REVIEWS COURTESY OF ZXSR

CAD - Computer Aided Designer
Dream Software Ltd
1984
Your Spectrum Issue 8, Oct 1984   page(s) 40

Despite the 35-page booklet that accompanies CAD, there seems a notable lack of index or reference material to guide you swiftly through the functions and commands. To start with, it takes some searching just to discover (a) what it will do, and (b) how you do it. As usual, the program autoRUNs on LOADing at the same time showing the 'command' screen. The information window at the bottom displays the last command you gave, the current cursor position and the heading - the latter is selectable from a range of one to 16, and it defines the direction in which a line will be drawn .. .N, NNE, NE, ENE, E, and so on. For some unspecified reason, East is Heading 1, North is 13, South is 5 - not the most obvious of choices. To change direction, key 'H' and the word 'HEADING' will appear in the information window. Now press Enter to confirm that a change is in order, then key in the new number, followed by Enter; all rather long-winded and time-consuming.

Most commands require a similar procedure. Jotter will plot (set) a pixel and here the cursor keys are used to guide your 'plot' (Shift plus keys '5' to '8'). However, to step over a pixel you have to key 'E' to end Jotter, press the 'K' key to enable cursor movement, move the cursor, and then key 'E' to end this command... ouch! The cursor provided is a very small square, consisting of one clear pixel at its centre. One might reasonably expect the clear pixel to represent the vital position from whence all can be drawn. Wrong! It's at the top left-hand corner!!

CAD supports a number of useful design shapes: Cube, Circle, Facet (parallelogram), Rectangle, Square, Triangle and 3D Box. There's also an option to define the position of 26 ('A' to 'Z') points on the display of all or specific points, drawing lines between two or more points, shifting the cursor to a specified point and nominating 'automatic points' (where, for example, the corners of a subsequently drawn cube are automatically specified). If you reset (clear) all previous points - remember to 'display' points twice (first displays, then un-displays!) or you'll be left with unwanted letters all over the place.

In addition to the design shapes provided above, there are routines that (a) allow the design of a shape from the display to be stored for future use and (b) UDBs (user-defined blocks), blocks of four character cells that can be created and used within your display. Both options can be SAVEd to tape - but only used thereafter with CAD. The second option, UDBs, provides a 24 by 24 grid on which to create your design. Cursor keys move the spot cursor and the Space key either 'sets' or 'resets' a cell... and continues to 'set'/'reset' cells to the right; this happens quickly and it's not particularly easy to act on one specified cell. Quick fingers and care are called for. But, a word of warning... a return to the main display screen ensures that all previous work is lost; remember to SAVE it first.

Text can be placed on the screen and a Fill option fills a shape with the current INK colour. Erase removes the last command you made and Grid will display a 16-pixel grid pattern around the edge of the display area.

Overall, CAD is an interesting program that's obviously been developed with specialist design work in mind; it's not a general purpose graphics toolkit.


REVIEW BY: Peter Freebrey

Summary: Time Taken: 1 hr 45 mins. Verdict: CAD was not one of the better programs from the selection I looked at. It was also the only package mostly written in Basic - and it showed! Peter Shaw

Transcript by Chris Bourne

Crash Issue 4, May 1984   page(s) 96,97,99,100

REMBRANDT & CO

Can't stand the penetrating smell of oil paints and terpentine? Are you drowning in diluted, diffused water colours? Forget about paint brushes, mixing pots and smeary dirty hands. The canvasses of the future are VDU or television screens and the crayons give way to flexible utility programs. Today the applications are limited by the lack of affordable colour screen printouts, but this is bound to change in the near future.

Every artist will confirm that the selection of the right drawing utentils is of prime importance, and we therefore examine four drawing utilities now available to the budding Spectrum artist.

C.A.D. from Dream Software
Dynamic Graphics from Procom
Melbourne Draw from Melbourne House
Paintbox from Print'n'Plotter

Graphical work on the screen may be subdivided into three main activities:

Background and title screen creation
Creation of user definable graphics (UDG)
Handling of moving graphics (Sprites)

The selection of the right utility depends entirely on the specific application. Not all utilities provide facilities for all three disciplines: each one excels in one of the tasks.

SCREEN CREATION

Screen creating can be a very time consuming job. The basics are simple: set or reset the 49'152 pixels which make up the screen and give the 768 attribute positions the required value. If you provide for every pixel a minimum of 10 seconds for setting or resetting, you will have to work non-stop for five days, 16 hours and 32 minutes.

The colouring works out a fraction faster at two hours eight minutes.

