for AutoCAD 2000
by Schaefer Enterprises and Associates
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Symbol-Application Manager 2K (SAM2K) for AutoCAD 2000 by Schaefer Enterprises and Associates |
FREE: Try SAM now
(convertible demo, fully functional, 30 symbols per library versus 840)
Only $99 with Master Library
Once you try SAM, you'll never use AutoCAD's Design Center to insert a symbol again!
Recover 1/3 of your screen: Use SAM and close AutoCAD's Design Center!
Operation, Maintenance and Customization, Installation
Overview
SEA's most popular AutoCAD application, SAM, has been completely rewritten in AutoCAD 2000's Visual Basic for Applications to be more comprehensive, intuitive, faster and with a cleaner look. SAM2K is now a stand alone application and comes with SEA's master library of 2000 symbols from Architectural to Isometric hardware.
This document explains features, benefits, installation and operation of SAM 2K.
About SAM 2K
SAM helps you get the most from your libraries of drawing symbols, AutoLISP routines, VBA and ARX programs. And, it is completely open architecture that can be a frame work for your customization or serious corporate development.
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General Overview:
SAM consists of 3 parts. The main screen is dedicated for inserting symbols and running programs by clicking icons (primarily). Secondly, SAM has maintenance and customization features for creating new libraries and adding symbols. Third SAM includes SEA’s Master Library, which is a set of 11 libraries with approximately 2000 symbols to give you a quick start.
Starting SAM:
Once SAM is setup and the supplied ACADDOC.LSP is included in your existing AutoCAD setup, you can start SAM several ways. By typing SAM, it will activate with the last used library, page and symbol. By typing a number 1 through 14 you can jump to a specific page in the current library. By typing the library designation you activate SAM with the library pointing to the first page. Thus by typing HAR, you activate the hardware library. As shipped, the startup commands are: SAM, 1-14 and:
MISC - Miscellaneous example library
HAR – Hardware
FPD - Fluid Power
ELE – Electrical
ELC – Electronic
ISO - Isometric Fasteners
PFD - Process Flow
INS – Instrument
PIP - 2D Piping
ARCH – Architectural
HVC – Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning
When SAM is started, the registration screen appears. You can skip it and enter demonstration mode which is limited to the first 30 symbols in a library. However, you can create and customize libraries without restriction. If you have purchased SAM, you can enter the registration passcode and proceed without restriction.
The first time SAM is started, it needs to know where SYM.LIB has been installed. (SYM.LIB contains the locations of individual libraries.) During installation, SM-SAM.INI has been placed in your Windows directory and if found, this data will be used. However if SYM.LIB cannot be found, you will be prompted for its location. The location is saved in the Windows registry.
SAM’s main screen consists of a group of 60 selectable image tiles. Click on a tile and the text description below it will update to match. Double click one of the image tiles to insert a symbol or execute an AutoLISP, VBA or ARX program.
The Information line:
The information line is just below the image tiles and has 4 elements. At the left is a pull down list for selecting different libraries. The entries from this list are populated from the file
Next is the 50-character symbol/program description. This description comes from the library’s LST file. (The hardware library, HAR, would have a HAR.LST file.) You can modify the description in-place and pick the Save button at the right to update the LST file.
The second element from the right lists the symbol/program name and the file type: DWG, SYL, LSP, VBA or ARX. This information also comes from the LST file.
DWG means that the symbol is a loose drawing. For instance, if the text box contains "MISC201/DWG", it means there is a file MISC201.DWG that will be inserted. SYL means
that the symbol drawing is in a library drawing that contains many symbols.
For instance HAR215/SYL would a symbol that must be extracted from HAR.DWG (typically:
Page Button line:
The next line contains a button for each page of the library that is available. And at the right there are 2 check boxes that allow you to select if a symbol is inserted as a block or XREF, and whether is should be exploded. Note: you can’t insert an XREF symbol that is contained in a library. And you can’t explode an XREF. Thus these options may not always be available depending on conditions. For instance if you check explode, you can’t use XREF.
