Display List Driver VGA Version 2.0 for AutoCAD Release 10 (also supports AutoCAD 386, AutoShade v1.X, and AutoSketch) Features: * Accelerates redraws, pans, and zooms. * Easy to use - no new commands or special menus to learn. * Completely Release 10 compatible. * Works with AutoCAD 386, AutoShade, AutoShade 386, and AutoSketch. * Can use expanded memory, extended memory, and/or disk for display list storage and manipulation. * Not copy protected. * Works with most popular EMS emulators. * Will support higher resolutions on many popular VGAs. System Requirements: * A PC that supports AutoCAD Release 10 or AutoCAD 386. * A VGA board. * We recommend, but do not require, at least 64K of expanded memory. If this is not available, the display list can be stored in extended memory or on disk. Part of the CAD AcceleratorsTM family from PANACEA Inc. Panacea Display List Driver-VGA (DLD-VGATM) Installation Guide Display List Driver-VGA A note on copy protection: DLD-VGA is not copy-protected. However, few driver programs such as this one are sold commercially, partly because they are often illegally copied. Most often the copiers have the money to buy their own copy, but simply don't take the time to do so. Please help support our efforts to extend the functionality of CAD programs without putting unnecessary burdens on our customers. If a friend or co-worker wants a copy of this software, ask them to call their local dealer, or Panacea Inc. at (800) 729-7420 from the US and Canada, (603) 437-5022 from all other countries. We will be happy to take the order over the phone, and will ship overnight for a small additional charge; MasterCard, VISA, and American Express accepted. Site licensing terms are available. Help us keep you up-to-date with the latest and greatest version. Fill out and return the registration card today. Remember, registered users get free technical support and 120 days of free updates. Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Panacea Inc. (Late additions to this document may be found in the READ.ME file on the distribution disk.) The software described in this document is furnished under a license agreement or nondisclosure agreement. The software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the agreement. It is against the law to copy DLD-VGA on magnetic tape, disk, or any other medium for any purpose other than the purchaser's personal use, as defined in the license agreement. Copyright (c) 1989,1990 by Panacea Inc. All rights reserved. AutoCAD is a registered trademark, and AutoShade and AutoSketch are trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. Display List Driver-VGA, DLD-VGA, Display List Driver, DLD, CustomColors, Panacea, DLD386, "The Designated Drivers", The Big Picture, and CAD Accelerators are trademarks of Panacea Inc. Table of Contents DLD-VGA Version 2.0 Table of Contents Table of Contents 1. Quick Start 1 2. The Panacea Display List Driver-VGA 2 3. Installing and Configuring DLD-VGA 3 4. Changing Colors 7 5. Advanced Features 10 6. Memory Usage and Lists 11 7. The Remove/Overwrite Option 14 8. Tips & Tricks 15 Appendix A: Support Information 16 Panacea Inc. Londonderry Square, Suite 305 50 Nashua Road Londonderry, NH 03053-3444 Sales: 800-729-7420 Voice: 603-437-5022 FAX: 603-434-2461 DLD-VGA Version 2.0  Chapter 1 - Quick Start Quick Start These pages sum up the basics of installing and using DLD-VGA. Please see the rest of the manual for details. Thanks for the memory. You may wish to purchase and install additional RAM before installing DLD-VGA. At least 1 Mbyte should be available for the driver. Use expanded (LIM/EMS) memory or an EMS emulator program for top performance. Rerun the install program, DLDSETUP, if you change the amount of memory in your system. To install DLD-VGA. ù Create a new directory, DLDVGA, on your hard disk and copy all the files from the DLD-VGA floppy into it. ù Go to the new directory and run DLDSETUP, following the instructions onscreen (press "?" at any prompt to get context sensitive help). Notes: - If you are using AutoCAD 386, AutoShade 386 or Extended AutoLisp, preallocate the memory. - If possible, set aside at least 1 Mbyte for the driver. - Select your video card and desired resolution from the list. If your card isn't on the list, try the "Your own BIOS" option or the Generic IBM compatible VGA option, or contact Panacea (as described in Appendix A) for assistance. - Copy the FASTACAD.BAT file created by DLDSETUP to your AutoCAD directory. - Run COLOR16 (for 16 color VGA setup) or COLOR256 (for 256 color VGA setup) to configure the driver with the colors you want to use. ù Reconfigure AutoCAD to use the ADI 4.0 display device; see page 23 of the AutoCAD Release 10 "Installation and Performance Guide" for details. What's it do? DLD-VGA does two things to speed AutoCAD: ù Creates and maintains a Display List - a fast-displaying vector list of the current drawing - dramatically increasing performance on pans and zooms. ù Creates and maintains a prescaled Fast Redraw List, allowing redraws to display an average of eight times faster than without the driver. What's the Catch? The only resource used by DLD-VGA is memory. The driver itself takes up about 45 Kbytes of RAM from below the DOS 640 Kbyte limit. The Display List size can vary from one tenth to three times the size of the current drawing file; the size of the Fast Redraw List varies. We recommend at least 1 Mbyte be set aside for Display List Driver-VGA. DLD-VGA uses only the memory you set aside for it. If the Fast Redraw List runs out of memory, it's abandoned until you pan or zoom. If the Display List also runs out of memory, it's abandoned, and the message: DISPLAY LIST OVERFLOW appears. If this occurs frequently, you may need to increase the amount of memory allocated to the driver and/or add memory to your system to get the full benefit of using DLD-VGA. You can also