AutoCAD Release 10 is a two and three-dimensional computer aided drafting and design system. The product lets you define screens and optional pull-down menus and create parts libraries by drawing them, so the system can be geared to a specific requirement. The product is a general-purpose system suitable for a wide variety of applications including architectural and landscape drawings; drafting for mechanical, electrical, chemical, structural, and civil engineering; and printed circuitdesign. Drawing and editing features include move, copy, modify, dimension, scale, mirror, hatch, rotate, fill, and erase objects in a drawing. Repetitive patterns such as brick walls, memory arrays, or office components can be generated automatically. Colours and an unlimited number of layers may be used, allowing selective viewing or plotting of drawings as if on transparent overlays. The full bi-directional zoom facility allows you to work at any level of detail.
The ratio between the largest and smallest objects in a drawing can be over a trillion to one. An alignment grid can be displayed. Distances and areas can be calculated and displayed. Three-dimensional drawing capability, AutoCAD's most notable feature, lets you represent an object so it can be seen from any angle. AutoCAD Release 10 also features associative dimensioning, which automatically updates the dimensions of a drawing whenever an object is scaled, stretched, or rotated. Release 10 allows you to construct objects in CAD much as you would build a structure. The approach is modular; that is, each piece of the final drawing is created as a separate object. To build an office building, you define the plane for the front of the building, move to that plane or a view of that plane to draw, then move to the side defining a new plane, and soon until a complete two or three-dimensional structure stands. An analogy to drafting does not work because a drafting table cannot be situated in a three-dimensional plane.
AutoCAD Release 10 supports the Intel Above Board, which increases the speed at which large, complex drawings can be created and edited. It supports the Initial Graphics Exchange Standard (ICES, Version 2.0) for both input and output, so translations can be made between AutoCAD Release 10 and other systems supporting IGES. You can transfer AutoCAD Release 10 drawing files among four operating systems: PC or MSDOS, SunUNIX, DECVMS, and ApolloAEGIS. Research AutoCAD
AutoSketch is software for drawing. As easy to use as painting software, it includes many CAD features. However, unlike typical painting software, AutoSketch keeps track of objects. This means that shapes do not get lost in a sea of dots. When an object is manipulated, it maintains its integrity as a complete unit. The product was designed for users with less demanding drawing requirements such as office layouts, simple technical drawings, and flowcharts.
AutoSketch is the best starting point for individuals who may be interested in upgrading to AutoCAD later. In addition, AutoCAD users may find AutoSketch useful in the early drawing stages.
AutoSketch can draw lines, arcs, circles, points, polygons and spline curves (free-form shapes). All basic drawing shapes can be moved, copied, stretched, rotated, mirrored, or scaled. For example, by pointing and clicking, you can create an office layout where walls and furniture can be moved or adjusted on-screen.
AutoSketch uses a mouse with pull-down menus and dialog boxes. AutoSketch includes other CAD features such as dimensioning and measuring, snap and ortho alignment, layers, and line types. Text can be added at any point, at any angle, and can be any height or width.
AutoSketch also allows you to insert another AutoSketch drawing, so you can create a library of objects for future use. Research AutoSketch
Claris CAD is a drawing and drafting program that provides most of the features required by professional artists, drafts people, and engineers creating two-dimensional drawings. It is one of the most comprehensive design programs available on the Macintosh. There are many tools available for geometric construction including double line drawing, spline and freehand curves, the ability to join lines into polygons, and the ability to part the lines in an object. Rotating objects around a point and mirroring objects around a line is easy.
Claris CAD includes many tools that aid in precise placement of objects and text. You can create an unlimited number of layers that can be viewed in any combination. Each layer can use multiple scales of measurement. Dimensioning can be automatic and is easily edited. You have a choice of linear, radial, diametric, and angular dimensioning, and all can be preset or custom-made.
