The Main Menu Overview This is the central screen around which everything else is based. From here you can directly reach most of the other menu screens and also the work screens. The upper right portion of the screen is taken up by the 'Specboxes'. These contain the different groups of options. For instance, the Colour Specbox contains all the Colour Options! Firstly, described below are the 'static' (non-changing) options on the Main Menu. Some of these are the means of bringing up the various Specboxes. After that come the individual Specbox descriptions. Item: 3D Obj Type: Action Bar Desc: Enters the 3D Constructor Studio Opts: All options on 3D Constructor (3CM) and 3D Viewing (3VM) Screens Item: Animate Type: Action Bar Desc: Enters the Animation Studio. Opts: All Options on the Animate Screen (AM), Grid Width & Height (GS) Item: Colour Type: Action Bar Desc: Brings up the Colour Specbox Opts: Colour Selector (MM), Colour Specbox (COS) Item: Colour & Rotate Selectors Type: Colour & Rotate Selector Desc: Select current drawing colour from here. Also select position of rotate markers (above and below the colours). Top marker=start rotate colour. Bottom marker=end rotate marker. Rotate markers indicate which colours will be cycled by the rotate options and also which colours will be used by the Rainbow option. Opts: Rotate (MM), All options on Rotate Specbox (RS), Rainbow (MM), Colour (MM), most options on Colour Specbox (COS) Item: Cursor Type: Action Bar Desc: Brings up Cursor Specbox. Opts: All options on Cursor Specbox (CUS) Item: Erase Type: Action Bar Desc: Brings up an alert box and checks that you really want to erase the whole of the current work screen. Equivalent of pressing the key. Opts: Undo (MM) Item: File Type: Action Bar Desc: Brings up the File Specbox. Opts: All options on the File Specbox (FS) Item: FillPat Type: Shifter Desc: Choose which fill pattern you want to use from here. This fill pattern only affects certain modes which produce solid shapes such as Box, Ellipse etc. For Fill Pattern to affect these modes, the Solid option must be turned on, or the shape drawn will be a frame instead of a solid shape. Opts: Solid (MM), Fill Type (MM) Item: Fill Type Selector Type: Icon Selector Desc: Decides which type of fill pattern to use, if any, during the drawing of a solid shape eg. Box, Ellipse etc. 'None' means no fill pattern (just a solid colour), 'pattern' and 'hatched', together, offer 36 non user-defineable patterns. '1 Col FP' and '16 Col FP' each offer 8 user-defineable patterns. To define them, go to the Options Specbox and click on the 'Def 1C FP' or the 'Def 16C FP' buttons, depending on whether you want to Define a 1 colour fill pattern or a 16 colour pattern. The appropriate fill pattern will be displayed on the Fill Pattern Selector. Opts: FillPat (MM), Def 1C FP (OS), Def 16C FP (OS) Item: Gd-Lock Type: Toggle Bar Desc: This switches on/off the Grid-lock system and also brings up the Grid Specbox. Grid-Lock is a system which allows you to work on the corners or the centres of squares forming a grid. The grid is made up of equal size squares defined on the Grid Specbox by the Width and Height options. Up to 8 different sizes of grid may be stored in memory at once. These are selected by the Size icon selector also on the Grid Specbox. To choose whether the Grid-Lock is effective to the corners or to the centres of the sqaures you must set the Place option on the Grid Specbox. Use the Grid Overlay (on the Grid Specbox) to see where the grid squares are on the work screen. This option is a little difficult to explain, so try it out! Opts: All options on the Grid Specbox (GS) Item: Options Type: Action Bar Desc: Brings up the Options Specbox Opts: Options Specbox (OS) Item: Printer Type: Action Bar Desc: Brings up the Printer Specbox Opts: Printer Specbox (PRS) Item: Rainbow Selector Type: Special Selector Desc: This option is found in the lower right hand corner of the screen. It toggles on/off in a similar manner to any toggle bar. The following modes are affected by Rainbow: Draw, Sprite, Mark, Spray, Brush (Changes the colour of the pen each time the mouse button is checked) Line, K-Line, Rays, Arc (Produces a line of equally spaced colours) Box (Produces multi-colour boxes when Solid is on, else it produces Rainbow lines for the frame similar to that of the Line mode) Ellipse, Polygon, Segment (Similar to Box) Grid (Creates a grid of multi-coloured lines like those produced by the Line mode) To Select which colours the Rainbow effects acts between, move the Rotate Markers on the Colour & Rotate Selector at the bottom of the Main Menu. Opts: Colour & Rotate Selector (MM) Item: Regular Type: Toggle Bar Desc: When on, this allows the drawing of regular circles when using the Ellipse Mode or regular Polygon using the Polygon Mode. Opts: Ellipse Mode (MM), Polygon Mode (MM) Item: Rotate Type: Action Bar Desc: Brings up the Rotate Specbox Opts: Rotate Specbox (RS) Item: Rounded Type: Toggle Bar Desc: When on, this allows the drawing of boxes with rounded corners. Used in conjunction with the Box Mode. Note that when Solid is off, this function does not affect the box. Opts: Box Mode (MM) Item: Shadow Type: Action Bar Desc: Brings up the Shadow Specbox Opts: Shadow Specbox (SHS) Item: Solid Type: Toggle Bar Desc: When drawing certain shapes, you can make the output either a solid shape of the current fill pattern, or alternatively, an outline frame. When Solid is off, a frame is produced and the fill pattern is ignored. Solid affects Box, Ellipse, Polygon, Fill, Segment, and Brush. Opts: Fill Pattern (MM) Item: Undo Type: Action Bar Desc: Brings up an Alert box asking whether you really wanted to undo what you just did to the work screen. Pressing the key does the same thing. The work screen is stored in an 'Undo' buffer every time you exit the Main Menu. Opts: Erase (MM) Item: Window Type: Toggle Bar Desc: The Window is like a Clipping Rectangle, ie. a selected area of the screen outside of which you cannot draw. When you switch on the Window option, you must select where the Window is to be on the work screen. By clicking the right mouse button you select the previous position of the Window. Left button selects new co-ordinates. After the Window position has been selected you are returned to the Main Menu. When using the Mirror options at the same time as having the Window on, the boundaries are mirrored off the sides of the Window instead of the whole screen. This is useful if you want to use mirror on a small image. Opts: Mirror (OS)