allow the display list to overflow to disk, which prevents your system from slowing back down to normal AutoCAD speed, but which also does not give you the same performance as working entirely out of RAM would. What If I Have Problems? Please check the rest of the manual for an answer; then, see Appendix A for information about how to contact our free fax, email, and phone support. Thank you for purchasing DLD-VGA! Chapter 2 - The Panacea Display List Driver-VGA DLD-VGA Version 2.0  The Panacea Display List Driver-VGA The Panacea Display List Driver-VGA (or DLD-VGA) has only one purpose: to speed up AutoCAD REDRAWs, PANs, and ZOOMs. The driver is memory-resident and inserts itself between AutoCAD and the VGA board. It has no other effect on AutoCAD's operation besides speeding the program up; it runs with AutoShade and AutoSketch, but does not affect the speed of these programs, since they do not support display lists. Installing the driver does not change any of the AutoCAD program files or alter any of the drawing files stored on disk. There is no change to the user's interface with AutoCAD, AutoShade, or AutoSketch. Our intention is to offer an easy-to-use product at a low price, rather than a complicated one at a high price. How does DLD-VGA make AutoCAD run faster? There are two things the driver does to speed operation: ù AutoCAD usually stores drawings in a hierarchical structure, with simple elements intermixed with complex ones. Every time the screen is updated, AutoCAD must decode this structure. DLD-VGA works differently. While you are working, it translates the normal hierarchical structure into a Display List, a series of vectors. (The ability to support display lists was specifically added to AutoCAD with Release 10 via the ADI 4.0 interface.) When you pan or zoom, the driver scales the Display List, then writes the resulting vectors to the VGA hardware. Since the hierarchical structure does not have to be decoded, drawing proceeds very quckly. ù In addition to the Display List, DLD-VGA also maintains a Fast Redraw List. This is an already-scaled version of the Display List and allows for even faster redrawing. The Fast Redraw List is cleared on pans and zooms (because they cause a change in what information is being viewed), so it only helps on redraws. (Pans and zooms still run much faster than with the standard AutoCAD driver because of the Display List.) AutoCAD users often have a screen cluttered with leftover pieces (blips) from editing operations. The Fast Redraw List allows for quick removal of these screen artifacts. How much does DLD-VGA speed things? Pans and zooms, aided by the Display List, run from two to eight times faster with the new driver. And the Fast Redraw List further speeds things up to the point that redraws can be up to ten times faster with DLD-VGA, compared to the VGA driver shipped with AutoCAD. Chapter 3 - Installing and Configuring DLD-VGA DLD-VGA Version 2.0  Installing and Configuring DLD-VGA Before starting, please make a backup copy of the distribution disk and put it in a safe place. If you have additional memory at hand, and a driver which will make extended memory act as expanded (LIM/EMS) memory, install and configure it before running the DLD-VGA configuration program. The description below is exact, and describes what's happening at each step. For a brief how-to, see the Quick Start section at the front of the manual. 1. Insert the DLD-VGA disk in your floppy disk drive and then go to the drive (via "A:" if you placed the diskette in drive A, for example). 2. From the floppy drive, type INSTALL C:\DLDVGA to install the software on drive C, in the DLDVGA subdirectory. Feel free to change the drive and pathname to suit your needs. Once all the files are copied by the install program, go to the destination directory. Alternately, you could manually create the destination directory and just use the DOS COPY command to copy the contents of the DLD-VGA diskette to the destination directory. DLD-VGA requires approximately 310K of disk space for all its files. 3. Make sure you're in the directory that you installed DLD-VGA into and type DLDSETUP to start the configuration program. 4. An information screen about what DLDSETUP does will appear. Press any key to continue once you have read the overview. Tip: Getting Help at the Touch of a Key Help during DLDSETUP is only a keystroke away. At any time, you can press the question mark ("?") key to get help information pertaining to the current DLDSETUP prompt. Please note that the DLDSETUP.HLP file must be present in order for help to appear. 5. A prompt requesting the drive for display list overflow will appear. With DLD-VGA, you have the option to allow the display list and the fast-redraw list to overflow to disk in the event that the display lists run out of RAM storage space. At the prompt, enter the drive letter of the overflow disk. Note that you can run DLD-VGA entirely off of the disk using this feature. You can also have this point to a RAM disk (or VDISK). To disable the overflow, leave this prompt blank. Tip: Reconfiguring and Backing Out of DLDSETUP If you need to make some change to an existing configuration, running DLDSETUP again will allow you to reconfigure DLD-VGA with all the prompts defaulting to the values you had selected during your previous configuration. If you want to start with a completely fresh installation, just delete DLDSETUP.DAT in the directory pointed to by the DLDCFG environment variable. Also, if at any point during the configuration process you want to change an item on a previous menu, just press the ESC key until you have returned to the desired menu. Pressing ESC at the Disk Overflow prompt will return you to DOS without making any changes to your configuration. 