Copyright (C) 1986-2008 by Daniel H. Hudgins, All Rights Reserved.

No part of "This Web Site" (HTML document), including associated files, may be: distributed, sublicensed, transmitted, copied, archived, mirrored, modified, bundled, embedded, sold, given away, rented, loaned, or shared in any form without express written permission in a formal Vendor agreement contract dated and signed in ink obtained directly from Daniel H. Hudgins by registered postal mail. All agreements for permission to distribute expire after a period no greater than one year from the date of the signing of the agreement by Daniel H. Hudgins. See the current "EULA" for information regarding limited copying and storage for the purpose of "Beta Testing" "This Web Site."

To view or use the current version of this Web page you may need to reload or refresh the display of this page by your browser. Just clicking on the browser's [Reload] or [Refresh] icon may not be enough to insure that all of the page's most current contents have been cached and displayed. Some browsers may have additional commands to help display the page's most current contents such as: holding down the [Shift] key and clicking on the [Reload] icon, holding down the [Control] key and clicking on the [Refresh] icon, holding down the [Control] and [Shift] keys and clicking on the [Refresh] icon, pressing the [Control] and [F5] keys, pressing [Control] and the [R] key, or some other combination of keys or clicks. Check to see which commands your HTML browser uses to load the most current page contents into its cache and then to display them onto the screen.

This Web site is dedicated to the thousands of "users" of my programs, those who have helped test my programs over the last 22 or so years, and especially those who shared their experiences with me.

You must read this notice: This is a licensed Web site (HTML document and associated files). You must read and agree to be legally bound in contract by the Terms of Use and conditions given in the End User License Agreement ("EULA"), Legal Notices, Instructions, Warnings, Disclaimers, and all other text in "SECTION: 0" of "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) before reading or using any of the information, software programs, and or files, contained in, linked to, and or associated with, "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files). Any use or "Beta Testing" of "This Web Site" constitutes your acknowledgment of your full agreement with the current End User License Agreement ("EULA") and your decision to have this current license supersede all prior and contemporaneous agreements and understandings. Information and files in "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) have been placed here so that long time users of "The Author's" programs DANCAD3D.COM (tm) , DANCAM.EXE (tm) , or DANPLOT.EXE (tm) could help proofread the text of the documentation files or screens displayed, and also help test data files, example files, and or any software programs that might be made available from time to time, to aid "The Author" in finding mistakes, bugs, and other errors, omissions, defects, mistakes, and faults. Everything in "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) is "Beta Test", "Beta Code", Experimental, Preliminary, requires proofreading, or is being evaluated for possible revision, and is NOT warranted to be free of defect. To help "The Author" report any bugs, foul-ups, defects, or mistakes that you find, see "SECTION: 8" for instructions. "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) and all other files and programs by Daniel H. Hudgins are made available "AS IS" without warranty of any kind express, expressed, or implied. All offers and specifications are subject to change or discontinuation without notice of any kind. Please read "SECTION: 8" of "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) before trying to contact "The Author."

The text in this section has been revised to include some of the developments for a revision of version v2.7B, program versions, updates, or revisions prior or subsequent may work differently and so what is stated here may not apply to the particular version, update, or revision you might have, i.e. those other versions. The documentation is only generally descriptive of the programs, you should check the operation of each particular program that you will be "Beta Testing" since operation of the programs is subject to change without notice.

This HTML documentation section has documentation mostly about my CAD programs DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm). Most the discussion about DANCAD3D.COM (tm) also applies to "Beta Testing" DANCAD87.COM (tm), the math co- processor version, as well, except for some differences in some of the files saved and the need for a math co-processor. See also the other documentation in this Web site for additional information, particularly the CAM program documentation and the supplemental documentation, tutorials, and appendices. The disclaimer, and most of the other legal text is currently located in SECTION: 0, therefore you must read the disclaimer, End User License Agreement (EULA), legal text and other text in SECTION: 0 before you read any of the other documentation or use any part of this HTML document, this section, or associated files and programs.

I may expand or revise the documentation someday, so check back from time to time to see if any new or revised files have been up-loaded to the Web site.

You may not distribute, sell, rent, share, or give away these HTML documentation files or printed copies of them. You may not extract text from these HTML documentation files for distribution, sale, rent, sharing, or giving away. You can use the [Print] option in your browser to make one copy for yourself to mark up in order to help me proofread the text for mistakes.

