• The difference between Standard, Professional and Enterprise versions.
• Floating Licenses.
• Redline (markups).
• Managing ABViewer from the command line.
• Registration problem.
• Uninstall problem.
• Printing large image on a small printer.
• Too big size of output EMF file.

#1 The difference between Standard, Professional and Enterprise versions.

Q: What is the difference between Standard, Professional and Enterprise versions?

A:

ABViewer features
	Enterprise	Professional	Standard
Viewer	Yes	Yes	Yes
Converter	Yes	Yes	Yes
Poster Print	Yes	Yes	Yes
Editor	Yes	Yes	No
Redline	Yes	Yes	No
Batch Converter	Yes	No	No
Batch Print	Yes	No	No

Top

#2 Floating Licenses.

Q: What is Floating License?

A: Floating Licenses are intended for usage in TCP/IP net. It consists of program “CS Floating License Server” and of copies of ABViewer or some other CadSoftTools products installed on computers in the TCP/IP net.
      A multi-user floating license uses a server to issue licenses to remote applications. The CS Floating License Server can be run under Windows NT platform (NT 4, 2000, XP, 2003) Server or Workstation.
      License allows you to use ABViewer on several machines. Every time a client uses a floating license he/she connects to the CS Floating License Server he/she gets ("leases") a license from that server and the number of available licenses on this server is decreased. When client finishes its work, the license is returned to the Floating License Server and it is available for other machines.
      Note: using Floating Licenses allows to save your money. For instance: if you have several computers which will not use ABViewer at once you don’t need to purchase licenses for all your computers. It is just enough to purchase Floating License for the estimated most number of simultaneously run copies of ABViewer. Then program “CS Floating License Server” must be installed on any computer for storing and managing registration data. Then ABViewer can be run everywhere where it can get access to TCP/IP net. And it is not necessary to reenter registration data every time when reloading.

Top

#3 Redline (markup).

Q: What is Redline?

A: Redline is a tool which allows creating, editing and saving markups that are overlaid on the opened CAD file. Redline can contain texts, lines, arrows, rectangles and ellipses.

Top

#4 Managing ABViewer from the command line.

Q: How can I manage ABViewer from the command line.

A: Usage: ABViewer [command] [switch][switch]file[s...]

Command: open file

Example: open ConusGrinder.dxf

ABViewer.exe ConusGrinder.dxf

Command: convert file(s) to a specified file format

/c xxx

where 'xxx' - extension of output file(s) - dxf, bmp, jpg, emf, wmf, tif or gif

Switches:

• Width='value' - width of output file(s)
• Height='value' - height of output file(s)

Example: convert 50states.hpg, test1.dxf and test2.plt to 50states.bmp, test1.bmp and test2.bmp with height=200 and width=100

ABViewer.exe /c bmp width=100 height=200 50states.hpg test1.dxf test2.plt

/p

Example: print the following files: 50states.hpg, test1.dxf and test2.plt

ABViewer.exe /p 50states.hpg test1.dxf test2.plt

Top

#5 Registration problem.

Q: ABViewer 5 remains 'trial/evaluation' after entering registration data.

A: It is necessary to enter Name, E-Mail and Key which are sent to you when registering. You cannot use another "Name" or "E-mail".

Top

#6 Uninstall problem.

Q: When uninstalling ABViewer message "Could not open Install.log " arise. File Install.log exists and valid. Uninstalling fails.

A: This problem occurs with ABViewer 4 only:

1. Run setup.
2. Window "Welcome" will appear. Press button "Next".
3. Window "License Agreement" will appear. Press button "Accept".
4. Window "Choose Destination Location" will appear. Press button "Browse". Window "Select Destination Location" will appear. Choose "Destination Folder" as your previous installation was. For example: if ABViewer was installed to "C:\Program Files\ABViewer 4" choose this folder and press button "OK".Press button "Next".
5. Window "Select Program Manager Group" will appear. Press button "Next".
6. Window "Start Installation" will appear. Press button "Next".
7. Window "Installation Complete" will appear. Press button "Next".

1. Press button "Start" on "Task bar" pannel.
2. Choose "All Programs->ABViewer 4->Uninstall ABViewer".
3. "Uninstall ABViewer4" will be run. Window "Select Uninstall Method" will appear. Select "Automatic" method. Press button "Next".
4. Window "Perform Uninstall" will appear. Press button "Finish".

1. Press button "Start" on "Task bar" pannel.
2. Open "Control Panel".
3. Open "Add or Remove Programs" panel.
4. Select "ABViewer 4" and press button "Remove".
5. "Uninstall ABViewer4" will be run. Window "Select Uninstall Method" will appear. Select "Automatic" method. Press button "Next".
6. Window "Perform Uninstall" will appear. Press button "Finish".

Top

#7 Printing large image on a small printer

Q: How to print a large image on a small printer

A: If you have an A4-format (210x297 mm) printer and a large image (drawing) 825x594 mm.

• Open image file.
• Press Print Preview button on the toolbar or click [File > Print Preview], after a short while, the Print Preview dialog should appear.
• In Device configuration section choose a printer
• In Paper size and paper units section choose
• Paper size (for example A4 - 210x297 mm)
• Units value millimeters or inches (for example mm)
• In Paper orientation section choose Landscape or Portrait paper orientation (for example Portrait)
• Click on the Drawing settings tab
• In Format size section
• choose predefined format A1 (840, 594)
• Enter the following values
• Left 0
• Top 0
• Width 825, press the Enter button on your keyboard, value in the Height edit box will be set automatically
• In Paper offset section you can choose the size of the printed zone on a paper sheet. This is made for easy combining the sheets after printing superimposing their friend on friend. Default value 1 mm on every side of the page is for superimposing, for example enter the following values
• Left 5
• Top 5
• Right 5
• Bottom 5
• Press Print button.

Top

#8 Too big size of output EMF file.

Q: When using ABViewer for saving *.dwg file as *.wmf file, the file is significantly larger than using AutoCAD output as *.wmf.

A: The reason of the difference is in different drawing methods. SHX symbol is a set of lines. ABViewer uses MoveTo, LineTo API commands when drawing SHX texts (ABViewer is made on a base of CAD Import VCL tool (click here for downloading). AutoCAD uses another API command - Polyline . As a result ABViewer uses API commands in several times more then AutoCAD when drawing the same SHX symbol. Windows Metafile consists of a set of such API commands. Therefore ABViewer makes WMF much larger then AutoCAD does.

This problem is in our task list for improvement of our products.

Top