Obviously there are alleviating factors which reduce the required time enormously. Not all the screen has to be dealt with on a pixel resolution. Text and fill areas can be handled in character resolution. Nonetheless it is of prime importance that the utility provides an expedient and proficient way of performing screen functions without having to go through any lengthy function select procedures for a simple screen manipulation. Added facilities such as diagonal cursor controls, screen magnification, window creation, scrolling, etc, give the user extra flexibility and can prove a very useful bonus.

Melbourne Draw scores the highest marks in user friendliness. This program provides the clearest logical procedure: screen and attribute handling are completely separated. The screen may at first be edited by positioning the cursor with the eight direction controls and then putting pen to paper for the actual drawing movement. The picture, including the usual edit area, can be created in 'black and white.' When satisfied the attribute edit mode is selected and the identical procedure can take place for the attribute character setting.

Melbourne Draw is the only program which allows the attribute cursor to be moved in a non-destructive (pen up) mode. The colour may be selected by simply pressing the correct colour key (ink and cap shift paper).

Melbourne Draw also provides a screen magnification facility, which can display a portion of the screen four or 16 times enlarged. This proves to be so useful that all the drawing is accomplished on the enlarged scale. The cursor position automatically dictates the screen area displayed and as a further bonus the entire screen may be pixel scrolled to centre the work area. There are no special draw functions such as circle, rectangle, etc, except fill.

The text mode includes the useful option of writing text in any of four orientations (l/r, r/l, u/d, d/u).

The program is aimed at providing a professional drawing board and proves to be a fast and efficient working tool for the serious user.

Dynamic Graphics allows the creation of a window of any size, which may be positioned, edited and copied anywhere on the screen, thus providing for multiple screens or pattern generation within the screen. Further to this there is a rescale option, which will copy any rectangular area of the screen to any other part with different x and y scale. This can prove to be a very potent feature. Special draw commands such as line, circle and edit are also catered for.

Although Dynamic Graphics is first and foremost a moving graphics utility. Its inbuilt screen creator proves to be an exceptionally versatile drawing instrument.

Paintbox offers a Kempston cursor control option with its Precision Plotter screen editor. The inclusion of special draw functions such as fill, erase (last command), circle, radial mode and arc together with the option of including any of the 84 UDGs designed with the UDG editor provide for a useful screen tool. The omission of a paper colour control within the screen editor forces the user to go through the lengthy procedure of returning to the main menu for the sake of changing paper colour.

The list of options in the C.A.D. program suggest a very powerful drawing tool. However the basic command procedure of C.A.D, proves to be a stumbling block. Every function is called by pressing the appropriate command key, upon which the selected command is displayed in the information window. The user must then press enter for execution. This is even required for positioning the cursor. This all makes for a lengthy procedure, which ultimately takes the fun out of drawing. Apart from the usual cursor control there is the option of using memorised headings, but in practice it is very difficult to make good use of it. The shape creation function, which allows the user to stoe and recall a sequence of drawing commands, proves to be very useful for pattern generation or similar applications. C.A.D. has a complete set of special draw commands, which include among other things triangle, 3D cube and 3D rectangle generation.

UDG CREATION

Paintbox offers a complete service for UDG addicts. The program caters for four banks of 21 UDGs which can be called into the UDG area for access. The edit facility is complete and practical to use including inverse, rotating and mirror functions. The UDGs are stored together with a M/C routine for calling the individual banks from Basic into the UDG area. A sketchpad is provided for experimenting with related UDGs (multi-character sprites).

C.A.D. offers a less elaborate UDG facility. Up to 26 UDGs may be edited and stored.

Melbourne Draw has no special editing facility for UDGs but editing is accomplished anywhere on screen using the x16 magnification mode. Any of the 760 character positions on the screen may be assigned as any one of the 22 UDGs. Pixel scrolling may position the required shape within the character grid.

MOVING GRAPHICS

Dynamic Graphics is the only program to actually handle sprites and sprite movement from within a user's Basic program. C.A.D. caters for the creation of up to 40 24x24 pixel sprites (3x3 character), but leaves it to the user to inject any life into the screen. It does not provide any M/C routine for fast pixel to pixel movement.

Dynamic Graphics provides the user with a complete sprite animation facility and must be invaluable for the programmer who doesn't want to delve into the machine code labyrinth but requires smooth animation.

Six sprites of up to 4x4 characters may be generated and edited with the excellent sprite creator. The six graphic characters are treated as individual frames of an animated film and the user may test the resulting motion by selecting the animated display, which sequences the frames on display to create a living object. The character set may then be saved to tape to be called up for later use.

To integrate the moving sprites without any knowledge of M/C, a sprite user subroutine compiler is provided, which creates a sprite positioning subroutine anywhere in normal user memory. This subroutine can be accessed via Randomize User commands from within Basic. Up to 10 different frames may be positioned consecutively on the screen and the result (if handled correctly) is a very smoothly moving object.

