GemCadPrint is a prototype of GemCad for Windows 95/98. It has two purposes: to give you a preview of GemCad for Windows to let you get used to its user interface and to allow you to print diagrams of existing designs from Win95/98 on any printer supported by Windows. Printing with GemCad, GemDot, or GemPlot running in a DOS box under Win95/98 is sort of like treading through a mine field until you get it set up. It is my hope that GemCadPrint for Windows will fill the gap until GemCad for Windows is ready. GemCadPrint is not GemCad. It doesn't allow you to cut new facets or edit a design. GemCadPrint will read in the .ASC files made by Datavue 2 (or GemCad) directly so you can print a diagram without having to go through GemCad. It will also read in the .GEM files made by GemCad. This program is free, and you may redistribute it freely. You may not sell it.
If you are familiar with GemCad for DOS, you will find GemCadPrint familiar in many ways, but the user interface is quite different. The biggest change is how you select points. GemCad for DOS has several point commands. You have to tell it whether you want a meet point or a point on an edge, etc. In the Windows program, all of these will be replaced with a single mouse click. Whether you are selecting a meet point, an edge, or a facet is clear from how it highlights these as you move the mouse. When you click, a dialog will appear that allows you to choose an action that applies to the selected object.
GemCadPrint has a splitter window with four panes. (See the screen print on the previous page.) Depending on your monitor's resolution, all of these panes might not be visible until you re-size the window or the panes. If a pane is not visible, one of the borders will appear doubled. Drag this double border until the view is visible. (To drag, click on the border and hold the mouse button down.) The border between any pair of views can be dragged with the mouse to re-size. In this manner, any one of the panes can occupy the entire screen.
The Four View (upper right) contains four views of the stone similar to those of GemCad. You can also zoom in on one of the four views so that it fills up the entire pane by clicking in the view and pressing the Zoom button. As you move the mouse around in the Four View, you will see how to select a meet point, an edge, or a facet. If you are inside a facet, the facet will be highlighted in green. If you are near an edge, the edge will be highlighted in green, and a red X will be drawn on the edge. If you are near a meet point, it will be circled in red. When you click in the Four View, a dialog box will appear. A different box will show up for the Facet, Edge, Meet Point, or Outside Stone (Pierce) selections. These will show the coordinates of the selected point. Each has a button to allow you to use the point for a new facet. Clicking on the Use button will cause the coordinates of the point to be copied into the Cut Dialog. The Cut Dialog doesn't yet allow new facets to be cut.
There is also a new way to select girdle facets. If you put the cursor just outside the stone, you will notice a red dot appear on the edge. If you get right on the edge or just inside the stone, the dot will change to an X. When the dot (not the X) is visible, a mouse click will select the facet on the edge or just off the edge of the stone. This is the only way to select skinny girdle facets—from the top or bottom view.
The Facet dialog box is more complicated than the other point dialogs. It is divided into three sections. The top section is similar to the Edge and Meet Point dialogs. The middle section shows the angle and index of the selected facet and will allow you to copy information from the selected facet to the Cut Dialog. This is similar to the Jam Index (j) and Jam Angle (A) commands of GemCad. The bottom section has several controls to edit the selected facet. The only two that are implemented are the Name and Cutting Instruction edit controls. These allow you to add or change facet labels and cutting instructions that show up in the listing (via the Print or Print Preview commands). There is also a Tangent Ratio Scaling control that doesn't work yet either.
To zoom in to one of the Four Views, click in it and press the Zoom In button. To zoom back out, click in the view and press the Zoom Out button.
The Spin View (upper left) contains a view of the stone that you can rotate. You can do this by dragging with the primary mouse button (usually the left one). The right mouse button snaps the rotation angles to the nearest 1/16 of a revolution.
The Cut Dialog (lower left) is intended to be a clearing house of information for cutting the next set of facets. It doesn't cut facets yet, but it shows how information is entered and edited.
The empty view at the lower portion of the screen might be a dead-end.
To view the diagram and cutting instructions on the screen, use the Print Preview command in the File menu.
Bugs
Installation
To install, download the file gp094in.zip. Unzip the contents with WinZip or compatible. The zip file contains a single file, gp094in.exe. Then do Start/Run.../Browse... and navigate and click (or double click) on gp094in.exe to run the self-extracting installation utility. Then follow the instructions. By default, this will install to a folder named c:\Program Files\GemCad. Setup will install or update two DLL files to be in your \Windows\System folder:
MFC42.DLL 06-17-98 12:00a MSVCRT.DLL 07-26-99 12:00a
When the setup is complete, it will display a file called GemCadPrint.txt which is similar to this document. Setup will create a shortcut to GemCadPrint in Start/Programs/GemCad.
Robert W. Strickland
robstr@sbcglobal.net