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Click on an element (panel, girder/beam, roof)
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For panels, you will NEXT select either:
full panel, or for inside corners -
snip left side
snip right side
snip both sides
The default mode is "full panel" (preselected).
You THEN click on the desired position for your panel.
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Elements can be displayed either as wireframe or solid.
The default mode is solid rendering. You can switch
between solid and wireframe at any time.
WIREFRAME IS RECOMMENDED FOR PANELS DURING DESIGN PHASE.
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If "Record to file mode" is on, your choices will be
saved to a file in the "designs" folder. The file is
created automatically, and automatically named according
to element type and floor level, such as:
girders1.txt (floor 1)
panels7.txt (floor 7)
roofs2.txt (floor 2)
When you run these files using the "File reader", the
elements will be drawn on screen in the correct order,
in accordance with whatever perspective you've chosen.
Therefore, you do not need to select any of the elements
in any certain order. Avoid redundant selecting of
element positions, or you will slow the automatic
redrawing of your design when using the "File reader".
Hint: If you have elements in a file named "panels1.txt",
you can make a copy of it and name the copy
"panels2.txt". You now have a data base for the
panels of the second floor which is identical to
the first floor. The same of course holds true
for girders, roofs, and any floor number.
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You may select a file for deletion by clicking on the
"Display files" button, or by opening the "designs"
folder. You can manually edit your files using Notepad.
When you edit one of your files, make sure you do not
create a line feed by hitting the "return" or "enter" key
on your keyboard. The text cursor should not move past
the end of the last line of data. Also make sure you do
not leave any blank lines.
You would typically edit a design file if you have
just clicked an element into existence which you wish you
hadn't. There is no need to exit the program -- simply
open your designs folder, open the appropriate file, and
delete the line of data corresponding to the regrettable
element. The lines of data (elements) are displayed in
the text file chronologically as you click elements into
existence, so it is easy to tell which data line to delete
if you do it right away. Make sure to save the file,
then close it. The regrettable element will still be
displayed on the graphics screen, but it will not get
drawn when you tell RogCAD to automatically redraw your
design using the "File reader".
To locate an element in your design text file in a
foolproof manner, you can open an element map. It is
a jpg image file found in the "el-numbers" folder. The
first number in the design text file matches the element
number found in the jpg image of the element map.
Move files you wish to save into a folder of your own
creation.
You should move files once you are happy with their
content, because RogCAD will keep adding to an existing
file when that particular file type is selected again.
Remember, RogCAD automatically creates each file type as
needed.
For that same reason, delete any files whose content you
are not happy with.
RogCAD will draw the elements in your design files when
you click on "Wire auto" or "Solid auto".
"Wire" mode will draw the elements almost instantly.
"Solid" mode will involve a delay, dependent on the number
of elements in the selected file. You will not see
anything happening of the screen until the entire element
set is drawn all at once.
Select "Girder+panel file reader" to combine the girders
and panels from one floor into one autosort and redraw
task. This will yield a very different result from (and
far more useful result than) that obtained when autosorting
and redrawing the girders separately from the panels of
a given floor.
The "Girder+panel file reader" can also be used to combine
roofs and panels from a given floor. But you will not get
good results if you try to combine roofs and girders from
a given floor using this routine. Instead, use the
"Single file reader" for that task. You would of course
also use the "Single file reader" for displaying just one
type of element from a given floor.
Note: It does not matter whether "solid" or "wireframe"
was in effect when elements were added to your design file.
When "Wire auto" or "Solid auto" is selected in the
"File reader" section, elements are drawn based solely on
the mode selected in the "File reader" section.
HINT: Do you like a design you have going, but suddenly
realize you forgot to turn the "Record to file"
to on? No problem. Just switch the element mode
to "wireframe", switch the "Record to file" to on,
then without clearing your screen, quickly click
wireframe elements over the solid elements you have
on screen. Then switch to solid again and continue.
Advanced technique:
You will find that combining girders and panels from
a given floor for autosorting and redrawing will leave
vertical girders showing on the outside corners where
there should be only panels showing. This is a limitation
of RogCAD's sort routine, and requires you to manually
redo the panels on the outside corner.
Usually this is just a minor inconvenience, but a complex
design along with certain perspective conditions might
create a major inconvenience.
However, there is a work around available:
You can break your element group for a given floor into
multiple files. (Some preplanning would be helpful.)
To do this for say, "girders1", click girders into
existence on the first floor to comprise your first
girder group for the first floor.
Next, rename that newly created "girders1.txt" to something
like "girde1s1.txt". Notice that we replaced the "r" with
"1". The "1" can stand for girder group 1 of the first
floor. It is vital that the original "1" remain in
place, since that is the floor number. It is also vital
that the length of the name of the file does not change.
Finally, it is vital that the first four letters remain
"gird". The same holds true for panels ("pane") and
roofs ("roof").
Now you can click more girders into existence on
the first floor and once again RogCAD will create
"girders1.txt" containing these girders comprising your
girder group 2. And so on, as needed.
Now you have the opportunity to have RogCAD autosort
and redraw your elements in multiple groups, once again
making tweaks on outside corners a simple task.
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Clicking on the "Clear screen" button
will clear the screen. The current
perspective information is preserved.
Clearing the screen is useful when you
wish to display your design without the
grid showing.
When you click on the "Display markers"
button, helpful markers appear along
with the layout grid.
To make the display markers go away and
leave just the grid showing, simply click
any view change button (perp - focus - mag)
once on the "+" and once on the "-".
When you click on the "Display cube"
button, a nine story wireframe cube appears.
The "Default view" button returns all
perspective information to the default
program start up view.
There are four basic options for customizing a view:
The x - y - z components of your perspective point.
The x - y - z components of your focal point.
The magnification.
The vertical and horizontal shifting of the display.
RogCAD provides you with three methods for changing
your view options:
The "Quick view change".
The "Rotation controls".
The "Manual view controls".
Experiment with all three.
Initially activating the "Rotation controls" will cause
the view to be reset to the default start up view. But
thereafter, no such resetting will occur.
In "Quick view change", select any of the four types of
colored buttons, then click "SET" in the main window.
If you manually type values into the "Manual view controls"
boxes, you then click the "SET" button to activate your
choices.
You can override the default increment levels by clicking
on the "increment" buttons.
It is possible to temporarily confuse the
rotation controls by having used the other
view change tools.
Simply continuing to click on the rotation
arrow buttons will soon restore their proper
function.
The show/hide perspective-focus-magnification
button is a handy way to check the specifics
of your current view.
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To create a bitmap image of your design, click on
the "Capture screen bmp" button. You must include
the .bmp file extension when naming your file.
All such files created will be automatically saved
to the bmps folder. You can display those image
files in any painting program such as MSPAINT, Corel,
Adobe, Paint Shop Pro, etc.
You can use the "screen capture and retrieve"
routine to make backup images of a design you are
building by periodically capturing the screen.
A text file containing perspective information is
automatically created along with each bmp image file.
You will find both files in the bmps folder.
To display one of your bmp files in RogCAD, click on
the "Display - Retrieve images" button. You will see
a list of your bmp files along with their corresponding
text files.
You can click on either the bmp or txt version of the
file. The image will appear on screen and the program
perspective settings will automatically be set to
match the settings in place when the bmp image was
created.
Do not delete the txt version of the file unless you
also delete the bmp version. Doing so will disable
the retrieve function for that image.
(During an initial design phase, you'll want to leave
the "Record to file" mode set to "off". You might want
to create a bmp image of your initial assemblage,
mistakes included. Open that image in your paint
program and refer to it as you build your design with
"Record to file" set to "on".)
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