6. The Memory Configuration Menu will appear. A display of your available system resources will appear, listing the amount of Expanded (LIM/EMS) and Extended memory available. Check that the amounts listed are correct. If you have Extended memory on a 386 machine, or on a 286 using the ALL Chargecard, you may wish to use or purchase a driver which allows the extended memory to be used as expanded (LIM/EMS) memory, because EXPanded memory is faster to access than EXTended. Also, using only Extended memory will increase the base amount of memory used by the driver. For more information about the memory types, see Chapter 6 - Memory Usage and Lists. 7. The first option on the Memory Configuration Menu is whether or not you want to Pre-Allocate EMS/Extended Memory. If you are planning on running AutoCAD 386, AutoShade 386, or Extended AutoLisp, you must set this option to Yes. For regular AutoCAD Release 10 or AutoShade operation, either setting will be fine. Note that if you do preallocate the memory, the only way you'll be able to free it up is by unloading the driver (see Chapter 5 - Advanced Features for more information) or by rebooting your system.. 8. Enter the amount of Expanded (LIM/EMS) memory you wish to use for the driver, or use the default amount displayed. The minimum amount of Expanded memory you can enter is 64 Kbytes. Use Expanded memory, which is faster to access, rather than Extended memory where possible. The driver will use expanded memory until it runs out, then will use any allocated extended memory. If extended memory also runs out, the driver will overflow the remaining display list information to disk, if so configured. Tip: Memory Sizes Rounded Up Remember that the number you enter for memory size will be rounded up to the next multiple of 16 as soon as you go to the next field. If you specify more memory than is actually available, an error message will appear when you try to accept the entries you have made for configuration. 9. Enter the amount of Expanded (LIM/EMS) memory you wish to use for AutoCAD, or use the default amount displayed. The sum of the expanded memory used for DLD-VGA and for AutoCAD must be less than or equal to the total amount of expanded memory available. Any expanded memory not in use by AutoCAD and DLD-VGA is available for use by other programs. 10. Enter the amount of Extended memory you wish to use for the driver, or use the default amount displayed. 11. Enter the amount of Extended memory you wish to use for AutoCAD and AutoLisp, or use the default amounts displayed. The sum of the extended memory used for DLD-VGA, AutoCAD, and for AutoLisp must be less than or equal to the total amount of extended memory available. Any extended memory not in use by DLD-VGA, AutoCAD, and AutoLisp is available for use by other programs. 12. To progress to the next menu, the Driver Selection Menu, you must hit F10. 13. You will now be prompted for the type of DLD-VGA driver you wish to use: 16 Color or 256 Color. The 16 Color driver (DLDVGA.EXE) supports AutoCAD and AutoSketch in 16 colors at any 16 color resolution supported by your VGA board, and AutoShade in any 256 Color resolution. The 256 Color driver (DLDVG256.EXE) supports AutoCAD, AutoSketch, and AutoShade only in your VGA board's 256 color modes. While you have many more colors to choose from in AutoCAD and AutoSketch in the 256 Color mode, drawing will be somewhat slower because the driver has to manipulate more bytes of information on the display. 14. To progress to the next menu, the Driver Configuration Menu, you must hit F10 or Enter. 15. The Single vs Dual Screen option is used to tell the driver if you want to operate on only one screen (the one attached to the VGA board) or two (in case you also have a Monochrome Display Adapter in the same system as the VGA). If you choose Automatic, the driver will run single screen if AutoCAD is started on the VGA, and dual screen if you start AutoCAD from the monochrome display. Selecting Always Dual will cause the driver to always run in dual screen mode - don't select this mode if you don't have a monochrome board in your system. 16. The next item on this menu is the Interrupt Vector to use for communicating with AutoCAD. The default is 7A (hexidecimal). Don't change this number unless you have a serious need to do so, and if you do change it, make sure to reconfigure AutoCAD to use the new vector number. 17. The Flip Screen Method is a fail-safe feature. In virtually all cases the Instant selection will suffice, but in some rare cases the combination of a certain VGA with a system may result in artifacts on the display when doing a flip screen back to the graphics display. If this occurs on your system, use the Force Redraw option to eliminate this artifacting. Please note that this prompt does not appear when you have selected the 256 Color VGA driver, since in the 256 color modes you are always running in the Force Redraw mode. 18. You may choose what Font size you would like to use for your AutoCAD menus, pull-downs, and dialog boxes: 8x8/8x14/8x16. All the fonts are 8 pixels wide, but the height varies. For resolutions above 800x600 we recommend the 8x16 font selection. The default is the 8x14 font. 19. Enter the method for updating the Display List: Remove/Overwrite/Disable. For trouble-free operation, we suggest that you choose Overwrite initially. When an object is erased or moved, the Remove option causes its vectors to be removed from the Display List. The Overwrite option causes new "erase" vectors to be added to the Display List so the object will be drawn, then rubbed out on screen updates. This option avoids the potentially major list update delay associated with the Remove option, but increases redraw time and makes the Display List larger (you can clean up the display list with the DLDCLEAN command - see Chapter 5 - Advanced Features for more information). Disable disables the Display List - the Fast Redraw List is still maintained unless you specifically disable it as well. See Chapter 7 - The Remove/Overwrite Option, for complete information. 