############################################################################ ### ##### # # ##### # #### # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #### # #### # # ##### # # # # # # # # # # # # # # ### # # # #### ##### ####### ###### # # # #### ##### # ## # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #### # # # # # # # # # # ##### # ###### # # # # # # # # # # # ###### # #### # ###### # # # ###### # # ##### # # # ###### ##### # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # ##### # # # # ##### # # # # ##### # # # # # # # # # # ###### # # # ## ###### # # ###### #### ##### # # # # # ##### # # # # # # # ##### # # # # # # #### # # # ##### # ###### # # # # ##### #### # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # ####### # # # # # # ####### # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #### # #### ##### # # ###### ############################################################################ FILENAME: readme.adi VERSION: 3.45 TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. INTRODUCTION 2. RELEASE NOTES A. Improvements B. Known Problems and Workarounds C. Environment Variables D. Driver Files 4. DRIVER CONFIGURATION A. Single/Dual/Default screen operation B. Display list page size C. Display list cleaning D. Button hold time and frame rate E. Single and double buffer modes 5. DRIVER OPERATION A. BirdsEye View B. Real-Time BirdsEye View C. Display List Memory Pagesize D. Command Palette E. Other ADI Driver Commands F. Command Palette File Format G. Driver Configuration Menu H. Status Line Menu and Indicators I. 3D View Selection 6. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 7. TROUBLESHOOTING APPENDICES: A. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS B. CONFIGURABLE OPTIONS C. TECHNICAL INFORMATION 1. ADS-ADI Link 2. Supported ADS-ADI packets 3. 3D Capabilities 4. Double-buffering 5. User-interface configuration options. 6. Dual screen operation. 7. Using AutoCAD with MovieMaker. 8. Tuning IRIX for optimal AutoCAD performance. ############################################################################ 1. INTRODUCTION: This is a technical documentation file for the IrisGL ADI display/rendering driver. This driver provides a number of important benefits to the AutoCAD user on SGI workstations. There are also a number of inherent limitations. A brief summary is included here, with more details elsewhere in this document: BENEFITS: - Runs on all SGI graphics hardware software configurations. e.g. Reality engine and TrueColor X servers. - Allows full hardware acceleration of graphics. AutoCAD REDRAWs at 90%+ peak hardware drawing rate. - Highly optimized display list architecture for MIPS processors. All coordinate transformations in GL pipeline. - Reduced memory requirements (uses 1/3 to 1/6 of X/Motif driver). Both 32 and 16 bit display list modes supported. Efficient display list compression scheme. - No reliance on X server backing store feature. Two software screen refresh modes available. - Driver features accessible from digitizing tablet. MoleMode/Screen Area not required for operation. Simplified digitizer button operation. LIMITATIONS: - Remote display possible only on other SGI workstations. - Remote display interactive performance less than X/Motif driver. - Software screen refresh less accurate than X/Motif backing store. The remainder of this document is devoted to describing the operation and use of the ADI driver. Please refer to the "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQ) section at the end of this document for answers to specific questions regarding the use of this driver with Autodesk products. NOTES: (R13) means that the feature is only available under Release 13. (R12) means that the feature is only available under Release 12. (R11) means that the feature is only available under Release 11. (RFU) means Reserved for Future Use. ############################################################################ 2. RELEASE NOTES: 2.A. Improvements: - Added VRML2 file export. - Corrected floating viewports grey-out bug in acad.mnu. - Corrected file type rule installation procedure. - Updated file type rules for multiple sessions. - Corrected AutoSpool script file for multiple sessions. - Corrected AutoSpool plot log permissions. - Corrected error in ivtovrml.sh script to allow VRML output. - Corrected dependency on PIXMAP Filetype icon. - Removed dependencies on TMP and ACADPATH variables in scripts. If TMP not set, temporary files go to /usr/tmp - Inventor (and VRML) exported files now oriented properly. Allows easier use of walk and fly viewers. Uses the 'ivOrient' filter to orient the files. - Support for full 32-bit AutoCAD display list resolution. - New configurable line highlighing mode. See: @VENDOR@HILITE command. - Birdseye view now cached during drawing modifications. Use CLEAN to refresh birdseye view image. - Corrected _ZOOM _DYNAMIC display of current view. - Corrected BIRDSEYE display of current view. - 3D display list pipeline is now disabled on non-zbuffered graphics. - Corrected erasure of entities on non-black backgrounds. - Improved Real Time Cleaning operation with polylines. - Improved _REGEN, _REDRAW and _ZOOM in PAPERSPACE viewports. - Unified screen color settings in CONFIGURE menu. - Display list drag speed under Frame Rate control. - Stray pixels during multi-page drag operations eliminated. - Display list drag feature may now be configured on or off. - Improved command prompt display and update during FLIP SCREEN (F1 key). - Added double-buffer control command set. - Extensive code optimization for improved _REGEN performance. - Corrected Real-Time BirdsEye update with extreme zooms. - Improved crosshair display when pickbox is active. - Corrected vector drop-outs in Real Time BirdsEye view. - Increased status line text buffer from 37 to 128 characters for MODEMACRO. - Corrected graphics text display with non-black background color. - Corrected bell sound on graphics window from AutoLISP, e.g.(princ (chr 007)). - Corrected Command Palette/BirdsEye View window placement problems. - Added multiple Command Palette menu files with direct access. - RealTime BirdsEye View does not redraw while switching modes (Panning & Zooming). - Improved position indicators in the BirdsEye View window. - Added polygon/polyline outlining mode. - Support for non-Refresh operation. Improves selection and editing performance. Somewhat less window damage repair than the refresh option. - See: REFRESH_ON and REFRESH_OFF commands. - Added ADI_DEBUG_LEVEL environment variable for testing. setenv ADI_DEBUG_LEVEL n, where "n" is a bitfield value: 1 = General starup information 2 = Xt level warnings 4 = Xt error detection - Corrected Motif list display with large lists (< 55 entries). - Corrected exit on icon initialization problem. - Corrected user-interface colors on Personal Iris. - Improved screen refresh with PaperSpace and AutoLISP entities. - Improved dialog box layout with differnt fonts, esp. _DDVPOINT. - Corrected CONFIGURE/option from PALETTE menu. - _VSLIDE and _PLOT preview operations improved. - Driver now supports Reality Engine and TrueColor Xservers (all versions). Driver will start in TrueColor regardless of default mode. - Startup time with Motif user-interface reduced. - Modified default fonts for improved dialog box alignment and display. - Orphaned "Tear-off" menu panes are closed when new dwg/menu is opened. - Corrected command palette and birdseye window colors on most systems. - Corrected display behavior on 8-bit graphics systems. - Viewpoint Presets dialog box display corrected for all fonts. - User-definable color palette files. - Support of AutoCAD's ZOOM WAYIN and ZOOM WAYOUT command options. See: @VENDOR@WAYIN and @VENDOR@WAYOUT. - Dynamic pan and zoom mode operational. Use "@VENDOR@ZOOMD" - GL Driver on-line help now available (see: @VENDOR@help). - Motif status bar button displays with GL command prompt area selected. - Support for "low-cost" dual screen setup. Through use of a serial terminal, PC, or remote terminal. See "acad_dual". - Text screen support for IBM ANSI character graphics. See "acad_ansi.sh". - Driver "crash" with stray Drop Pockets eliminated. - Internationalized command palette functions. - Fixed missing cursor after CONFIGURE from the FILE menu. - Added buttons to the Motif status line: O - Orthogonal mode toggle S - Snap mode toggle P - Paperspace mode toggle T - Tablet mode toggle B - BirdsEye view R - Real-Time BirdsEye view D - Dynamic Pan and Zoom mode C - Clean display list L - Local menu (i.e. Command Palette) ? - Help - Added built-in color/font scheme support, including ISO-8859-1 fonts. Both GL and Motif text areas now support I18N. Corrected "AutoCAD-Text*fontlist:" resource name per IG. Larger default screen fonts now in specified. - Added a additional buttons to the Motif status bar. - Fixed driver crash with Motif menus; Command: (menucmd "p2=*") - Motif user-interface colors now completely match the AutoCAD palette. - Fixed problems with switching between display drivers. - Fixed line drawing in 32-bit mode on X/XS/Elan/Extreme graphics. - Flipscreen in default mode correctly pops the active window. - Motif and GL sidebar menu operation improved. - SGITOOLS AutoLISP utilities handle files with embedded directories. - Improved operation of all file I/O with read-only directories. Temporary files written to $TMP (or current) directory. - Improved "Cut & Paste" command support. - Improved graphics window resize behavior. - Tear-off Motif menus now supported for IRIX 5.x version. (R12) - Improved menu bar font selection. 2.B. Known Problems and Workarounds: - Certain user-interface features "missing" on Impact graphics. All UI features in the "overlay" planes are absent on Impact systems. This includes the Command Palette, Birdseye views, and cursor in the GL driver configuration dialog. This bug is being worked on and a fix will be posted as soon as it is available. - Status line "Current Layer" display is limited to first 8 characters. This problem is due to a bug in AutoCAD's ADI interface. This driver is capable of a minimum of 37 characters for this field. If this is a major problem, you should report this problem to Autodesk. - AVE Render does not support the 3DFACES option. (R13) This is due to a feature change in the Autodesk product. Unfortunately, this precludes the use of the 3D display list features in the GL display driver. Some of this functionality has been superceded the the Inventor export functionality under the SGI_Tools/Collaboration pull-down menu. - AVE Render does not pass material finish parameters with 3DFACES on. (R12) This is a bug inside of AVE Render. There are three possible workarounds: 1) Set the entity color of the object as close to the finish color as possible, as it appears Render passes the entity color to the driver, along with default material parameters. 2) Turn 3DFACES off and render in 2D to see exact finishes. 3) Call Autodesk and complain and perhaps they will fix this bug. - AVE Render does not pass edge visibility flags with 3D polygons. (R12) This is a bug inside of AVE Render. There is no known workaround. This is most evident when doing hidden line removal with the 3D display list. - Boundary outlines are erased during _BHATCH operations while any (R12) dialog boxes are present. This is a known problem with AutoCAD and display list drivers. - Certain interactive GL Driver fuctions may not operate from Motif pulldown menus. The BirdsEye view, for example, may operate intermittently from the default, Motif pull-down menu. This is a side effect of the asynchronous timing of AutoCAD's menu handling mechanism and the Motif window manager. The are several workarounds that can be used in this situation: Just hit 'Enter' key to repeat the menu command. Use GL-style pulldown menus: AuthCAD-Graph.useMenuBar: False Tear off the Motif pulldown menu and move it outside the AutoCAD graphics window. Use the command button built into the status bar. B = BirdsEye view. R = Real Time BirdsEye view. D = Dynamic pan and zoom. Use the command button on the Command Palette. L = Local Command Palette ^L = Local Command Palette - Number keys (with NumLock enabled) on the numeric keypad may not (R12) function properly in Motif dialog boxes with the Irix 5.2 GL driver. Use the Irix4 (rcIrisGL) GL display driver instead. This is actually a bug in the Motif 1.2 subsystem and is not a problem in the driver. The Irix4 driver is built with Motif 1.1 so does not exhibit this problem. - AutoCAD is inoperative after window resize. (R12) During the period of time from when you resize the graphics window until the crosshair cursor returns, AutoCAD is in a fairly "unstable" state. It is recommended that you not use AutoCAD menus or try to resize the window (again) until AutoCAD returns to stability, indicated by the display of the "Command:" prompt and cursor in the graphics window. - Motif dialog boxes do not "remember" their last position. This is a problem in the AutoCAD menu handling system, as it tells the driver to display each new dialog box centered within the graphics window, irrespective of the previous location. If this presents a continuing problem to you, please report this problem to Autodesk. If they get enough feedback, they may improve the behavior of the menuing system. - Selecting the Motif user-interface widgets overrides the AutoCAD configured StatusLine, PromptArea, and ScreenMenu options. To turn off an item, for example the command prompt area, you need to edit the file: ~/.Xdefaults or $ACADRESFILE and change the settings of: AutoCAD-Graph*useCommandArea: True - to read - AutoCAD-Graph*useCommandArea: False then run the command: xrdb ~/.Xdefaults (if using $ACADRESFILE, this is not needed) then configure AutoCAD (via acad -r) display and select no command prompt area, exit AutoCAD, and when you re-start AutoCAD, the command prompt area will be gone. - Cut and paste in a GL-style command prompt area is limited. Only the first character of the pasted command is echoed, although the entire command has been entered. You may press the ";" key to pass the command string on to AutoCAD. The ";" will echo. Cutting is not supported at all. If using R12 and this functionality is desired, enable the Motif-style command prompt in the .Xdefaults file (see above). - The GL-style text font is not changeable, nor does it follow the .Xdefaults settings. If font selection is desired, enable the Motif-style user- interface components in the .Xdefaults file (see above). If you would like to see this feature implemented, please convey that information to us. - Refresh of GL graphics window is not perfect. After repeated window exposures/damage, the GL graphics window may not be repaired perfectly. This is due to a number of factors out of the control of the GL window or ADI driver. If this happens, you can do one of several things, depending on the region and severity of damage. A _REDRAW or _REDRAWALL will fix one or more active viewports. Using the CLEAN or _REDRAWALL command or iconifying and restoring the window will restore the entire window. You can also reduce the need for redraws by using the GL-style pulldown menu instead of the Motif menu bar. The GL menu bar "saves under" the menu area so refresh is instantaneous. Also, GL menus can be accessed from digitizing tablets without the need for Mole Mode. - Refresh of 2D polygon rendered viewports not implemented. (R12) This is the rendering done with "Full Render" when "3DFACES" is not enabled. We feel that the current options are sufficient. If this is an important feature, please let us know and we'll take a look at it. To work around this, use: 1) "3DFACES" on. 2) Use "Quick Render" in "Render Preferences" dialog. - Render to "Rendering Screen" is not supported. This feature has not been implemented. If this is an important feature, please let us know and we'll take a look at it. We feel that the current options are sufficient, namely: 1) Render to a full screen viewport. 2) Dedicate one viewport for a rendered view and use the fast, 3D display list to re-render the scene as desired. 3) Use a 3D DXF, 3DS or Inventor file viewer instead. - AVE Render Preferences dialog "Color Map Usage" buttons disabled. Since this driver is a "Continuous Color" device (24-bit), there is no "Color Map" to worry about, this is normal. - AVE Render Modify Finishes dialog, "Preview Finish" is disabled. This is related to the above in that the "Previewed Finish" is done with color palette animation. 2.C. Environment Variables: setenv ACAD "/path1;/path2;" : path for AutoCAD support files setenv ACADCFG /path : path for AutoCAD config data setenv ACADPATH /path : path for AutoCAD executables setenv ACADDRV "/path1;/path2" : For AutoCAD Release 12 (only) setenv AVECFG /path : path for AVE Render config data (R12) setenv RENDERCFG /path : path for Render config data (R13) SET USER=name : Overrides configuration file name : Note: USER is already set in IRIX SET ADI_UNDERSCAN=nn : Set percent underscan in NTSC/PAL : Note: Default is 8%, range is 1-25 SET ADI_SATURATION=nn : Set percent saturation in NTSC/PAL : Note: Default is 95%, range is 50-100 2.D. Driver Files: rcirisgl : IRIX 5.x GL/ADI R13 driver from Autodesk rcIrisGL13 : IRIX 5.x GL/ADI R13 driver from SGI rcIrisGL13cx : IRIX 5.x GL+CDE/ADI R13 driver from SGI rcIrisGL5 : IRIX 5.x GL/ADI driver for Iris 4D workstation AcadT.keymap : IRIX Text Window Shell keymapping file $USER.cnf : Configuration file (created at runtime) Example menu files (move to a directory in $ACAD): gl_com.txt : Command Palette menu; resource text file _blank.txt : A blank Command Palette text file _*.txt : Secondary Command Palette menu text files gl_strs.txt : Internal driver text string; resource text file gl_cmds.txt : Internal driver commands; resource text file gl_acad.txt : AutoCAD commands issued by driver; resource file gl_dview.lsp : AutoLISP commands written by driver, don't modify gl_lisp.lsp : AutoLISP commands issued by driver, don't modify acad.mnu : Sample AutoCAD screen menu file (R12) sgitools.lsp : AutoLISP support for acad.mnu (R12) @VENDOR@help.scr : Invoke the GL Driver help screen. (R12) Example startup scripts (move to a directory in $ACAD): 1.scr : new drawing (R11) 2.scr : existing drawing (R11) 2r.scr : existing drawing, rendering activated (R12) readme.adi : This file. ############################################################################ 3. DRIVER OVERVIEW: This block diagram will illustrate how the various components of this ADI driver interact. +-------------------+ | AutoCAD | | . . . . . . . . . | | Internal Commands |<--- file: *.mnu +-------------------+ - *.sid (side bar) ^ | - *.pop (pop-up) | | - *.but (button) | V +-------------------+ | ADI Driver | | . . . . . . . . . | | AutoCAD Commands |<--- file: gl_acad.txt, gl_lisp.lsp | . . . . . . . . . | | Internal Commands |<--- file: gl_cmds.txt | . . . . . . . . . | | Command Palette |<--- file: gl_com.txt, [_*.txt] | . . . . . . . . . | | Configuration |<--- file: gl_strs.txt +-------------------+ As can be seen in this diagram, AutoCAD reads and interprets the ".mnu" file. The supplied menu is constructed from the standard "acad.mnu" file with the addition of the button, side bar and pop-up menu components. If you would like to add any or all of these features to you own menu file, the component parts are furnished in separate files. The ADI driver processes the ".txt" files for its own use. When the driver is initialized, it reads the contents of these files into memory, overwriting its internal version. Thus, if you wish to change any of the command or text strings, you may simply edit the appropriate file. Each file contains a brief description of its format and contents. The Command Palette file will be described later in this document. The driver's internal command interpreter is controlled by the "cmds" file. The AutoCAD commands that the driver issues are controlled by the "acad" file. The internal configuration utility is controlled by the "strs" file. HINT: A good use of this feature is for localization of commands and prompts. ############################################################################ 4. DRIVER CONFIGURATION: IRIX AutoCAD Release 12 users will find the selection: "Iris GL Display for Irix n - by Silicon Graphics" listed directly in the Display driver list. Use "acad -r" from an Irix command prompt or _CONFIG from an AutoCAD command prompt to re-configure AutoCAD. Once you enter the AutoCAD Drawing Editor, you may choose to configure the driver by entering the CONFIGURE command. Some of the configurable options are self evident, others need a bit of description: 4.A. Single/Dual/Default screen operation: Since there is only one monitor (with both text and graphics windows present) in IRIX, the three options are: DEFAULT: The active window automatically pops to front. All text is echoed on text window. SINGLE: The active window does not pop to front. Text is not echoed on text window unless so directed by AutoCAD. DUAL: The active window does not pop to front. All text is echoed on text window. HINTS: - Default mode emulates the behavior of the X Window driver. - Single screen mode is best used with a full-screen graphics window. It is also useful if your application generates lots of scrolling text output. Examples are scripts, AME, ADS applications and certain internal commands like HIDE. - Dual screen mode is good to use when both graphics and text windows are visible. 