The copy and move commands in Dyn are very similar to those in FastCAD 32. There are some major differences when it comes to what you can do when placing your objects. Since you do a lot of copying and moving when editing CAD-drawings it makes a difference.

Areas where the Dyn moving commands improve over the standard FastCAD commands:

• Scaling is done relative the window size rather than units. This makes it possible to scale large objects.
• Scaling can be done by typing a number at the prompt. You get exactly the double size, just not about the double size.
• The 15° snap for rotation will get you to the rotation you want.
• The status bar displays exactly how much you have scaled or rotated - it is fast to read.
• The fast draw mode makes it possible to move large objects as well.

Dyn has a powerful replacement for the standard PART command in FastCAD.

The Dyn part insertion command, PAR, will only take the filename as the argument. It will load the symbol and place it in the same way as MOV and COP does. So you don't have to decide how you like your part to be rotated when launching the command. Just rotate it whenever you feel like doing it.

If you like to change the scale factor from a menu you can still add that as a parameter. The parameter will be treated just like if you had typed that scale factor from the prompt.

Example of how MPAR is used in menus:

Keep scale factor between parts
The commands ending with an S, will start with the same scale factor as the previous part. This is very useful if you use the same symbols for different drawing scales. When using these commands, a value entered at the prompt will set that scale. So if you type 1 (one) you will scale the symbol to its original size.

You can use MPARS to set a new scale from the menu. You have to give the name of a symbol that exists, then a new scale factor and an extra semi colon (;) at the end to terminate the command.

Set scale factor to 50%:

Table:|MPARS #burner.fcw;1/2;;

Grouping objects
It is not possible for an XP to read the values in the Options dialog, so there is two functions to turn on and off group parts on insertion.

The stretch command in Dyn has been improved a lot from the standard STRETCH command in FastCAD. Especially arcs are now treated better. You have also got the dynamic cursor when stretching.

Treatment of arcs If none of the end points for the arc is included in the stretch window the arc will not be moved at all. When both the end points are included the arc is moved. So far nothing exciting. The nice thing happens when only one endpoint of the arc is included in the stretch window. The point not included will stay where it is, while the point included in the stretch window will move with the stretch window. It will perform just as doing a CONNECT (FastCAD standard command) on the arcs end points. The angle width of the arc will be kept, while changing the radius and center point. Warning: It is a whole new experience to see objects while stretching them. I have heard stories from customers who have spend minutes just moving around the end points of two arcs. This might be a place were a Dyn command doesn't give you a higher productivity.

The only difference in prompting is that the Dyn stretch command will not have default for last pick window as the stretch window. This since the last pick window can't be accessed from an XP.

The Dyn version of scale and rotate only have a few differences from the standard FastCAD commands.

Scale
You will be asked for the center of scaling and a reference point before the actual scaling begins. The scaling is done according to the difference in distance from the scale center to the reference point and the cursor.

Rotate
You will only have to give the center of rotation before the rotating starts.

Dyn makes it possible to insert parts with the symbol catalog. Lots of users have problems using symbols, but still like the advantage of the symbol catalog. For all of you, here is your solution!

An already prepared symbol catalog will work as a regular symbol catalog as long as layer Merge is visible. You are not allowed hide layer Merge if you are using a symbol catalog to insert parts.

To get a symbol catalog to insert parts instead of symbols you have to provide each symbol with a filename to load. This is automated for the most basic case. You only have to create a bookmark file with the parts you want in the symbol catalog.

Three ways to create a bookmark file

1. The FastCAD bookmark command - Bookmarks are normally created with the BOOKMARK command in FastCAD, see the FastCAD documentation for more information. This is the easiest way to do it if you only have a few files to add.
    
2. FastCAD NED editor - NED is shipped with FastCAD DOS and with the XP development toolkit (free download from the FastCAD web-site). It has a feature to import a directory listing, which is useful. Try this:
   • Start Ned with a new file, like DynTest.bkm
   • Press ESC (brings up the menu) and D (Dir insert), specify the FastCAD directory and a filemask: C:\FCAD32\*.FCW
   • Press ESC (brings up the menu) and P (Prefix), and give the directory again C:\FCAD32\ or just a # and press A for all.
   • Press ESC (brings up the menu) and E to exit and save the file
   This is useful to import all files by a file mask and you already have NED installed.
    
3. With the DOS dir command - It is easy to create bookmark files from the DOS-prompt using the DIR command. To create the same file as in the example above, try this:
   
   DIR /B /S C:\FCAD32\*.FCW > DynTest.bkm
   
   The flag /B causes the output to only be filenames and the flag /S includes all sub directories. You need to use /S to get the whole path to the file as a side effect of this you will also get all sub-directories.
   This method is most useful if you actually want to include all sub directories.
    

Create the symbol catalog file
To create the symbol catalog file, you have to do three simple steps:

• Start a new drawing with NEW
• Run MKPARSCAT and select the bookmark file to use. You will get a blue list box telling you any error messages.
• Save the drawing as a symbol catalog with SAVEAS and select the Symbol catalog type.

A little more advanced options
Even though MKPARSCAT accepts bookmark files, they don't have to be simple bookmark files, there are a couple of more options as well.

• The filename listed on each row in the bookmark file can be any valid FastCAD filename (names that LOADM accepts). Most useful is the use of # for the FastCAD home directory.
• The symbol name don't have to the same as the filename. By adding a | (pipe) directly after a filename in the "bookmark" file, you can type the symbol name directly after the pipe. Example which will assign the name Logotype to the Fcdlogo.fcw file: #Fcdlogo.Fcw|Logotype
• The file order in the bookmark file decides the order in the generated symbol catalog. Just reorder the files to get the symbol catalog in the order you prefer.

The advanced stuff
You don't need to have the same symbol shown as the part to insert. It is possible to have a small thumbnail or a specific detail as a symbol, while having a larger part inserted. There is no automation to do this. It is possible to automate the task via macro.

To insert the file information into a already created symbol, you have to:

• Run EDSYMDEF, select the symbol and create a window for it.
• Type SETFNAME and give the filename of the part to insert
• Close the symbol editing window and save the changes

When doing this via macro, please remember that the information created by SETFNAME cannot be picked so you will have to use all (or prior) to select it.

As default a menu is automatically appended. The menu will be placed at the end of the menu bar, just before Help.

If you don't want the menu it can be turned off with the DYNMENUOFF command. The DYNMENUON command will turn them back on again. The state is stored in the registry so the menu will not appear again in the next session.

Both the commands requires the menu to be reloaded. This is automatically done when you start a new FastCAD session.

We would like you to be able to try Dyn32 as much as possible. Therefor we have chosen not to disable save, but to limit the FastCAD run-time to 15 minutes. After 15 minutes you will get a question if you like to save your work or not before quitting. After that FastCAD will shut down and you will have to start a new 15-minute session.