srb@beta.lanl.gov ( Steve Berger ) (06/06/89)
I'm interested in getting information from anyone that is currently using or has used Generic Cad from Generic Software. How well does it work? I'm mainly interested in finding out how the plotter support is, and how the conversions are between different formats. They sell a module that does conversions TO and FROM Postscript, TIFF, PCX, and several other formats. How well do the conversions work from a PCX or TIFF format, to a Generic Cad drawing? Theoretically then, one could scan images, convert them from TIFF format to a Generic Cad drawing and then clean up the image and plot it. Does anyone out there have any experience with this? Any info is greatly appreciated. Thanks Steve Berger srb@lanl.gov
srb@beta.lanl.gov ( Steve Berger ) (06/07/89)
Is anyone out there using Generic Cad? If so, how well do you like it. I'm interested in how well the conversions work. It is supposed to convert to and from GEM, PCX, TIFF, and several other formats. I was wondering how well these conversions work as well as how good the plotter support is. Do they support many plotters or only a few? Any info is appreciated. Thanks Steve Berger srb@lanl.gov (505) 655-3990 Los Alamos National Laboratory MS C934 Los Alamos, NM 87545
benoitm@hpmwtd.HP.COM (Benoit Menendez) (06/10/89)
> I'm interested in getting information from anyone that is > currently using or has used Generic Cad from Generic Software. I have been using Generic CAD Level 3 for a few days now and these are my first impressions: This CAD package is VERY powerful, loaded (almost overloaded) with features. It is a very professional drafting tool. The user interface is a mix of menus and commands. The menus are hierarchical and therefore a pain to navigate through. The keyboard commands are two letters, seldom meaningful. But after a while you get used to the user interface and use the keyboard (or the programmable function keys and mouse buttons) for most of the commands, and the menu for the esoteric stuff. Besides being a full-featured drafting tool, the VERY good points are: - Auto dimensioning. - Batch language. - Save drawing as a batch file (text format). Great for archive. - User-defined menus. - Programmable function keys and mouse buttons. > How well does it work? I'm mainly interested in finding out > how the plotter support is, and how the conversions are between > different formats. The Level 3 package comes with built-in plotter support (I tried generating a HP7475A plotter file and it worked as expected). It also comes with DotPlot and DeskPlot. DotPlot allows me to print directly on my DeskJet Plus at 300 DPI as if it were a plotter (the results are impressive). DeskPlot convert the drawing TO (not FROM) a TIFF, PCX, Postscript. I tried TIFF and PCX: PageMaker reads the TIFF file perfectly and WordPerfect reads either one with no problems. > They sell a module that does conversions TO and FROM > Postscript, TIFF, PCX, and several other formats. How well do the > conversions work from a PCX or TIFF format, to a Generic Cad drawing? I don't know about a conversion the other way around as it is complicated to convert raster images to vector data (although some desktop publishing tools support this function now). > Theoretically then, one could scan images, convert them from TIFF > format to a Generic Cad drawing and then clean up the image and > plot it. You could do that with a TIFF image editor such as PC PaintBrush Plus for Windows (although PC Paintbrush Plus does not accept all the TIFF subformats). > Does anyone out there have any experience with this? > > Any info is greatly appreciated. > Thanks You're welcome. > Steve Berger > > srb@lanl.gov Benoit Menendez benoitm%hpmwtd@hplabs