Scale and Rotation:
There are 5 types of scale behaviors you can specify. All scale factors are decimal.
Rotation is Z rotation. The angular measurement is in decimal degrees.
Insertion Coordinates:
If you select the "Type" check box SAM will use the coordinate values you have typed in. All values are decimal.
From Drawing:
From the pull down list, you pick a symbol that has previously inserted into the current drawing. Then click the Insert button to the right. It will be inserted with the current SAM settings.
Browse…:
The Browse… button initiates a Windows file dialog that allows find a drawing on your hard drive or network. It’s name and path is written to the text window to the right of the button. Then click the Insert button to the right. It will be inserted with the current SAM settings.
Help:
The Help button activates your web browser with this html file, sm-sam.htm.
About:
The About button presents quick information about SAM and has a button that will take you to www.schaeferea.com.
Maintenance
The maintenance button takes you to the maintenance screen for creating libraries and inserting new symbols.
Maintenance and Customization:
The maintenance screen make new libraries, add a symbols and programs to the libraries, modify files with a text editor, and run AutoCAD’s slide library manager.
The three ways to make a new library:
For all methods, at the top of the maintenance screen, enter the library path, typically
Make New Library Button
You can optionally specify the number of symbols that you anticipate for the library up to 840. This will "pre-populate" the LST control file so that you can name your symbols with the SAM naming convention and they will automatically become available.
When you click "Make New Library" it creates a directory and makes 3 files and appends
the library reference on to the file
EXAM.LST – A list of symbols, type and description in the library.
EXAM.SLB – An empty slide library except for BLANK.SLD.
EXAM.DWG – This is the library drawing in which you can choose to accumulate your symbols.
Here is the contents of a typical LST file as created above,
which applies to all forms of library creation:
;SUPER MENU Library for SAM 2000 - 9/28/99 3:45:32 PM
;Original Lib Location/name = c:\sm15\sym\EXAM
;These lines are comments with semicolon. Any changes to this
;file must follow the format below exactly.
;"|" is the delimiter, No tabs, No spaces at the end of line.
;The line below is typical of a symbol in SM's Master Library:
;ELE200|Air Breaker & Fuse|SYL|SM-SYM
;The line below is typical of a symbol in user made SYL or DWG library:
;ELE200|Air Breaker & Fuse|SYL|MY-LIB
;The line is typical of a symbol as a loose drawing:
;ELE200|Air Breaker & Fuse|DWG|ELE200
;The line is typical of an AutoLISP program where
;File name = ELELSP.LSP, Slide and Command names = ELE200:
;ELE200|Draws fuse boxes|LSP|ELELSP
;Other options include VBA and ARX. View the MISC.LST for more.
;Modify the lines below to suite your purpose.
;Example library
EXAM1|Replace This Text With Your Description|SYL|EXAM
EXAM2|Replace This Text With Your Description|SYL|EXAM
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EXAM99|Replace This Text With Your Description|SYL|EXAM
EXAM100|Replace This Text With Your Description|SYL|EXAM
Comment lines are preceded with a semi-colon ";" and can only be grouped together in the header section. The header contains self-documentation to help you edit the file with a text editor. There are 4 elements to these vertical bar "|" delimited lines:
Since we specified that our symbols were to be stored in a library file, we see the file type SYL. If we had specified individual drawings the last line would have looked like this:
EXAM100|Replace This Text With Your Description|DWG|EXAM100
Note that |SYL| is now |DWG| and the file name matches the symbol name.
While the automated "make new library" button creates a library using a sequential naming convention, there is no restriction to the use of long names. symbols can be any 8 character name.
For LSP, VBA and ARX, you just use a text editor to change the type to LSP, VBA or ARX. A button called "Edit Library’s LST file" will start Notepad with the LST file.
The description "Replace This Text With Your Description" is easily changed from the main screen of SAM.
This is the typical line appended on
EXAM = Example Library c:\sm15\sym\EXAM\EXAM
Note: The exact number of spaces (column alignment) in the LIB files is critical.
