[3392] in comp.os.os2.announce archive
BETA & DEMO: IPAD v0.3.0 Intelligent vector drawing package
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sergio Masci)
Tue Sep 16 09:07:13 1997
To: os2ann.DISCUSS@bloom-picayune.MIT.EDU
Date: 10 Sep 1997 03:01:00 -0400
From: sergio@titan.demon.co.uk (Sergio Masci)
Reply-To: sergio@titan.demon.co.uk (Sergio Masci)
Reply-to: sergio@titan.demon.co.uk (Sergio Masci)
[Followups directed to comp.os.os2.apps]
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IPAD V0.3.0 (Beta) for OS2 is now available for download. Although IPAD is a
COMMERCIAL product, the evaluation version is available for download FREE of
charge.
******************************************************
Some very simple demos are now provided which can be
displayed on most web browsers (as animations) without
the need to install IPAD.
******************************************************
The following changes have taken place since V0.2.6
o Added ability for graphic objects to maintain their own glue points.
o Added glue point awareness to line, circle, rectangle, image, textbox
and group objects. These objects are now able to manipulate their own
glue points in real time such that each glue point maintains its
position relative to the position and size of the object being edited.
o Increased glue point inter-object awareness to cope with self
dependent (recursive) editing conditions. e.g. a line is edited which
has a glue point on it which modifies an object which in turn modifies
the line the glue point is on.
o For other changes see 'changes' file
The following changes have taken place since V0.2.5
o Added rotate and mirror facility to group.
o For other changes see 'changes' file
The following changes have taken place since V0.2.4
o Added glue point support.
o Fixed problem where selecting a line or rectangle would sometimes
cause a crash.
o Added inter-object awareness (where the awareness was missing) to edit
object selection.
o Added new intelligence to arc object.
o Added new example drawings.
o For other changes see 'changes' file
The following changes have taken place since V0.2.3
o Added ability to group objects by category.
o Fixed category dialog.
o Fixed problem with curves and arcs not using thickness property
correctly, such that they would always be displayed as one pixel thick
regardless of selected thickness.
o Fixed problem with text not using thickness property correctly, such
that it would always be displayed and printed as one pixel thick
regardless of selected thickness.
o Added new section to manual.txt detailing use of category system.
o Added 'cat*_eg.ipd' drawings as example of using category system.
o For other changes see 'changes' file
To recap:
IPAD is the multiplatform front end to a special tool to be completed some
time in the future. It currently provides most of the functionality of an
interactive GUI vector drawing package, together with some bit mapped image
handling. It allows easy editing across files using multiple overlapping
windows. The graphics objects drawn and edited by IPAD have built in
intelligence. They react to the mouse and each other so as to maximize user
productivity and reduce tedious repetitive setup sequences.
With most other packages an object must first be selected and placed into one
of many modes in order for the package to provide handles through which the
object must be manipulated. With IPAD however, simple rules govern the
behavior of an object depending on what other objects it is touching and how
it is approached and grabbed.
Any object may be picked up and moved or its shape changed without it first
having to be selected, and if its edges are touching any other object, IPAD
will intelligently manipulate those objects in order to reduce the knock on
effects of the change. With most other packages a simple change can require a
lot of rework.
A very powerful feature of IPAD is the way it is able to manipulate groups of
selected objects. A group is not just a collection of objects, it has
properties of its own. A group can be edited like any other object. Objects
can be very easily picked up or dropped from a group. Groups can also be
opened and their contents edited in their own windows.
IPAD also has a category system that allows the user to define the properties
of an object and to override those properties in a derived object. Complex
objects can thus be built by grouping simpler objects and assigning them
properties. This makes it a very simple matter to create a set of component
objects which can be held in a template window, copied across into the working
drawing and the properties modified to suit the working drawing.
IPAD supports printers using PCL 5 (most HP), ESC-P2 (most Epson), PostScript
and anything else via ppm or png. It has been designed from the ground up to
be fast and responsive. The base system is a 486DX 33MHz + 8MB RAM + ISA video
card.
IPAD will (in the future) provide a mechanism to drive third party backend
software (e.g. code generators, state machine generators etc.) For now you are
restricted to just drawing with it. Since IPAD is a COMMERCIAL product, its
source code will not be made available.
IPAD currently provides the same GUI interface on Linux 2.0.x, MSDOS 6.2, OS/2
Warp, Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.51
IPAD is available from
http://www.demon.co.uk/titan
Send feedback and questions to
sergio@titan.demon.co.uk
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