jcraig

Ctrl-Shift-R worked. I was trying different settings like my students do. Good to know how to fix the problem. J Craig

Win XP 32 bit. Scene environment. I was working with different settings for the top screen menus and they all disappeared. There is only a very narrow bar at the top of the screen. Clicking on it has no effect. Restarting with a new scene only displays a blank area at the top. There does not seem to be any way to restore the menus.

Seems like the last thread on Linux ran out about 3 years ago. Linux has matured and now has a larger installed base. (Ubuntu 8.10 and 9.04). A number of business and internet applications seem stable. Only a couple of commercial 3D CAD softwares are available. With another Microsoft OS coming soon, what does the IronCAD community think about IronCAD on Linux? If the Google/Amazon/HP "cloud" computing concept takes root it would appear that APS would need to run on Linux.

iTALC is a free program to place the teacher screen on student screens. Student computers can be locked during lecture. iTALC can even be used over the internet for distance learning. http://italc.sourceforge.net/ for information and download. Jerry Craig Washington University in St. Louis

IronCAD version 9 textbook in Adobe PDF format. Teachers and trainers may make digital and printed copies for use in class. Free use only, no copies may be sold. Printed copies available from SDC Publications www.schroff.com ftp://ftp.ironcad.com/download/Ironcad-9-Textbook.pdf or http://engr-tech.com click CADD Books for HTML copy. Additional teaching materials and parts files will be posted. Corrections and error reports are posted as quickly as possible. Jerry Craig Washington University in St. Louis jwcraig@engr-tech.com phone 1-888-666-5183 (toll free)

Some CAD softwares use constraints as a way of knowing how to automatically explode an assembly. Without the constraints, explode will not work. Exploded configration is saved as part of the original assembly file.

Available around Aug 1, 2006. Introductory textbook for students new to computer modeling. College, technical school, senior high school level. Useful for professionals making the transition to IronCAD. Many tutorials and end of chapter problems. Printed copies available from SDC Publications - www.schroff.com Jerry Craig Washington University in St. Louis jwcraig@engr-tech.com 1-888-666-5183 toll free

Nice work on the graphics and color - very professional. Excellent descriptions of the commands and functions. The Tri-Ball coverage is very thorough. Clear and informative writing style. Writing takes a lot of time. Four pages is often a good day. My students really like IronCAD and use it confidently in many classes for illustrating lab reports and technical papers. I hope more teachers will adopt IronCAD for graphics courses. Having textbooks available is necessary as many teachers must teach multiple subjects with limited preparation time. Everyone in the IronCAD Community can help by visiting with teachers, serving on advisory committees and providing assistance. Good start. Keep going. Different emphasis, viewpoints and techniques always add to the usability of a product like IronCAD. __Jerry Craig

The latest IronCAD 7 and INOVATE textbook is available for download. Content is intended for new users and students learning solids modeling and technical drawing. The textbook is published in Adobe Acrobat .pdf file format. It may be freely used and distributed. Printed versions of the text are available from SDC publications www.schroff.com To dowload the electronic version by ftp: ftp://ftp.ironcad.com/download/IroncadV7textbook.pdf Jerry Craig Washington University in St. Louis jwc@me.wustl.edu

As a college teacher (47 years), I agree with your experience and frustration. We have been teaching IronCAD in our freshman courses since it evolved from TriSpectives. A short time with the software was all it took to see that this was the best tool for teaching and developing 3D thinking. Last Fall the edict came down that we must go back to teaching AutoCAD. "Because students cannot get a job unless they know AutoCAD". This was from a department chairman and the dean. The best we could do was 2/3 AutoCAD and 1/3 IronCAD to at least get a little 3D into the course. Advisory committees are a little like preaching to the choir. We hear you and would like to do what you recommend. The message does not get to the power structure with enough force to get much done. A call from a rich alumnus can get more changed that years of meetings. Teachers need to be shown what IronCAD can do. One on one sessions at the computer, informal Saturday user groups at your office, seminars at colleges and high schools using a video projector will begin to build interest. Students and teachers can get IronCAD at a very reasonable price once they are aware of the capabilities.

The "apparent angle" on paper is 30 degrees upward to the right, 30 degrees upward to the left and vertical for edges that are mutually perpendicular in space. An isometric can be created by rotating an object in the top view 45 degrees and rotating the object in the side view 35 degrees 16 minutes. I had to look it up: "Technical Drawing" 6th edition by Giesecke page 500.

At the Corvette 50th birthday party in Nashville, Chevrolet sponsored a ZZ Top Concert. 8000 people were in the stadium. By the time the 2nd tune started 4000 had left.