Catalog Directory of Individual Drawings:
"Cataloging" is a powerful new feature for SAM2K. When a directory is cataloged, the drawing files and programs (LSP, FAS, VLX, DVB and ARX) put into SAM format, with slides, ready to use in just a few minutes.
First create a directory and place all the files that you want for the SAM library in the directory.
This directory does not have to be in the typical SAM directory hierarchy
Using the SAM maintenance screen, either Browse... to the directory and select an abritrary drawing or enter the library path the 1-4 letter Library Name and Description. Select whether you want the symbols collected in a library drawing or left as individual drawings. If you select Save as: Library Drawing, then make sure the base drawing name is correct that does not conflict with an existing symbol.
Then click the button "Catalog Directory of Individual Drawings".
The directory will be read and the LST file will be created. A library reference will be appended to the SYM.LIB file. A slide library file will be created with slides from each symbol. Slides for a program will be its file name. A library drawing will be created and drawings inserted if you select that option. This operation takes 2 seconds per symbol depending on the computer. So, for 200 symbols, the processing time could be 5-10 minutes. But after that, the library is ready for immediate use.
To change the order of slides and symbols you will need to use a text editor to manually change the order in the LST file with cut/paste.
Note: If using a library drawing, once the library has been tested as functional and a backup copy made, you can safely delete the individual drawings (not the Library base) from the directory.
Note: Slides of complicated drawings can slow down SAM's display speed. The slide detail is overkill. It is recommended that if you have complicated symbols, you either create a simple slide or create a slide with just text. Then use the Slide Library Manager to replace the complex slide.
Note: Cataloging cannot determine a proper slide for a program, LSP, ARX or VBA. So, the automatic slide will be just the file name. These are good candidates for manual update using the Slide Library Manager.
Catalog Library Drawing:
This method assumes that a drawing already exists which contains a collection of symbols. For instance, you can combine several AutoCAD Symbols 2000 drawings into one drawing and let SAM increase your productivity. It is best to select the drawing with the Browse... button. If the directory contains, programs (LSP, FAS, VLX, DVB and ARX) they will also be cataloged into SAM format, with slides, ready to use in just a few minutes.
Then click the button "Catalog Library Drawing".
The libary drawing will be read and the LST file will be created. A library reference will be appended to the SYM.LIB file. A slide library file will be created with slides from each symbol. Slides for a program will be its file name.
To add a slide:
First you must have created a block and have activated the library where you want it stored. Next you click on either "Insert Slide Into Library". A slide will be created and inserted into the library’s SLB file.
To add a symbol:
First you must have created a block and have activated the library where you want it stored. Next you click on either "Insert Block Into Library" or "Save as Individual DWG". If inserted into a library, the block will be copied into the a master drawing with other symbols from the library. If you "Save as individual DWG" the block will be WBLOCKed to the appropriate directory.
A control line will be added to the LST if it does not already exists.
To edit a LST file:
Often you may wish to edit an LST file to re-position control lines or change SYL to DWG. The button "Edit Library's LST file" will launch Notepad with the contents of the current library’s LST file.
To edit a SYM.LIB file:
SYM.LIB contains the reference to each library’s location. Clicking on the button "Edit Sym.lib" you will launch Notepad with the contents of SYM.LIB
MISC = Miscellaneous Library C:\sm15\Sym\misc\misc HAR = Hardware Symbol Library C:\sm15\Sym\har\har FPD = Fluid Power Symbol Library C:\sm15\Sym\fpd\fpd
This file is fixed space delimited so if you edit the file manually, you must follow the format exactly using spaces, not tabs.
To edit a slide library (SLB):
Slides are grouped together in a slide library. SAM 2K ships with a slide library manager (SLM)
from Autodesk (freeware). SLM allows you to view, add and delete the slides in a slide library.
