BORGWARE Quarterly News

Well, it's the moment we've all been waiting for. Time to play that song from "The Artist Formerly known as Prince", 1999. It's here, even though a lot of people tried to stop it by resetting the clock on their computer, just before the end of 1998. Turns out that time flows forward, no matter what. The clock on your computer doesn't control it at all! But the real panic sets in because we are all just a short hop away from that crazy year, with 3 0's in it. Either the world ends, or everybody wakes up and yawn's, wondering what the big fuss was about.

Personally speaking, "The geek, formerly known as Paul", would rather be using HP-UX 10.20, Year 2000 (Y2K) compliant or not. Speaking of which - if you are concerned that your HP-UX system is Y2K compliant, you may want to read the Y2K section. Even though the world is going to end, you want your computer to be in tip-top shape, just in case all of those industry experts just happen to be wrong...

On the Windows side of the fence, there is reason for concern, as a lot of people mistakenly have been assuming that Windows is already Y2K compliant. Some people simply assume that they will just need to upgrade to Windows 2000 to make sure that they will be Y2K compliant.

Well, we recently got word that Windows 2000 has been pushed back to 1901, so it's not a safe bet for a Y2K fix. A local survey of antique distributors revealed that none of them had a copy in stock - go figure.

BORGWARE introduces a new product in the Co|Create section. Pathtrace news covers important seminar information in your area. Finally, there are classes and seminars. We announce a tentative schedule for classes for all of 1999.

Announcements

Some of you may have noticed a new voice on the phone recently. Please welcome Tom Knapp to the BORGWARE support team.

Tom is an inventor with several patents for bicycle suspension. He has experience in manufacturing engineering, mold machining, management and product marketing. His products can be seen at www.hydrapost.com.

Tom has endured quite a lot of Paul's bad jokes since joining the team in June. He's still some-what sane, which according to Paul is only a temporary condition. This in contrast to Kirk and Mary, who have built up a healthy tolerance over the past few years.

CAD/CAM News

For quite a while now, a lot of customers have been asking for an ME10 Viewer for Windows. It's here today, along with a cost reduction for the HP-UX version.

The Windows version brings view-only capability, along with printing capability. More good news, the price is roughly half the cost of what the Unix viewer used to be.

More info if you point your browser at: www.cocreate.com/english/news/press/lowcostsol.htm

The product is available for demo download at:www.cocreate.com/english/products/download/index.htm.

SolidDesigner

Co|Create is now shipping a patch for SolidDesigner 6.x users. SolidDesigner 6.10D is available - only for HP-UX and Windows NT.

More information available if you browse: www.cocreate.com/english/products/3d/p3dnew.htm

BORGWARE GDNT

Do you dread placing GDNT symbols? Do you ever wish that you could just have a few symbols, ready made, so that when it's time to place them, they are right there, on the screen. A couple of clicks, and they're modified to what you want, ready to be inserted into your drawings. It's not that bad anymore, because BORGWARE has a new product, geared toward placing geometric dimension symbols with ease.

BORGWARE GDNT runs with any version of ME10, revision 8 or higher. If you are looking for productivity enhancement and ease of use, this product is for you. But that's not all, it also includes a "native geometry" mode. Placing symbols in this mode allows them to survive translation into just about any environment. It's not a simple trick, because you can also edit the symbols. The menu has a simple read and replace feature that works flawlessly.

Want to know more? Download your demo copy at WINDOWS www.borgware.com/gdt/gdt_demo.zip

HP-UX www.borgware.com/gdt/gdt_demo.tar.gz

Or, browse www.borgware.com/gdt.

ME HYBRID

One of the really nice features added to version 8.x of ME10 was the ability to incorporate bit mapped images into a drawing. This module, called PixMap, is becoming more and more desirable, as non-native graphic images become more important to CAD drafting. Mehybrid, a product of Modultek has been providing this kind of functionality for years, and a lot of people mistakenly think that it's functionality is the same as PixMap.

Let's look at some of the features available in 5.0, the upcoming release of Mehybrid:

* Ability to export the entire drawing as TIFF, PDF (readable with Adobe(tm) Acrobat), and HTML (Web browser format, version 4.0)

* TrueColor export - 24 bit color support.

* Pixmaps can be created from Pixmaps, and edited from within ME10.

In addition to these cool features, Mehybrid version 5.0 also supports plotting to non-HPGL_RTL plotters, and comes with more MEls friendly licensing.

Co|Create Support Contracts

Get onto support today, and save money when you upgrade to version 9.0 of ME10. Version 9.0 is shipping soon, so this is a really good time. BORGWARE can offer you the same benefits you receive from Co|Create. We also have many years of experience supporting Co|Create products, as well as enhancements that you can't get from any other vendor. It's a simple switch.

Contact Kirk MacLean (330-673-3600) for more information.

EdgeCam USERS GROUP

Pathtrace EdgeCam users would be encouraged to attend a user group meeting on 01/28/99 starting at 3:00 PM. The meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn in Cleveland at the intersection of I 77 & Rockside Rd. Contact Paul Mott at 440-239-1490 for registration and more information.

