| Task
Number 5
Download
the DirectX
Driver DLL from me here: Richard's
Driver (News: Updated 25th October 2015 to stop crashing on resizing and occasional crash on arc drawing)
Download
the Autotrax
Driver from me here: Richard's
other bit.
Copy
them to the same directory where you put the TRAXEDIT files.
Now,
when you run Traxedit.exe,
it will load up with a display the same size
as the Windows 2000
client area. Wait!!!
I have to tell you
some things first:
1. It will load up and then after about a
second, the screen will go white except for a corner. DON'T
PANIC!! I don't know why it does that but it
doesn't matter.
As soon as it re-draws, it will be fine.
2. If you have
Mouse Integration
on, then the mouse will do weird things. Press
(right-ctrl)-i. That's the right-hand Ctrl key
simultaneously
with the "i"
key. The right-ctrl is called the host key.
When
you click a dialogue box will pop up. Click "Capture" and the
mouse will stay on the Windows
2000 screen. Press the host key to
release it again.
3. It still isn't working right because you
now have to hide the Windows
mouse pointer. Go to near the top
left corner and right-click. A sort-of ghost of the DOS window
will appear underneath it. When you right-click the spectral
caption bar, select "Hide
Mouse Pointer" and then clicking the left
button should give you the menu. Select Zoom->All to refresh
the screen. You might have to hit escape a couple of times to
get
past the File Load bit.
In summary: Capture the mouse. Hide the mouse pointer.
If
the mouse isn't moving, close the program and re-start.
Instead
of clicking "Hide Mouse
Pointer", click "Properties".
Unclick
"Quick Edit Mode"
and "Insert Mode".
Save for all future
invocations. That seems to fix it.
Technical Notes
for Future Reference...
DirectX
is giving us access to the screen and essentially we are scribbling all
over what's already on it. The DOS command window
that's invoking
Autotrax is
in the foreground but it looks like it isn't because of our
scribbling. That's why it gets the mouse and keyboard input
messages. Try Alt-tabbing. You get two icons, one a
little
DOS command
window and the other a little Windows
logo. It's the
command window that's in charge. It doesn't always tab back
happily. It is sometimes necessary to shut down and re-start Autotrax.
Re-sizing
the Windows 2000
window causes the driver to fail. The problem is that it
doesn't work properly because in 1992
Autotrax
couldn't have forseen
working in a resizable window. The status text moves but the
status panel doesn't. It won't fall over but it will not work
quite as it should. Re-start Autotrax to refresh
the screen.
I
might get round to fixing this sometime but it would only be partly
successful anyway. The problem is shutting down DirectDraw and
re-starting it within the framework I adopted for the coding.
I've basically shot myself in the proverbial...
The
memory is a problem. If you try to load Bigdemo.pcb, it will
be
incomplete. Solution to follow. Stay tooned.
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