking "DELETE POLYGON SEGMENT?", YES or NO. If you choose YES the flashing polygon segment will be erased and the remainder of the polygon will not be erased. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ Polygons are the prime entities used to create ³Editing Polygons³ drawings in FXdraw. Being able to edit polygons ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ provides important design freedom when creating screens in FXdraw. Polygons are composed of splines, arcs and lines that are chained together end to end. Each segment of a polygon has a Square yellow ID node placed at their midpoint. When you click on a square yellow ID node the entire polygon will (XOR) or light up and the segment you selected will begin flashing. The edit nodes you see will depend upon whether you chose a line, arc or spline. Edit nodes are placed on each endpoint of a LINE. Edit nodes are placed on each endpoint of an ARC and the midpoint. Edit nodes are placed on the four control points of a SPLINE and handle bars are provided. When editing polygons you are given the same points that you used to create the polygon in draw mode. When you move the end point of one polygon segment you also effect the adjoining polygon segment. This is always the case except when you pick the closing point of a polygon, in which case the end point can simply be moved off the other closing end point. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Editing Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 77 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ In some cases it is desirable to split one ³ Splitting Polygons³ polygon into two polylines. After you have ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ clicked on an ID node and an entity is flashing you will notice that in the Special Tools Area of your screen there are four edit icons. The lower left icon, symbolized by 'arrows pointing in opposite directions placed parallel to a line', is used to split polygons. If you click on the Split Polygon button, a dialogue box will pop up asking you if you "SPLIT POLYGON SEGMENT?", YES or NO. If you choose YES the polygon will be split and the two end points will be moved apart slightly to make the change apparent. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ It is possible to join two polygons to create ³Joining Polygons³ one. First click on an ID node to select the ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ entity you want to join. The entity will begin flashing and edit nodes will be displayed. Simply click on an end point edit node and drag it over to the end point of the open polygon you want to join with. A dialogue box will pop up asking "CONNECT TO POLYGON?", YES or NO. If you choose YES the two polygons will be joined. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ It is very simple to change line attributes ³Changing Line Type³ in edit mode. First click on an ID node to ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ choose the polygon you want to change. The entity will begin flashing and remainder of the polygon will light up (XOR). Click on a line style button and then click anywhere in the active drawing window with your left mouse button to accept the changes. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ To edit an Ellipse click on the ID node found ³ Editing Ellipses³ at its insert point. Four edit nodes are ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ displayed, one on each corner of the ellipse frame. The ellipse tool reacts exactly the same in edit mode and draw mode. To change the shape of the ellipse click on any edit node and drag the ellipse into a new shape. Click anywhere in the active drawing window with your left mouse button to accept the changes. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ To edit a Rectangle click on the ID node ³Editing Rectangles³ found at its insert point. Two edit nodes ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ are displayed, one at the same location as the ID node and the second at the diagonal on the rectangle. To reposition the rectangle click on the edit nodes and drag the rectangle into a new shape. The rectangle tool behaves the same in edit mode and draw mode. Click anywhere in the active drawing window with your left mouse button to accept the changes. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ Editing Mondo Fonts is very much like ³Editing Mondo Fonts³ drawing them. To edit a mondo font click on ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ the ID node found at its insertion point. The mondo font entity will begin flashing. Four edit nodes are displayed, one on each corner of the mondo font frame. You will also notice the Special Tools Area of your screen has changed. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Editing Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 78 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The mondo font tool reacts exactly the same in edit mode and draw mode. To change the shape of the mondo font click on any of the edit nodes and drag it into a new shape. It is very simple to change the mondo font line attributes. Click on the line style button you want to assign to the mondo font. To change the colour of mondo fonts, use the colour scroll bars. You can select new interior and outline colours by clicking on the colour bars. If you want to change the font style click on the small yellow file folder in the Special Tools Area of your screen and the Load File dialogue box will pop up in the middle of your screen. To change font files highlight the file name with a click and then click on the OPEN button. The dialogue box will disappear and the active file will now be displayed opposite the area labelled Font Name. To change the text string click on the 'ABCabc' in the font style preview window. A Text Input dialogue box will pop up in the middle of your screen. Type in the text changes you want to make and click DONE. To accept any or all the changes outlined above click anywhere in the active drawing window with your left mouse button. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ To edit BIT text click on the ID node found at ³Editing BIT Text³ its insertion point. The BIT Text frame will ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ begin flashing. Only one Edit node is displayed at the insertion point of the text string. When the text string is flashing you will also notice the Special Tools Area of your screen has changed. BIT Text can be repositioned by clicking on the edit node and dragging it to a new location. To change the colour of mondo fonts, use the colour scroll bar to select a different Outline colour. If you want to change the font style click on the small yellow file folder in the Special Tools Area of your screen and the Load File dialogue box will pop up in the middle of your screen. Highlight the file name with a click and then click on the OPEN button. The dialogue box will disappear and the active file will now be displayed opposite the area labelled Font Name. To change the text string click on the 'ABCabc' in the font style preview window. The Text Input dialogue box will pop up in the middle of your screen. Type in the text changes you want to make and click DONE. To accept any or all the changes outlined above click anywhere in the active drawing window with your left mouse button. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Editing Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 79 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ To edit an Icon click on the ID node found at its ³Editing Icons³ insertion point. The Icon frame will begin ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ flashing. Only one Edit node is displayed at the insertion point of an Icon. An icon can be repositioned by clicking on the edit node and dragging it to a new location. If you want to change the Icon File click on the small yellow file folder in the Special Tools Area and the Load File dialogue box will pop up in the middle of your screen. The dialogue box provides a quick way to change icon files. Highlight the file name with a click and then click on the OPEN button. The dialogue box will disappear and the new icon file will be displayed opposite the area labelled Icon File. To exchange the icon for different one click on the Icon Preview Window. A window will pop up on your screen titled Icon Selection. Click on any icon displayed in the Icon Selection Window. The Icon Selection Window will drop and the icon you chose will replace the icon being edited. To accept any or all the changes outlined above click anywhere in the active drawing window with your left mouse button. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ JPEG images can only be moved or deleted. To edit ³Editing JPEGs³ a JPEG frame click on the ID node located at its ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ insert point. One edit node will be displayed in the upper left corner of the JPEG frame. You can move the JPEG frame to a different location on the screen by clicking on the edit node and dragging the frame. You can delete the JPEG from the drawing by pressing the delete key or clicking on the delete button when the frame is flashing. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ To edit a Button click on the ID node located at ³Editing Buttons³ its insert point. Two edit nodes are displayed, ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ one at the same location as the ID node and the second at the diagonal on the button. To reposition the button click on the edit nodes and drag the button into a new shape. The button tool behaves the same in edit mode and draw mode. Click anywhere in the active drawing window with your left mouse button to accept the changes. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± FXterm ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 80 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD/FX comes with a very powerful yet lightweight terminal package called FXterm. We put a lot of effort into creating a first class terminal for your users; a terminal that you will be proud to distribute. This terminal is Free and we want to keep it that way, so to protect our trademarks and right of ownership we ask that you read the FX-Terminal Licence Agreement in the back of these Documents. FXterm is a multi resoulution SVGA terminal that supports Tel-FX Graphics Mode, colour ANSI and mono ANSI. The graphics modes that are supported are 1024x768x256, 800x600x256, 640x480x256 and 640x480x16. ANSI is also supported so users will be able to play their favorite ANSI games and use many of the old ANSI Doors. FXterm requires very little explanation, since it is an icon driven Point and Shoot environment, that is so GUI that there is even an analogue clock that ticks away on the icon bar no matter what is happening. FXterm has a lot to do with the high speed power of RoboBOARD/FX since much of the graphic work is done on the terminal end. When a screen is sent by RoboBOARD/FX a couple of seconds of data transfer at 14400 bps can put a thousand entities on the terminal screen. The Tel-FX protocol is not only extremely efficient, the terminal offloads much of the work. Icons are sent in realtime to the terminal and a little stopwatch flashes away as the icons are transferred. JPEG images come over in realtime also then pop up on the screen. The power isn't all graphical, FXterm has an extremely efficient DOS shell that requires only about 3K under DOS 6.00. There is a built in autodialer. Users can download and upload messages and files using Resuming Auto Zmodem. Users can print messages from your system on their printer at home. FXterm supports 16450 UART (2400 baud callers), 16550A UART, Fossils and DigiBOARD at baud rates locked to 115200. First time callers won't have any trouble with this terminal, the FXterm Interface conforms so totally to GUI expectations that there is no learning curve. Whether you are running a Customer support BBS or a Hobby BBS RoboBOARD/FX and FXterm will get more people visting your system. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± MultiLanguage BBSs ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 81 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD/FX can support up to eight languages concurrently but most people will choose their language upon install and never give it another thought. When you install RoboBOARD/FX you will be asked to specify the language or languages you want to support from the list of available languages. If you want to run RoboBOARD/FX with a different Main Language other then English simply choose your Language at install time. For people who are located in areas that require more than one language or a different language, RoboBOARD/FX has been designed to be as flexible as possible with consideration even taken when designing our Mondo Font character sets. Multilingual systems share the same executables, user base, messages bases, and file areas in order to save harddrive space. Shared files are stored in the general ROBOFX directories and subdirectories. Bulletins, Tel-FX files and Menus are stored in specific language based directories. Users choose their language when they logon and RoboBOARD/FX reads the data it needs from the path defined for that users language in RoboCFG (configuration program). Creating a directory or a subdirectory takes only a few bytes of harddrive space so this system is not only very clear it is also efficient. The languages we support* at this time are French, German and Spanish. These are specially compiled versions of RoboBOARD/FX. At this time the Documentation is only available in English, however we are sure that with time Language Specific DOC files will become available. When these DOCs are available we will post a bulletin on our BBS, listed in the section on Getting Help. A multilanguage system should only be something you choose if you have a need, since they require additional planning setting up and maintenance. RoboBOARD/FX is very configurable as a bilingual or multilingual BBS. RoboCFG has a multilanguage configuration template which allows for up to eight languages to be configured at one time. Based on the languages defined in the RoboCFG language template, users are able to choose their language at logon. It is a very good idea when you are configuring the Languages template to name a language as written by people who speak that language. ie: English, Fran‡ais, Espa¤ol, Deutsch. This language name defines the prompt they will see at logon. Users will be able to read system commands, warnings and prompts in the Language they chose provided it is supported by us. On multilingual systems where the BBS caters to users who speak two or more languages, usually the message bases and file areas are shared and in some cases the prompts in the menus are also multilingual. Being graphical, RoboBOARD/FX lends itself very well to being multilingual, using visual icons that convey messages in all languages. Forums are the only way to separate messages and files by language groups. You are required to draw different menus for every language you support so using Forums to separate different language messages will be very easy. Drawing different menus for each language is not quite as ominous as it sounds. Usually it is ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± MultiLanguage BBSs Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 82 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ simply a matter of copying a menu to the different language directory and changing the strings using edit mode in FXdraw. After changing the text strings you will want to reconfigure the buttons on that menu by language to reflect the Hot keys used by RoboBOARD/FX to activate Menu Commands assigned to buttons. WELCOME1...WELCOME2 and NEWS1...NEWS2: These screens are language sensitive, meaning if you have configured RoboBOARD as a multilanguage BBS, these screens will be in the appropriate language path. RoboBOARD/FX will look in the path of the language chosen at logon and will check the path set in RoboCFG for that language. You may have noticed in RoboCFG that languages have their own pull down menu called Languages. The first command is Language Definition which lets you set the Main language and its path and the subsequent languages and their paths. The second command is Change Active Language which lets you set the active language. When you choose a different active language you will notice that the Language Name changes in the background of the RoboCFG screen. Below is a sample menu tree showing an English and French system. The English and French directories are grouping directories that point to subdirectories containing that Languages Necessary Files. Graphics files are created using FXdraw and if activated from RoboCFG will default to the Active Language directory structure. The Menus subdirectory stores the Menu Control Files for that language. These files control access levels, buttons, and Forum information for every menu used by a language. Once again using RoboCFG the configuration will be stored in the Active Language directory structure. The Resource subdirectory contains the compiled, language specific menus created by Hamilton TeleGraphics Inc. and used by RoboBOARD/FX. The Template subdirectory contains the ASCII template files for that language. If you create specific templates like Questionnaires or Order templates you will want to put the ASCII config files in this subdirectory. As you can see by examining the menu tree below much of the a systems resources are shared. * These other languages should be completed by the time RoboBOARD/FX is released in English, or shortly there after. If you require a specific language and the characters fall within the ASCII character set we have listed in the appendix please contact us. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± MultiLanguage BBSs Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 83 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³Tree showing configuration for two languages³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ C:\ÄÄ¿ - Root Directory ÃÄROBOFX - RoboBOARD/FX main working dir ³ ÀÄÄÂÄ ROBODATA - SubDir for config files and data ³ ³ files ³ ÃÄ CFGRES - Config Resource Script files ³ ÃÄ FILES - Files RootDir(configurable) ³ ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄ NEWFILES - NEWFILES dir(configurable) ³ ÃÄ MAIL HUDSON MAIL dir(configurable) ³ ÃÄ ENGLISH - Default Language Root Dir ³ ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÂÄ GRAPHICS - Menus and Bulletin pictures for ³ ³ ³ language ³ ³ ÃÄ MENUS - Menu Control Files ³ ³ ÃÄ RESOURCE - Bbs Interface resources for language ³ ³ ÀÄ TEMPLATE - Input Templates for language ³ ÃÄ FRENCH - FRENCH LANGUAGE Root Dir ³ ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÂÄ GRAPHICS - Menus and Bulletin pictures for ³ ³ ³ FRENCH Language ³ ³ ÃÄ MENUS - Menu Control Files ³ ³ ÃÄ RESOURCE - Bbs Interface resources for language ³ ³ À TEMPLATE - Input Templates for language ³ ÃÄ FXDRAW - FXDRAW operating directory ³ ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄ ICONS - FXDRAW ICONS directory. ³ ÀÄ TEMP - Temp dir(configurable) ³