*I  General Help   Action   Files |  ACAD  Extra  Utility   OS Shell   Configure n Directory c Editing Keys  Mouse  Shell Mode ! Scripts # File Lists %  Database '  File Description '  File Path *  CAD Program +  Directories P-  ACADCFG Directory 0  About 2  About Help definition for LaunchCAD v 3.4 *B 1,General Help Valid keys in pulldown menus: Arrow Keys - movement of selection bar [Left Mouse Button] or... [Enter] - selects menu item under bar [Right Mouse Button] or... [Esc] - backup 1 menu or exits from top menu. [AltX] - Immediately exit program Help ^ACAD^ ^About^ ^Configure^ Index ^Directory^ ^Extra^ ^Editing Keys^ ^Files^ ^File Lists^ ^Mouse^ ^OS Shell^ ^Scripts^ ^Utility^ Press [Esc] to exit help. *E *B 2,Action  acTion Select which AutoCAD Main Menu option to execute. These selections correspond to the AutoCAD opening menu selections. New - Edit a new drawing. A prototype drawing can be slected from the "Extra" menu Existing - Select an existing drawing to edit. Plot - Select a drawing file to plot. Printer Plot - Select a drawing file to printer plot. Batch operations can be performed on a list of files by using a script file with a file list for these three selections. *P  acTion Configure - Configure AutoCAD File Utilities - AutoCAD's file utilities Compile Shape/ Font file - Select a .SHP file to compile to a .SHX file Release 11 functions: Convert old drawing Recover Damaged Drawing See Also: ^File Lists^ ^Directory^ ^General Help^ *E *B 3,Files  Files Select a path and drawing file for AutoCAD to use. ^File Path^ - Enter a drive and directory. ^Directory^ - Pick an existing file from a list. New - Type in a filename LaunchCAD will add the .DWG file extention to the name that you enter. Clear - Close any file list that is active. *P  File Utilities Erase - erase a file on disk Copy - copy a file Rename - rename a file eXecute - select another program to run See Also: ^General Help^ *E *B 4,ACAD  ACAD Launch AutoCAD - Start AutoCAD with the file(s) and parameters that you have selected. A script file is created by LaunchCAD to execute those commands then AutoCAD is started. Run AutoCAD Directly - Start AutoCAD with no action ignoring any selected files or actions. See Also: ^General Help^ *E *B 5,Extra  Extra Prototype Drawing - Select a drawing prototype for a new drawing. Initial command - A command which AutoCAD will execute once your drawing has been loaded. Script file - A script to execute after the drawing has loaded. See Also: ^General Help^ *E *B 6,Utility  Utility Delete .BAK Files - Erases from the current directory. View a Slide - View an AutoCAD .SLD (slide) file. View a Drawing - View an AutoCAD .DWG (drawing) file. Edit a File - Edit an ASCII (text) file. View a File - View an ASCII (text) file. Run Utility - Run a user specified Utility program These utilities must be specified during configuration and located in the current directory or in a path DOS can find See Also: ^General Help^ *E *B 7,OS Shell  DOS You may temporarily exit to DOS or optionally specify a DOS command to perform (similar to the AutoCAD SH or SHELL commands). LaunchCAD can swap all but about 700 bytes of its own memory to disk or EMS to provide a large memory space for you to run other programs while shelled out. The prompt is also changed to remind you to enter EXIT to return. See Also: ^General Help^ *E *B 8,Configure  Configure LaunchCAD External programs - enter the command that will execute the DOS utility programs external to LaunchCAD. ^CAD program^ - the filename that you wish to execute to start AutoCAD. ^Directories^ - default directories for drawing and other files. *P  Configure LaunchCAD (contd) Default script filename - the script file will be used for file lists if one has not been selected in the "Extra" menu. Background fill character Color set - Select one of three color sets *P  Configure LaunchCAD (contd) Mouse mode - FULL: free mouse cursor KEYS: Mouse will simulate cursor keys NONE: disable mouse Shell swap mode - Select Swap to make additional memory available for utility programs executed from LaunchCAD. See Also: ^General Help^ *E *B 9,Directory  Directory Letter key - find name with same first letter Up/Down - move up/down Tab/Lt/Rt - move to dir/file window PgUp/PgDn - move up/down a page Home/End - move to top/bottom file name Alt-D - select disk drive Alt-S - select file sort method Alt-F - popup file description window Escape - Exit - no file selected spacebar - tag file Enter - Select file, or directory Enter - Select tagged files as file list See Also: ^File Lists^ ^File Description^ ^General Help^ *E *B 10,Editing Keys The following keys are active in data entry fields:  Cursor Movement Arrow keys - cursor movement Ctrl-LeftArrow - word left Ctrl-RightArrow - word right Home - beginning of field End - end of line/field Ctrl-Home - beginning of first field Ctrl-End - end of last