20. Enter the method for updating the Fast Redraw List: Remove/Overwrite/Disable. For trouble-free operation, we suggest that you choose Overwrite initially. When an object is erased or moved, the Remove option causes its vectors to be removed from the Fast Redraw List. The Overwrite option causes new "erase" vectors to be added to the Fast Redraw List so the object will be drawn, then rubbed out on screen redraws. This option avoids the potentially major list update delay associated with the Remove option, but increases redraw time and makes the Fast Redraw List larger. Disable disables the Fast Redraw List, slowing redraws to pan/zoom speed. 21. Choose a video card from the list which appears when you press . You may need to page up or down to find your card. The list of cards that appears may not include your specific brand of VGA. If that's the case, you can either choose one of the existing board options or the "Your own BIOS" option. The latter will allow you to tell the installation program how to set up the VGA for a resolution beyond the standard VGA resolutions of 640x480 for the 16 color mode or beyond 320x200 for the 256 color mode. The information you need to supply is normally listed in the documentation that came with your VGA board. If you can't find this information, please contact either the VGA manufacturer or Panacea. Once you have made a board selection, you will have to select the resolution that you want to run AutoCAD and AutoShade at. Press the key once you have made your choice. 22. Once all changes are made, press the key to save the configuration information. The batch file FASTACAD.BAT will be created in the current directory, and the configuration file DLDSETUP.DAT will be created in either the directory pointed to by the DLDCFG environment variable or, if DLDCFG is not set, in the current directory. 23. Configure your colors by running COLOR16.EXE if you are using the 16 color VGA modes, or COLOR256.EXE if you are using the 256 color VGA modes. See Chapter 4 - Changing Colors for more information on configuring your AutoCAD colors. 24. Copy the newly created FASTACAD.BAT to your boot drive root directory, your AutoCAD directory, or into any directory on your DOS path. Then, whenever you want to load DLD-VGA, just run the FASTACAD.BAT file. 25. If you want the driver to be installed automatically at startup, edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and add a line to run FASTACAD to the end of it; i.e., "FASTACAD". This assumes that the directory in which FASTACAD.BAT resides is in your PATH. If you have DOS 3.2 or earlier, the command needs to be at the end of your batch file because DOS can't return to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file after running the FASTACAD batch file. If you have DOS 3.3 or subsequent versions of DOS, use the command "CALL FASTACAD" instead, anywhere in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. If you don't wish to put the command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, you may put it in a batch file which also starts AutoCAD, or simply remember to run FASTACAD before starting AutoCAD. (You should also stop using any ADI driver that may have come with your VGA board, since DLD-VGA is a superset of that type of driver.) The FASTACAD batch file contains several SET commands which set memory options for AutoCAD and point to the directory in which DLD-VGA can find current configuration information. Then the file runs the DLDVGA.EXE file (for 16 color VGA modes, or DLDVG256.EXE for the 256 color modes) which installs DLD-VGA in memory. The driver examines the SET commands to determine how to use available memory. The actual configuration information for DLD-VGA is located in the file DLDSETUP.DAT, which was created or modified when you last ran DLDSETUP. 26. Run the FASTACAD program, or restart your system (if you've modified the AUTOEXEC.BAT file) to start the driver. 27. Change the AutoCAD display device configuration by starting AutoCAD, and then from the main menu, select option 5, Configure AutoCAD. From there, select option 3, Configure Video Display. Choose the ADI display v 4.0 as your display device. For more details, please refer to the page 23 of the AutoCAD "Installation and Performance Guide", paragraph 3.2.2. 28. You are now ready to use your accelerated AutoCAD. If you are not sure that AutoCAD is using DLD-VGA, type DLDUSAGE at the AutoCAD command prompt while editing a drawing. If DLD-VGA is loaded and running, this command should return information about memory usage. If AutoCAD reports an error instead, your DLD-VGA is not properly loaded. Chapter 4 - Changing Colors DLD-VGA Version 2.0  Changing Colors With the advent of DLD-VGA Version 2.0, you now receive Panacea's revolutionary CustomColors color configuration utility. What's so unique about CustomColors is that it gives you the ability to modify all your AutoCAD colors, including menu colors, text colors, dialog box colors, and even drawing colors. CustomColors simulates an AutoCAD screen, complete with all possible objects. For editing the color configuration when you are running AutoCAD in 16 colors on a VGA, use COLOR16.EXE to load CustomColors, and for the 256 color VGA modes use COLOR256.EXE. Once you enter the utility, you are provided with the following configuration menu at the bottom of the screen: (O)bject, (D)rawing, (P)hysical, (A)DI pal, (V)GA pal, (R)eset, (L)oad, (S)ave, (E)xit (Note that in COLOR256, there is no "(D)rawing" option) The menu items perform the following functions. Object Selecting this option will allow you to change the color of any AutoCAD screen object, such as the graphics area background color, the menu area text color, or the border line color. Select the object whose color you want to change by moving the highlight box around with the left and right