DEMO VERSION

DWGDOC VER 1.0 - Copyright (C) 1995 - Sierra Hermitage


DWGDOC is an AutoCad Rel 11 thru 13 (DOS & WINDOWS) compatible program
which allows you to attached and maintain an unlimited number of fully 
editable text files, of unlimited lenght along with the drawing, as an
integral part of it, from within AutoCad, and using the editor of your choice.

The text files are kept totally within, and attached to, the drawing so you
don't have to worry about them becoming lost.  The files are invisible to others
except those using DWGDOC (and know what you named them) or special programming.

The text files can be as long as you wish and you can have as many of them as
you want.  The last line of text in a text file is automatically date and time 
stamped each time you open it for editing, ready for the next entry.

Use them to save any kind of notes regarding the drawing you wish, such as,
a log of time spend in the drawing doing particular tasks, things that need
to be done to the drawing, who did what and when, errors that need to be
corrected, plotting information etc.  You can set up a different file for each 
group of topics or combine everything in one.  Its up to you.

Use them to pass information about the drawing along to associates and as 
reminders to yourself of the drawing status and as a diary of events
concerning the drawing.  Use them to document your layering scheme so that
others don't have to spend hours trying to figure it out.

Use them to keep track of charges against the drawing, like times plotted
and outside services required.  Keep transmittal letters, specifications, faxed
files or even your mother's birth date in them.

Truly makes the drawing self documenting and adds greatly to version control.

Switch between the invisible files easily, so one minute you can document layer
convention and the next minute be building your job specifications.

And they will always be there - no seaching through the hard drive trying to
find your drawing related text files.  They'll be there as long as the drawing
file - unless you decide to delete them.  To delete a file, simply remove all of
the text while in the text editor.

We suggest that you set up a scheme of file names that you'll use consistantly
throughout all your drawings.




               ****   USING THE PROGRAM   ******

The program will work without any setup but the following, one time, setup
will configure your AutoCad to make the best use of DWGDOC.	

DWGDOC is configured to use the editor defined the line:

		EDIT,EDIT,     0,File to edit: ,4

in your ACAD.PGP file.  You'll probably find that file in the SUPPORT
subdirectory.  If you would rather use another editor, change the second
EDIT to drive/path/filename of the editor of your choice.  Be sure that
the editor you choose is capable of handling the size of text files you
intend to create.  You may have already changed that line to use a
different editor.

DWGDOC attaches the text files to the first entities in the drawing.  
If those entities are later deleted the text file will be lost.  To 
protect against that we recommend that you change your prototype drawing 
(usually named ACAD.DWG) to setup safe first entities by doing the following:

	Open your prototype drawing in AutoCad.

	Make a new layer named DWGDOC (or whatever you like).

	Create one entity on that layer - we suggest you make a text
	entity of the word DWGDOC just as a reminder of why its there.
	Use STANDARD text style.  An entity can contain about 16 KB of
	attached data (that's about four pages of 80 column x 50 lines), 
	so determine the maximum size of the total of all files that you
	think you might need and copy the entity enough times to hold
	the text - allow for some overhead, in fact, be very liberal
	because it only adds a few entities to the drawing.  If your 
	files gets larger than you figured don't worry because other 
	entities will be used as needed and there is no problem as long 
	as they aren't erased later.  Later, when you run the program, 
	it will inform you of how many entities were used to save the 
	text file.  Whenever a new text file is created, the drawing must 
	contain (at that time) enough entities (protected or not) to hold 
	the new file together with any previous text files.  The process is 
	dynamic, so entities are reused as text is changed or deleted.  

	Make layer 0 the current layer

	Freeze layer DWGDOC (or whatever you called it)

	Save the drawing and quit.

The above assumes that you currently have no entities in your prototype
drawing.  If you do, start a new drawing and follow the above instruction
up to and including freezing the layer.  Then insert your original prototype 
drawing using the INSERT command (use an asterik * at the beginning of the 
name to explode it), 0,0 as the insertion point and 0 for rotation.  Then 
save this drawing to the same name and path as your original prototype drawing.

Since this is your prototype drawing, the safe entities will be created
automatically each time you create a new drawing.  You can use DWGDOC with
your existing drawings if you feel there is little chance that the first
entities that were created in the drawing will be erased.  The worst that
can happen is that you'll loose the text file.

Be sure that DWGDOC.LSP is in the current directory, or in the AutoCad
search path.

To load the DEMO program type the following at the AutoCad command line:

	(load"dwgdocm")

After that, while you're in the same drawing, just type DWGDOC to start the 
editor.  You must reload DWGDOC if you start a new or different drawing.

The default name for your invisible file is DWGDOC.  When you want write to
another invisibile file type the following at the command line:

	CHGFILE

	Then answer the question about which invisible file you want to start
	working with.  Unless you change it again, DWGDOC will then be working with
	the file you named.  If you type a file name longer than eight characters
	it will be truncated to the first eight characters.  You can have as many
	different files as you wish.  The files in one drawing have no effect on
	files in other drawings, even if they have the same name.

If you're not sure which file you're currently working with just type CURFILE
at the command line and the current file name will be displayed.

That's all there is to it.

This DEMO version is crippled and will only save the first six lines of each
file.  To receive the fully functional registered version send $25 US plus
$5 US shipping and handling (California residents add $1.94 sales tax) to:

DWGDOC
Sierra Hermitage
140 Mesa Vista Drive
Bishop, CA  93514
Ph:  619-387-2479
Email:	hermit1@ix.netcom.com   or   73607.2527@compuserve.com

See ORDERFRM.TXT for an order form.

See RUNLISP.TXT for information on other AutoCad related programs offered
by Sierra Hermitage.