4.B. Display list page size: The display driver uses a paged, hierarchical display list architecture. That is, drawing entities are stored in pages of memory allocated from the operating system. The individual pages are linked together, on a per-viewport basis, to form the display list for that viewport. This results in an efficient and responsive driver. The page size setting controls the size of individual display list pages. The default value is 4 KBytes. The size of the page controls how much memory is allocated at a time. During the drawing regeneration process, as each page of memory is filled, the accumulated drawing entities are sent to the graphics pipeline for display. This setting is also used to determine how many vectors/polygons to draw during real-time panning and zooming operations. The algorithm used is to draw for the greater of one display list page or about 1/10 of a second (this time is also user-selectable, see the section on Frame Rate, below). The default value of 4 KBytes has been selected to give the optimum redraw performance and response. This 4 KByte memory page happens to be the standard memory allocation unit for the operating system. Memory consumption per entity is as follows: Display List Memory Consumption ------------------------------- Mode | Polyline Polygon Per Vertex --------+------------------------------------------------- 16-bit | 16 bytes 20 bytes 4 bytes 32-bit | 24 bytes 32 bytes 8 bytes NOTES: 1) The "Per Vertex" figure is the amount of memory consumed for each additional vertex beyond three in a polygon and each segment beyond one in a polyline. 2) The maximum number of segments in a polyline is 65535. 3) Due to increased data size, both size of vertices as well as the number of connected vertices in polylines, a 16K Byte page size may result in improved operation with 32-bit display list mode. 4) You should be careful with the AutoCAD VIEWRES system variable setting. In versions prior to R12, the maximum (effective) value of VIEWRES was approx. 3000 (i.e. a 30X zoom was the greatest possible value in 16-bit mode). However, in 32-bit mode, the maximum VIEWRES setting of 20,000 is attainable. VIEWRES should be set the the approximate zoom value you will be working at. This will ensure that when zoomed into that factor, curved entities will remain curved. Setting it to a higher value will needlessly fill the display list with excess data, potentially slowing operation due to virtual memory overhead. 4.B.1. Technical Background: AutoCAD maintains an internal integer drawing data base in which it represents your drawing in a logical coordinate system extending from 0 to 32766 (see figure below). This ADI driver maintains a corresponding display list for its own use. As drawing entities are sent from AutoCAD to the ADI driver, they are placed into a page of the display list. In addition, a calculation is performed to determine how large the entity will be in terms of how many sections of the logical display extent will the entity appear in. In the figure below, a line drawn from section 0 to section 3 will appear in sections 0, 1, 2, and 3. This information is kept for each entity in the display list as well as for each page of the display list. When it comes time to redraw a given display list, the current view is compared in turn to each page in the display list to determine if any of the page's contents are visible. If so, then the current view is compared to each entity in the page. Any entities outside the current view do not need to be redrawn, resulting in a decrease in the time required to redraw the drawing. Logical display list extents ---------------------------- (XMAX,YMAX) +----+----+----+----+ | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | +----+----+----+----+ | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | +----+----+----+----+ | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | +----+----+----+----+ | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | +----+----+----+----+ (0,0) NOTES: 1) Although the actual algorithm is more complex than that shown above, it is similar in nature. 2) In 32-bit mode, the maximum logical coordinate is many times larger. 4.B.2. Using the Display List Efficiently: With the above in mind, there are a number of considerations that affect the efficiency of this technique. The major factor is to be sure to keep the extents of you drawing as close to the maximum size as possible. The easiest way to do this is to zoom to the drawing extents (_ZOOM _EXTENTS) or if you are only working on a small part of the drawing zoom to the extent of that area (_ZOOM _WINDOW) and then do a _REGEN. You may _SAVE the drawing to retain these settings. Generally, it has been observed that the redraw speed of the display list only varies a few percent with changes in page size. However, depending on how your drawing is laid out, you may want to do your own experiments. The greatest speed gains are seen when entire pages of display list can be skipped over. This occurs when all the entities in a given page are physically near each other on the drawing, like a title block. In this case you may want to increase the page size to take advantage of the slightly lower overhead of larger pages. However, if your drawing tends to have entities that appear all over the viewport, such as if each layer were created sequentially, you may find smaller pages offer a more responsive "feel". In addition to the main display list, the page size also affects the Display List Cleaning operation (below) as well as display list dragging feature (used during _MOVE, _DVIEW, etc.), the Real-Time BirdsEye View. So you may want check out the operation of these features as well if you decide to change the page size. NOTE: This driver features full-color display list drag capabilities. The size of the "drag display list" is only limited by the need for interactivity in the interface. In order to allow full driver- controlled dragging, you should allow AutoCAD to send the entire drag-selection list to the driver before moving your digitizer. You can tell when this is done if you move and the entire selection drags smoothly. If it doesn't, just wait until the display list update is complete before moving again. HINTS: 1) When using the 32-bit display list option, larger page sizes will allow for longer polyline segments to be stored, resulting in a more efficient use of memory. 2) The using the Real-Time Cleaning option, smaller page sizes will result in more efficient use of memory. See discussion below. 3) You may disable display list dragging to conserve memory. 4) You may adjust the Frame Rate value for better interactivity while dragging and or using the Real Time BirdsEye view. 4.B.3. Display list coordinate size: Beginning with AutoCAD Release 12, there are now two possible display list coordinate sizes: 16 and 32-bit. Internally, AutoCAD maintains a "master copy" of the drawing in a floating point data format. It would be too slow to support interactive access to this data so, as described in the preceding sections, AutoCAD uses a "logical coordinate space" to represent the drawing for display and editing purposes. This data format conversions is what takes place during an AutoCAD _REGEN command. This logical coordinate system may either be in one of two formats: Format Range Typical Zoom (depends on viewport size) --------------------------------------------------------------- 16-bit 0..32766 25-100x 32-bit 0..2147183645 5000-100,000+ As you can see, the 32-bit coordinates allow for significantly higher zoom factors without the need for a _REGEN. It is quite useful for GIS other drawings where a high degree of detail is maintained. However, for most other use, a 16-bit coordinate system provides for sufficient detail. For example, zooming in 50x on some text in an E-size drawing will result in individual characters that nearly fill the screen. As discussed above, there is a trade-off that must be considered when selecting between 16 and 32-bits. That is, faster operation and lower memory consumption with 16-bits vs. higher detail ands fewer _REGENs with 32-bits. The bottom line should be, if you need the detail allowed in 32-bit mode, by all means use it, but if you don't switch to 16-bit mode. The display list coordinate size has an affect on _REDRAW and _REGEN performance. In 32-bit mode, AutoCAD makes use of a more efficient mechanism for transferring display list information to the driver. This produces about a 15% improvement in _REGEN speeds for typical drawings. The speed of _REDRAW (including _PAN and _ZOOM) commands will be somewhat (less that 5%) slower in 32-bit mode due to the factors described above. NOTE: The default setting is 32-bit mode. 4.C. Display list cleaning: Display list cleanup is a process whereby the display driver will transparently mark removed drawing entities in its internal display list so that they will not be displayed. This is a by-product of the way AutoCAD handles erasing entities. If an entity is erased, AutoCAD will issue a duplicate copy of the erased entity to be drawn in the background color. Thus, when this entity is drawn over the existing one, it will appear to disappear. However, every erased entity in the display list will be drawn twice and there is the potential for this background color write to erase some subsequent entity on the screen. With Real-Time cleanup enabled (denoted by "RT Clean"), the ADI driver, will search for the matching (visible) entity and mark it such that they will not be drawn in the future. The erasing entity is NOT stored in the display list, thus eliminating the extra memory usage. In addition, when all entities within one page of memory are marked as erased, the entire page of memory if returned to the operating system for reuse. To demonstrate this feature, load a drawing and then erase everything. You can then watch the display list memory indicator shrink back towards zero as the drawing is erased. This function will make the 'erasing' process about half as fast as with no cleaning on. However, you will not need to do a _REGEN or _REDRAW after a large ERASE or MOVE. If the combined time to ERASE and _REGEN is considered, the Real-Time cleaning function is actually twice as fast and it happens automatically and transparently. HINTS: 1) This mode is most useful for running AME/ADS/AutoLISP applications. These applications tend to create and erase entities a lot as they run. Since these programs are feeding input non-stop into AutoCAD, there is never any 'free' time available for keeping the display list clean. Doing it on the fly, will keep display list to a reasonable size. For as simple demonstration of this, take a look at the example AutoLISP file "tower.lsp" and its accompanying instruction file "tower.doc" or run the "tower" program in the ADS subdirectory. 2) With display list cleaning disabled, the overhead of checking for erased entities is not needed. As such, the display driver will operate somewhat faster. However, if during editing sessions, you notice significant evidence of erased entities, simply issue a "CLEAN" command to remedy the situation. This mode is most useful when you are interested in getting maximum performance from AutoCAD. If you are creating a new drawing or doing touch-up work involving lots of panning and zooming, this is the time to turn off display list cleaning. 3) Keeping the page size small will increase the chances that all entities in a page will be erased (there are less entities in smaller pages) and thus be returned to the operating system for later re-use. NOTE: Unlike some other implementations of display list cleaning, the RT Clean feature preserves the drawing order of the display list at all times. This ensures that what you see on the screen matches as accurately as possible what is in AutoCAD's internal display list. Also, the process does not rely on "free-time" to operate, so it works equally well for manual or automated drawing modification. 4.D. Button hold time and frame rate: These two parameters are user-configurable to allow you to adjust the "look and feel" of the display driver during interactive commands. The button hold time (HOLDTIMEnn) sets the delay time for detection of a "long button click" or a "click and hold" event. The numeric value for this parameter is the number of system clock ticks (60 per second) to wait before checking for additional user input. Larger values let the driver process for a longer time, giving you more leeway for using short button clicks. Smaller values will give you a move responsive feel to your input. The default value is about 1/4 second, minimum value is 1 tick and the maximum is about 1 second. The default frame rate value is set to about 1/5 of a second, but you may adjust it as needed. The frame rate (FRAMERATEnnn) lets you adjust the "frames per second" that the the screen updates at. It uses the same time scale as the hold time. The default rate is set to about 5 frames per second. The minimum value is 1 tick and the maximum is about 10 seconds per frame. NOTE: To convert either of these values to their time representation, use the following formulas: HoldTimeInSeconds = NumberOfTicksSet / TicksPerSecond FramesPerSecond = TicksPerSecond / NumberOfTicksSet 4.E. Single and double buffer modes: All hardware supported by this driver is capable of "single-buffer" operation. That is, all the available pixel color depth is used for displaying the image. This is the best mode to use when doing screen captures of images and where accurate color representation is an important consideration. Certain hardware is also capable of "double-buffer" operation. In this mode, the available pixel color depth is divided between a "front" or visible buffer and a "back" or invisible buffer. During interactive operations, like the RealTime BirdsEye view, a new view is drawn in the "back" buffer, then the buffers are "swapped" bring the new view instantly to the "front". This technique provides flicker-free motion. The default mode is double-buffering, unless you hardware can't support that capability. The mode may be changed in the driver's configuration menu. The double buffer item will be greyed out if it is unavailable. ############################################################################ 5. DRIVER OPERATION: This ADI driver is a display list driver. In addition to the basic AutoCAD functionality, it offers a number of additional features to increase user productivity. The display list is the central feature of this driver, upon which all the other functionality is built. It uses the 32-bit system memory in your computer to keep track of all the graphics primitives (i.e. lines and polygons) that make up the current drawing. The driver will make full use of AutoCAD's "virtual" memory manager, which allows the display list to be larger than the physical memory installed in your computer. Once the drawing is in memory, the driver is able to redraw all or part of the drawing 10 to 100 times faster than AutoCAD alone. This driver allows display list support for up to 64 AutoCAD "viewports". This display list mode may be configured in the CONFIGURE menu. There is an additional "Refresh" display list. Its purpose is to capture all other graphics primitives (i.e. those not in the primary display list) in order to be able to redraw the entire AutoCAD window if needed. There is no user-configurable options or interaction needed for this function. It operates transparently and in the background. When first loaded into memory, the display list is "clean", meaning that all entities in the list are actually displayed. As you edit and delete items from the drawing AutoCAD will send down drawing entities marked for deletion. When this happens, the entity will initially display, and will then subsequently be erased. In light of this, this driver supports real-time display list cleaning, whereby, each matching pair of a displayed and a deleted entity are matched up and marked so as not to be displayed. A status indicator showing the amount of display list memory in use is displayed in the upper right hand corner of the status line, if one is enabled. If you do a significant amount of editing with cleaning disabled, the size of the display list will grow as each entity will be duplicated. In this case, you may choose to issue the built-in command "CLEAN" which instructs AutoCAD to send a fresh copy of the display list to the driver, freeing up unused memory in the process. There is a replacement AutoCAD menu file which allows easy access to these additional features as well. It will be loaded into the drawing editor for any drawing using the default ACAD menu. From the pull-down menu bar, select the "SGITools" menu item (at the extreme right end of the menu bar). Clicking the pick button will pull down the desired menu. There is also a side-bar menu item added to the bottom of the standard menu with a similar feature set. In addition, there is a replacement for the standard Button menu to allow the Command Palette to be invoked by pressing the middle (or third) digitizer button. The left button is still the Pick button while the right (or second) button still duplicates the Enter key. 5.A. BirdsEye View: This ADI driver supports two versions of a BirdsEye view. One version is a full-color version of the entire drawing displayed in a scaled down window (the BirdsEye View). The user-interface is modeled after the AutoCAD _ZOOM _DYNAMIC command. It has two modes, panning (designated by an outlined box with an "X" in it) and zooming (designated by the same box with an "arrow" in it). Issuing single clicks of the pick button will toggle you between these two modes. In the regular BirdsEye view, a solid white rectangle will show the area of the drawing you are presently viewing, while the movable outline will show