cursor control keys and pressing ENTER when you have highlighted the desired object. Note that a one line description of the object type is displayed at the top of the screen as you move the box around. Once you have selected the object, another highlight box will appear around the color boxes nearest the bottom of the screen. These are the physical colors that the VGA board supports. Use the left and right cursor keys (as well as the up and down keys in the 256 color mode) to select which physical color should be used for the object you have selected and press ENTER. The screen will quickly redraw with the new color selection for the object you have chosen, and you will be back at the start of object selection in case you want to change the color of another object. It is important to note that when you change the background color to a new color, all drawing colors identical to that new color will be swapped with the previous background color in COLOR16. For example, if your current background color is white and you change it to blue, all the boxes in the drawing color area (middle of the screen in 16 color mode) that used to be the same shade of blue will become white. In the 16 color mode, drawing color 0 always reflects the background color. In COLOR256, changing the background color will only cause physical color 0 to assume the same color as the color you have selected. No other colors will be affected, unless you have chosen color 0 for another object, in which case it will have the same color as the new background.. Special Keys Note that at any time during color configuration, you can press the ESC key once or twice and return to the configuration menu. Also, pressing the question mark ("?") key will provide you with context sensitive help. Drawing This option allows you to modify all the AutoCAD drawing colors (color 0 through 255) in a fashion similar to the way you change object colors. NOTE: In COLOR256, this option is not available since you can directly modify the all of the 256 physical colors directly, therefore the remainder of this explanation only applies when using COLOR16. When this option is selected, a highlight square appears in the drawing color area of the simulated AutoCAD display. The square can be manipulated using the four cursor keys. You may notice that the drawing color portion of the display is laid out just like the CHROMA drawing supplied with AutoCAD. When you press ENTER, the highlight moves down to the 16 physical colors, just as it does during the object color selection. Pick the physical color you want used for the selected drawing color using the arrow keys and then press ENTER to have your selection take effect. The Highlight Box and the AutoCAD Crosshair Cursor The highlight box used to select drawing colors and physical colors may at times be hard to see, namely because of the background color you have selected. CustomColors was intentionally designed to work this way, because the highlight box color happens to be the same as the one used by the AutoCAD crosshair cursor and the AutoCAD UCS icon. So if you can't see the highlight box during the color configuration, then you won't be able to see the cursor when running AutoCAD. If you can't find another background color that "feels" right and still want to use the one that was causing you problems with the highlight box, you can choose an alternate background color and then modify the associated physical color to suit your needs. Physical Choosing the Physical option from the menu allows you to alter the red, green, and blue components of the physical colors. A highlight box will appear in the row of 16 physical colors at the bottom of the screen in COLOR16 or somewhere in the large block of 256 physical colors in COLOR256. Use the arrow keys to select the color you wish to edit and press ENTER. Three "sliders" will appear near the bottom of the display, with the horizontal position of the slider for each of the color components (red, green, or blue - RGB) indicating the relative intensity of the component. You can use the left and right arrow keys to move the slider for the selected component, or type in a number from 0 to 255. Note that VGAs only support 64 intensities per color component, so an intensity of 0 is the same as an intensity of 3. The up and down arrows allow you to select which component you want to alter. As you manipulate the sliders, all objects on the display that are of the same color as the selected physical color will change in hue. This way you can visually determine the most appropriate setting for your display. Pressing ENTER will set the RGB values you have selected for the physical color you were modifying. ADI pal This constructs a default ADI color palette, as defined in the Autodesk Device Interface Driver Development Kit. VGA pal This constructs a default VGA color palette, as defined when you select the VGA display device during AutoCAD configuration. Reset This option will reset the physical colors to their initial state. The initial state depends on which of the two palettes (ADI or VGA) you selected prior to choosing this command. If you are selecting this option in a freshly loaded version of COLOR16 or COLOR256, the initial palette will be assumed to be the ADI palette. Load This reloads the color information from the file DLDCOLOR.DAT. It will be loaded from the directory pointed to by DLDCFG, or from the current directory if DLDCFG is not set. If DLDCOLOR.DAT cannot be found, an error message will be displayed. This command is useful because it allows you to go back to your previously edited color configuration in case you have made some mistakes in configuring your colors that you want to undo. Caution! Don't Accidently Wipe Out Your Changes Selecting ADI pal, VGA pal, Reset or Load will irrevocably wipe out any current color changes you may have made, unless you have just saved your new