Click on the "Slide Library Manager" button to launch it. You will have to select a
SLB file from the SLM program. The first time you click the SLM button, you will be
prompted for the location of SLM.EXE which is typically:
Important Tip: The "BLANK" slide must be the last slide added to the library. So remove it from the slide library to the "Trash" window. Then when you are finished, add "BLANK" back in from Trash.
Keyboard Shortcuts:
SAM is supplied with a file called ACADDOC.LSP. This is a special file name recognized by AutoCAD 2000. When found it is loaded and all the commands in it will be available to all drawings in your AutoCAD session. In this file we have defined the SAM commands. By following the format, you can add your own. Here are definitions for SAM, 1, MISC and HAR:
(defun c:sam ()(setvar "cmdecho" 0)
(vl-vbaload (findfile "sam.dvb"))
;SamAppMgr "Page" "Lib" where lib might = "HAR"
(command "_-vbarun" "sam")(princ))(defun c:1 ()(setvar "cmdecho" 0)
(vl-vbaload (findfile "sam.dvb"))
(command "_-vbarun" "SymAppMgr" "1" "")(princ))(defun c:MISC ()(setvar "cmdecho" 0)
(vl-vbaload (findfile "sam.dvb"))
(command "_-vbarun" "SymAppMgr" "1" "MISC")(princ))(defun c:HAR ()(setvar "cmdecho" 0)
(vl-vbaload (findfile "sam.dvb"))
(command "_-vbarun" "SymAppMgr" "1" "HAR")(princ))
This file must be in an AutoCAD support path directory as defined in the PREFERENCES dialog.
Assigning SAM to Menus:
Once ACADDOC.LSP is loading fine, then you can use SAM shortcuts in the AutoCAD menus. For instance these would be lines a pull down menu:
[Hardware]^P^C^CHAR
[SAM]^P^C^CSAM
MISC example library:
SAM ships with a MISC library that is designed for your investigation. In the MISC.LST file you will see how we address LSP, VBA and ARX files.
Individual Drawings versus a Library Drawing:
SAM lets you save blocks into a single library drawing or as individual drawings. SAM ships with its libraries as single drawings except for the MISC example library. The advantage of the single library drawing is reduced file space and easy maintenance and transmittal to others. However, it does take a couple seconds to load the first time you use it. Individual drawing avoid the load time. You can have a combination of both in a single library. For instance, you could extend an existing library with your own symbols stored as individual drawings. (Remember that the control line in the LST file must have DWG versus SYL as the file type in field 3.)
LSP, VBA, ARX must all be individual files.
Printing SAM Library Sheets:
The last symbol or two in a SAM library is a reference sheet of all the symbols in the library. You can insert it into a drawing and plot it. To create your own reference sheets, a blank called PRO-SIDE.DWG (intended for 12x17/18 digitizers) is typically found in
To install SAM, run setup.exe, enter the passcode and follow the instructions. The default installation is in
At the end of the installation, AutoCAD’s Slide Library Manager will be installed. It defaults to
Important: After installation, start AutoCAD and use the Preferences command (config), select the Files tab, and place
ACADDOC.LSP will be placed in
Network:
To have multiple users of SAM, you must have either multiple licenses or a network license.
You can easily move or install the library to a network server. You will need to modify SYM.LIB to reflect the new locations. In fact, the libraries do not have to be located in a monolithic structure, but can be distributed throughout a network. This could be valid lines in a SYM.LIB file:
MISC = Miscellaneous Library M:\sm15\Sym\misc\misc HAR = Hardware Symbol Library Z:\MechDepartment\har\har FPD = Fluid Power Symbol Library O:\MechDepartment\fpd\fpd ELE = Electrical Symbol Library O:\ElectDepartment\ele\ele
Make sure there is only one centrally located SYM.LIB and the users know where it is. If SAM cannot find SYM.LIB, it automatically prompts for the new location.
To use a single networked copy of SAM, SAM.DVB, SM-SAM.HTM, SAM2K.GIF and SAM2K-2.GIF should be placed together in a centrally located network directory that is in the AutoCAD support path search.
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