the area you will view if you press and hold the pick button. After holding the button down for about 1/2 second, you can release it to initiate the panning or zooming operation. When the time interval is over, the BirdsEye view will be erased. At this point, control is returned to AutoCAD, which will wait until you release the pick button before initiating the requested zoom operation. NOTE: Certain digitizing tablet drivers do not send data while a button is being held down. If you are using such a driver, you will not be able to use the "click and hold" feature. You may try changing driver modes, i.e. Interrupt to Polled mode, or switch to another driver, like Packet mode to In-line, for example, to see if one of the combinations work better. Otherwise, you will have to use the digitizer's "Enter" button, or "Enter" on the keyboard to initiate the action. In addition to the standard pick-button interface, this version allows several other user-interface additions. You may now press the second digitizer button to initiate the action. You may press the third digitizer button to cancel the action. HINT: On a three-button mouse, the right button is the second and the middle button is the third. The other version of the BirdsEye view features real-time panning and zooming. In this mode the drawing will move beneath the monochrome BirdsEye window as you move about. Once again, a click and hold of the pick button will perform the desired operation. This feature makes use of the double-buffer video display mode to provide smoother panning and zooming. When the BirdsEye view is initially displayed, it will be in one of the two modes described above. If the visible portion of the current viewport is greater than about one half of its extents, then the initial BirdsEye state will be zooming. Likewise, if less than half the viewport extents are visible, then the initial state will be panning mode. 5.B. Real-Time BirdsEye View: The "R-T Bird" button will bring up the Real-Time BirdsEye View, while "BirdsEye" will bring up the static, full-color BirdsEye view. Any of the user-interface components may be closed by clicking on the close box (located on the left end of the title bar indicated via a Windows-style close icon). Any item may be moved by clicking on the text of the title bar and then moving the digitizer (and the window frame) to a new area and then clicking again to anchor the item. The BirdsEye window may also by sized by clicking in the resize box (to the right of the title, indicated by overlapping window frames) and sizing as desired by moving the digitizer and finally anchoring the frame by clicking the pick button again. HINTS: In the "zooming" mode, you will notice that the left edge of the "zoom" box remains fixed. Motion to the right will increase the box size, to the left will reduce it. Motion up and down will result in a "panning" motion. In light of this, if you wish to pan to a particular area and then zoom in on it, you should make sure that the area you want to zoom in to is centered vertically and to the left of center before beginning the zoom. That way, as you zoom in, the object will end up centered and save you from having to pan back to center. If you are running AutoCAD in a window that is less than full screen size, you should be careful when moving the mouse while the "arrow" cursor (as opposed to the "arrow" or "X" mode indicator) is close to an edge of the BirdsEye frame. The area inside the BirdsEye frame is mapped onto the Graphics window in a 1:1 fashion. When the "arrow" cursor moves out of the BirdsEye frame, it also moves out of the Graphics window (technically it "loses input focus"). If this happens, the current BirdsEye operation is cancelled and the view prior to the BirdsEye operation is restored. You will also notice that the window resize cursor (red arrow with resize bar) will begin to flash on the graphics window border. As long as you make no sudden motion, the cursor will be constrained within the graphics window. Note, this behavior does not occur when using a digitizing tablet. NOTE: The image in the BirdsEye view window is retained for later re-display. This ensures that subsequent invocations of the BirdsEye view are nearly instantaneous. However, if large changes are made to the drawing, the saved image may not accurately reflect the drawing. Several actions can be used to trigger the refresh of this image: 1. Change viewports. 2. Change BirdsEye mode (Real Time <-> Full Color) 3. Use the CLEAN (or AutoCAD _REGEN) command. 5.C. Display List Memory Page Size: An additional command series has been added to allow dynamic changes to the internal display list page size. The command "@VENDOR@PAGESIZE" where "xxxx" may take on any value from "1" to "1000" will cause AutoCAD to send down a new display list in the requested page size. This change will only be in affect for the current drawing. If a permanent change is desired, you may reconfigure the display driver from the CONFIGURE Menu or issue a "WRITE_CONFIG" command to save the settings. How does the size of a display list memory page affect the performance of the driver? The answer is that it affects many things at once. The following examples represent elapsed times measured with the drawing AKSLAND. This drawing contains approximately 212,000 vectors and no filled polygons. PAGESIZE(KB) 10 _REDRAW(sec) 1 _REGEN(sec) MEMORY USED(KB) 1 8.68 36.56 1318 2 8.56 36.84 1278 4 8.58 35.66 1260 8 8.52 34.83 1248 16 8.54 35.01 1248 32 8.49 35.40 1248 64 8.47 35.70 1280 These values will vary depending on many factors, but a few general conclusions may be drawn. Redraw speed increases with increasing page size. Regeneration speed and memory usage is optimum in the 4-32 KB range. However, due to the design of the driver, you will notice that these variations are less than 5%, so most likely you will want to adjust the value of @VENDOR@PAGESIZE so that the "feel" of the driver is to your liking. HINTS: 1) Use larger page sizes for 32-bit mode and when display list cleaning is off. 2) Use smaller page sizes when display list cleaning is on. 3) If interactive operations feel "sluggish" reduce the page size. 5.D. Command Palette: The next user-interface item is the "Command Palette" which may be called up via the command line entry of "PALETTE". This will bring up a Command Palette. All five rows of buttons are user programmable. To do so, simply edit the appropriate text file "*_com.txt" in the sub-directory where the ADI driver is installed. See the following discussion of the menu file format. Please note that this menu file format is exactly the same as a standard AutoCAD menu file, with the exception of sub-menus, which are described below. For your convenience, you may also bring up the Command Palette with the "transparent" driver key, ^L (hold the Ctrl key and press the L key). In addition to the standard commands listed below, the Command Palette may also read in a different file. To do this, a variant of the "PALETTE" command is used. If a file name is appended to the "PALETTE" command, i.e. PALETTEtestfile the file "testfile.txt" will be read (in place of the default file "*_com.txt"). Note that the ".txt" extension is added automatically by the driver. A special file name is reserved, namely "LAST" which will re-load the last palette menu file. This is useful for sub-menus that are invoked from a number of higher level menus. The file name will be used as entered and if no matching file is found, it will be converted to "lower case". For clarity, it is suggested that you use our convention of "PALETTEfilename". Menu files are searched for along the path specified by the "ACAD" environment variable. NOTE: In our file naming convention, all sub-menu files begin with a leading underscore "_" so that the loading command line looks like: "PALETTE_file" HINT: This feature will be most useful if you CONFIGURE the Command Palette to remain visible or iconified after use. 5.E. Other ADI Driver Commands: CONFIGURE - Bring up the on-line configuration menu. PALETTE - Bring up the Command Palette. PALETTEabc - Bring up the Command Palette w/ "abc.txt". PALETTElast - Bring up the Command Palette w/ last file. CLEAN - Request a clean display list from AutoCAD. RTBIRD - Bring up the Real-Time BirdsEye View. BIRDSEYE - Bring up the full-color BirdsEye View. ^L - Bring up the last Command Palette. SGI_PAGESIZEnnn - Set the display list page size to "nnn" KBytes. Where "nnn" can range from 1 to 256 KB. STATISTICS - Display display list statistics on text screen. SGI_ZOOMVX - _ZOOM to current viewport extents. SGI_PANUF - _PAN up one full screen. SGI_PANDF - _PAN down one full screen. SGI_PANLF - _PAN left one full screen. SGI_PANRF - _PAN right one full screen. SGI_PANUH - _PAN up one half screen. SGI_PANDH - _PAN down one half screen. SGI_PANLH - _PAN left one half screen. SGI_PANRH - _PAN right one half screen. *************************************** *** NEW COMMANDS for the power user *** *************************************** CP_OFF - Force Command Palette OFF after button press. CP_ON - Force Command Palette ON after button press. CP_ICON - Force Command Palette to iconify after button press. WRITE_CONFIG - Save current configuration state to disk. CLEAN_ON - Turn on display list cleaning. CLEAN_OFF - Turn off display list cleaning. DLIST_ON - Turn on main display list. DLIST_OFF - Turn off main display list. SINGLE_SCREEN - Enable single screen text/graphics mode. DUAL_SCREEN - Enable dual screen text/graphics mode. DEFAULT_SCREEN - Enable default text/graphics mode. REFRESH_ON - Turn on background refresh display list. REFRESH_OFF - Turn off background refresh display list. QPLOT - Produce "qplot_nnnn.rgb" file of current viewport. Where "nnnn" will take on sequential numbers starting from "0000", uniquely. See the Appendix on "MovieMaker". LOGFILEON - Begin logging command line text to log file. LOGFILEOFF - End logging command line text to log file. SGI_PROMPTLINE - Sets number of prompt lines to [1..5] SGI_MENUCHAR - Sets sidemenu and command palette width from [4..15] SGI_LAST - Go to last zoom. (RFU) SGI_REDRAW - Redraw command. SGI_CLEANLIST - Clean and compress the display list. SGI_CLEAN - Clean and compress the display list. SGI_WAYOUT - _REGEN so current view is zoomed "way out". SGI_WAYIN - _REGEN so current view is zoomed "way in". SGI_ZOOMD - Zoom Dynamic (RealTime BirdsEye w/o window) SGI_SPOT - Enable Spot View window. (RFU) SGI_EXIT - Disable Spot View window. (RFU) SGI_ZOOM - ZoomXXX command. (RFU) SGI_LEFT - _PAN to the left 1/3 screen. SGI_RIGHT - _PAN to the right 1/3 screen. SGI_UP - _PAN up 1/3 screen. SGI_DOWN - _PAN down 1/3 screen. TOOLS - Invoke toolbar configuration tool. (R12) TOGGLE - TOGGLEnnn visibility of color 'nnn'. HOLDTIME - Set button hold time to HOLDTIMEnn ticks. FRAMERATE - Set the update frame rate, in ticks. TUMBLE - Initiate tumble mode. (R12) SGI_OUTLINEn - Polygon outline mode, n: on=1,off=0 RMODE - Set rendering mode: (R12) RMODE_SMOOTH - Gouraud RMODE_FLAT - Flat RMODE_HIDE - Hidden line RMODE_LLINE - Lit lines RMODE_DLINE - Depth-cued lines RMODE_LINE - Lines (Wireframe) RMODE_LPOINT - Lit Points RMODE_DPOINT - Depth-cued Points RMODE_POINT - Points DMODE - Set degenerate mode: (R12) DMODE_OFF - Disable degenerate mode (R12) DMODE_FLAT - Flat DMODE_HIDE - Hidden line DMODE_LLINE - Lit lines DMODE_DLINE - Depth-cued lines DMODE_1LINE - 1 Line per entity DMODE_LINE - Lines (Wireframe) DMODE_LPOINT - Lit Points DMODE_DPOINT - Depth-cued Points DMODE_1POINT - One point per entity DMODE_POINT - Points RTDVIEW - Real-Time DVIEW command replacement (R12) BUFFER_ON - Select back buffer mode (if double-buffered) BUFFER_SWAP - Swap display buffers (if double-buffered) BUFFER_OFF - Return to normal buffer (if double-buffered) SGI_HILITE - Set vector highlighing mode: True = @VENDOR@HILITE1 Fast = @VENDOR@HILITE0 TOOLS - Toggle toolbar on/off TOOLBAR - Toggle toolbar on/off TBCONFIG - Invoke toolbar configuration tool DLSTATUS - Display list status DSVIEWER - Invoke arial view _DSVIEWER - Invoke arial view (Internationalized version) Notes: 1. Internal commands preceded with an apostrophe are forms that are "transparent" to AutoCAD. That is that they may be issued in the middle of a pending AutoCAD operation. As such, they are useful for constructing menus. For instance, if you are in the middle of drawing a polyline and need to pan the drawing a little further to the right, you could use the 'PANRH command in a menu (or from the keyboard) to do that. 2. If you would like to customize your Command Palette to turn ON, OFF, or ICONify on a per-button basis, simply append a ";" followed by one of the "CP_xxx" commands. The default action of the Command Palette is to return to its initial state, but these commands allow you to change this default state for the given session. Be advised that you may need to insert these commands for every button, as there is only one internal default value. 3. The LOGFILEON/LOGFILEOFF commands allow you to write a log file to your hard disk containing everything that appears in the text window or command prompt area. - LOGFILEON Starts writing to the log file. - LOGFILEOFF Stops writing to the log file. When you use LOGFILEON, the GL driver appends the text to the log file; when you leave AutoCAD or use LOGFILEOFF, the GL driver stops writing to the log file and closes it. These events delimit a "log session". Each log session is separated in the file by 40 dashes "-". If the log file cannot be opened, you will see this message: "Unable to open log file for writing" Use the environment variable "ACADLOGFILE" to specify a name and optional directory for the log file. The default behavior is to create the file "acad.log" in the current directory. Consult the AutoCAD "Installation and Performance Guide" for more information. NOTE: The GL driver does not delete or truncate the log file. If you use the log file consistently, you must truncate or delete it periodically. Otherwise, the log file eventually uses all your disk space. 5.F. Command Palette File Format: The "Command Palette" button functions are defined in the file "*_com.txt". This file is similar in format to an AutoCAD menu. The values within square brackets "[]" are used to define the button title. Note that there is a limit of eight characters inside the brackets, just like in the AutoCAD side bar menu. If there is no square bracket entry, then the first eight characters of the line are used for the title. When the button is pressed, by clicking the digitizer pick button, the contents of the line following the closing square bracket "]" is sent out verbatim to AutoCAD, just as if the same text were in an AutoCAD menu file. The Command Palette is meant to be user programmable. Feel free to put in you favorite AutoCAD commands using an ASCII text editor. You may even SHELL out of AutoCAD, edit the file, and see the new file loaded when you re-enter AutoCAD. AUTOCAD MENU COMMANDS RECOGNIZED -------------------------------- ^B - Toggle Snap On/Off ^C - *Cancel* ^D - Toggle Coords On/Off ^E - Toggle Isoplane Top/Right/Left ^G - Toggle Grid On/Off ^O - Toggle Ortho On/Off ^P - Toggle Echo On/Off ^T - Toggle Tablet On/Off ; - Same as carriage return ' - Transparent command prefix [] - Enclose menu button title string (max. 8 chars) *ABC - Change palette title to "ABC" at first line NOTE: Commands entered from the Command Palette are echoed on the prompt line(s) and become the AutoCAD default command. That is, if you press the Enter, Tab, or Space keys, that command will be repeated. 5.G. Driver Configuration Menu: The CONFIGURE menu allows you to change various parameters in the driver, like colors, fonts, etc. If you change items that cause the drawing area to change, you will see a "Warning Box" informing you that you will need to exit and re-enter the drawing editor in order for the change to take affect. The Command Palette color scheme will follow that of the AUI pop-up menu colors. 5.H. Status Line Menu and Indicators: If you have configured AutoCAD to supply a Status Line across the top of the graphics screen, several useful items will be displayed. An outlined box at the extreme left edge of the status line will display a sample of the current drawing color. Other information may include the current layer name, cursor coordinate display, DIESEL strings and display list information. User's of the GL-style menu/status bar: :1 2 5 10 20 D:1x:0K - or - :1x:0K The :1 2 5 10 20 D: section (if present) is the BirdsEye view menu, allowing several versions of the BirdsEye view to be invoked. This menu is invoked by moving the AutoCAD cursor up under the menu item desired and then move up to highlight the item and finally press the PICK button to select the item. The normal AutoCAD menu bar is accessed by moving into the status line/menu bar are outside of the BirdsEye menu area. The "1" menu item does a zoom to the current viewport extents, similar to a _ZOOM _EXTENTS AutoCAD command. The "D" item invokes the BirdsEye view with the zoom window set to the current view, similar to a _ZOOM _DYNAMIC. The "2" - "20" bring up the BirdsEye view with the zoom window set to the value of the number selected, for example "2" would be similar to _ZOOM 2X. NOTE: This section is only present for supported digitizers. User's of the Motif-style status bar: If you are using the Motif-style status line (i.e. the X resource setting of "AutoCAD-Graph*useStatusBar: True"), then the status bar has a different look and functionality. You will see the following, from left to right: - Current color button Invokes Entity Creation Modes "_DDEMODES" dialog box. - "Layer:" button Invokes Layer Control "_DDLMODES" dialog box. - Layer name field. This is an editable field to change layers. - "OSTP" buttons, first four are similar to the Motif driver. "O" toggles Ortho mode On/Off. "S" toggles Snap mode On/Off. "T" (if tablet configured) toggles tablet On/Off. "P" Paperspace toggle. "B" BirdsEye view. "R" Real-Time BirdsEye view. "D" Dynamic Pan and Zoom mode. "C" Clean display list. "L" Local menu (i.e. Command Palette, same as ^L). "?" GL Driver help dialog. - Tools button. Invokes the Toolbar Configuration dialog. - Coordinate line. Toggles the coordinate display On/Off. - Display list status. Display display list memory in use (in KB or MB). NOTE: The MODEMACRO command will make use of the space between the Color button and the Tools button for displaying the DIESEL string. The ":1x:" item shows the zoom factor of the current viewport, with "1x" representing the viewport zoomed-out to its maximum extents. The maximum zoom factor is dependent on the physical size of the viewport, among other things. An easy way to determine it, is to zoom in as far as you can without causing a _REGEN and note the resulting factor. Then, any value between 1 and the maximum value represents the "dynamic range" of the display list for that viewport. Going outside that range will force AutoCAD to perform a _REGEN. Finally, the "0K" item represents the amount of memory being used by the driver's display list. It is displayed in KBytes (1024 bytes). 