CONCLUSION

The four programs under scrutiny all have their individual merits.

Melbourne Draw stands out clearly as a professional tool for title and background screen creations.

Paint box provides the most flexible UDG creator combined with a useful screen editor.

Dynamic Graphics is a must for anybody wishing to create moving graphics within their own programs without bothering about M/C handling.

C.A.D. provides a multitude of different facilities for screen, UDG and sprite editing.

THE PROS AND CONS

C.A.D.
Plus:

- Multitude of special draw functions: Line, rectangle, square, triangle, circle, parallelogram, 3D cube, 3D rectangular box, fill, erase (last command).

- Grid display on edge of screen.

- Assignment of (A-Z) letter labels to 26 points anywhere on screen for 'Draw by letters' facility.

- Shape creation: 26 preprogrammable user commands will perform a series of draw commands (= draw routines).

- Sprite generation: up to 40 3x3 character sprites.

- Sprite generation of up to 40 3x3 character sprites

Minus:
- Complicated and slow drawing procedure (select command and press enter).

- Confusing and unpractical heading facility (cursor or preset heading).

DYNAMIC GRAPHICS
Plus:

- Two cursor speeds.

- Special draw functions: Line, circle, arc, fill.

- Window creation with full edit and positioning facilities.

- Rescale of rectangular area anywhere on screen.

- Excellent sprite creation 4x4 character sprite edit facility including animation experimenting.

- Sprite user subroutine compiler: Creates relocatable M/C routine for handling up to 10 frame 4x4 moving characters from within Basic.

Minus:

- No grid overlay for screen creation.

- Complicated cursor direction controls.

MELBOURNE DRAW
Plus:

- Separate screen and attribute editing.

- Attribute skip (pen up) mode.

- Diagonal cursor movement.

- Magnification x4 and x16 of screen sections.

- Fast screen handling.

- Grid overlay using Bright facility.

- Pixel scrolling of entire screen with wrap around.

- Text can be written in four orientations.

- Reducing and enlarging of entire screen.

- Simple UDG creation of any character on screen.

- Full screen available for drawing (information window relocatable).

Minus:

- Complicated fast cursor movement.

- No special draw commands except fill.

PAINTBOX
Plus:

- Two cursor speeds.

- Kempston cursor control option.

- Special draw facilities: Fill, erase, circle, radial mode arc.

- Excellent UDO creation: four banks of 21 UDGs full UDG edit and handling facility from within Basic.

- Combined screen and UDG facility (Screen Planner).

- Sketchpad for related UDG display during UDG edit.

Minus:

- Long-winded paper colour select.


Transcript by Chris Bourne

ZX Computing Issue 22, Dec 1985   page(s) 41

GRAPHICS '85

A comprehensive review of the state of the art by Colin Christmas.

As we see this old year out and welcome the new one in, it's a better time than most to stand back and take stock. Looking back land leaving the prophecies and predictions to others! It must surely be agreed that for Spectrum users with an eye on Graphics it has been a most exciting year. I can't speak for other departments but for me, it has been Christmas every issue.

In this issue I want to do something special take a look at the goodies that have come our way. Our way? Who are We? We are the Graphics Grabbers, Artwork Addicts, Design Doodlers. For us the screen is a window on a world of colour, images, line, shape, pattern, design, texture, light and shade. And like a window it opens out into an exciting new visual world. For business, for profit, for learning for discovering or for pleasure. From the weekend dabbler or doodler to the serious professional, from the games enthusiast to the educational user, from beginner to experienced programmer and right across the age range, you will find Spectrum owners who are hooked on graphics.

It's fairly formidable task - covering the range of Graphics Hardware and Software now available lo Spectrum owners but let's get started.

LIGHTPENS

I've had most success to date, with the package from Dk'tronics. The pen itself is rather like a biro or felt tip pen. It is attached by a wire to a control interface which of course comes with the package. The interface is plugged into the back of the Spectrum. A program on cassette is included.

The glass screen of your monitor is the working area and drawing surface, so some consideration has to be given as to whether this is the way you want to work. Then there are practical aspects such as the distance of your screen from your keyboard, and the fact that you have to work on a perpendicular 'face'. The height of the screen is therefore important if you do not want to suffer from muscle fatigue in your drawing arm.

Lightpens give you a physical contact and interaction with your drawing surface if that is important. Calibrating the pen each time may prove a chore, but after that it's plainsailing - within the limitations of the power of the program. Again it's a good way of getting started or the very basics of graphics, of getting into the picture as it were. Sensibly introduced in the classroom it could be useful aid and introduction for children in an educational context. It is limited though in its potential for advanced or complex screen designs. Graphics Tablets give you similar physical point of con tact with your drawing-surface. This time it is horizontal and again a 'pen' is used. There's a review of the Saga Graphics Pad in this issue. So when you are ready look it up. They certainly take you further than the lightpen. But then you pay a lot more for the facilities they offer.