Documents may be available to download from time to time, you can check SECTION: 9 to see what the current situation with regard to downloadable files is. The names of these documentation files may change, and they may be edited, combined, or eliminated in the future, without notice.

You may need to adjust your browser for best viewing of the pre- formatted text by changing the "font" size using the commands in your browser (see the help in your browser, or use the pull-down menus in your HTML browser.) If some letters in words on the screen appear to be missing or scrambled try changing the font size in your browser as this sometimes happens even though the words are spelled correctly in the HTML code.

Use the "Edit, Find in page Ctrl+F" or "Edit, Find (in this page)... Ctrl+F" command in your browser to search for keywords within the documentation text in this HTML page. You will need to search over again in the other pages in this HTML document for the same keyword since your browser may not search for a keyword beyond the current page that is loaded.

Rather than distribute the programs on a set of floppy disks as I have in the past version v2.7 will probably be distributed either as a DANCAD3D.ZIP file archive distribution or as set of files in a directory on a CD-R disk. Since the programs need to write temporary files to the directory they are running in, you cannot run the programs until you copy them into a directory you have made for them on your harddisk. The directory you copy the files into should be a special directory used just for my programs, and not for other programs.

The DANCAD3D.ZIP file just contains the CAD and CAM programs, along with a few example files and such. Other *.ZIP files may be available from the download section of this Web site for additional Fonts, Alias symbol sets, example Macro files, files from tutorial Lessons, and Utility programs.

Since v2.7 may still be undergoing development there may be more than one version or revision. Rather than copying the newer files over the older files, you should make a new sub-directory for each newer version or revision. You may want to keep an older version for a period while you check the newer version, since the newer version may not work as well as the older version for some task that you are testing.

You can use the DOS MD command to make a sub-directory to keep my programs in, I strongly suggest that you name the directory DC27, or DC27A, DC27B, and so on if you need more than one copy to work on more than one project at a time.

EXAMPLE: C:\>MD C:\DC27

After you make the sub-directory for my programs, copy, move or download the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file into that directory, and "extract" or "unzip" the files using your ZIP utility. If you do not have a ZIP utility you can probably search for a free one on the Internet.

Once all of the programs and associated files have been copied, moved, or expanded into the DC27 directory, run the DOS batch file named INSTALL.BAT so that the many sub-directories will be set up for the programs to use, and the drivers and font files will be copied to the needed sub-directories. If any files are missing or misplaced the programs may not function, or give error messages.

EXAMPLE: C:\DC27>INSTALL INSTALL

When you run the programs the first time you will need to wait while they go through some self calibration. DO NOT COPY THE PROGRAMS FROM ONE COMPUTER TO ANOTHER AFTER THEY HAVE GONE THROUGH THEIR SELF CALIBRATION, since doing so would probably result in timing errors. If you need to install the programs on more than one computer do so only with the original files, and not the ones from after you have run the programs the first time!

If you upgrade your computer or make changes that would effect system speed, the programs should be deleted and reinstalled so that they will be properly adjusted to the new environment.

The CAM programs are DOS programs and have not been designed specifically for a multi-tasking environment. You should not have a TSR program, such as a clock display program, or any other program running in "background" while the CAM programs are operating. It is better if your computer would be booted with a "DOS" system disk before running the CAM programs. In order to run your harddisk under DOS your harddisk should probably have been formatted as DOS FAT, and divided into four 2.1GB partitions. Harddisks larger than 8.4GB may need to be formatted so that only 8.4GB are used in order to be compatible with DOS 6.22. You must disable the "turbo" switch on your computer so that the computer speed cannot be changed after the programs have been run the first time. Do not run any programs at the same time as the CAM programs that use the parallel port, serial port, or joy-stick ports.

The revised CAD programs v2.7 now seem to run under Windows 95 (tm) but you cannot run more than one copy at a time in the same sub-directory, and you should not run any programs in "background" that use any of the same hardware, such as the parallel printer port, serial port. The CAD program will probably work best if it is the only program running on your computer. When the CAD programs are run under Windows 95 (tm) the mouse center button will probably not work, so you will have to use the alternative keyboard command, such as the [Spacebar] in the drawing editor, or [F1] in the Write command. When run under DOS with the appropriate DOS driver the mouse center button should work as it did in previous versions, unless you have forced the two button mouse mode with the new mouse configuration file.

The amount of free DOS memory should be as great as possible since the programs need almost all of the free DOS memory to operate. Unload any resident programs or drivers that use DOS memory that you can. Use the DOS command CHKDSK to check the amount of DOS memory that is free.