setting, so use them only when you really need to, such as when you have made so many color changes that you can't seem to get back to a reasonable place and just want to start over. Save Save the current color palette to DLDCOLOR.DAT. It will be saved to the directory pointed to by DLDCFG, or to the current directory if DLDCFG is not set. Exit Exits CustomColors. If you have made palette changes, but not saved them, you will be asked if you want to save your changes before exiting. Chapter 5 - Advanced Features DLD-VGA Version 2.0  Advanced Features Among the additional features not accessible through the installation program are a memory meter, a command to manually clean up the display lists, a current color indicator, and the ability to unload or "uninstall" DLD-VGA. Memory Meter While in AutoCAD, you can check to see how much memory the display list and fast-redraw list are occupying at any time. The way to do this is by typing DLDUSAGE at the "Command:" prompt. DLDUSAGE will return information about how much EMS and Extended memory is still available, and how much memory each viewport is occupying. Since AutoCAD can support up to four viewports, it is possible to have up to four display lists. But multiple viewports don't necessarily have to use multiple display lists, even though each viewport will have its own fast-redraw list, because of an AutoCAD feature known as slave viewports. If a viewport is a slave of another viewport (known as the master viewport), then the slave and the master share the same display list, and therefore only the master viewport will show any memory in use for a display list when using DLDUSAGE. Display List Cleanup While in the Overwrite mode for display list maintenance, the display lists can get quite large because of multiple ERASEs, MOVEs, ROTATEs, etc. (see Chapter 7 - The Remove/Overwrite Option). And the same may occur, although at a slower pace, in the Remove mode. Instead of having to do a REGEN to recreate the display lists from scratch, you can use the DLDCLEAN command to clean up the display lists. The DLDCLEAN command removes all deleted objects from the display lists and requires as much time as an AutoCAD REDRAW to perform its operation. Note that the whole display will be erased and recreated as part of this clean up process. In a multiple viewport setting, this means that all viewports and their associated lists will be cleaned up. Current Color/Layer Indicator Another feature that will simplify drawing under AutoCAD is the addition of a small, outlined box on the left edge of the status line. Inside the box is the current AutoCAD drawing color. If the status line is disabled, this box will not appear. Uninstall Once you are done with running AutoCAD and want to run some other application, it really doesn't make sense to have the driver loaded anymore. Therefore, we have implemented the capability to uninstall DLD-VGA. To unload the driver from memory, just type DLDVGA -U (or DLDVG256 -U) in the directory that DLDVGA.EXE (or DLDVG256.EXE) resides in, and unless you have loaded some other memory resident programs after loading DLD-VGA, the memory occupied by the driver will be returned to the pool of free memory used by DOS. Note: If you have changed the interrupt vector that DLD-VGA uses to communicate with AutoCAD, you will have to make sure that the DLDCFG environment variable points to the directory containing your DLDSETUP.DAT configuration file, since it contains information on which vector DLD-VGA is installed at. (The last line of the FASTACAD.BAT file should list the proper command line options to use when uninstalling the driver.) Chapter 6 - Memory Usage and Lists DLD-VGA Version 2.0  Memory Usage and Lists DLD-VGA uses two types of memory: program memory (also referred to as conventional memory), which is the memory in the first megabyte of your PC, normally where DOS resides; and display list memory, which can consist of Expanded memory, Extended memory, and disk space. With respect to conventional memory, DLD-VGA occupies approximately 45K of conventional memory when used with at least 64K of Expanded (LIM/EMS) memory. If sufficient Expanded memory is not available, DLD-VGA will have to allocate an additional 32K of conventional memory (for a total of 77K) for its internal use. Regarding display list memory, it's important to realize that DLD-VGA speeds up AutoCAD operations by creating a Display List in extended or expanded memory, and sending that list to the VGA for pans and zooms. Redraws are run from the Fast Redraw List, which is even faster. But both of these lists take up memory. How much memory? For production use, we recommend that at least 1 megabyte be set aside for DLD-VGA. The Display List for a simple drawing like the shuttle Columbia might only require 20 Kbytes for the Display List. Complex drawings may require several megabytes. We have seen Display Lists for a drawing range from one-tenth the size of the drawing file to three times the size; in general, the Display List averages about about the same as the DWG file size. The Fast Redraw List will also occupy some memory, with the worst case being that it occupies as much as the Display List. This means that you should count on both lists generally taking up as much as twice the DWG file size. Also, complex objects such as circles and text "expand" when translated into display list format, so a drawing with a lot of complex objects and text will have a larger display list than a simpler drawing. TIP: Keeping the Display List Small Text takes up a disproportionate amount of space in the Display List. To keep the list small, put text in its own layer of the drawing. Then don't display the text layer when editing the rest of the figure. This will keep memory consumption down and speed execution. In most cases, the memory you set aside for the display list driver will not affect the underlying