Read Me for the MicroGDS Viewer 1.2 (13 March 2006 update)

The MicroGDS Viewer enables anyone to view, navigate, and print MicroGDS .man drawing files.

Note that MicroGDS mtf and cv7 files can also be opened in the Viewer.

To install and run the MicroGDS Viewer, you will need Windows 2000, Windows XP Home, or Windows XP Professional installed on your computer.

Installing the Viewer

Before installing the MicroGDS Viewer, you need to install Microsoft's .NET Framework, version 1.1 (SP1) or later. You can download this from http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/, or if you have MicroGDS 9.0 you can find the  .NET Framework on the CD.

Due to the security enforced by the .NET runtime library, you will need to install the Viewer to a local disk (or, to be more precise, to a disk that has UnmanagedCode security permission).

You also require Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 or later.

Using the Viewer

The MicroGDS Viewer can view and print MicroGDS 6.0 and later drawing files.  Start the Viewer from the Windows Start Menu or right-click on a MicroGDS drawing file and select View.

(If you do not have MicroGDS installed, then setup will make View the default action for double-clicking on a MicroGDS file; if you do have MicroGDS installed, then the default action remains to open the file in MicroGDS.)

You can open files from within the Viewer with the File Open command, or by dragging them from Windows Explorer onto the Viewer's application window. To open an mtf or cv7 file from the File Open dialog, you first need to change the Files of type list to show All files.

You can print the current view with the Print button and the File Print commands. Help has more information about using the Viewer.

Redistributing the Viewer

The MicroGDS Viewer is designed to be distributed freely with MicroGDS drawing files, enabling clients of MicroGDS customers to view drawings with no need for data conversion.

Preparing MicroGDS files for the Viewer

In many cases, the client using the MicroGDS Viewer will not have MicroGDS installed, but will be viewing files sent to them for inspection.

When preparing MicroGDS data to be sent for viewing, bear in mind the following guidelines:

• The Viewer does not display multi-user Project files or Window files in Projects.
  If your source data is in a Project, then prepare the data by selecting the desired Window(s) and use File Export to a man file to package up your data.
  You can also export Window(s) from a man file, to send a subset of data from the initial man file.
• The Viewer initially displays the Principal Window of the file, but can display any of the windows it contains.
  A single file with multiple windows makes a convenient single package for display.
• If the MicroGDS data refers to external files, you will need to include these with the main man file.
  External files are most easily referenced as relative file-paths.
  This can be achieved by placing all referenced files in the same folder as the main man file, or in a subfolder of that folder.
• External files that may be needed include:
  • raster images used in raster photos
  • files linked to, in OLE photos
  • additional man files containing Windows used in cross-document photos
  • additional man files containing instance objects
  • style files (LINES.STY, CHARS.STY, LIGHTS.STY, MATLS.STY) in the Style Search Path of the main file
    (Note that if you exported windows from a Project, the styles in the first (primary) style file of the Project are written into the man file itself.)
  • styles may also refer to font files (.cv7 files and .cvf files).
• MicroGDS has a Preference setting for System Fonts (which is added to the end of all Style Search Paths), whereas the Viewer looks for System Fonts in the Fonts folder in its program folder.
  If your site has customised the MicroGDS System Fonts folder, consider copying the additional fonts to the man file's Style Search Path, or arranging for them to be copied to the Viewer's Fonts folder.
• If you wish the client to print data exactly as you prepared it, at a specific scale, then consider including one or more Print Layout views with window photos of the data at scale. These will then print on the correct paper at scale (assuming the client has a suitable printer selected).  (This printer-ready view could be designated as the Principal Window so that the client needs least interaction before being able to print their data.)
  Note that, unlike MicroGDS, the Viewer does not try to split large paper sheets into multiple paper sheets but only ever prints a view to a single page. If you know that the client will need to print onto sheets smaller than you wish, consider preparing several smaller Print Layout views of the size they will be able to print.

Advanced options

The Viewer uses a configuration file which affects the details of the drawing mechanism (in a way that is similar to MicroGDS preferences). It is not intended that users will change the configuration preferences; if you believe that you need to do so, please contact Informatix.

Versions of the Viewer

We recommend you use the latest version of the Viewer. Version 1.2 is required in order to reliably view data created by MicroGDS 9.0.

An update to Viewer 1.2 was produced on 13 March 2006. You can check that you have the latest version by using Help->About.

The latest version will now work with version of the .NET Framework later than 1.1, and has a minor correction to drawing linestyles with object space hatching.

Contacting us

You can visit our web site at:
    http://www.informatix.co.uk/

or you can contact us at:
    Informatix Software International Ltd
    509 Coldhams Lane
    Cambridge CB1 3JS
    United Kingdom

    email:           info@informatix.co.uk

Trademarks

MicroGDS is a registered trademark of Informatix Software International Limited.