EXAMPLE: C:\WINDOWS>CHKDSK

or

EXAMPLE: C:\>C:\DOS\CHKDSK

The CAD programs will benefit from a fast harddisk, and a disk cashing program that uses memory above the DOS 640KB. The CAD programs may also be able to be copied to a RAM disk above the DOS 640KB by using the XCOPY command, if your system is a '286 or better. For using the hidden line display modes a PIII coppermine processor, or the equivalent, will be a better choice than slower processors.

Some SVGA cards require an external VESA TSR driver since their internal video BIOS has bugs or does not support some of the VESA modes, if you cannot get the SVGA modes to work you might try an older SVGA video card that supported the VESA video standard. Some AGP video boards may not work under DOS, but I have some PCI VESA SVGA cards that work just fine without extra drivers. ISA SVGA VESA cards might work in newer computers that have an ISA slot if you take the PCI or AGP video out and or disable it.

Since these are "Beta Test" programs you should re-boot your computer after running them, before you run any other programs.

Look for any README.*, *.TXT, *.BAT, or such files, for additional instructions for any particular distribution.

The utility programs may be installed in the same directory as the CAD and CAM programs by copying the DANUTLPK.ZIP file to that directory and unzipping the files there. The file README.TXT will probably get overwritten, so unzip the CAD and CAM programs first, and rename the CAD and CAM file README.TXT file to README1.TXT. See the instructions in the DANUTLPK.ZIP download page.

The tutorial lesson, example Macro file, Font file, and Alias symbol file *.ZIP archive files that might be downloaded, or copied from a CD-ROM, should be copied to the right sub-directories so that the programs can find the files where they are expected to be. See the instructions in the download sections for each *.ZIP archive file.

Once the CAD programs have been loaded you can run them by entering their names at the DOS prompt. The first time you run the programs they ask you to select the video mode you want to use, the options where discussed in the Hardware section, so I will just say that you should only select a video mode that your computer actually supports.

The CAD programs can be automatically started running a macro file if you put the name of the macro file after the program name at the DOS prompt or in a DOS batch file. You can also drag and drop a macro onto the windows shortcut for the CAD program if you have made one, and the program will open the macro and run the macro file automatically.

EXAMPLE: C:\DC27>DANCAD3D DEMO1.MAC

or

EXAMPLE: C:\DC27>DANCAD87 DEMO1.MAC

You can also load an ASCII file in this way, but only if the ASCII file was saved using v2.7B, v2.72, or perhaps some later version of the programs.

The file *.TXT that may be in the DANCAD3D.ZIP program archive distribution has information about changes to the programs since the previous release. This file is not intended to represent complete documentation, just be some notes that would help someone already familiar with the programs learn what kinds of changes have been made. If you are upgrading from a previous version or revision you may wish to make a printed copy of the *.TXT file that you can make notes on in red ink. If you are upgrading from v2.5 you might also want to read the revised information in this Web site for information about changes between v2.5 and v2.6. You may notice some duplication of text from various sources to other parts of this Web site, that is because over time I have been trying to update some of the original text from the v2.5 era to include descriptions of things that have changed, and those things that have changed.

If you have unzipped my DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file, you should be able to use the DOS COPY command to copy the *.TXT file(s) to your printer, e.g.

C:\DC27>COPY *.TXT PRN

If you have a serial printer you should be able to use the DOS MODE command to set the serial port before you use the COPY command, e.g.

C:\DC27>C:\DOS\MODE COM1:9600,N,8,1,P
C:\DC27>COPY *.TXT COM1 /B

If you are using Windows 95 (tm) you may be able to load the *.TXT file(s) into WORDPAD.EXE (tm) or INTERNET EXPLORER (tm) and use the print command in those programs to print out the file on your printer. If WORDPAD.EXE (tm) is not on your desktop you can use the START and FIND commands in Windows 95 (tm) to find where it is on your harddisk, then you can make a shortcut and put that shortcut on your desktop.

DANCAD87.COM (tm) is a special version of DANCAD3D.COM (tm) that uses the math co-processor. The use of the math co- processor can speed up some program operations, and slow down some others. In general DANCAD87.COM (tm) will run a little faster on some commands that do not use the disk much, and slower on commands that use the disk quite a bit.