performance of AutoCAD significantly. AutoCAD uses paging to support drawings larger than the amount of available memory. Setting AutoCAD memory too low will make the program swap pages more often, which will lead to a visible increase in disk activity. This activity will generally only occur during a REGEN, which recreates the Display List and causes the drawing file to be accessed directly. TIP: Read the Fine AutoCAD Manuals The AutoCAD manuals have an excellent section on performance, concentrating on memory usage. To get the most performance out of the program, read the appropriate sections of those manuals as well as this one. TIP: Buy Memory to Improve Performance If you are occasionally running out of memory for the Display List, you are probably running out of memory more often for the Fast Redraw List, slowing performance. If so, buying one or two megabytes of RAM will greatly improve your productivity under AutoCAD. We recommend that you purchase expanded memory, or extended memory and an EMS emulator program like those mentioned below. What happens when the lists grow beyond the amount of memory you set aside? If you have enabled an overflow drive for the display list, the list will simply expand out to disk. Otherwise, when the driver first runs out of memory, it abandons the Fast Redraw List, slowing redraws to the speed of the fast zooms. But if the Display List continues to grow until it, too, runs out of memory, it is also abandoned, slowing all screen updates. Drawing speed reverts to AutoCAD standard speed. Given the different ways people use AutoCAD, the only way to determine the amount of memory you need for DLD-VGA is by trial and error. Once you are using the driver, if it runs out of room for the Display List, it stops using the list, at which point zooms, pans, and redraws will occur at normal AutoCAD speed. The following message will appear in the AutoCAD scroll area to notify you that the Display List has run out of memory: Display List Overflow If you see this message frequently, you need to increase the amount of memory set aside for the driver, disable the Fast Redraw List, and/or enable disk overflow. There is no separate message for the Fast Redraw List, but losing it does not have as drastic an effect on performance as losing the Display List. Large numbers of ERASEs, MOVEs, and ROTATEs can also increase the display list size, so you may want to occasionally use the DLDCLEAN command (see the previous chapter) to keep your lists fresh and therefore smaller. You may want to use the DLDUSAGE command described in the previous section to keep tabs on your display list usage as time goes on. Also, your system may not have enough memory to manage large drawings without excessive paging and simultaneously support the Display List and the Fast Redraw List. This may happen because DLD-VGA makes AutoCAD run so much faster that you start to work with larger drawings! After a certain amount of time spent adjusting memory parameters, the only way to do your work at top speed is to buy more memory. We recommend that this be in the form of expanded memory, which runs as much as 20-30% faster for our purposes than extended memory. TIP: Use Expanded (LIM/EMS) Memory if Possible! Allowing DLD-VGA to use Expanded memory will increase your REDRAW, PAN, and ZOOM performance by as much as 40% over using Extended memory directly. This is because extended memory can only be accessed in protected mode, and must be copied back and forth, creating a lot of extra operating overhead. Expanded memory, on the other hand, can be easily paged in and out, and requires virtually no overhead. Additionally, DLD-VGA will only use 45K of conventional memory when used with Expanded memory, instead of the 77K that is required if no Expanded memory is available. If you have a 386 PC with extended memory beyond the DOS 640 Kbyte limit, we recommend that you get 386-to-the-Max, Quarterdeck's QEMM, or some other product which allows 386 extended memory to be accessed as expanded memory. If you have a 286 PC, the ALL Chargecard will do the same thing. These products may also allow you to put the 45 Kbytes or so required by the driver itself into high memory, preserving space below the DOS 640 Kbyte line. TIP: Do-It-Yourself Benchmarking It's impossible to predict how performance for your drawings, on your specific hardware setup, will be affected by a given set of DLD-VGA configuration parameters. We suggest that if you are running in a low-memory situation you run a few tests to help determine the best way to configure AutoCAD with DLD-VGA. Use one of the larger drawing files you regularly work with and bring it up without DLD-VGA, then redraw, pan, and zoom, and time how long each step takes. Then try the same test with varying amounts of memory set aside for AutoCAD and the driver. This will give you solid information to use in determining how best to configure DLD-VGA for use on your system, with your drawings. Chapter 7 - The Remove/Overwrite Option DLD-VGA Version 2.0  The Remove/Overwrite Option During installation, you are asked if you wish to maintain the Display List and the Fast Redraw List by removing or overwriting erased vectors. (You also have the option of disabling either or both lists, though this option is not needed for normal operations). The Remove and Overwrite options come into play when you erase or move an object (moving is the same as erasing and then redrawing somewhere else). When you erase or move or rotate an object, the Display List and Fast Redraw List must be updated to get rid of the "displaced" object. There are two ways to do this: ù Remove option - search the list for the offending vectors and remove them. This is the elegant solution, but the search takes a measurable amount of time. For small drawings, the extra time will not be noticeable, but for large drawings it most likely will be. If you are