Claris CAD offers a wide variety of features, including 25 drawing tools and tool modifiers; up to four different ways of drawing objects; the ability to have precise specifications for the size, location, and angles of objects in a drawing; automatic updating of drawings to meet new specifications; support of the five drawing standards used in professional drawing environments; precise zoom controls; and the ability to manage several windows on the screen at one time. Fonts can range in size from one point to 127 points. Style sizes and justifications can be combined. Text can be coloured and rotated. Claris CAD allows you to create libraries of objects that can be recalled by sight or name. Claris CAD includes MacPlot drivers to support Hewlett-Packard and Houston Instrument plotters. Research Claris CAD
Hijaak is a graphics accessory program that lets you convert graphic files from one format to another. The program captures screen images and graphics data (both text and data) in CGA, EGA, VGA, ATT, DEB, and Hercules graphics resolutions, and converts graphic files from one format to another on a variety of machines including the IBMPC, Macintosh, and Amiga. HiJaak is ideal for desktop publishing or presentation graphics users who want to move a graphic image into a document where the formats are incompatible. For example, bringing a vector-based drawing or CAD picture into a painting package or bringing a Mac paint image into an IBM paint package. Research HiJaak
MacDraw II, the enhanced version of MacDraw by Claris, includes all the functionality of MacDraw and is well-suited for graphic designs, diagrams, floor plans, engineering applications, and low-end CAD applications. The product includes a slide manager that lets you create a rolling slide show on images on-screen and a slides title-sorter to rename and reorder slides. You can also create notes to attach to a document and can optionally be displayed on-screen or printed.
MacDraw II is very fast and offers scrolling and keyboard shortcuts. Advanced features for precise and intricate design tasks include a layering capability that lets you create documents with unlimited overlapping, hidden transparent layers, and the ability to rearrange them in any order. A zoom capability lets you work on documents up to 32 times their original size. The ruler settings can be customised and set to draw with an accuracy of 2,000 dpi. Objects and text can be rotated a full 360 degrees in increments as small as 1/100 of a degree. Pen widths can be fully customized from zero to one and a half inches with an accuracy of four decimal places. You can have up to 255 pen widths per drawing.
MacDraw II has strong text and precision capabilities. You can customise your font sizes and line spaces from 1 to 127 points and paragraphs and notes can have multiple type fonts, sizes, and styles. Unlike MacDraw,
MacDraw II lets you edit text by single letters. A 100,000-word interactive spell checker is included. MacDraw II includes a library feature that lets you name created objects, store them in the library, and recall them from anywhere within the application. Corporate logos, component parts, and symbols need only be created once. Research MacDraw II
Micrografx Designer is a high-end illustration package that works under Microsoft Windows. It is designed primarily for graphic artists and technical illustrators who require tools beyond those found in the basic drawing packages. Micrografx Designer offers all the basic drawing tools typically found in drawing programs and includes features such as Bezier curves, curve smoothing, parabolas, polylines, and layering normally found in CAD programs.
A freehand tool can be used to dynamically smooth and reduce the number of points in Bezier curves. The product sizes, scales, and rotates graphics and text in 1/10 degree increments, draws standard shapes and fills them with colour or patterns, and prints in colour or shades of grey. Micrografx Designer includes an auto trace feature to trace almost any scanned image including images saved in .PCX and TIFFformat. This lets you create an object-oriented version that can be resized without loss of image quality or proportionality, and printed at high resolution. You also have the choice of tracing the entire image or only a portion. A zoom feature lets you do detailed work with three levels of magnification. Curves may be edited, smoothed, and unsmoothed. Research Micrografx Designer
TurboCAD is a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) program by IMSI Limited for professionals and corporate design departments, but promising ownership costs similar to conventional Office applications such as spreadsheets and databases. The program includes features like extensive customising capabilities and hooks to external database programs. IMSI also hopes to capitalise on AutoCAD's widespread support industry, with a new programming interface which offers compatibility with AutoCAD add-ons. Research TurboCAD
Cash against documents (CAD) is a payment term for exported goods in which the shipping documents are sent to a bank, agent, etc., in the country to which the goods are being shipped, and the buyer then obtains the documents by paying the invoice amount in cash to the bank, agent, etc. Having the shipping documents enables the buyer to take possession of the goods when they arrive at their port of destination; this is known as documents against presentation. Research Cash against Documents
The CAD Kill Virus is a computer virus which infects .COM, .EXE and overlay files including COMMAND. COM. The virus is loaded into memory by executing an infected program and then affects the computer' s runtime operation and corrupts program or overlay files and data files. Research CAD Kill Virus
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Terry Thomas