Trying to get a CAD manager to change software is a major job. So is getting local technical teachers to adopt a new CADD software. If possible, sit down one-on-one and go through the basic tools in IronCAD. Use the TriBall - create a hole and put a bolt in it. Create a wooden part, Etc. Create a assembly, create a drawing. Takes 30 minutes or less. Encourage teachers to use IronCAD in a introductory level course. Many technical programs are driven by advisory committees. These outside professionals recommend software and curriculum. Schools welcome people who volunteer for these committees - it only takes a few hours a year - it has a great impact on instruction. Curriculm is driven by "Saleable Skills". AutoCAD and Pro-E are saleable skills. Students could get a much faster start and improve their Graphical IQ by using IronCAD. Start the new users with IronCAD and the word will spread rapidly. Teach the "standard" software in advanced courses. Any curriculum that focuses on only one software is short changing the graduate. IronCAD has a great Educational Package which makes software avaliable to schools at affordable prices and INOVATE for use on personal student computers. See the IronCAD website for info.

We have used "View Companion" from www.softwarecompanions.com to view and convert HPGL type plot files. Many viewing, rotation and markup options are available. A wide range of outputs for both vector and bitmap files are listed. Our major use has been to convert old HPGL plot files back to AutoCAD .dxf format so part drawings could be updated. Great for publishing. Pen colors and thicknesses may be set. Produces good line quality and allows display of different line thicknesses. My output was to .wmf format and into a publisher software. Free 30 day evaluation. Price is reasonable.

Available June 20, 2003 from: Schroff Development Corp 5424 Martway Drive Mission KS 66205 913-262 2664 www.schroff.com College/Technical School level text with background information for persons new to modeling and drawing. Excellent guide to learning IronCAD/INOVATE for new IronCAD users. Many tutorials and modeling exercises. Comes with a time limited copy of INOVATE 6 which students can use on their own computer.

Still had problems with a nvidia card after downloading drivers. Crazy graphics, crashes, etc. Solution was to turn off hardware accelleration.

Is there a way to change the text size, color, style for text in the Scene View?

2D layout. Draw circle in any quadrant. Pick Dimension Constraint. Hold down shift key, select circle then "L" or "W" axis. Dimension jumps to edge of circle. Hold down "C" key, select circle then "L" or "W" axis. Dimension locates to center of circle. (Other keys seem to work also). Dimension to center of arc works using shift or other key.

Link should be up shortly. V5.2 books should be in stock by Dec. 20 2002 to be available for Spring semester 2003 classes. "IronCAD and INOVATE - Computer Modeling for Design" is the title. This book parallels a workbook "Engineering Graphics" which focuses on freehand sketching and developing three dimensional visualization. In a school setting, the CADD work is done in the lab and the sketching work is done as homework.

A textbook for IronCAD and INOVATE is available. - See post under Services -. Good problems from real parts are always the best learning tools. If you have parts with unique shapes and modeling challenges, we would appreciate receiving a sample ZIP file (and a hint on how the solution was worked out). All contributions will be acknowledged. We used to spend many hours at local companys going through horizontal drawing file cabinets to find problems but that resource is not available much now. Thank You.

IronCAD 5.2 and INOVATE are covered in the latest release. Intended for Colleges, Technical Schools and High Schools the text provides and introduction to modeling and drafting with background information for the person new to CADD. Many tutorials and exercises provide hands-on experience. The text is also very helpful for persons making the transition from another CADD software. Available from: SDC Publications. www.schroff.com 913-262-2664 Suggestions and comments are greatly appreciated. Jerry Craig. jwc@me.wustl.edu. Thank You.

After I mentioned NORMICA, I dug out my copy and tried it using WIN2000. The HP HPGL/2 driver in WIN2000 seems to work O.K. Plot the drawing to a file with a .plt extension. Open it in NORMICA. Click CHANGE .... Pen Assignments. Set the line width desired per pen. EXPORT to EMF, WMF, DWF or bitmap. Bitmap files are a bit ragged but you can change the resolution, size, etc. It looks like the "pens" are related to the layers in IronCAD. Some experimenting with layers may be needed. You can download a free trial version of NORMICA. http://www.IT-BASE.com or http://www.normica.com

Another option is a software program NORMICA v2000. http://www.normica.com This program allows the manipulation of line thickness from a number of different input formats and allows the export to other formats. I have not used it much so I cannot vouch for the results. There may be a free trial period.

Controlling line weight on published 2D drawings can be done by using two other software packages: AutoCAD LT (Win 95 version) and Corel Ventura 8 Publisher. [ Ventura 8 is a very powerful and robust publisher]. The trick is to plot the drawing to a early version HPGL file and assign pen numbers to line thicknesses. ** Do not use the Hewlett-Packard HPGL plotter drivers built into Windows software. They do not work and H-P admits it! Use the plotter drivers delivered with AutoCAD LT - they work. 1. Export the 2D drawing from IronCAD as a AutoCAD drawing. 2. Load into AutoCAD LT. Set various lines to layers and set layers to different colors. Plot the drawing to HP7475 plot file. Assign different pen numbers to different colors based on line weight needed. I use red = thin, blue = hidden, black = object, cyan = heavy, etc. 3. Ventura 8 allows the importing of HPGL (NOT HPGL-2!) plot files. Set all pen colors to black. Set the line thickness desired to each pen number. Save the plotter information file for future use. This process takes a bit of setting up but it works well.