I may have included a simple "bench mark" macro to get a rough idea of the speed difference between running on DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm), called 8087B1.MAC in DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm). The speed for this bench mark seems to go in the order fast to slow of: WINDOWS 95 (tm), DOS 6.22 using a RAM disk without SMARTDRV, DOS 6.22 using a harddisk with SMARTDRV with both the read and write cache on, DOS 6.22 using a harddisk with SMARTDRV with just the read cache on, and using a "DOS95" floppy boot disk with a CONFIG.SYS to set BUFFERS=99. If you are running my CAD programs off a harddisk under DOS you should almost definitely use SMARTDRV or the equivalent to cache the harddisk. The video board type selected, program revision, Windows 95 (tm) settings and modes, and the amount of free DOS 640KB memory that is free will also effect the program speed, so YOUR RESULTS MAY VARY FROM THOSE GIVEN HERE.

Here are some preliminary very approximate speed checks using v2.7A and 8087B1.MAC:

 12.8 sec. DANCAD87.COM (tm) on 733MHz PIII coppermine under WINDOWS 95 (tm) 5400 HD.
 22.7 sec. DANCAD3D.COM (tm) on 733MHz PIII coppermine under WINDOWS 95 (tm) 5400 HD.

 20.4 sec. DANCAD87.COM (tm) on 733MHz PIII coppermine under DOS 6.22 RAMDISK no SMARTDRV.
 25.4 sec. DANCAD3D.COM (tm) on 733MHz PIII coppermine under DOS 6.22 RAMDISK no SMARTDRV.

 21.9 sec. DANCAD87.COM (tm) on 733MHz PIII coppermine under DOS 6.22 RAMDISK w/SMARTDRV r/w+.
 26.1 sec. DANCAD3D.COM (tm) on 733MHz PIII coppermine under DOS 6.22 RAMDISK w/SMARTDRV r/w+.

 23.7 sec. DANCAD87.COM (tm) on 733MHz PIII coppermine under DOS 6.22 RAMDISK w/SMARTDRV r+.
 26.6 sec. DANCAD3D.COM (tm) on 733MHz PIII coppermine under DOS 6.22 RAMDISK w/SMARTDRV r+.

 36.7 sec. DANCAD87.COM (tm) on 733MHz PIII coppermine under DOS 6.22 7200 HD SMARTDRV r/w+.
 31.5 sec. DANCAD3D.COM (tm) on 733MHz PIII coppermine under DOS 6.22 7200 HD SMARTDRV r/w+.

 40.6 sec. DANCAD87.COM (tm) on 733MHz PIII coppermine under DOS 6.22 7200 HD SMARTDRV r+.
 39.8 sec. DANCAD3D.COM (tm) on 733MHz PIII coppermine under DOS 6.22 7200 HD SMARTDRV r+.

197.6 sec. DANCAD87.COM (tm) on 733MHz PIII coppermine under DOS 6.22 7200 HD no SMARTDRV.
 58.7 sec. DANCAD3D.COM (tm) on 733MHz PIII coppermine under DOS 6.22 7200 HD no SMARTDRV.

146.3 sec. DANCAD87.COM (tm) on 733MHz PIII coppermine under "DOS 95" BUFFERS=99 5400 HD.
118.2 sec. DANCAD3D.COM (tm) on 733MHz PIII coppermine under "DOS 95" BUFFERS=99 5400 HD.

 33.2 sec. DANCAD87.COM (tm) on 500MHz PIII under DOS 6.22 RAMDISK w/SMARTDRV r+.
 37.1 sec. DANCAD3D.COM (tm) on 500MHz PIII under DOS 6.22 RAMDISK w/SMARTDRV r+.

 46.8 sec. DANCAD87.COM (tm) on 500MHz PIII under DOS 6.22 7200 HD SMARTDRV r+.
 48.2 sec. DANCAD3D.COM (tm) on 500MHz PIII under DOS 6.22 7200 HD SMARTDRV r+.

177.5 sec. DANCAD87.COM (tm) on 500MHz PIII under "DOS 95" BUFFERS=99 5400 HD.
145.1 sec. DANCAD3D.COM (tm) on 500MHz PIII under "DOS 95" BUFFERS=99 5400 HD.

The "DOS 95" is when you boot your computer from a floppy disk made with the Windows 95 (tm) FORMAT command. In that way Windows 95 (tm) does not load in multi-tasking mode. You need to set the motherboard BIOS to boot try first from the floppy drive in order to have the system files load from the floppy disk rather than the harddisk.

