When enabled this will emulate the VGA text window. Use the F1 key to toggle between modes. If you wish to execute any DOS commands, however, Aquila will switch the screen to a full screen text mode. This allows for full DOS compatibility.
Important!
If you are using a plot spooler or other TSR that requires a compatible pop-up window, then this option must be disabled.
Birds Eye View
This feature provides an overall view of the drawing, showing you exactly where you are in that drawing. Without entering any AutoCAD commands, the zoom factor and offset (panning) can be modified. This birds-eye will work in multiple viewport drawings, and will appear in the aspect ratio of the currently active viewport.
When activated, the birds-eye view will appear under the current cursor location. In this window will appear a small overall view of the amount of the drawing that AutoCAD has currently placed in Aquila's display list. A highlighted rectangle will appear within this window indicating the currently viewed area. Also within this window is an outline rectangle which indicates the area that will be shown if a birds-eye zoom is completed. If this rectangle contains an 'X' in the middle, then the birds-eye is in pan mode. If this rectangle contains an arrow, then the birds-eye is in zoom mode.
Pressing the pick button on your mouse or digitizer (usually the left button for a mouse) allows you to toggle between zoom and pan modes in the birds-eye window. Pressing the selection button on your digitizer causes the selected view to be used in the currently active viewport. The birds-eye will disappear, and new zoom will be executed. Moving the cursor outside the birds-eye window cancels the function and does not change the current view.
Edge Pan
Edge-pan is used to move around while zoomed into a drawing.
By leaving the cursor near the border of the currently active viewport, Aquila will automatically begin to pan in that direction. This only begins if the cursor is left idle for a predetermined length of time. There are a number of configuration settings to use, and they can be changed within AutoCAD. Experimentation will yield the best results for your needs.
Paging Alarm
When AutoCAD's memory requirements exceed the amount of physical memory available in your machine, it begins paging, in order to gain extra memory.
Paging means that certain memory areas are traded back and forth with a swap file on the hard drive. Due to the difference in access speed between main memory, and this virtual memory that is on the hard drive, AutoCAD begins to slow down, often to the point of being unusable. To combat this, memory is used very sparingly, and only when absolutely necessary.
As a second line of defense against paging, when the amount of memory paged out to disk exceeds several preset thresholds, Aquila begins shutting down extra functions, and returns the memory to AutoCAD.
When paging activity exceeds the first threshold, the screen-list feature is disabled and all associated memory is returned to AutoCAD. At this point, the screen list status line will disappear from the status window. Should paging activity continue, Aquila will disable the display list feature and return all of that memory to AutoCAD. When that has been done, the second line of the status window will say 'Disabled', to indicate that all display list functionality has been terminated.
The driver will continue to function as normal, but redraws will be slower. However, AutoCAD itself will now be much faster than it was without paging.
Erase Buffer
When AutoCAD erases objects from the drawing database, it erases them from the screen as well. Sometimes this action causes other objects to appear erased as well. The redraw command has no effect, but a regen causes the objects to appear correctly.
This problem can be solved by using the erase buffer to correct the display corruption that occurs when objects are erased from the drawing. Normally, AutoCAD will request that the driver erases a line from the screen by drawing it in black. This causes the erased object to flash on and off the screen during redraws.
Another side-effect is that objects near the erased one may appear to be incomplete. To correct this in the fastest manner possible, Aquila will keep a list of erased vectors, and erase them only when the buffer fills. This speeds up block erasures considerably.
Note:
There are certain after market software packages for AutoCAD, such as CAD Overlay, which rely upon the ability to draw objects in black (background color). If you are using one of these packages and the screen images keep coming up funny, then you need to disable the erase buffer.
Band-Free Rendering
When using the 15 or 16 bit rendering modes, often times the images appear banded. This banding or staircasing occurs most often on objects with large sloping or gently curving surfaces. Band-Free rendering improves the image quality in these modes.
The Band-Free effect can be controlled as well. It may be set to 'Low', 'Medium', or 'High', depending upon how much of the banding you want to eliminate.
Note:
This feature will be of limited use to users of AutoShade, but is beneficial to users of Autodesk RenderMan and 3D Studio.
AutoCAD Screen Layout
Current Color Display: The rectangle in the top left of the screen displays the current drawing color.
1. Logo: This is used to display the manufacturers logo.
2. Display Status Area: This area is present only when display list has been enabled.
3. Memory Status: This provides a percentage of total system memory that is being used by AutoCAD. AutoCAD may start to slow down when this display exceeds 100%. After this figure exceeds 150%, paging will occur.
4. Display/Screen Lists Memory Status: Amount of memory being used by the display list and screen list. When this line reads Empty, this means that there is no drawing in memory (new drawing).
5. Display List Status:
D 32 bit display list data is in use.
d 16 bit display list data has been selected.
Z Zooming from the display list is allowed.
z Pspace and perspective zooms by AutoCAD. Birds-eye will not work in viewport.
S Redraw list is enabled.
s Redraw list is turned off.
P Page alarm enabled and paging occurred recently.
p Page alarm enabled and no paging has occurred.
E Edge-pan enabled. Edge pan is impending.
e Edge-pan enabled but none impending.
Aquila Driver Commands
AQHLP The help screen function displays a list of all local driver commands and gives a brief description of each.
AQDLQ Displays a text or flip screen all the viewports currently in use, along with some useful statistics about each one.
AQDRQ Displays current display resolution and memory allocation statistics (CTRL + L provides the same function).
AQCLN Removes objects from display list.
AQBIRD Displays birds eye window underneath current cursor location.
AQEPAN Toggles on and off the Edge-pan feature.
AQPL Pan to the left by 25 percent.
AQPR Pan to the right by 25 percent.
AQPU Pan up by 25 percent.
AQPD Pan down by 25 percent.
AQZI Zoom in by 50 percent.
AQZO Zoom out by 50 percent.
AQZX Zoom to full screen.
AQZWI Zoom way in while using the same scale factor. Only available in AutoCAD 12. Zooms in as much as possible before another regen will occur.
AQZWO Zoom way out. Only available in AutoCAD12.
AQBESZ=xx Resize the birds-eye window. Valid percentage of the graphics screen size.
AQPANSCR=xx Amount of the viewport scrolled by the edge-pan feature. Valid number must be between 10 and 80, and it is a percentage of the viewport size.
AQPANBRD=xx Width of the edge-pan border given in number of pixels. Valid number must be between 5 and 50.
AQPANTM1=xx Amount of initial delay given in number of 'clicks' or fractions of a second used before the edge-pan begins. Valid range is 10 to 64.
AQPANTM2=xx Amount of time before another edge-pan begins. Valid numbers are between 1 to 18.
AQEBUF=xx Size of the erase buffer. Using 0 turns off the buffer.
AQCKTM=xx Amount of delay in 'clicks' or fractions of a seconds within there must be a double click with the mouse. Valid range is 1 to 36.