5.I. 3D View Selection: (R12) The RTDVIEW command: The purpose of this command is to make 3D drawing manipulation easier by providing you real-time 3D interaction with your drawing. The primary mechanism for this will be to augment the basic AutoCAD "3D View Control" functions. When these commands are invoked, a 3D representation of your drawing will be presented to you in the current AutoCAD viewport. You will be able to interact with the rendered image using your digitizer. When the interaction is complete, the ADI driver will issue the appropriate AutoCAD DVIEW or VPOINT commands and parameters to effect the desired action. This will cause AutoCAD to _REGEN the drawing in the desired orientation. NOTE: If you desire a keyboard interface for 3D View Selection, you may continue to use the standard DVIEW command as usual. Since these commands are intended for interactive view selection, no keyboard input is accepted. You can view a drawing from any point in model space. From your selected viewing point, you can add new entities, edit the entities you see, or suppress the drawing of hidden lines. The following section describes the 3D viewing command options. These 3D viewing commands are not allowed while you are working in Paper Space. These commands rely on the functionality of AVE Render to extract and pass the three-dimensional data from your drawing to the ADI driver for display. Therefore, it is necessary that you have AVE Render installed, loaded in memory and have set AVE Render to generate 3D data, with the "3DFACES" command. This may be easily accomplished by adding the following two lines to your AutoCAD startup script or in the AutoLISP STARTUP command: (xload "averendr") 3dfaces NOTES: 1) If AVE Render is not loaded, you will not be able to set 3DFACES on. The Command Palette button to load AVE Render will both load AVE Render into memory as well as enable 3DFACES for you. The driver will detect when it is able to do this command. If something is not right, you will get one of the following warning messages: 1) Viewport not rendered with 3DFACES set. 2) Selected viewport is not the current viewport. In case 1, you will need to do a RENDER with 3DFACES on, and in case 2 the current viewport (the one with the crosshair cursor in it) is not the viewport that was rendered. You may either change to the rendered viewport, or do a RENDER with 3DFACES on in the current viewport. HINTS: 1) If you are using AutoShade/AVERender "SCENES" you will not be able to change the rendered view, as AVE Render uses the SCENE/VIEW information instead of the current AutoCAD view information. If you wish to use the 3D view selection functions to help define a SCENE/VIEW, set the VIEW to *CURRENT* then modify the AutoCAD view, then select VIEW/NEW/CURRENT DISPLAY. After changing SCENE parameters, it will be necessary to re-RENDER the drawing to see the change. 2) You are not allowed to render while in PAPER SPACE. You can set the current viewport to MODEL SPACE by using the MSPACE command in AutoCAD, or you may leave PAPER SPACE by turning TILEMODE on. 3) If you used AME to create your model, be sure that you load AME prior to rendering the model. This is so that AME can be invoked by AVE Render in order to properly mesh your solid objects for rendering. If this is not done you will see a prompt asking to load AME or you will see parts of your drawing render improperly. In either case, just load AME with the command: (xload "ame") For all of the available options, the status line will be kept updated with a numerical representation of the viewing parameters as you adjust them. Similar to the BirdsEye View, you may accept the set position by a "click and hold" on the pick button. The duration of the button hold time is specified by the HOLDTIMEnn command, with the default value as 1/2 of a second. If you would like to leave the rendered image in its present location (without informing AutoCAD of the change in view), press the second digitizer button. The original view (in wireframe) of the drawing can be restored by pressing the third digitizer button. Here is a sample scenario to illustrate one possible use of these features. Assume you are working on a 3D model and have the display split up unto the classic 4 viewports, top, front, side and perspective views: +-------------+-------------+ | TOP | PERSPECTIVE | +-------------+-------------+ | FRONT | SIDE | +-------------+-------------+ You would then render the perspective viewport (with 3DFACES enabled) and then, whenever you desired to view and/or rotate the model, you could click in the perspective viewport, issue the appropriate view selection command, reorient the model, then click the second digitizer button, leaving the rendered view in the viewport. Then, select another viewport to continue editing. By using this technique, you can have instantaneous access to a 3D rendered view of your model. If you then make sufficient changes to the model geometry, you can re-render the view to reflect the changes. HINTS: 1) On a three-button mouse, the second button is on the right and the third button is in the middle. 2) If you wish to do a series of 3D view selection commands, such as rotate you camera angle and then zoom in closer to the target, you will need to use the left digitizer button to issue the appropriate AutoCAD viewing commands to ensure that the current view information (in the AutoCAD drawing file) is updated. At present, there is no way to concatenate viewing selection operations. 3) Cursor motion is limited to the viewport extents. Further motion beyond the viewport edge is ignored, although the second direction may still change. 4) Leaving the rendered view, without informing AutoCAD, will not allow you to chain view selection commands together. That is, if you change the camera angle, then leave the rendered image in place, then try to change the camera target, you will resume with the original camera view, rather than the newly "set" one. In order to ensure accuracy, the ADI driver reads the values of the current view settings from both AutoCAD and AVE Render. 5) However, if you are using multiple viewports, for example, top, side, front and perspective views, you may choose to render the perspective viewport. Then, any time you wish, just click in that viewport, select a 3D view and then "leave" the image there without doing a _REGEN. You may then return to the orthographic viewports to continue work. This is useful for looking at some part of your drawing as you are editing. The available command options are: VP - Select a 3D Viewpoint by rotating the model. Complements the VPOINT AXES command. This command causes AutoCAD to zoom the new view to the drawing extents. This option will force AutoCAD into an orthographic projection, turning off the perspective view if it was enabled. If you wish to continue in perspective mode, use the CAmera option. You adjust the model via a trackball-like interface, that allows selection of an arbitrary 3D viewing direction. CA - Rotate camera position about the target point. Complements the DVIEW CAmera command. This is most useful when your view point is outside the model, for example; in front of a house. You adjust the camera angle through a rotation from the X-axis of -180 degrees on the left to +180 degrees on the right. Vertical motion adjusts the angle from the XY-plane of +90 degrees at the top to -90 degrees at the bottom. TA - Rotate target point about the camera. Complements the DVIEW TArget command. This is most useful when your view point is within the model, for example; inside a house. You adjust the target angle through a rotation from the X-axis of -180 degrees on the left to +180 degrees on the right. Vertical motion adjusts the angle from the XY-plane of +90 degrees at the top to -90 degrees at the bottom. D - Moves the camera in or out along the line of sight. Complements the DVIEW Distance command. Horizontal motion adjusts the viewing distance from 1/16 the original value on the left to 16 times the original value on the right. The center is 1X. Setting the distance will automatically place the current viewport into perspective mode. As such, this option will not be allowed unless you explicitly set the viewport perspective mode. HINT: Use the standard DVIEW DISTANCE command in AutoCAD. Z - Zooms the camera magnification factor. Complements the DVIEW Zoom command. Horizontal motion adjusts the zoom factor from 1/16 the original value on the left to 16 times the original value on the right. The center is 1X. In perspective mode, the camera's lenslength is changed, while in orthographic mode, the effect is similar to a _ZOOM _CENTER command. TW - Rotate or twist the view about the line of sight. Complements the DVIEW TWist command. You adjust the twist angle through a rotation of 0 to 360 degrees about the center of the viewport. The fixed line shows the initial twist and the moving line shows the current twist. Note that the twist setting is overwritten when changing other DVIEW parameters. HINT: You should set the view twist last. FL - Flush the 3D display list (to reclaim the allocated memory). As AutoCAD maintains no 3D display list, there is no complement of this command. Simply put, it erases and reclaims the memory used to store the 3D display list. @IRIX_BGN PO - Set the target and camera points directly. The format of the data is: PO_tx,ty,tz,cx,cy,cz Where (tx,ty,tz) is the target point in world coordinates and (cx,cy,cz) is the camera point. There is no interactivity in this command, it simply sets the specified camera and target and redraws the scene. This is useful for scripting a walk-through path. If this command is interspersed with "QPLOT" commands, each frame of the walk-through will be saved in a sequentially numbered image file on your hard disk. See the MovieMaker section in the appendix. @IRIX_END NOTE: For additional information on the use of the 3D View Controls in AutoCAD, consults the section on "3D View Control" in your AutoCAD Reference Manual. In order to facilitate interactivity during 3D view selection, there are several adjustments that will help you fine tune the driver to your preferences. You may customize the following options: 1) The rate at which the drawing is updated while in motion. (see FRAMERATEnn) 2) The mode in which the drawing is updated while in motion. (see DMODE_xxx) 3) The mode in which the drawing is updated when stationary. (see RMODE_xxx) FRAMERATEnn ----------- The FRAMERATEnn command influences the rate at which the drawing is redrawn while in motion, during both the 2D and 3D view selection. You can adjust the numeric value from 1 (which is the fastest update rate) to a maximum of value corresponding to approximately 2 seconds. The action of this setting is to redraw the scene for a time period equal to this setting while you are interactively positioning the drawing. At the end of this time period, if further motion is detected, the drawing is restarted at the new position, otherwise, drawing continues at the current position. DMODE_xxx --------- The DMODE_xxx command influences the mode in which the drawing is redrawn while in motion. Valid options are: DMODE_OFF Use the current RMODE setting while in motion DMODE_SMOOTH2 Smooth shaded with 2-sided lighting DMODE_FLAT Smooth shaded DMODE_FLAT2 Flat shaded with 2-sided lighting DMODE_FLAT Flat shaded DMODE_HIDE Hidden line DMODE_LLINE Lit lines DMODE_DLINE Depth-cued lines DMODE_LINE Lines (Wireframe) DMODE_1LINE 1 Line per entity DMODE_LPOINT Lit Points DMODE_DPOINT Depth-cued Points DMODE_POINT Points DMODE_1POINT 1 Point per entity These options are ordered in decreasing order of drawing time. That is, drawing a flat shaded object takes longer than using a wireframe representation. Therefore, at a given FRAMERATE, you will "see" more of your drawing while in motion with a "faster" drawing mode. Feel free to experiment with various combinations until you find one that meets your needs. RMODE_xxx --------- The RMODE command influences the mode in which the drawing is redrawn while stationary. Valid options are: RMODE_SMOOTH2 Smooth shaded with 2-sided lighting RMODE_FLAT Smooth shaded RMODE_FLAT2 Flat shaded with 2-sided lighting RMODE_FLAT Flat shaded RMODE_HIDE Hidden line RMODE_LLINE Lit lines RMODE_DLINE Depth-cued lines RMODE_LINE Lines (Wireframe) RMODE_LPOINT Lit Points RMODE_DPOINT Depth-cued Points RMODE_POINT Points Note, that in order to use the smooth shaded option, you must have selected the SMOOTH shaded option the the AVE Render Preferences menu. In effect, the RMODE_SMOOTH option instructs the driver to use the "best" drawing mode to draw your object. The default setting of the rendering mode is is controlled by the setting in the AVE Render Preferences dialog box, and will this be reset to this value at each RENDER command. HINTS: 1) If your drawing contains rounded surfaces, you should select smooth shaded rendering in order that the maximum information is available to the driver. However, if you drawing consists primarily of flat surfaces, you may select to disable smooth shading to speed up the rendering time. It is often 30% faster to use RENDER/3DFACES with flat shading as opposed to smooth shading due the the additional calculation time involved in generating the surface normals. 2) This display driver uses the same amount of memory to store each face, regardless of the rendering mode you choose in AVERender. The memory usage is approximately 1 MB per 7000 faces. You can observe the memory used in the display list memory indicator on the status line. 3) Two-sided lighting will often improve the appearance of the display, especially when your drawing includes point light source, smooth surfaces, or other complexities. However, you may notice up to a 50% slowdown while using this mode. ############################################################################ 6. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: Q. How do I set up the AutoCAD and the driver for maximum performance? A. Optimum settings for AutoCAD and the GL driver depend to some degree on the type of work you are doing. Possible scenarios are: 1. Interactive (manual) editing on relatively small drawings. 2. Interactive editing on relatively large drawings. 3. Using automated tools for design (like AME and Designer). Optimum settings are as follows: AutoCAD: Disable command prompt area (if possible and especially when running SCRIPT files). Set FILLMODE to "1". Set VIEWRES to an appropriate value, (be sure to answer YES to Fast Zooms). 100 is a good value for working at full view or for shrinking memory requirements to a minimum on large drawings. Values up to 1000 (or so) produce acceptable curve quality for most work. See the discussion on VIEWRES settings following. Use a single viewport, if possible. Multiple viewports increase the display list size and force each drawing entity to be drawn multiple times. GL Driver: Use the GL user interface: - AutoCAD-Graph*useCommandArea: False - AutoCAD-Graph*useSideMenu: False - AutoCAD-Graph*useMenuBar: False - AutoCAD-Graph*useStatusBar: False Reduce the text back-scroll buffer sizes: - AutoCAD-Text.scrollLines: 32 - AutoCAD-Graph.scrollLines: 3 Select "Single Screen Mode". Select 32-bit Display List mode. (1) Select 16-bit Display List mode. (2,3) Set page size in range of "4K-32K". Set Display List to "ON". (1,2) Set Display List to "OFF". (3) Set Non-Stop Redraws to "ON". (1,3) Set Interruptable Redraws to "ON". (2) If command prompt area is enabled, set number of prompt lines to "1". Set @VENDOR@OUTLINE to "0" (unless this causes visual artifacts with your drawing, then set it to "1"). Set @VENDOR@HILITE to "0" to reduce the complexity of the line highlighting procedure during selection. Q. How does the AutoCAD VIEWRES setting affect this driver? A. If you are using a 32-bit display list processor with R12, be really careful setting the VIEWRES value if you use a lot of curved entities (circles, arcs, text, linetypes, etc) in your drawing. Here are some typical results showing line segments in a single, full-screen circle and corresponding memory used to store the display list data (assuming no vector compression or overhead). Line segments in a single, full-screen circle and corresponding memory used to store the display list dat (assuming no vector compression or overhead). Memory to store 16-bit vector (x1,y1)-(x2,y2) = 4 * 16/8 = 8 bytes Memory to store 32-bit vector (x1,y1)-(x2,y2) = 4 * 32/8 = 16 bytes VIEWRES: SEGMENTS:16 MEMORY:16 SEGMENTS:32 MEMORY:32 -------- ----------- --------- ----------- --------- 1 8 64 b 8 64 b 10 16 128 b 16 256 b 100 48 384 b 48 768 b 200 64 512 b 64 1.0 Kb 500 104 832 b 104 1.6 Kb 1000 144 1.1 Kb 144 2.3 Kb 2000 204 1.6 Kb 204 3.2 Kb 5000 316 2.5 Kb 324 5.2 Kb 10000 316 2.5 Kb 456 7.3 Kb 20000(max) 316 2.5 Kb 600 9.6 Kb You mileage may vary, but setting VIEWRES too high can use up to 4 times more memory on a 32-bit display list system than on a 16-bit system. A good way to think about setting VIEWRES is that at a setting of 100, you are telling AutoCAD you want a circles to look smooth at a 100% (1X) of the current zoom level. If you then zoom in farther, you will begin to notice the individual segments of the curves. If you set VIEWRES to 1000, you are telling AutoCAD that you wish to have smooth circles displayed at a 10 times the current zoom level (100/100=10). I have seen at least one AutoCAD benchmark (from 16-bit days) that will not run on many systems, because the internal VIEWRES setting is set arbitrarily high. Q. Why doesn't the '3DFACES' command work all the time? (R12) A. This command is an internal command to the AVE Render program. Normally, internal commands are registered with AutoCAD in order that they cause the underlying program to be loaded. Unfortunately, this, and a few other Render commands, were not properly registered. All is not lost, as it is very easy for you to do this. You may wish to modify you /usr/acad/support/acadr12.lsp file to automatically load AVE Render when this command is issued. To do this, open that file and modify the following lines, then save the changes: Original: ;;;=== AVE Render Functions === (defun ai_loadaverendr () (if (null c:render) (autoxload "averendr" '("render" "light" "scene" "finish" "rpref" "stats" "replay" "saveimg" "rconfig") ) ) (princ) ) Modified: ;;;=== AVE Render Functions === (defun ai_loadaverendr () (if (null c:render) (autoxload "averendr" '("render" "light" "scene" "finish" "rpref" "stats" "replay" "saveimg" "rconfig" "3dfaces" "flmin" "filmroll") ) ) (princ) ) As you can see, the addition is simply to tell AutoCAD to automatically "autoxload" the rendering program when any of its commands are issued by the user. Q. How are the function keys mapped with this driver? A. They are mapped as follows: F1: FLIP SCREEN - Flips between graphics and text window. F2: COORDCH - Coordinate line update toggle F3: GRIDCH - Grid mode toggle F4: ORTHOCH - Ortho mode toggle F5: SNAPCH - Snap mode toggle F6: TABLETCH - Tablet mode toggle F7: ISOCH - Isoplane mode toggle F8: SWTDIG - Switch digitizer between sessions F9: SWTMODE - Switch mole mode state F10: F11: Raise Kanji input window (R12J version, only) F12: Ctrl-L - Local command palette Q. What is Backing Store and how should I use it? A. Backing Store (and Save Under) are optional features of the X Window System. When enabled, the windowing systems attempts to use system memory to save a copy of what is in the area of the screen that is about to be over-written by a menu or other window (Save Under) and to maintain that saved image (by rendering into memory vs. rendering to the screen) while that part of the window is obscured (Backing Store). When the obscuration has ended the saved image is used to re-paint the exposed area, eliminating the need to redraw the image from scratch. Backing store may be enabled and disabled and may or may not be supported on all platforms and operating systems. The default X Window display driver shipped with AutoCAD works best when backing store is enabled (in fact it complains if it is not) but it will, in fact, operate without backing store support. The GL display driver does not require backing store and, in fact, works better without it enabled. To quote from the IRIX Release Notes: "Backing store is known to have some problems, and on IRIS platforms is seldom a performance win. Consequently, the default is to run the server with backing store disabled. See Xsgi(1) for enabling/disabling details." "There are some functional shortcomings. For example, it is possible to receive an Expose event even though your backing store is valid. Backing store for overlay windows can produce errors. While backing store for overlays might not make sense anyway, the server nonetheless does not handle all such situations correctly. You should not request backing store for overlay windows. Backing store is never valid in regions that have GL rendering active; the server never attempts to provide backing store pixels for those windows, and requests for backing store there are denied." To turn backing store on, edit the file (as root): /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers to read: :0 secure /usr/bin/X11/X -c -pseudomap 4sight To turn backing store off, edit the file (as root): /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers to read: :0 secure /usr/bin/X11/X -bs -c -pseudomap 4sight Then restart the X server which is automatically done when you restart your workstation. A further point needs to be made regarding backing store. That is, it produces a "use pattern" as described in the following quote from the IRIX Release Notes: "Certain use patterns can cause severe fragmentation of memory in the server. This can lead to large resident core sizes even though core is not leaking. Because the default configuration resets (but does not restart) the server between users, the process can become large without opportunity to shrink. Consequently, performance can suffer as a result of paging, and so on. Process size can be examined with ps(1). Should performance suffer, terminate the server and restart it. This can be done with kill(1), or, if you use xdm(1), by changing the terminateServer entry in /usr/lib/X11/xdm/xdm-config to True." Performing the above task, namely setting "terminateServer" to "True" tells the operating system to restart the X server every time you log out. This way, any fragmented memory is reclaimed each time you log out and log back in. It is a good idea to use this setup option if you tend to leave your workstation up and running for weeks or months at a time. It does take a few extra seconds each time you log in, but it is well worth the performance gain you'll see by freeing up several mega-bytes of system memory. NOTES: 1) Although all systems will allow you to "turn backing store on" by removing the "-bs" option, some will not do anything different. That is, either because the hardware and/or software do not support the feature, the option is simply ignored. 