field Tab - next field Shift-Tab - previous field *P  Inserting and Deleting Ins - toggle insert mode Del - delete character at cursor BackSpace - delete character left Ctrl-BackSpace - delete word left Ctrl-T - delete word right Ctrl-U - delete to end of field Ctrl-Y - delete to end of form *P  Other Editing Keys Enter - process current field Ctrl-Enter - process all fields Ctrl-R - restore field Esc - abort data entry F2 - popup directory in at file prompt See Also: ^General Help^ *E *B 11,Mouse  Mouse LaunchCAD supports three modes of mouse operation, a free floating mouse cursor, keystroke simulation, or the mouse can be disabled. In free floating mode the left mouse button selects the item under the mouse cursor. Pressing the right mouse button is the same as pressing the escape key. *P  Mouse (continued) If a pick list is displayed, page up and page down can be selected by clicking the left mouse button while the cursor is on the top or bottom border of the window. In the directory window the "Select Drive" or "Select Sort" buttons can be executed with the left mouse button. See Also: ^General Help^ *E *B 12,Shell Mode  Select a Shell Mode end - save current drawing and select new file wend - save current drawing and select new file quit - quit current drawing and select new file lisp - load and execute an AutoLISP program. insert - insert a drawing file as a block. dxfin - load a DXF file. dxbin - load a DXB file. vslide - view an AutoCAD SLD file. menu - load an AutoCAD menu file. ESC / AltX - return to AutoCAD See Also: ^General Help^ *E *B 13,Scripts  Scripts A script file can be selected that will be executed after the drawing loads. If a file list is active, then the script will be run for each drawing file. If you are using a script with a file list be sure to include commands to exit the drawing editor eg .END or .QUIT Y as the last line of the script. See Also: ^General Help^ ^File Lists^ ^Directory^ *E *B 13,File Lists  File Lists A file list is created by marking drawing files from the directory window. Files are marked by pressing the space bar over the selected file. The space bar will toggle the mark (a diamond) next to the file name. Once all files are marked, press to add the files to the file list. The file list can contain files from different drives and directories. See Also: ^General Help^ ^Directory^ ^Scripts^ *E *B 14,Database *E *B 15,File Description  File Description The file description window is selected from the directory display with the Alt-F key. A short file description can be entered here by pressing Alt-E to pop up an entry window for each file. You can also select a file (and save any description changes) in this window pressing the Left Mouse Button, or by pressing [Enter]. The Right Mouse Button and [Escape] also will save any changes and then exit to the directory window. See Also: ^Directory^ ^General Help^ *E *B 16,File Path  File Path Enter the full DOS path including drive and sub- directories. If the path does not exist then LaunchCAD will create a new directory. See Also: ^Files^ ^Directory^ ^General Help^ *E *B 17,CAD Program  CAD Program Filename Enter the full path of the filename to execute (normally ACAD.EXE), if you wish to execute another program (eg "Big Shell" or SHROOM) then enter their file names here. NOTE: Only .EXE or .COM programs can be executed directly by LaunchCAD. If this field is blank LaunchCAD will exit after creating a script file. You must then execute AutoCAD from the next item of a batch file: LC %1 ACAD ~ LC ACAD ~ %USERNAME% See Also: ^General Help^ ^Directory^ *E *B 18,Directories  Directories Starting Directory - the directory from which AutoCAD will be executed. If this field is left blank, LaunchCAD will execute AutoCAD from the same directory as the selected drawing. Default Directories - the following entries will set the default path to files. The directory window will display files from this directory when it first opens. *P Default Drawing directory - *.DWG files Default AutoLISP directory - *.LSP files Default Menu directory - *.MNX files Default Block directory - *.DWG files See Also: ^ACADCFG Directory^ ^File Path^ ^General Help^ *E *B 19,ACADCFG Directory  ACADCFG Directory If you wish to specify a directory for AutoCAD to use for storing a user specific configuration then enter that dirtectory here. This allows each user on a network to have a different AutoCAD configuration This is the same as the DOS command: SET ACADCFG= Any directory specified will override any SET ACADCFG previously executed. See Also: ^General Help^ ^File Path^ *E *B 20,About LaunchCAD, copyright 1988-91 Mountain Software all rights reserved LaunchCAD is shareware available from: Jerry Workman, PE Mountain Software 1579 Nottingham Road Charleston, WV 25314 ph 304-744-7748 (after 7:30PM eastern) Press Enter for ^General Help^ or Esc to quit help *E