The FILE command is a replacement for the open dialog. It adds a preview window and a list box for file notes to the original open dialog. (Click on the picture for a larger view)

Preview window
The selected file will autmoatically be drawn in the preview window. All files that FastCAD can load will be displayed. If the Auto-preview options is unchecked the preview is not automatically updated and you will have to press the Preview button to update the preview window.

Zoom all
The preview will show the complete drawing, but some drawings does not have their extents set correctly. You can calculate new extents with the Zoom all button. There is also an option to always zoom all called Auto-zoom all.

Show all
The current layer visability of the drawing is used when drawing them in the preview window. The Show all button will override this and show all layers.

File notes
If the drawing includes file notes they will be displayed in the listbox at the bottom. You will be able to read the file notes without opening the drawing. The note names are displayed with a + in front of them. Click on the + to expand them so you can read the complete note.

Use browse file
The browse file is a cache file (see section about the browse window). If the Use browse file option is enabled the drawings that are stored in the browse file will be redrawn instantly. Use this for large drawings that you often preview.

The browse button
The browse button will bring up the browse window (see below).

File format filters
The file format dialog box differs a little from the regular open command. The template and symbol catalog formats has been removed and a new format with "CAD files" has been added. The "CAD files" format will display all drawing formats that FastCAD can open.

Tips
All open and save dialogs in Windows allow you to right click on a file to bring up a menu. You can use this menu to delete, copy and paste files. This option is also available in the File dialog.

The browse window is opened from the browse button in the File dialog or with the separate BROWSE command. The BROWSE command will ask for a directory, while the browse button in the File dialog will use the current directory in the dialog.

Browse files
All images that are displayed in the browse window are saved in a browse file. This way the image doesn't have to be regenerated again unless it is changed. To keep the size of the browse file down it only saves 256 colors using the standard windows palette. The browse file for each directory is stored in a file named "~brinfo.fcw". It is hidden, but depending on your settings it might still be displayed in your open dialog box.

Cache all
Each file is added to the browse file when it is drawn on the screen. If you have many files in a directory it will take some time to scroll through the directory the first time. To force loading of all files press the Cache all button. If the directory contains a lot of DWG files you will have time to get a cup of coffee or tea.

Small pictures
The Small pictures option will reduce the size of the images, displaying six times four images instead of the normal three times two. The smaller pictures are displayed by using a bitmap zoom out so the quality is not as good as the bigger ones, but they mostly give you idea of what the file contains.

Delete files
If you like to delete a file from the browse window, select the Delete on click option. When you click on a file you will get a question if you like to delete the file or not.

• FastCAD standard part insertion (PARTM)
• Dyn32 standard part insertion (MPAR)
• Dyn32 scaled part insertion (MPARS)

The File plug-in is pushing the limits on both FastCAD and Windows in some aspects. It uses the standard routines in FastCAD to load drawings. FastCAD is very kind and tries to load drawing even though they might be corrupted. At many times FastCAD succeedes, but sometimes FastCAD will not manage. The File utility performs a lot of loading of drawings and depending on your OS some of them might cause FastCAD to crash.

To reduce the risk of loosing your work we have included an option in the File options dialog to enable auto-save backups. The backup file is saved as "FILE~BAK.FCW" in your FastCAD folder every time File or Browse is launched.

No menu is added by the File plug-in, but you can easily add the file command to your menu. Read the section Customizing Menus in the FastCAD help file.

In FastCAD you can do it by:

• Select Edit file from the File menu to start Ned
• Open the file FCW32.MNU
• Add a line after the "Open..." and type:  

  File manager:|FILE;

• Save the file and exit Ned
• Restart FastCAD or reload the menu.

The demo version is limited by:

• The demo version will only preview the files in the FastCAD main folder, previews will be displayed for other folders.
• The browse file will not be saved to disk, so you will have to regenerate that every time