2) If you will be using the GL driver as your primary interface to AutoCAD, we highly recommend that you turn off backing store, unless some other program requires it. To summarize: - AutoCAD does not need or require backing store. - The default Motif display driver from Autodesk runs better with it enabled. - The GL driver from SGI (and your entire system) runs better with it off. 3) You may experience certain situations where, for example, a portion of a crosshair cursor gets left on the drawing area after you use a menu. If this happens, issue the AutoCAD command: _REDRAWALL to correct the display. Q. What is Shared Memory transport and how should I use it? A. One excellent way to get increased AutoCAD performance is to take advantage of a little known feature of the X Window system, namely the Shared Memory Transport (shm). This feature is only available on local connections, that is AutoCAD running and displaying on the same machine. The feature is also a limited resource, but when used properly, gives excellent performance. Basically, shm replaces the default Xserver network-based connection (i.e. `uname -n`:0) with a shared memory buffer (shm:0). Since the memory buffer is shared between the client and server applications, no copying of data is required between them. This is a big win in interactive operations (fast turnaround time) and in applications with large amounts of data, such as redrawing million vector AutoCAD drawings. Since shm is a limited resource, you don't want to use it for everything. Rather, use it where it makes most sense, for example only for the AutoCAD Graphics window. Fortunately, AutoCAD has an easy way to do just this: setenv ACADDISPLAY shm:0 You can do this setting in ~/.cshrc or in your personal AutoCAD start-up script. I have observed about a 10% performance increase in some benchmark tests. Q. Why does the drawing "flicker" or only partially draw when I pan and zoom in the Real-Time BirdsEye View? A. The driver is attempting to maintain a specified frame rate as you pan and zoom. Since this is an interactive command, your feedback is the updated view of the drawing. If there are too many vectors and polygons to draw in a given time, they are not drawn unless you cease movement. You can try to increase the FRAMERATEnn value to a larger number. The default value is about 1/10 of second, or 10 frames per second. You can adjust the value up to 1 frame per second. - If you wish to save this setting, issue the command WRITE_CONFIG. - Entering FRAMERATE with no parameter will display the current FRAMERATE setting. Q. When I switch between pan and zoom mode in the BirdsEye views, sometimes I exit out, why? A. A feature of the driver is that it detects the "click and hold" of the pick button of certain digitizers and mice and uses this information to initiate the zoom command from the BirdsEye view. The default setting is about 1/4 second. You may change it with the HOLDTIMEnn command. Smaller numbers are shorter times, larger ones are longer times. Find the value that you are most comfortable with. - If you wish to save this setting, issue the command WRITE_CONFIG. HINT: Entering HOLDTIME with no parameter will display the current setting. Q. Some of the items in the Driver Configuration menu are "greyed" out, what does this mean? A. These items are greyed out to indicate that they are inactive. This might be an option that does not pertain on your platform or it might be an option to a future function, still under development. Q. When I drag (MOVE, COPY, INSERT, etc.) an object, sometimes the whole selection set moves, sometimes not, why? A. This driver supports Display List Dragging. When you initiate a dragging operation in AutoCAD, the driver "captures" the data in a display list for subsequent (fast) playback. However, if you move the cursor before all the data is captured, AutoCAD "starts all over" by resending the vectors again. Likewise, if any part of the selection set is off the current viewport when it is highlighted, or if you move off of the drawing area, for example, into the menu bar, while dragging, AutoCAD will start over. A general guideline is, wait until the selection set is captured, if it is not, wait again. If you don't like this feature, you can either ignore it, the driver will still try to capture the data, or, better yet, simply turn off the Display List Drag feature in the configuration menu. Q. How do I get the "SGITools" menu into my custom menu? (R11) A. We have separated the components of our sample menu into its constituent parts. The pull-down menu source is in the file gacad.pop, it has been set up as the tenth pop-up menu (POP10). Likewise, the side bar menu items are in gacad.sid and the button menu entries are in gacad.but. Consult your AutoCAD Reference Guide for instructions on modifying menu files. Q. When I bring up the BirdsEye view, why don't I see the whole drawing? A. The drawing you are working on was saved in a "zoomed-in" state. Whenever you save a drawing in AutoCAD, the current viewport extents are saved as well so that when you next load the drawing, you are brought back to the same location. Therefore, in order to achieve maximum benefit from the display list features, type the AutoCAD commands: _ZOOM _EXTENTS _SAVE This will ensure that an entire copy of you drawing is loaded into the display list. Q. When I bring up the Real-Time BirdsEye View, why can't I see the drawing move? A. You are probably in "Pan" mode and at the full extents of the drawing. The BirdsEye view has been designed to prevent you from doing anything that will cause a _REGEN. To correct this, quickly click the PICK button on your digitizer to enter "Zoom" mode. After zooming in a little, you will be able to pan. This works exactly like AutoCAD's _ZOOM _DYNAMIC command with the exception of the _REGEN prevention. Q. When I do an AutoCAD _PAN command, why does a _REGEN occur? A. If you are at the display list extents (i.e. you are "zoomed- out" as far as possible) and you issue a command to _PAN off the edge, AutoCAD will begin a _REGEN sequence in order to bring additional drawing information into the working display list. Q. Why can I only zoom-in so far in the BirdsEye view? A. The minimum zoom-extents in the BirdsEye view is set to the smallest value that AutoCAD will allow the display list driver to process on its own. If a further zoom-in is required, it will be necessary to issue an AutoCAD _ZOOM _WINDOW command, forcing a _REGEN. Q. Why can't I zoom into a drawing once I have run the HIDE or SHADE commands? A. Once AutoCAD performs either of these two commands, or a 3D perspective view for that matter, the contents of the display list are only issued at the physical screen resolution. Therefore, it is not possible to zoom-in any farther, without sacrificing the accuracy of the displayed drawing. This is a feature of AutoCAD in that in HIDE and SHADE modes, the drawing is rendered at exactly the resolution of the screen. If this were not done, the process would be about 30 times slower! AutoCAD informs the ADI driver when a viewport is not zoom-able and thus the BirdsEye view function will not be active while this condition is present. You may override this feature in the CONFIGURE/DRIVER OPTIONS menu. Q. When I go into PAPER SPACE, why doesn't the BirdsEye view work correctly, why? A. In this mode (i.e. TILEMODE == 0), the only entities that AutoCAD sends to the display list are the fixed drawing outline and title box. This mode is intended to be used for arranging and plotting groups of detail views. If you desire to use the display list editing features, you may simply set the TILEMODE variable to 1 and then switch back to TILEMODE 0 to finish plotting. AutoCAD informs the ADI driver when a viewport is not zoom-able and thus the BirdsEye view function will not be active while this condition is present. You may override this feature in the CONFIGURE/DRIVER OPTIONS menu. Q. Why do I see the following message when I try to use the BirdsEye view? "AutoCAD indicates this viewport may not be zoomable." A. As discussed in the preceding question, the driver is passing along information from AutoCAD. In R12, besides TILEMODE 1, the MSPACE/PSPACE setting, Orthographic vs. Perspective view, and Hidden line mode may affect this flag. If you are sure you should be able to zoom, you can override this in the driver CONFIGURE dialog as follows: CONFIGURE DRIVER OPTIONS BirdsEye when zoomable/Always allow BirdsEye Q. When I configure the "Display List Page Size", I don't see any difference between large and small page size values, why? A. Perhaps the drawing is very small. The only time you will see any significant difference is with a large drawing. The driver uses between 4 and 16 bytes of display list memory per vector. This ADI driver is able to process the display list so fast that unless you have more than about 20,000 vectors in your drawing, the page size setting has little visible effect. This control is mainly intended for extremely large drawings, where it is necessary to trade off response time versus the amount of detail in the Real-Time BirdsEye View. Through extensive testing, it has been determined that the default value of 4K (4096) bytes is the optimum value for response and redraw speed. HINTS: - You may wish to set it to a larger value to force more of the drawing to be updated at the sacrifice of smoothness of panning. - You may wish to set it to a smaller value if your drawing has small groups of entities all over the page, (i.e. lots of notes, dimensions, etc.). - You may precisely specify the page size with the @VENDOR@PAGESIZEnnn command, where "nnn" is the number of kilobytes per page. - If you wish to save this setting, issue the command WRITE_CONFIG. - Entering @VENDOR@PAGESIZE with no parameter will display the current @VENDOR@PAGESIZE setting. - If you use the 32-bit display list option, you may want to increase the page size to approx. 32K bytes. Q. When using the _BHATCH command and I select an interior point in a region, the regions outline disappears until I select a hatch pattern. A. This is a problem common to all display list drivers. AutoCAD instructs the driver to erase (draw in the background color) the outline while the _BHATCH dialog box is present. Non display-list drivers do not cause this problem. If you find this problem bothersome, please report it to your Autodesk representative. Q. How do I change the initial position of the Command Palette? A. The positions of both the Command Palette and the BirdsEye view are saved in the driver's configuration file. To change their locations, simply move and size the windows as desired then type "WRITE_CONFIG" to save the current settings. Q. What does the Escape key do in this driver? A. It works in the usual (AutoCAD) manner, it implements the "CANCEL" function in a Dialog box. Q. Where is the driver's configuration data stored? A. There is a binary data file stored in the same directory as the ADI driver. Its base file name is either the contents of the "USER" environment variable or the default name. It has a file name extension of ".cnf". NOTE: The USER variable is automatically set in IRIX. Q. Why do certain operations like scripts and hide run slowly? A. Certain commands generate significant text output. If you notice lots of text scrolling on the text screen and even in the command prompt area, and would like to speed this up: Select "Single Screen Mode" in the "Driver Options" configuration menu. This eliminates the need for the text screen to be constantly updated. You may also reduce the number of prompt lines in the Configure menu, or better yet, disable the command prompt area all together in the AutoCAD Configuration menu. Q. Why do thin horizontal and vertical polylines disappear randomly? A. This is due to the way GL renders polygons (AutoCAD draws PLINES as filled polygons). When the rendered size of a polygon gets small, it may not cover enough of a screen pixel to be visible and thus is not drawn to avoid cluttering the screen. There are two methods you may use to fix this: Configure the driver to always outline polygons with the @VENDOR@OUTLINE command. e.g: @VENDOR@OUTLINE1 enables polygon outlines. Or, in AutoCAD, set the FILLMODE variable off will convert polygons to a vector outline which always are drawn. e.g: FILLMODE 0 Note: A _REGEN will be needed after changing FILLMODE. Q. Sometimes I use the Configuration menu and some of the screens fall off the bottom of the window, how can I get out of this situation? A. Simply resize the AutoCAD window by dragging the bottom of the window border down, or the top up. Most likely, this will happen in the "AUI Color" menu while you are using the Motif user-interface. The AUI colors only affect the GL AUI components, not the Motif. Q. Some of the standard AutoCAD colors appear dithered, why? A. Most likely, you are running on a graphics system with less than 24-bits per pixel, such as XS or Entry graphics. If this is the case, and you wish to improve the color representation on the screen, you will need to enable the "single-buffer" display mode. This can be accomplished by using the driver's "CONFIGURE" command, selecting the "Driver Option's" menu item and toggling the "Double buffer mode" to "Single buffer mode". Select "OK" to exit the menu and save the new configuration date. Q. How do I distinguish the IrisGL driver functions in the (R12) AutoCAD menu? A. Any menu item that is preceded with an "*" signifies a command that will only function with the IrisGL display driver. Q. I'm using a digitizing tablet and sometimes the Command Palette or BirdsEye view won't come up, why is this? A. Be sure you have input focus in the graphics window. To do this, move the red arrow cursor (with the mouse) into the graphics window. The window border will highlight and the arrow should disappear when you have done this. The IrisGL driver "shares" a number of system resources with the window manager and only allows these resources to be used when it is in control. Q. Sometimes when I flip screens (text to graphics) the graphics window does not fully update, why? A. This happens occasionally due to the window manager not sending the window change events to the IrisGL driver. To correct this situation, simply move the mouse so that the red arrow cursor moves out of the graphics window and then back in. This will trigger the window manager to send the queued events to the driver. You may also try clicking once inside the window if you do not have the status line coordinate display enabled. Q. How do I save the Graphics Window size and position with this driver? A. Simply move and size the window as you wish, then issue a driver CONFIGURE and select "OK" or issue the command WRITE_CONFIG in the graphics window. Q. How do I save the Text Window size and position with the (R11) IrisGL driver? A. The Text Window position/size may be changed in the ".gacad" (acad) shell script file. Consult the man page for xwsh (man xwsh) and modify the "xwsh" lines in the shell script per the instructions included in the file and then run the "g" command script to re-configure the driver. The particular option to change is the "_GEOM" setting. Q. How is AutoCAD integrated with Workspace? A. Once the File Type Rules are installed, you will notice most of the files in the AutoCAD directory are represented by icons. AutoCAD and its drawing files are represented by the black Autodesk logos. One additional file type has a black Autodesk logo, namely certain AutoCAD script files (*.scr). These files are normal script files that have been designated as "executable" to the operating system, using the IRIX command "chmod +x file.scr". In doing so, you are indicating that you want to be able to drop a drawing file on this script file and have AutoCAD started with the dropped file and the dropped on script, basically "acad drawing script". It is good practice to make these scripts do some standard task and then QUIT or END when done. An example might be to PURGE drawings of all erased entities. Another AutoCAD's miscellaneous support files (fonts, menus, etc.) are the gray icons indicating that you can't directly edit them but that they are related to AutoCAD. The "Flat Tire" icons represent executable files, such as the display driver, that are not directly executable. The high-performance IrisGL ADI driver and its support files are magenta. The setup files are red Autodesk logos. The blue icons represent both DXF files as well as the DXF file viewers, like IrisView. This color-coding is designed to show you the associations of the various data files and applications. Thus, you can drop a blue DXF file icon onto any of the blue viewer icons to see it, or drop a black DWG file on the black "acad" and edit it. HINT: An easy way to see which display driver you are