editing large portions of sizeable (over 100K) drawings, make sure to use the Overwrite option documented below. ù Overwrite option - add more vectors to the list to overwrite the offending vectors with new vectors in the background color. This avoids the time loss to find and remove the vectors, but causes a strange effect: when the screen is updated, the erased object is drawn, then disappears as it's overwritten by the new vectors in the background color! This slows each redraw, and the extra "overwrite" vectors add to the length of the list. Fortunately, if things get too messy, all you need to do is use the DLDCLEAN command (documented in Chapter 5 - Advanced Features), which will clean up the display list in about the time it would take for AutoCAD to perform one of its REDRAWs. We recommend that you use Remove mode for both lists for small drawings or if you have a relatively small amount of memory for the lists. For medium-sized drawings, you may want to go to Overwrite mode for at least the Fast Redraw List, so that redraws will be speeded, but the Display List will still be updated correctly. This will minimize the strange "draw then undraw" effect for erased objects. For even larger drawings, where searching and updating a list takes a lot of time, you will want to go to Overwrite mode for both lists. Remember to use the DLDCLEAN command occasionally as you erase and move more objects. Chapter 8 - Tips & Tricks DLD-VGA Version 2.0  Tips & Tricks VIEWing the Big Picture Since DLD-VGA is totally transparent to users with respect to using normal AutoCAD commands to REDRAW, PAN, and ZOOM, you still have to suffer from some of AutoCAD's nuances. One of these nuances is that ZOOM ALL and ZOOM EXTENTS both force a REGEN, because AutoCAD does not keep track of various boundaries necessary to avoid the REGENs. And REGENs are rather time-consuming and don't use any display list processing to speed themselves up. One way around this problem is to use another of AutoCAD's built-in features, namely the VIEW command. When you first load your image and see the whole drawing on the screen at once, just type VIEW Save ALL, which will save the display position you see under a view named "All". Then, after you've done some detailed editing and want to return back to the big picture, type VIEW Restore ALL, instead of ZOOM All or ZOOM Extents, and the full drawing will be restored to the display at display list speeds, without a REGEN. Avoiding Accidental REGENs Another nuance of AutoCAD's is that if you zoom in too far or pan over too far, you may inadvertantly cause a REGEN. AutoCAD again provides a very simple solution: the REGENAUTO command. Just type REGENAUTO Off at the AutoCAD command prompt, and automatic REGENs will be disabled. The REGANAUTO setting is also saved as part of your drawing file, so you only need to execute it once per drawing. You may even want to set REGENAUTO off in your ACAD.DWG drawing template so that all your drawings are created with REGENAUTO set off. Appendix A - Support Information DLD-VGA Version 2.0  Support Information Just the Fax, Ma'am - (603) 434-2461 When possible, please send problem reports by fax, online message, or regular mail, including the information requested below. Our fax number is (603) 434-2461. You can also send electronic mail to "jrichter" on BIX or MCI Mail, or to 75130,2705 on CompuServe; we check these sources frequently. It is much easier and more productive for us to work with a page of information or an online message than it is to try and get the information from you during a voice phone call over a busy, noisy line. Once we get your faxed request, we will call you or fax you back with an answer or with additional questions to learn more about the problem. Priority will be given to faxed or mailed requests over voice phone calls. Our voice number is (603) 437-5022. Please send real mail to Panacea Inc., Londonderry Square, Suite 305, 50 Nashua Rd., Londonderry, NH 03053-3444. Attn: Technical Support. Please put the following information in a faxed request, or have this information ready for a phone request: ù Your name and the serial number of your copy of the product. ù A list of what appears on the screen when you type "SET" at a DOS prompt. (Or print out a screen shot and attach it to the fax). ù A print-out of the DLDSETUP.DAT file. ù A print-out of the FASTACAD.BAT file. ù A list of what memory is in the system as described by the DLDSETUP installation program. (Or print out a screen shot and attach it to the fax). ù A description of what the problem was and how many times, and under which circumstances, it has occurred. We can help you most efficiently if you can recreate the problem with some consistency. Many of the problems which may occur in setting up and using DLD-VGA are not really problems with the driver; instead, the problems occur in installing and getting access to additional memory for the driver. Many computers use "shadow RAM" and other memory tricks which may make it hard to determine how much memory you have in your system. We aren't able to fix mis-set jumpers and incorrect configuration options for memory over the phone. Please check your system documentation and the documentation for 386-to-the-Max, QEMM, or any similar program you are using carefully if you have memory problems; they probably won't be solvable by us. Our support policy is to offer free phone and fax support to our users. This policy is basically unlimited; we want our users to enjoy DLD-VGA and get the most out of it. We are especially appreciative if you can help us identify a problem in using the driver or the documentation which we can fix in a subsequent upgrade, benefitting all customers. However, if we receive excessive calls from any one customer on a given subject, or on subjects which aren't directly related to using DLD-VGA, we reserve the option to withhold support.