EXAMPLE: C:\WINDOWS>FORMAT A: /U /S

You can see how your computer compares to these 8087B1.MAC tests. Different tasks will be faster or slower depending on the ratio of CPU work or harddisk access is used. My CAM programs use a different overlay method than that used by the CAD programs, and so the results of bench marks on the CAD programs, will probably not say too much about the CAM programs results.

Most of the drawing data files created with DANCAD87.COM (tm) such as the *.2D and *.3D types are not compatible with DANCAD3D.COM (tm), because DANCAD87.COM (tm) uses a different internal numeric format. So, when you need to exchange drawing files between DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) you should use the Files Save ASCII and Files Load ASCII commands only.

DANCAD87.COM (tm) will only work on computers that have a math co-processor installed, or that have a processor with a math co-processor built into it. If you have a "stripped down" processor that lacks the math co-processor you will not be able to use DANCAD87.COM (tm).

All of my programs other than DANCAD87.COM (tm) should now in their v2.7 revision run on any 8088 compatible processor from 4.7MHz to 733MHz, and may work up to 10GHz or faster but have not been tested on processors that fast as of writing this and may present issues at speeds above 733MHz. In other words, DANCAD87.COM (tm) is the only one of my programs that requires the 8087 or equivalent math co-processor, which is built into some newer processors and no longer needs to be installed in a special socket on your mother board. If your processor lacks the math co-processor, and you can not add one because of the design of your mother board, you will not be able to use DANCAD87.COM.

The sample *.3D file(s) supplied are probably in DANCAD3D.COM (tm) 3D-Quick format, and so will produce an error when you try to load them into DANCAD87.COM (tm). In cases where I may have included the macro that made the *.3D file, you can probably run that *.MAC macro file in DANCAD87.COM (tm) to make a version of the *.3D file that will load into DANCAD87.COM (tm). The *.2D files supplied are also probably in DANCAD3D.COM (tm) format, and will not load into DANCAD87.COM (tm) unless you convert them to *.ASC in DANCAD3D.COM (tm). The *.ASC 3D drawing filetype should work with both DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) as should the *.MAC, *.FON, and some other filetypes.

Although my programs have been designed to operate under DOS 2.1 through 6.22, it may be possible to operate v2.7 under Windows 95 (tm), or a computer booted with a "DOS 95" boot disk made from the DOS prompt in Windows 95 (tm).

My CAD programs v2.7 seem to work well now under Windows 95 (tm) since I made some changes to various things like the mouse auto detection. The mouse center button of a three button mouse may not work using the Windows 95 (tm) mouse driver, but the alternative keyboard keys can be used in place of the mouse center button. You should probably not have any other programs running in background while my CAD programs are operating, but you may be able to go out to the windows "desk top" by pressing [Ctrl] and [Esc] while my CAD programs are running and a text mode screen is being displayed, and then go back into the programs by clicking on the button "symbol" for the DOS window my programs are running in at the bottom of the "desk top" on the bar along the bottom of the windows screen. Do not try to [Ctrl] and [Esc] or otherwise pop out of my programs while one of the SVGA video modes is being displayed, because you may find that the SVGA screen is messed up when you try to return to the program. If you forget not to pop out of the Preview command while in a SVGA display mode press [Esc] twice when you return to the program and you should be able to get back to the main menu (if you where in a graphics mode file prompt you may need to press [Esc] then [Return] then [Esc] twice.) The CAD programs should be run in FULL SCREEN mode since the mouse seems to work better that way. You should not use the printer port with any other programs while you are trying to print drawings from my programs.

I have made changes to v2.7 to fix problems that came up when older versions where run on computers faster than 133MHz. I have tested v2.7 on computers up to 733MHz PIII coppermine, and not found any serious problems with that computer speed. I think the programs should be good on computers up to 10GHz or faster, but have no way to test that at this time, so I cannot tell what might happen on computers that fast.

The CAM programs are not specifically designed to be used while windows is running in multi-tasking mode, but you might make a "DOS 95" floppy disk by exiting to the Windows 95 (tm) DOS prompt, putting a blank floppy disk in your A: drive, then enter the DOS commands:

C:>FORMAT A: /U /S

The boot files will take up most of the floppy disk, but they are mostly all that is needed on that disk. I am still experimenting with what happens when my programs are run under Windows 95 (tm), so be careful when attempting to try these ideas out yourself.

If you do not have a DOS icon on your desktop you can use the Windows 95 (tm) commands START and RUN, you type in the program name COMMAND in the RUN prompt, this will open a DOS window under Windows 95 (tm).