using (R11) is to observe the icon for the file 'acadd', which is the AutoCAD display driver. If it's magenta, you are running the GL driver. Q. How can I make use of AutoCAD's FREEPLOT feature? (R12) A. All you need to do is select a drawing file by clicking the left mouse button once. Then press the right mouse button to bring up the "WorkSpace" or "Desktop" menu and select the "Print" item. AutoCAD will be invoked with the selected drawing in FREE PLOT mode. The advantage of this feature is that you will not tie up a license while plotting. Q. When I am using the BirdsEye View and I move the view close to the edge of the window it is cancelled, why? A. In the BirdsEye View, the entire Graphics Window is mapped into the region of the BirdsEye window. This is done to provide you with the degree of control needed to accurately select a view. If you leave the Graphics Window (by moving to the very edge of the BirdsEye window) the command is cancelled, because the Graphics Window has "lost input focus". This means that it is no longer capable of getting input from the window manager, and since AutoCAD is in an unstable state at this point, the command must be cancelled. If you set the Graphics Window to full-screen, this problem will be reduced. Also, it does not happen if you are using an external digitizing tablet, as you can't go outside the window. Q. Sometimes the image in the BirdsEye View gets corrupted, how do I fix it? A. For increased performance, the BirdsEye View image is stored in memory after it is initially drawn on the screen. In rare cases, some external event (like a window border or pop-up menu) may damage the image just before it is written to memory. If you are editing your drawing, this will automatically be corrected the next time the BirdsEye View is displayed. Otherwise, you may enter one of the following commands, depending on the BirdsEye View you are using: Real-Time BirdsEye: RTON Full Color BirdsEye: RTOFF Q. I want to work for a while on a given part of my drawing. How do I set the BirdsEye view to this window? A. Use the @VENDOR@WAYOUT command. The GL driver will inform AutoCAD that you wish to set the current view as the maximum zoom. This way, the initial BirdsEye view will be set to this view. Q. My AutoCAD menu file has sidebar items that are longer than 8 characters. How do I get them to display properly? A. Use the @VENDOR@MENUCHARn command, where "n" is a number from 5-15. This will set the width of the sidebar (and Command Palette buttons) to "n" characters. This data is saved in the driver's configuration file automatically. Then, you need to have AutoCAD rebuild your menu file for the wider width. One way to do this is to delete AutoCAD's compiled menu file "*.mnx" and then reload the menu (*.mnu) file. Q. Can I modify the default AutoCAD color map? A. Yes you can. The GL driver reads in a file named "gl_acad.pal" at startup and loads the Hue/Saturation/Value (HSV) settings specified in that file. The default file is the standard 256-color AutoCAD color map. A second example file, named "gl_vga16.pal" is provided. This palette uses the default 16-color VGA color map for the lower 16 colors and the remainder is set to the standard 256 color map. To make use of another color palette, you can simply edit or replace the default color palette file. For example: > cd /usr/acad/acad > cp gl_vga16.pal gl_acad.pal > acad Another example provided is the file "gl_mono.pal". This file redefines the color palette to a simple grayscale monochrome rendition. NOTE: These non-standard color palettes only apply to the traditional 2D drawing areas of the screen. Any 3D rendered geometry will still take on the inherent RGB color associated with the entity. This is because AVE Render passes this color information to the driver and the RGB color value is determined inside of AVE Render based on the standard AutoCAD 256 color model (as defined in the default "gl_acad.pal" file). Another use of the color palette file is to change the drawing background color. Color index '0' is the background color. By changing the HSV value of this index, the graphics background color will be changed to match. For example, if you wish to have a white background, you could change the '0' index as follows: # ACI HUE SAT VAL 000, 361.00, 1.00, 1.00 You may wish to modify other color indices to ensure proper color contrast. For example, in this case, you might wish to change color index '7' to black as follows: # ACI HUE SAT VAL 007, 361.00, 0.00, 0.00 Q. What is AVE Render? (R12) A. AVE Render is a 32-bit rendering program that converts AutoCAD 3D line drawings with shaded surfaces into realistic pictures that show perspective, surface shading, and the effects of lighting. Q. What does this ADI driver provide for AVE Render? (R12) A. This ADI driver is a full combined ADI rendering/display driver. As such, it is capable of functioning as both the display screen for the AutoCAD user-interface, as well as the rendering screen for the final image output. This driver supports "Continuous Color" rendering with scan line read and write capability. "Continuous Color" rendering is available on both 8 and 24-bit hardware. In "Continuous Color" modes, the "Smooth Shading" option (i.e. Gouraud shading) is supported in hardware. Depending upon the image, this feature allows up to 30X speedup over the unassisted, software-based rendering process used in Quick Shade mode. Finally, this driver is capable of accepting and caching the 3D display list from AVE Render (selected with the 3DFACES command in AVE Render). In this mode, 3D polygons are sent to the driver, in batches, for hardware-assisted rendering. This process is typically 5-10 times faster than the 2D rendering process, and in addition, once the 3D data is captured, it can be re-displayed 10 times faster yet. Q. How many lights are available with this driver? (R12) A. This driver, being written to the GL API, has a total of eight direct light sources in addition to the ambient light source. The direct light sources may be infinite or spotlights and there is hardware support for all of AVE Render's lighting attenuation models. In addition to the standard AVE Render lighting support, this ADI driver also supports colored lights when 3DFACES is enabled. If 3DFACES is not enabled, AVE Render will only support white light color. Unfortunately, AVE Render does not send spot light information to the driver. NOTES: 1) The "Light Color" option is normally disabled in AVE Render. To enable light color selection, simply select the "RMan Prompting" button in the "Render Preferences" dialog box. 2) If you do work with RenderMan, this feature will allow you to preview your light colors and intensities from within AutoCAD. 3) There is one stipulation in using light attenuation with local lights. In the GL API, the lighting attenuation constants are bound to the global lighting model, not to each light source as in AVE Render. The ADI driver will bind the last attenuation factor/mode to the lighting model. Therefore, if you wish to use attenuation, be sure to use the same point light fall-off mode and scale factors for all the lights in the scene. It has been observed, that AVE Render sends down the light definitions in alphabetical order of the light names. 4) After modifying light parameters, it will be necessary to re-RENDER the scene, in order for the updated light parameters to be sent to the driver. 5) To enable the Spotlight light-type, you will need to select the "RMan Prompting" button in the "Render Preferences" dialog box. Q. How many materials are available with this driver? (R12) A. This driver, being written to the GL API, has a maximum limit of 65,535 materials. However, the driver has limited the number of materials to only 16,383. If you need more, please let us know so that the limit can be increased. All of AVE Render's material properties are supported in hardware. Q. How do I use AVE Render to best advantage with this driver? (R12) A. You should set the following AVE Render preferences: - Full Render (Quick render is actually slower) - Smooth Shading (for objects with curved surfaces) - Apply Finishes (Sends material properties to the driver) - Best Map/No Fold (Uses maximum number of colors) - RMan Prompting (Allows colored lights and spotlights) And then enable the 3DFACES option. In this manner, you are instructing AVE Render to do the following: - Send only polygons to the ADI driver. - Send faces with surface normals for proper lighting calculations. - Use the hardware-assisted lighting and material calculations. - Use all available colors. Since this driver runs in True-Color mode, you don't have to worry about color flashing. Additional hints: - When using the 3DFACES option, you do not have to worry about overlapping faces, as the hardware z-buffer will remove them from view quickly. - With the hardware z-buffer, the options to sort by intersection and obscuration are meaningless and have no effect. - If you have carefully drawn faces in AutoCAD such that the polygons are properly oriented (see the Render Reference Manual for more information), you can enable the "Discard Back Faces" option in the "Render Preferences: More Options" dialog box. This may increase the 3D drawing speed of your model. However, if this option is enabled and parts of your drawing do not render, turn it off. - Set the density of polygon meshes such that the maximum angle between faces is less that 45 degrees. For instance, in a cylinder (360 degrees in circumference) make sure there are more than 8 facets around the cylinder. Be advised that setting the mesh density too high will significantly slow down the rendering and display process. This attribute is usually controlled by the system variables SURFTAB1 and SURFTAB2. If using extruded 2D entities (like circles) this is controlled with the VIEWRES command. Q. Why doesn't all my drawing show up when I render it? (R12) A. AVE Render only renders polygonal drawing entities. If you would like to render linear entities, such as text, circles, etc, you may assign a thickness or extrusion dimension to them. 7. TROUBLESHOOTING: Error and warning messages may occur in a number of different places depending on how the program was started and where the error occurred. The following list of error and warning messages is grouped by where the message is usually displayed. Following each message is a description of the message and and a solution, if appropriate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I was running Autocad R12 when the power went out (or some other unexpected occurence). After rebooting, trying to start acad back up produced an error saying that it could not open the acad.mnx file because it was temporarily locked. I tried deleting this file and reinstalling it but I always get the same result (even after rebooting). I can't find anything to unlock this file. What gives? AutoCAD 'locks' files by the following method: file.xyz -> file.xyk file.xyk -> file.xyl The first thing to try, is use AutoCAD's File/Utilities/Unlock file menu option. The last line of defense is to: rm -f *.??k For the more adventursome, try adding this 'alias' to your ~/.cshrc file: alias lean_up rm -f *.??k *.ac$ auto.sv$ *.err *.bak core This will clean up most of AutoCAD's temporary files. Be careful not to run either of these commands while other AutoCAD sessions are running. @DOS-BGN DEL *.??k @DOS-END ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "AutoCAD indicates this viewport may not be zoomable." As discussed in the Frequently Asked Questions section, the driver is passing along information from AutoCAD. In R12, besides TILEMODE 1, the MSPACE/PSPACE setting, Orthographic vs. Perspective view, and Hidden line mode may affect this flag. If you are sure you should be able to zoom, you can override this in the driver CONFIGURE dialog as follows: CONFIGURE DRIVER OPTIONS BirdsEye when zoomable/Always allow BirdsEye ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Boom!!! Memory capacity exceeded (nnn requested) ..." "..." "ADS terminated" "C:RENDER" This is often caused when using the "Smooth Shading" option on drawings that are not capable of smooth shading. A fix is to disable the "Smooth Shading" option in the "Render/Preferences" dialog box. Since the drawing is not capable of smooth shading, the display will be the same either way. If the problem continues, contact your AutoCAD dealer or Autodesk for assistance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Configuration file problems: After starting the application, you notice strange colors on the screen or other behavior from the display driver. This situation is often caused be a corrupted or older driver configuration file. A solution is to delete the existing file and then restarting the application. This will cause the display driver to write out a new configuration file with the default settings in it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Command Palette problems: If you get only a simple Command Palette, that is there is only one palette, most likely, the driver is unable to find the actual Command Palette resource text files. If this happens, the driver will present you with a simple Command Palette from its internal memory. The search strategy for the Command Palette file is similar to the way AutoCAD searches for its menu files, that is: 1. Look for the file in the current directory. 2. Search the ACAD environment variable looking for the file. 3. If 1 and 2 fail, use the last file that was loaded. 4. If 1-3 fail, use the internal image. You should check the setting of the ACAD path variable and correct it to prevent this from happening again. The internal Command Palette looks like this: -------------------------------------------------------- R-T Bird BirdsEye Clean DL *Config* ZoomVmax Zoom Win Zoom Ext Zoom Prv Pan Left Pan Up Pan Down PanRight *Layer* 2D Pline 3D Pline Text *Cancel* *Erase* *Move* *Vports* -------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In AutoCAD_Text_Window: "/usr/sbin/xwsh: No such file or directory: can't start command" This indicates that the executable search path has not been set properly. The directory containing the AutoCAD executables needs to be in search path in order to be found and executed properly. Consult your "AutoCAD Installation and Performance Guide" for instructions, or install the Bonus Pack software and configure this user for AutoCAD automatically. The path is usually set in the file "~/.login" for Csh users. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Command: (xload"averendr")" "Command: 3dfaces" "Initializing AVE Render..." "Driver 3dfaces on!" "Command: (c:rpref "toggle" "SMOOTH" "ON")" "Command: _render" "Using current view." "Default scene selected." "Projecting objects into view plane." "Application averendr FATAL ERROR: Segmentation violation." "ADS program averendr terminated." "error: ADS terminated" "(C:RENDER)" "*Cancel*" Certain files will not render in 3D mode with smooth shading enabled. These files are usually constructed out of extruded 2D geometry and AVE Render has trouble generating the surface normal information to properly shade the object. You can turn off the 3DFACES option and shade in 2D. It has been observed that most of the time this error occurs, that the 2D smooth shaded object is in actuality flat shaded. Therefore, you could also leave 3DFACES enabled and turn off smooth shading with the following command: Command: (c:rpref "toggle" "SMOOTH" "OFF") If the problem continues, contact your AutoCAD dealer or Autodesk for assistance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Default configuration data written to file: /d/acad/user.cnf." "Driver may be configured by entering CONFIGURE at the command prompt." This indicates that GL Driver's configuration file (for the present user) has not been found, was out of date, or was otherwise corrupted and a that a new file containing the default configuration was created. If you wish to change these values, do so as described. "Command: BirdsEye" "Unknown command. Type ? for list of commands." This message indicated that you have issued one of the GL driver's internal commands, perhaps from the replacement AutoCAD menu, while using another display driver. The internal functions described in this document only work when using this driver. However, there are other functions that are built on external programs, like the DXF to Inventor file translators which may be used with any driver. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In Console window: "sh: acad: cannot execute" This indicates that the executable search path has not been set properly. The directory containing the AutoCAD executables needs to be in search path in order to be found and executed properly. Consult your "AutoCAD Installation and Performance Guide" for instructions, or install the Bonus Pack software and configure this user for AutoCAD automatically. The path is usually set in the file "~/.login" for Csh users. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In any shell window: (R11) "ERROR: AutoCAD is not properly configured to switch drivers." To fix this, do one of the following: 1. Change to the AutoCAD directory before running acad. 2. Set the variable 'ACADPATH' to point to the AutoCAD directory. 3. Please run the /usr/acad/gldriver/setup utility. As noted, the environment variable "ACADPATH" is not set properly. This is a variable used by several of the Bonus Pack utilities to precisely locate needed files in the AutoCAD directory. If you install the GL Driver option of the Bonus Pack software while logged in as this user, this will be done automatically for you. Environment variables are usually set in the file "~/.cshrc" for Csh users. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "FATAL ERROR: ADI display reply receive error." If you try to switch from the GL driver back to Autodesk's Motif display driver you may run into a situation where this error message is displayed. This is an error in Autodesk's Motif driver. If this happens, you have one of three choices to use in getting AutoCAD running again: 1. Reconfigure AutoCAD (a second time) by entering the command: acad -r form a console window and re-select the Motif driver (yes I know you just did this a minute ago, but trust me, it works) and then AutoCAD will run just fine. 2. Delete AutoCAD's configuration file with the command: rm acad.cfg_ Where is replaced with your machine's name. This will force AutoCAD to enter it's CONFIG dialog and will do the same as #1 above, except you will LOSE all your configuration data (tablets, plotters, etc). 3. Before this happens, save copies of your configuration files and then copy the desired configuration file over the main AutoCAD file to switch. An example is presented below, assuming a machine named "IRIS": Configure AutoCAD for Motif display, tablet X, plotter Y: > cp acad.cfg_IRIS acad.cfg_Motif Configure AutoCAD for IrisGL display, tablet P, plotter Q: > cp acad.cfg_IRIS acad.cfg_IrisGL Then, to switch back to Motif driver, restore the Motif file: > cp acad.cfg_Motif acad.cfg_IRIS Then, to switch back to IrisGL driver, restore the IrisGL file: > cp acad.cfg_IrisGL acad.cfg_IRIS In any event, you should be sure to report this problem to Autodesk. If they get enough complaints on this issue, they will fix it and provide an updated version of R12 for SGI. They recommend fix #3 as the best solution. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ X ERRORS: You may see an X Window error message like: X Error of failed request: BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation) Major opcode of failed request: 53 (X_CreatePixmap) Value in failed request: 0xa Serial number of failed request: 99 Current serial number in output stream: 106 X Error of failed request: BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation) Major opcode of failed request: 53 (X_CreatePixmap) Value in failed request: 0xa Serial number of failed request: 99 Current serial number in output stream: 106 rcacadd (or rcIrisGL) is not an ADI driver. What this error is telling you is that you are running a 24-bit TrueColor X Server on your system. Currently, this mode is not supported by either of the available AutoCAD Display drivers (rcacadd and rcIrisGL). The NULL driver (dsnull) will work in this situation, but it has no graphics display. To confirm this is the situation, enter the following command: > /bin/ps -ef | grep Xsgi You will see a response similar to: /usr/bin/X11/Xsgi -gamma 1.700000 -c -bs -pseudomap 4sight If the "-pseudomap" item is missing and you see instead "-class TrueColor" you are running in TrueColor (24-bit) mode. To change this, edit the file: /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers changing the one line to read something like the line above. Save the file then restart the Xserver, usually by restarting the machine. NOTES: 1) The item "-bs" in the Xservers line disables the "backing store" feature of the X Server. Leave the "-bs" out of the command line if you wish to have backing store support enabled. (See below) 2) If the above does not solve the problem, you may be running on a machine incapable of supporting this driver or AutoCAD. Try using the "Motif Display - by Autodesk". If that works, please contact us to see if a later GL driver version is available. BACKING STORE NOTE: If you wish to enable backing store to avoid the initial warning dialog box, do the following as su (root): Edit the file /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers to read: :0 secure /usr/bin/X11/X -c -pseudomap 4sight i.e. Remove the "-bs" line, then save it an issue the command: /etc/killall Xsgi This will restart the X server with backing store enabled (Starter only w/ 4.0.5F) and return you to the login screen. To enable backing store on Express graphics or to avoid potential Starter/Xserver bugs with 4.0.5F, you are URGED to install the 4.0.5 Indigo Only Patch. NOTE: Backing store is very expensive in terms of memory use. For each and every pixel saved in backing store memory, four (4) bytes of memory are used. For a full screen window, this can use between 3-5 MB of RAM to save everything beneath the window. Multiple windows each have a saved copy of the underlying pixels. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INSTALLING AUTOCAD R12 ON AN IRIX 5.x SYSTEM: (R12) ainstall error "failure in malloc". The 'ainstall' program will exit with a memory allocation error prior to the acad personalization step. If you are in this situation, contact me and I can provide you a personalized binary to use, or use the already installed image, or better yet, use the pre-installed version of AutoCAD R12 that is here, or use the workaround described below: If you install AutoCAD on any system running Irix 5.x you will encounter an error message during the personalization process (at the end of the installation). This is the step where the acad executable is "personalized" with your name, dealer's name and phone number and the AutoCAD serial number. The error happens when the "ainstall" program is run in GUI (Motif menu) mode and the message has something to do with "failure in malloc". If AutoCAD is not personalized, it will not run. If ainstall is run in text mode, this error will not occur. To do so, use the following commands: > su # unsetenv DISPLAY # ./ainstall # setenv DISPLAY :0.0 # exit > Autodesk did not extensively test "text-mode" installation, so they recommend that you install all parts of AutoCAD you want (AME, etc) in GUI mode, then re-install AutoCAD (only) in text mode to be on the safe side. The other solution (faster) is to simply copy the entire AutoCAD directory from the CDROM to your hard disk and then "ainstall" AutoCAD into that directory. To do so, enter the following: > su # cp -r /CDROM/acad /usr/acad # unsetenv DISPLAY # ./ainstall # setenv DISPLAY :0.0 # exit > Also, be advised that a few of the acad/fonts files may not install properly under Irix 5.x. This may be another bug in the "ainstall" program. The font files all have the "_" or "-" characters in their file name and you may see errors like "xxxx file not found". If this happens, make a note of the file names and go back and copy the files manually. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MOLE MODE DIGITIZER SUPPORT: Mole mode allows the user to: Use a digitizing tablet to control both AutoCAD and the system cursor. Switch back and forth between modes with a button click, key press, or a by entering a designated area of his tablet menu. However, the Mole Mode digitizer drivers on the North America release of R12 are broken. You can either contact Autodesk Customer Support to obtain new ones, or install the ones on this CD. See the directory /CDROM/drv/MoleMode for directions. NOTE: All Irix 5.x user's MUST install the mole mode drivers from this CD. The ones on the Autodesk CD are only for IRIX 4.0.5 and will not work at all on Irix 5.x. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From WorkSpace or Indigo Magic: You double-click (or drop a dwg file) on the AutoCAD icon, but nothing happens. You probably have not set the current user's environment variables, including the executable search path, properly. The WorkSpace file-type rules (that control the drag & drop behavior) are a system-wide resource, that is, any user that is using WorkSpace, has access to the rules. However, the information about where you have installed AutoCAD and how you have configured it is only a per-user resource. Therefore, it is necessary that each user who wants to use AutoCAD in conjunction with WorkSpace have the appropriate environment variable set in his login scripts. The Bonus Pack installation utility will do this for you when you install the IrisGL Display Accelerator. Note: With the introduction, the operation of the file type rules has changed dramatically. For one, the user's path need not be set to include the AutoCAD executable directory. In fact it is best left out of the path. Simultaneous support of R12 and R13 is now supported. To accomplish the above, it is required that AutoCAD R13 be installed in the default directory (/opt/acad13) or that a symbolic link exist from /opt/acad13 to the actual installation location. This is done automatically for you when the GL driver is installed. In some case, for example an automounted AutoCAD directory, this link may not be created properly. To check it use the following: file /opt/acad13 If it returns 'directory' it is OK, if it says 'dangling symbolic link' or 'No such file or directory' it is broken and needs to be fixed. Use the command (as root): ln -s /where/autocad/r13/is/installed /opt/acad13 NOTE FOR R12 USER'S: Similarly, for R12 to work with the file type rules, you'll need to install or link it to the default /usr/acad directory. We recommend that you follow the R13 example and create a startup script file (called acadr12) and place it in the /usr/acad/acad directory. The file should look something like this: #!/bin/sh #Tag 0x006A0010 # # Change ACADBASE to AutoCAD Installation directory # ACADBASE=/usr/acad # ACAD="$ACADBASE/acad;$ACADBASE/support;$ACADBASE/fonts" ACADDRV=$ACADBASE/drv ACADCFG=$ACADBASE/acad AVECFG=$ACADCFG export ACAD ACADDRV ACADCFG AVECFG # $ACADBASE/acad/acad $* To check and correct the default AutoCAD R12 directory, use: file /usr/acad If it returns 'directory' it is OK, if it says 'dangling symbolic link' or 'No such file or directory' it is broken and needs to be fixed. Use the command (as root): ln -s /where/autocad/r12/is/installed /usr/acad NOTE FOR NFS-AUTOMOUNT USER'S: In either event, if you use the NFS automount feature for AutoCAD, leave out the leading '/tmp_mnt' in the directory path to AutoCAD. Using OpenInventor with AutoCAD: The SGI version of AutoCAD supports file export to OpenInventor for visualization and collaborative design review. In AutoCAD R12 the export mechanism is via the DXF file format while in R13, the superior 3D Studio file format is used. Note, due to format changes, R13 version DXF files (indicated by a '13' on the blue Autodesk icon) can not be manipulated by OpenInventor at this time. Support for R13 DXF is planned if sufficient demand exists. OpenInventor tools: By default, your IRIX system will have the base Inventor file viewer 'ivview' installed. There are two additional OpenInventor file utilities that are in an optional subsystem on the IRIX CD. These are 'SceneViewer' and 'gview' and they are contained in the 'inventor.demos' software subsystem. If these are not installed on your machine, you'll get an informative dialog to this effect. Other IRIX tools have the capability to read OpenInventor files including: ShowCase InPerson Annotator WebSpace (via the IvToVRML convertor) ############################################################################ ############################################################################ APPENDICES ############################################################################ ############################################################################ ############################################################################ A. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS: ADI Interface Level: 4.2 (also supports ADI 4.0 and 4.1 clients) ADI Functionality: Combined Display/Rendering (i.e. DEV_RC) Display Modes: Separate Single and Dual screen modes Display Resolution: Any hardware-supported resolution Number of colors: Display mode: 256 Render mode: True-Color (16.8 M) User-interface: True-Color, 16.8 M) Line drawing modes: Solid, XOR, highlight and dashed. Filled polygon modes: Hardware supported. Text display: Supports 7 and 8 bit character sets. Also handles multi-byte character sets. Fast grid support: Yes. Scanline support: Yes, both read and write. Scanline data formats: 32 bit per pixel (8 bits Red-Green-Blue-Alpha) 24 bit per pixel (8 bits Red-Green-Blue) 8 bit per pixel (256 color index) Raster cursor: Yes, hardware supported. Advanced User Interface: Supported. Number of active viewports: 64 Maximum display list size: Unlimited. - To virtual memory extents. Display list coordinate size: Supports both 16- and 32-bit display lists Display list interface: Supports batch vectors and polygons Display list cleaning: Optional real-time cleaning mode Display List Management: Variable page-size architecture with polygon, line and point entities, with polyline compression up to 16,384 connected vertices Dragging support: Full-color dragging with unlimited data - To virtual memory extents. - Selectable: on or off. User-programmability: Unlimited number of Command Palettes Localization: All message and command files external and user-customizable BirdsEye View: Real Time and Full Color versions available User-selectable size and location 3D View Selection: Supports VPOINT and DVIEW options - Virtual trackball VPOINT interface - Camera position - Target position - View twist - Zoom or lens length - Viewing distance Number of light sources: 1 ambient light source 8 direct light sources of any type: - Distant light - Point light - Spot light Number of materials: 16,383 Zbuffer depth: 24 bit resolution Rendering Display Modes: 13 consisting of: - Gouraud (smooth) shaded (1 and 2-sided) - Flat shaded (1 and 2-sided) - Hidden line - Wireframe - Lit lines - Depth-cue lines - Single line - Points - Lit points - Depth-cue points - Single point A.1. MEMORY USE: The following data will give typical memory use patterns for this driver, AutoCAD and it's various components. These values represent the process size with no drawing loaded. The exact numbers portrayed here are meant to give you an idea how much memory the various AutoCAD components use. For example, with the GL display driver, adding the iconic tool box consumes almost 200KB of memory. If you find it useful and make use of it, fine, but if you don't, you should consider disabling it to free up 200KB for other purposes. The same thing with the Motif user-interface, if you like it by all means use it, but otherwise, you could free up almost 500KB of memory by switching to the GL user-interface. The GL driver is designed to give you as many options as possible so that it may be customized to suit your needs. Feel free to experiment with all the options and select those that improve your productivity and ease-of-use. R13_c4 Data IRIX 5.3: Process Name Function Resident Size (K Bytes) --------------------------------------------------------------- rcirisgl IrisGL w/ Motif&ToolBar 2775 KB rcacadmx X/Motif Display Driver 2180 KB rcacadcx X/Motif/CDE Display Driver 2977 KB acad AutoCAD R13_c4 9465 KB acadl AutoLISP Interpreter (/session) ~500 KB acad/solids AutoCAD R13_c4 w/ Solids 9866 KB acad/render AutoCAD R13_c4 w/ Render 10124 KB acad/acad 2 Sessions AutoCAD R13_c4 15884 KB acad/acad/acad 3 Sessions AutoCAD R13_c4 16760 KB R13_c3a Data IRIX 5.3: Process Name Function Resident Size (K Bytes) --------------------------------------------------------------- rcirisgl IrisGL w/ Motif&ToolBar 3040 KB rcacadmx X/Motif Display Driver 2244 KB acad AutoCAD R13_c3a 6803 KB acadl AutoLISP Interpreter (/session) ~500 KB acad/render AutoCAD R13_c3a w/ Render 7402 KB acad/acad 2 Sessions AutoCAD R13_c3a 10314 KB acad/acad/acad 3 Sessions AutoCAD R13_c3a 11763 KB R12 Data IRIX 5.2: Process Name Function Resident Size (K Bytes) --------------------------------------------------------------- rcIrisGL5 IrisGL w/ Motif&ToolBar 2809 KB rcIrisGL5 IrisGL w/ Motif UI 2594 KB rcIrisGL5 IrisGL w/ GL UI 2124 KB rcacadd X/Motif Display Driver 2296 KB acad AutoCAD R12 1456 KB acadl AutoLISP Interpreter ~500 KB averendr AVE Render ~500 KB rhexport Raster Export Driver 1998 KB ame Advanced Modeling Ext. 718 KB R12 Data IRIX 4.0.5: Process Name Function Resident Size (K Bytes) --------------------------------------------------------------- rcIrisGL IrisGL Display Driver 4780 KB rcacadd X/Motif Display Driver 2976 KB acad AutoCAD R12 3236 KB acadl AutoLISP Interpreter 572 KB averendr AVE Render 908 KB rhexport Raster Export Driver 2120 KB ame Advanced Modeling Ext. 2280 KB ############################################################################ B. CONFIGURABLE OPTIONS: The following driver options are configurable: - Default/Single/Dual screen modes. - Cursor, grid, and marker color. - Graphics area background color. - Text area background color. - Text color. - Border line color. - Alert box background color. - Alert box foreground color. - Alert box border color. - Menu bar background color. - Menu bar foreground color. - Menu bar border color. - Pop-up menu background color. - Pop-up menu foreground color. - Pop-up menu border color. - Dialogue box background color. - Dialogue box foreground color. - Dialogue box border color. - Dialogue box line drawing color color. - Display list Mode: Regular and Real Time Cleaning. - Display list dragging: on or off. - Button click and hold time (clock ticks). - Double Buffer mode for real-time pan, zoom and rotate. - Display list page size (1 Kb to 256 Kb). - Number of lines of command prompt text. - Number of characters of sidebar menu text. - Command Palette state after use (On, Iconified, Off). - Update frame rate (clock ticks). - Polygon outline mode (on/off). - Display list coordinate size (32-bit or 16-bit). - Graphics window origin and size. - Text window origin and size. - Color and font scheme of Motif components. - Display of system cursor (on/off). - The entire AutoCAD color palette. ############################################################################ C. TECHNICAL INFORMATION: This section is intended to describe the capabilities of this display driver for the 3rd party software developer wishing to make use of the capabilities of it. This section assumes a high degree of knowledge of the ADI interface specification of the reader. This information only applies to AutoCAD R12 and the ADI 4.2 interface. C.1. ADS-ADI Link Introduction: The ADS->ADI link design was driven by the needs of AVE Render as an ADS application, but has been generalized where possible to accommodate other ADS applications. Work to date has been mostly on the combined rendering and display interface. The use of the ADS->ADI link requires a thorough understanding of both ADI driver development and ADS application development. This is not a task to take lightly! Don't think this is a simple way to implement a new user- interface widget, for example. Also, keep in mind that ADI drivers, especially old ones, vary in their behavior. One goal of the design is to have drivers behave as similarly as possible in processing packets, regardless of the product in control. Another goal is to provide drivers with enough information about the controlling product (or application) so that products or applications which fail to meet the first goal can still be correctly handled by drivers (as a special case). Another design goal is to minimize the overloading of packets; to make explicit requests for actions by the driver instead of implied requests (i.e., to reduce the state dependencies in packet handling). Only one application at a time is "in control" of a driver, though in the case of the display, applications may leave images behind on the screen after giving up control. Each time an ADS application takes over a driver, the episode is surrounded with "bookend" packets and core actions. The core actions are intended to force the driver into a known and more or less stable state (unless AutoCAD's state is too unstable to allow a takeover, in which case it will be refused). The bookend packets (PWHO) are intended to inform the driver as unambiguously as possible about the state of the controlling product. See the "Extended DEV_RC Specification" section, later in this document, for sample pseudo-code which makes a typical ADS->ADI interaction clearer. ADS->ADI Link Transport Layer: The link transport layer occurs in two cases: in one case, an ADS application takes over a driver loaded by AutoCAD; in the second case, the ADS application loads an ADI driver directly. At the moment, AVE Render is the only ADS application that can load ADI drivers directly. +-----------+ |dispatcher | +--->|packets | | | | | +-<| | | | | DEV_RD or | | | | DEV_RH | | | | | | | | | | | |rendering |<-----------------+ | | |packets | | | | | |->--------------+ | | | | | | | | | +-----------+ | | | | | | rendering | | | | and display | | | | ADI driver: | | | | rcIrisGL | | AutoCAD | | +----------+ | | +----------+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | +--->|dispatcher| | | | | +------|packets | | | | | | | | | |keyboard | | | | | |& mouse | |input | +-----------+ |events-> |---- read pipe----->|events | ADS |AVE Render | | | | |<----------->| | |rendering |---- read pipe----->|display | comm link | | |& display |<-+- write pipe-----|packets | |ADS App | |packets || | +----------+ | | +----------+| | +-----------+ | +------------- read pipe --------------->----+ | +------------- write pipe ------------------<----+ FIGURE: Code flow for transport layers. UNIX display ADS->ADI Link Transport Layer: The IRIX display ADS->ADI link transport layer uses separate pipes for display/rendering packets and dispatcher services. This transport layer is hidden inside library code which ADS developers can link to their ADS