SPanCAD Installation Guide
In order to install SPanCAD on your computer you need Windows 3.0 or higher and AutoCAD version 12 or higher installed and configured. In the following section the procedure is described to install SPanCAD on AutoCAD 13 and Windows 95. The subsequent section contains the installation procedure for SPanCAD on AutoCAD 14.
Installing SPanCAD on AutoCAD 13 and Windows 95
If AutoCAD performs as you like, the installation of SPanCAD takes only a few minutes: Just follow the six steps below accurately.
Create a folder with the name spancad on your computer. In this guide we will assume that you want to have this folder in the root C:\, but you can put it anywhere you like provided you make the proper changes to the path names of this text. (You can find detailed information on creating folders in your Windows manual.)
Copy the contents of the SPanCAD diskettes to the folder you just made. Appendix 4 has an overview of the sub folders and files that are part of SPanCAD.
Copy the files acad.ini and acad.cfg to the folder spancad. You can find these f 15415u2024p iles in the AutoCAD folder. On many computers the path will be C:\acad13\win but you can also use the find function of Windows to locate the files.
Create an extra short cut for AutoCAD. Change the properties of the short cut as displayed in the figure below: Add to the first line named target the text /c C:\spancad and change the second line to C:\spancad . The official SPanCAD icon can be found in the folder spancad.
(If you are less experienced in using Windows, you might want to consult the Windows manual or on-line help to assist with creating the short cut and accessing its properties.) The /c in the middle of the second line of the dialogue box, makes AutoCAD look for the acad.ini and acad.cfg file in the folder spancad. This way your original AutoCAD configuration and settings remain unchanged when changes for SPanCAD are made.
Start SPanCAD by double clicking the item you just made. If everything is OK, AutoCAD will start and a menu will be loaded. Activate the dialogue box with preferences from the menu (Options; Preferences; Environment) or by typing preferences on the command line. The figure on the next page, displays the preferences dialogue box. Add, to the line named Support, the following paths ;C:\spancad\support;C:\spancad\support\blocks .
Now you can add the SPanCAD commands to your pull-down menu: Choose from the menu (Tools; Customise Menus) or type menuload on the command line. and the following dialogue box will appear.
Use the Browse button to select the file spancad.mnu in the folder spancad\support. Press the Load button to add this file to the menu groups. Go to the folder Menu Bar and select the item SPanCAD from the menu Groups. Add the menu SPanCAD to your menu by pressing the Insert button as the figure below shows.
You can always customise the position of the SPanCAD column or any other column in your menu with this dialogue box. Press the close button when you are done.
5b AutoCAD 13 has a bug which makes that it does not store the extra menu components in the .ini file. Consequently, the next time you start SPanCAD you first have to customise the menu again.
There is a trick to do this automatically: Add the following lines
Load SPanCAD menu if we are on Windows SPanCAD is not loaded yet.
;(if (and
(wcmatch (getvar "platform") "*Windows*")
(not (tblsearch "APPID" "SPanCAD"))
The file spancad.mnl registers SPanCAD in the APPID table of the drawing.
)
(progn
(setq filedia (getvar "FILEDIA"))
(setq cmdecho (getvar "CMDECHO"))
(setvar "FILEDIA" 0);no dialoque boxes
(setvar "CMDECHO" 0);no echo of command function
(command "_.MENUUNLOAD" "spancad")
(command "_.MENULOAD" "spancad")
(menucmd "P10=+spancad.pop1")
(setvar "FILEDIA" filedia)
(setvar "CMDECHO" cmdecho)
)
(princ)
to the ends of the files *.mnl in the AutoCAD folders. If the file acad.mnl does not exist in the AutoCAD\win folder, create it and type the above lines in it (just ASCII).
The idea is simple: When the main AutoCAD menu is loaded (*.mnu) the associated AutoLISP routines are loaded too (*.mnl). Subsequently, due to the lines above, the SPanCAD menu (spancad.mnu) is loaded with the associated AutoLISP routines (spancad.mnl). It is a dirty trick but it works and it is very convenient.
The final thing to do is check the installation with a computation. Open the drawing from the folder examples (File; Open) and make a computation (SPanCAD; Computation; Analysis). If the computation does not work as it should, or something else goes wrong, check all six steps of the installation procedure. If that does not help contact us.
If everything went OK, your computer is now ready to use SPanCAD. Have a look at the other examples in the folder examples and read the chapter about the Stringer-panel-Model in the manual before you actually start designing.
Installing SPanCAD on AutoCAD 14 and Windows 98 or Windows NT
If AutoCAD performs as you like, the installation of SPanCAD takes only a few minutes: Just follow the five steps below accurately.
Create a folder with the name SPanCAD on your computer. In this guide we will assume that you want to have this folder in the root C:\Program Files\, but you can put it anywhere you like provided that you make the proper changes to the path names of this text. (You can find detailed information on creating folders in your Windows manual.) Copy the contents of the SPanCAD CD-ROM to the folder you just made. Go to the folders SPanCAD and SPanCAD\support and turn off the read only property for all files.
Create an extra short cut for AutoCAD. Change the properties of the short cut as displayed in the figure below: Change the second line to "C:\Program Files\ SPanCAD" . The official SPanCAD icon can be found in the folder SPanCAD.
Start AutoCAD and activate the dialogue box with preferences from the menu (Tools; Preferences) or by typing preferences on the command line. Select the tab Files. The Figure below displays the preferences dialogue box. Add, to the File Search Path, the following paths:
C:\Program Files\SPanCAD
C:\Program Files\SPanCAD\support
C:\Program Files\SPanCAD\support\blocks
Now you can add
the SPanCAD commands to the AutoCAD pull-down menu: Choose from the menu (Tools; Customize
Menus) or type menuload
on the command line. The following dialogue box will appear.
Use the Browse button to select the file spancad.mnu in the folder SPanCAD\support\. Press the Load button to add this file to the menu groups. Go to the tab Menu Bar and select the item SPanCAD from the Menu Groups. Add the menu SPanCAD to your menu by pressing the Insert button as the figure below shows.
You can always customise the position of the SPanCAD column or any other column in your menu with this dialogue box. Press the close button when you are done.
The final thing to do is check the installation with a computation. Open the drawing (File; Open) from the folder C:\Program Files\SPanCAD\demo\ and make a computation (SPanCAD; Analysis). You can display the results of the computation with the toolbar View SPanCAD Results. If the computation does not work as it should, or something else goes wrong, check all steps of the installation procedure. If that does not help contact us.
If everything went OK, your computer is now ready to use SPanCAD. Have a look at the other examples and read the chapter about the stringer-panel model in the online manual before you actually start designing.
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