Experimental procedures to run the CAM programs use these steps:

It might be theoretically possible to run the CAM programs in a window in multi-tasking mode on computers faster than 500MHz since windows "house keeping" will only be a small part of the computer's time, but those interruptions may interfere with some of the program's features such as the "overdrive" ramping probably causing the stepper motors to stall when the motors are run faster than their "pull in" speed. There may be some other problems with the auto calibration of the feed rates, the RPM test, the scanning replication mode in DANPLOT.EXE (tm), and other parts of the program that are effected by interruptions. The small interruptions might also degrade surface finish to some extent. Windows (tm), or other, programs that run in background constantly should not be loaded while the CAM programs are running, such programs might be print spoolers, network programs, audio or video players, modem, harddisk or virus utilities, and internet programs.

I have not done useful testing of my CAM programs v2.7 under Windows 95 (tm) using servo motors yet, but the servo motors might let you get away with some minor interruptions, it would depend on how fast you where trying to run the servo motors, and how bad the interruptions are on your system.

I have noticed that some harddisks go to "sleep" after a period of non-use, and when they wake up the system sometimes locks up for a period of time, which might cause servo motors to over-shoot, or stepper motors to stall. The system can sometimes also briefly lock up when the harddisk goes into sleep mode. You may need to use a harddisk without this "sleep" function in some applications. The harddisk "sleep" might also cause problems with timing when making Animation with the CAD programs.

If you put the CAM programs in three sub-directories, and open three windows you might be able to run three machines at using LPT1, LPT2, and LPT3, but I do not recommend that you ever try that since the motors would have to be run slower and the performance would probably not be very good. It is better to use three "bare bones" computers or old "junk" computers to run the CAM programs. At any rate you should never try to run the CAM programs at the same time that some other application is running in "background." Do not run two of my programs CAD and CAD, or CAD and CAM in the same file sub- directory at the same time.

It may be possible to run two copies of the CAD programs in two windows if the CAD programs are in different sub-directories. They will probably not run at the same time but you would be able to switch back and forth by pressing [Alt] and [Tab]. You might want to do this to have a macro in the [W]rite command in one copy, and use the [R]un command in the other copy while de-bugging a macro. Just be sure that you do not open the same file in both copies of the CAD program or you will probably get problems with file sharing.

When you are using my programs and you want to use [Alt] and [Tab] or [Ctrl] and [Esc] to switch between windows or to go back to the windows desktop, you should not have the program in one of the SVGA display modes, since windows seems to be unable to restore the programs properly when you try to go back into the program again. Popping in and out of the CAD programs seems to work if you are in one of the text menus, so if you are in the main menu Preview command try pressing [F] to bring up the "factors" text mode prompt screen before you pop out of the program. Popping in and out of the CAM programs while they are running the motors is not recommended.

I should mention that if my programs crash, or are shut down wrong, under Windows 95 (tm) the OS might think the file is still in use and give you error messages telling you that you cannot load, save, copy, or delete a file even though you do not think the file is in use. These "phantom" error messages should go away after you re-boot the computer.

You should probably not try booting your computer with a DOS 6.22 floppy if your harddisk has Windows 95 (tm) installed on it. Be sure that you do not run any DOS 6.22 utilities that adversely effect the harddisk, or you may scramble the FAT and make a mess. Booting from DOS 6.22 might not work, anyway, if the harddisk was not formatted for DOS 6.22 originally, or the harddisk is bigger than 8.4GB or has a partition bigger than 2.1GB.

Under Windows 95 (tm) you can automatically start the CAD and CAM programs by "drag and drop" of a filename onto the shortcut icon for the program. In the CAD programs you can "drag and drop" a macro file and the macro will open and run automatically. In the CAD programs can also load an ASCII file in this way, but only if the ASCII file was saved using v2.7B, v2.72, or later. With the CAM programs you can "drag and drop" the name of an ASCII tool path file onto the shortcut to the CAM program, and the CAM program will open the file and begin operating the machine after you enter the password. The CAM programs will keep asking you for the password because each time windows starts the program using "drag and drop" a new window is opened, if you start the programs from the command line in a window that stays open you can skip the password prompts after the first time you run the program in the new window.

If the above discussion seems unfamiliar to you, you might want to think about learning more about general computer topics, such as making a floppy boot disk, from other sources before starting your "Beta Testing" of my programs.