applications. The library code also handles packet throttling. Note that AVE Render can also load rendering hard copy drivers. These are given dispatcher services from AutoCAD core. If you are contemplating an ADS-ADI application, please contact your Autodesk and SGI technical contacts for further information. We are currently implementing some example ADS-ADI applications to assist you. Overview of ADS->ADI Display Interaction: Since AutoCAD is not aware of the contents of the packets sent by an ADS application to an ADI display driver, these packets should not include "drawing" vectors. ADS applications should send only nondrawing vectors and polygons in via the ADS->ADI link. If an application wants to add "drawing" vectors or polygons to the AutoCAD drawing, this should be done through normal ADS requests (such as ads_entmake()). An ADS application is able to take over the currently configured ADI display driver (providing it is ADI 4.2), if no other application has control at the moment and if AutoCAD is not in an unstable state. The first step toward gaining control is to establish communication with an ads_adiinfo() request. This is allowed at any time. The application may then intermittently take control of the display and relinquish control. Each time the application takes over, it sends ads_adistart() and each time it relinquishes control it sends ads_adiend(). AutoCAD might refuse an ads_adistart() if another application has control of the display at the moment or if AutoCAD is in an unstable state. It is the application's responsibility to send packets to the display driver telling it to save and restore regions of the screen which may be damaged, palettes, etc. For further programming information, you should consult the ADI 4.2 ToolKit documentation and the remainder of this file for driver-specific information. C.2. Supported ADS-ADI packets After establishing the ADS-ADI link, your ADS application can issue commands to this ADI driver via AutoCAD's "packet throttle" function. The following is a list of packets that the "throttle" allows to be passed to the ADI driver: Following is a list of packets allowed at configuration-time: PWHO RDWHO RDLANG RPCHGCFG RPNEWCFG RPSHOWCFG Following is a list of packets allowed at execution-time (including all 3D packets): PWHO PINIT PBOXCLR PBOXPUSH PBOXPOP PCFGREC PCHAR PCLEAR PCLVP PDOT PDRAG PECHAR PFILL PQPLOT PREDRAW PSYNC PTEXT PVEC PBIGBLIT PDINFO PDCURS PCCURS PMARK PBMARK PCMARK PCBMARK PHLITE PDHLITE PCOORDLINE PMODELINE PMNUCURS PTPROMPT PWRSPLIT PGOGRAPH PGOTEXT PGOTEXTU PRPEN PRPEN_42 PPAL RDCMAP RDWHO RDCLEAR RDCMAPB RDCMAPE RDCPOLY RDCRANGE RDEND RDFNAME RD_FGRAB RD_INFO RDINIT RDPOLY RDRCMAP RDRSLINE RDSTART RDWSLINE RPCFGREC PVIEW PORTHO PPERSP POSEG PCSEG PDSEG PPOLY3 PNPOLY3 PCPOLY3 PVEC3 PLIGHT PDLIGHT PSETCOLOR PSETMATL PMODEL PDRAWSEG P3D PBPOLY3 Following is a list of packets that AutoCAD does NOT allow at execution-time. You should also note that the default is to NOT allow any packet that is not on the list of allowed packets. POPENVP POPENBVP PCLOSEVP PVIEWPORT PBVIEWPORT PLOPEN PKZOOM PKBZOOM PREVEC PROPENVP PLANG PMAXVP PNEWCFG PSHOWCFG PTABCFG PCOMMAND PSTRING PTERM RDETAIL RDTERM RPCHGCFG RPNEWCFG RPSHOWCFG The following is the state of the ADI driver when AutoCAD hands control over to the ADS application: (This is done for you by AutoCAD) - No dragging - No cursors on screen - No dialogues up - Nothing highlighted on the menu - Be sure we are on the graphic screen (e.g. gograph()) The following is the state of the ADI driver when the ADS application returns control to AutoCAD: (This must be done by the ADS application) - No dragging in progress. - No cursors on screen - No dialogues up - Nothing highlighted on the menu - Be sure we are on the graphic screen (e.g. gograph()) C.3. 3D Capabilities This display driver is fully capable of handling the ADI 4.2 PBATCHPOLY entry point for accepting 3D display data. All of the rendering ADI packets are supported for defining materials, lights, viewing and projection transformations, etc. This driver also supports the optional EDGEx flags during rendering. This feature is especially useful for hidden line display, where, for example, 4-sided polygons are split into two adjacent triangles sharing one edge. If this edge is marked as "invisible" only the original 4 sides will be displayed, but not the "artificial" diagonal line. C.4. Double-buffering If the display hardware supports a double-buffered RGB rendering mode and the user has selected a double-buffered configuration, an ADS application may control the display and update buffers programmatically, via the PVPAGE packet. The internal logic used is that if the selected ACTIVE_PAGE field is equal to the selected VISUAL_PAGE field, then both display buffers are enabled for update and display. If these fields are not equal, then the front and back buffers are swapped, such that the previous back buffer is now displayed and the previous front buffer is enabled for update. As GL does not keep track (or care) which buffer is where, all you need to do is make sure the active and visual pages are different to swap buffers. You should be sure to return the driver to the state of both buffers being enabled, that is ACTIVE_PAGE == VISUAL_PAGE. If the driver returns a STATUS == BAD, this is your indication that either the hardware or configuration does not support double-buffering. HINT: Be sure to call PVPAGE with non-equal pages before beginning the rendering process to put the driver into double-buffer mode. This will eliminate the initial screen clean and render. Thus, your code would look something like: ads_iinfo(); /* Get information about driver */ ads_adistart(); /* Starting bookend */ /* Your application can now send packets via ads_dsxqt */ PDINFO(); /* Query driver capabilities */ PVPAGE(0,1); /* Go into double-buffer mode */ while (active) { PCLEAR(); /* Clear the current viewport */ DrawSomeStuff(); PVPAGE(0,1); /* Swap buffers */ } PVPAGE(0,0); /* Return to single-buffer mode */ ads_adiend(); /* Ending bookend */ C.5. User-interface configuration options The GL driver for AutoCAD provides two user interface models. Those being the traditional AutoCAD model as well as the Motif user interface. The Motif user-interface is more aesthetically pleasing and features a 3D look. It provides a number of extra functions including tear-off menus, smart status bar buttons, etc. The traditional AutoCAD user-interface presents a 2D look. Its benefits are reduced screen real estate, faster operation and it is easier to use with digitizing tablets. Theses two components may be mixed and matched to your preferences. Basically, there is a two-step process involved when AutoCAD is started that determines the ultimate "look and feel" of the application. Based upon your X resource settings (as determined in ~.Xdefaults or $ACADRESFILE), the specified Motif user-interface components are created. Then, when AutoCAD completes its initialization, any remaining user-interface components specified in your AutoCAD configuration file (_CONFIG) are created. This whole process may sound a bit confusing but the following tables will help to simplify it a bit. The first table is the controlling variables and their default values. X Resource Settings: AutoCAD-Graph*useStatusBar: True (default) AutoCAD-Graph*useCommandArea: True (default) AutoCAD-Graph*useSideMenu: True (default) AutoCAD-Graph*useMenuBar: True (default) AutoCAD-Graph*useToolBar: True (default) AutoCAD Configuration Settings: Do you want a status line? (default) Do you want a command prompt area? (default) Do you want a screen menu area? (default) Basically then there are a total of eight variables that control the look of the AutoCAD graphics window. Any Xresource variable setting overrides the corresponding AutoCAD configuration setting. That is if you say you want a Motif command prompt area and then tell AutoCAD that you don't want one, you will get it anyway. To illustrate this, the following table shows all the possible user interface combinations you can get: X Resource Acad Resource User Interface ----------------- ----------------- ------------------ useStatusBar:T StatusLine:? Motif Status Bar useToolBar:T n/a Motif Tool Bar useToolBar:F n/a No Tool Bar useStatusBar:F StatusLine:Y GL Status Bar useStatusBar:F StatusLine:N No Status Bar useCommandArea:T CommandPrompt:? Motif Command Prompt useCommandArea:F CommandPrompt:Y GL Command Prompt useCommandArea:F CommandPrompt:N No Command Prompt useSideMenu:T ScreenMenu:? Motif Sidebar Menu useSideMenu:F ScreenMenu:Y GL Sidebar Menu useSideMenu:F ScreenMenu:N No Sidebar Menu useMenuBar:T n/a Motif Menu Bar useMenuBar:F n/a GL Menu Bar As you can see in the above table, there are a total of thirteen different user-interface configurations you can select from. Within these thirteen options, you can also adjust the sizes of the some of the components, for example the number of lines in the Command Prompt Area and the width of the Side Bar Menu. Once again, there are several factors that determine this configuration: X Resource GL Resource User Interface ----------------- ----------------- ------------------ useCommandArea:T commandLines:n n/a n prompt lines useCommandArea:F commandLines:n/a @VENDOR@PROMPTLINEn n prompt lines useSideMenu:n/a @VENDOR@MENUCHARn n character sidemenu (For Motif or GL) NOTE: If the only Motif user-interface component in use is the Status Bar (*useStatusBar:True, all other *use*:False), the 'Tools' and display list status buttons will not be displayed. The tool bar dialog may still be brought up via the command : TOOLS The display list status may be examined via the command: STATISTICS Turning on the Motif Command Prompt area (*useCommandArea:True) will correct this problem. C.6. Dual screen operation It is possible to run AutoCAD in a dual-screen setup with this display driver. That is, a separate screen for displaying graphics and text. There are several options that you can choose from, depending on your needs. AutoCAD has traditionally supported the separate display of text and graphics by use of the "ACADTEXTDISPLAY" environment variable. If this variable is set to a different X server name (than the DISPLAY variable), the AutoCAD text window will be redirected to the X server specified in the "ACADTEXTDISPLAY" variable. The separate text display screen offers the full benefits of the local text window, that is, it is resizeable, you can scroll back through previous commands, and you can cut and paste between other text windows on the same system. However, this comes at the price of a full blown X terminal or graphics workstation. With the GL display driver, several lower cost options are now available for dual-screen operation. By setting the "ACADTEXTDISPLAY" variable to the name of a "tty", or terminal device, the GL driver will redirect text to that display. Thus, by connecting a simple serial ASCII terminal to a serial port on your workstation and running the "acad_dual" command (instead of "acad") text input and output will be redirected to that terminal. There is a slight limitation in this approach in that text input from the remote terminal is only sent upon hitting the "Return" key. Text input from the local workstation keyboard continues to function normally, however. Also, instead of a "real" ASCII terminal, you could also use a PC running terminal emulation software either over a serial port or connected over the network via a program like "telnet". This could be either a desktop PC or even a laptop that you already own, and could be that "old" 8088 or '286 PC that won't run AutoCAD/386 any longer. All it needs is a monochrome (or better) text display, a serial port and some sort of modem or terminal software. If your application requires only the proper display and handling of ANSI escape sequences and/or IBM-PC character graphics, there is a second option. This is the "acad_ansi.sh" command script. This script makes use of the standard X terminal emulation program "xterm" and an IBM-PC compatible text font (that is installed along with the GL display driver). With this command, AutoCAD's text display is set up to the Xterm window (sized to the standard 80x25 PC text window size) and the text (including ANSI escape sequences) is displayed with an 8x16 VGA text font. The only things that are not fully supported are blinking characters and the standard VGA color set. NOTE: The text window will not accept input during AutoCAD configuration (i.e. acad -r). You must enter input from the Graphics Window. C.7. Using AutoCAD with MovieMaker (a.k.a. Making a Movie with AutoCAD) AutoCAD, in conjunction with this ADI display driver now supports the Digital Media Mosaic software. The core of this software is the combination of Movie Maker and Movie Player. Basically, this software lets you combine a series of images and sound into a movie loop which can be played back at high speed. The playback speed is adjustable and most importantly, is independent of model complexity. For best results, you should make sure to be in single-buffer mode before creating the images. You should size the current viewport with a width and height of the desired movie image. We find that about 320x200 produces satisfactory results, and is the same size as the famous Animator FLI files. While the images are being generated, don't resize, move, or obscure the AutoCAD graphics window. Also, unless you are adding to an existing sequence, be sure there are no other files named "qplot_nnnn.rgb" in the drawing directory. After writing the images, you will need to run Movie Maker as follows: makemovie -o file.movie [-c mvc1] *.rgb Once the movie is created, you may delete the rgb files to recover disk space. Be sure to use perspective mode (_DVIEW _DISTANCE) and also set up valid front and back clipping planes. Otherwise, the rendered views produced will not be what you expect. C.8. Tuning IRIX for optimal AutoCAD performance. IRIX is quite conservative regarding disk caching, unlike most PCs, where disk caching is quite agressive (and risky). However, there are a number of kernel parameters that may increase the performance of the disk sub-system with minimal impact on reliability. Kernel Tuning Parameters Please consult the IRIX Administration Guide: System Configuration and Operation section (Appendix A) for a complete description of IRIX kernel tuning parameters. Below are extracted, for your convenience, several parameters that can affect AutoCAD operation under IRIX. bdflushr - specifies how often the dirty file system buffers are flushed Description of bdflushr The bdflushr parameter specifies how often, in seconds, the bdflush daemon is executed; bdflush performs periodic flushes of dirty file system buffers. Value of bdflushr Default: 5 Range: 1-31536000 When to Change bdflushr This value is adequate for most systems. Increasing this parameter increases the chance that more data could be lost if the system crashes. Decreasing this parameter increases system overhead. Operations, such as loading an assembly or drawing, cause significant I/O waits. Sometimes increasing this value to 60 or 120 seconds can help reduce this bottleneck. nbuf - number of buffer headers in the file system buffer cache Description of nbuf The nbuf parameter specifies the number of buffer headers in the file system buffer cache. The actual memory associated with each buffer header is dynamically allocated as needed and can be of varying size, currently 1 to 128 blocks (512 to 64KB). The system uses the file system buffer cache to optimize file system I/O requests. The buffer memory caches blocks from the disk, and the blocks that are used frequently stay in the cache. This helps avoid excess disk activity. Buffers are used only as transaction headers. When the input or output operation has finished, the buffer is detached from the memory it mapped and the buffer header becomes available for other uses. Because of this, a small number of buffer headers is sufficient for most systems. If nbuf is set to 0, the system automatically configures nbuf for average systems. There is little overhead in making it larger for non-average systems. Value of nbuf Default: 0 (Automatically configured if set to 0) Formula: 100 + (total number of pages of memory/40) Range: up to 6000 When to Change nbuf The automatic configuration is adequate for average systems. If you see dropping `cache hit' rates in sar(1M) and osview(1M) output, increase this parameter. Also, if you have directories with a great number of files (over 1000), you may wish to raise this parameter. Less than 85% on the %wcache and/or less than 60% on the %rcache indicates that the system is I/O bound. dwcluster - (EFS) number of delayed-write pages to cluster in each push. Description of dwcluster This parameter sets the maximum number of delayed-write pages to cluster in each push. Value of dwcluster Default: 64 When to Change It should not be necessary to change this parameter. The automatically configured value is sufficient. autoup - (EFS) specifies the age, in seconds, that a buffer marked for delayed write must be before the bdflush daemon writes it to disk. Description of autoup The autoup parameter specifies the age, in seconds, that a buffer marked for delayed write must be before the bdflush daemon writes it to disk. This parameter is specified in /var/sysgen/mtune. For more information, see the entry for the bdflushr kernel parameter. Value of autoup Default: 10 Range: 1-30 When to Change This value is adequate for most systems. Setting Tunable Parameters The directory, /var/sysgen/mtune, contains the files defining tunable parameters that are typically tuned with the systune command. An example of changing a parameter is shown below. Updates will be made to running system and /unix.install # systune -i systune-> nbuf nbuf = 509 (0x1fd) systune-> nbuf 1600 nbuf = 509 (0x1fd) Do you really want to change nbuf to 1600 (0x640)? (y/n) y In order for the change in parameter nbuf to become effective, reboot the system systune-> quit # autoconfig -v # reboot You could also try the new high performance XFS file system available on IRIX 5.3 and 6.2. With it you can use larger file systems (1TB or more), file sizes, block sizes and disk striping across multiple disk drives to increase disk I/O performance. Aside from the basic bigger/faster file system features, behavior in areas like directory lookup have been improved. The older EFS file system uses a linear directory format that slows dramatically as the number of entries in the file system increases. XFS on the other hand uses a tree based directory structure that maintains its performance better with larger file systems. Entries EFS XFS ------- ---- ---- 100 5970 8972 1000 1596 7089 10000 169 6716 Table: Directory entries vs. lookup operations/sec If you are using a CPU without the benefit of a secondary cache (i.e. the R4000PC or R4600PC) you might look into upgrading your CPU to one with a secondary cache. AutoCAD is a large program and greatly benefits from the 512KB-1 MB secondary caches on the *SC CPU models; i.e R4600SC, R4400SC, and the R5000SC (the latter has an optimized GL graphics library). CPU Clock MHz (1) Primary KB (2) Secondary KB (3) ------- ------------- -------------- ---------------- R3000 20-33 64 n/a R4000PC 100 16 n/a R4000SC 100 16 1024 R4600PC 100-150 32 n/a R4600SC 100-150 32 512 R4400PC 100-150 32 n/a R4400SC 150-250 32 1024 R5000PC 150 64 n/a R5000SC 150-180 64 512 Table: CPU vs. Clock speed and Cache sizes Notes: (1) Typical, may not be avaiable on all platforms. (2) Total of instruction plus data cahce. (3) Typical, may vary by platform.