Now for something almost completely different, the Sinclair LOGO pack. Another excellent starter, but as I have hinted, quite different.

This pack has very obvious educational applications and for very young children. The founding father of the LOGO language intended it as a language for children which would develop logical thinking, introduce young minds to computer programming and have very definite terms of reference for the teaching and development of mathematical concepts. Drawing is achieved by moving a small graphics 'turtle' - a triangle - around the screen. This is done by sending through the computer commands known as Primitive Procedures (mostly single words and abbreviations of those words). Your sense of direction needs to be accurate and formulated mathematically. Once you have established procedures for drawing, say, a square, this group of procedures can be assigned a single word or name which LOGO will then understand as a command to repeat the whole set of procedures.

The emphasis or bias is fundamentally mathematical, arithmetical or geometric. You do not just learn to draw a square, you also learn what makes a square what it is and from there the difference bet ween a square and a rectangle or a parallelogram.

It is a language itself, apart from BASIC. Hence learning to use it is learning to program a computer in another language. The graphic aspect being displayed on the screen is part of the incentive and motivation for progressing with the new language.

Two fairly weighty and comprehensive books or manuals are part of the pack. The first book deals exclusively with Turtle Graphics and is an absorbing and refreshingly different kind of programming experience. The second book acts as a reference manual for Sinclair LOGO, The growth, use and development of LOGO by Spectrum owners, especially in schools will, I think, be affected by the cost factor.

When DREAM SOFTWARE released Computer Aided Designer, my own children had not had their Spectrum for long. They, like me were exploring the full graphics potential of the machine when C.A.D. turned up and kept us enthralled for days. Now, still an old favourite, I would recommend it as another in the 'Starter' category. With very obvious educational values and as a springboard for more ambitious projects later in Design.

The manual is simple and very straightforward - alphabetically leading you through the twenty seven commands available in the program. Some forty custom shaped graphics, UDGs can be designed. By giving precise measurements most geometric shapes can be drawn, filled and so on. It remains impressive after all this time, and the potential for drawing in 3D is considerable.

Similarly, another old favourite, VU-3D from PSION.
This has the added and appeal of enabling the viewer to move around the object in 3D. Graphics and Design, pure and simple. High resolution colour and an incredible understanding of perspectives are real bonuses with this program.

Future designers in the Aircraft or for that matter almost any other industry, may have started young with something like C.A.D. or VU-3D.

I doubt if they would have been able to afford the RD Digital Tracer, from RD Laboratories. This is closer to an instrument than anything else I've come across in graphics and design hardware and software for the Spectrum.

It comes in two versions, the Standard and the Professional. Both are fairly highly technical and sophisticated tools. The Tracer consists of a short fixed arm and pivot from which extends a drawing arm hinged at the centre with another floating pivot which moves across your drawing surface area.

The arm is connected to the computer by a length of cable via an interface plugged into the rear port of the Spectrum. A cardboard template and transparent grid overlay are included for calibration purposes, the tracer is a precision instrument. The software cassette contains five programs. The usual options are offered in the first, plotting single points, construction of basic geometric figures, filling, hatching, change of ink, border, paper colour, adding text, UDGs and so on.

The display image can be moved up, down, and from side to side, scaled up and down, and reversed. Multiple screen images including images at different scales and at different positions can be achieved. By adding other BASIC routines and software, the Tracer's capabilities can be extended into the field of statistical analysis. This immediately puts the Tracer into a specialist Graphics and Display category. Although the Tracer can be used with the ZX81 and 16K Spectrum, its full potential can only really be developed on the 48K and then only by competent programmers. It's a versatile instrument for the specialist.

It's the season of Good will and all that, so why not give a last mention for all whose speciality is Games Designing. It's been around for a while, but standing the test of time in lots of ways. I'm referring of course to the High level User Friendly Realtime Games Designer from Melbourne House. Or as it is more commonly known, HURG.

Still a powerful program and a very good manual. How did they do it in those all time greats like Pacman, Donkey Kong and Space invaders? H.U.R.G. will tell you how.

It's a pretty good list of graphics goodies and that other seasonal expression comes to mind. 'There's something here for everyone.' You have no excuse for not knowing how and from whom in Spectrum Graphics, just how to enjoy the graphics power behind those buttons.


REVIEW BY: Colin Christmas

Transcript by Chris Bourne

All information in this page is provided by ZXSR instead of ZXDB