TubeCAD Pro v8-20071002

User Selection of Prototype File Name for Either INCHES or MILLIMETERS

Prototype TubeCAD files are used to initialize the drawing setup to your preferences like linear units, text size, blockup styles, etc..

Previously, the prototype filenames referred to by TubeCAD when it was clearing and preparing for a new part where fixed. Now, the TubeCAD Pro OPTIONS FILE TAB menu now allows you to enter or select a unique prototype file for either millimeters or inches. Simply right click on the drawing area and select Options to call up this menu.

To see how this works, we've sent two sets of prototype files with this installation of TubeCAD. The first set is:

default_tcad_in.tcd
default_tcad_mm.tcd

and the second set is:

clark_tcad_in.tcd
clark_tcad_mm.tcd

The first set of prototype files use the standard blockup labels. The second set of prototype files use the CLARK FIXTURES style of blockup.

You can do this to select the default_tcad_in.tcd file:

STEP 1: Right click on the TubeCAD drawing area. You will see this pop-up menu.

STEP 2: Choose Options. This menu will appear:

Also, a new set of radio button controls allow you to choose which one of the two default prototype files is used to clear TubeCAD Pro whenever you start TubeCAD.

New Script Commands for the Command Engine

The NEW MILLIMETER or NEW INCH buttons in the TubeCAD toolbar (see below) now will use these internal filenames to call up the correct file. (The previous filenames were fixed.)

For example, the the blue-ball button above calls out to a script named "presetin.scr". A script is a series of keystrokes that TubeCAD Pro will perform when the script is run. The script takes advantage of the new commands

[options_prototype_in]

and

[options_prototype_mm]

in the command engine. These two tokens lookup the current default prototype drawing names (either mm or inches), then reset TubeCAD with these prototype file settings.

Here is the script code for presetin.scr:

multicmdopen
_openprototype
|
"[options_prototype_in]"
multicmdclose

Here is the script code for presetmm.scr:

multicmdopen
_openprototype
|
"[options_prototype_mm]"
multicmdclose