HP-UX Y2K Compliance

There seems to be quite a lot of confusion surrounding the Year 2000 compliance issue. This is understandable, since it's such a strange thing. What's all this about?

Essentially, some programs use only 2 digits to call out a year (similar to your old checks that have 19__, and you are expected to fill out the date). This isn't a big deal if you are writing a check. You just cross out the 19, and write in what you need.

Well, the problem is compounded by computers (of course). A lot of programs break once the year 2000 hits. Dates come up wrong, and mainly, lawyers see big money from lawsuits relating to the problems...

But, back to what you can do about it.

First, if you are running HP-UX, upgrade to 10.20. Then you need to go to HP's web site, and download the latest patches, and install them on your system. This can be extremely painful, as the patches themselves are over 20 megabytes compressed. Once you download the patches, you need to follow the instructions to install them, which are posted on the web site.

Here are some tips:

* You need a decent amount of hard disc space to install the patches. This is a recommendation, have at least 75 megabytes of free space on the root file system of the machine being patched.

* Only install patches for products you are using, or might be using. The patches go in, but they can be taken out later, if you so desire. That's not magic - the installation routine keeps a copy of all of the old file's that were replaced, so expect that your disk space using will increase.

* Some of the patches will require a reboot - the system will tell you if this is the case, before performing the action.

Remember, the patches for HP-UX Year 2000 Compliance change often. For best results, you should check and see if you have all of the patches needed every once in a while. You can bet that the web site will be extremely busy around December of 1999.

HP-UX Patch web site:

www.software.hp.com/products/Y2K/index.html

WINDOWS Y2K Compliance

On the windows side, things are not any better than HP-UX. A lot of people mistakenly assume that Windows software is automatically Y2K compliant. This would be nice and it would simplify things a great deal. Unfortunately, it would also be completely wrong.

A great deal of the mistaken assumptions seem to revolve around the fact that there are multiple service packs for Microsoft software. For example, only the latest service pack for Windows NT (Service Pack 4) ensures Y2K compliance. Editor note - as this newsletter was going to press, a 2001 bug was discovered across Windows 95,98 and Windows NT. For more info visit this site:

www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/biztech/articles/12code.html

You may also need a BIOS upgrade for your computer, and patches for certain applications. In order to ensure Y2K compliance on a windows system, you should visit the following web site:

www.microsoft.com/technet/topics/year2k/tools/tools.htm

SAMBA NEWS

NT Service pack 3 may possibly cause problems with SAMBA, but only in a minor way. SAMBA uses plain-text passwords by default (What NT and Windows 95 used, until service pack 3). There are two fixes for the problem. One involves adding a registry key, to put things back the way they were before. The other involves re-compiling SAMBA to provide for encrypted password support. The details are available at:

www.netspace.net.au/~bmiller/linux/NT-SAMBA-problem.html

SAMBA functionality continues to grow. Recent SAMBA beta software will allow it to take over as a primary domain controller.

COLOR LASER

It seems like you can't turn your head in the tech world these days, and not find a laser application. CD-ROM, printers, color printers, accounting. What's that you say? Accounting? Those laser guided employee removers. Seems that every accounting department now has one, which also explains why so few companies and engineering departments especially, seem to have color laser. Of course, the accounting department always seems to get what THEY want...

Well, the problems are quickly resolving. Prices on color laser printers seem to be dropping faster than we can comprehend them. New choices are appearing by the minute it seems. This is one area that you should examine if you've always wanted one, but couldn't justify the costs.

A really nice 1200x1200 dpi laser printer can be had for under $3000. That's a pretty low cost for a device that can spit out color at laser speed. The market is getting competitive, and that translates to more value and lower costs. Some recommendations for color laser: get a network based solution. Some models now come with network support built right in. BORGWARE can sell you an HP or Tectronix solution today. A solution that should get you past that laser guided system in accounting...

Paul's Cool ME10

Pauls cool ME10 macro trick of the day. Create the following macros. Use either a text editor, and the INPUT command in ME10, or use the EDIT_MACRO command, and type what you see.

DEFINE Reading

PARAMETER Ignore

PARAMETER Filename

INPUT Filename

END_DEFINE

DEFINE Eeading

PARAMETER Ignore

PARAMETER Filename

EDIT_FILE Filename

INPUT Filename

END_DEFINE

DEFINE PL

PROMPT_LIST SCREEN

END_DEFINE

What do they do?

Use the PL command, to list your prompts. Press return on an input file (ME10 prompts with the string "Reading file '<filename>', while reading files). These macros take advantage of this feature and the fact that you can "capture" system prompts with the PROMPT_LIST command. Press escape, and the "prev" key (or page up) to re-display the "Reading file" line. Press return, and the file will be re-input.

What's are these macros for?

Fast macro development while using input files. In ME10, when you are editing macros, it's often the case that you work on a file containing a macro. Using these simple macros, you can go back through the files that are being read, and re-read them quickly. Or, alternatively, edit them. Either way, you don't end up having to delete characters, and replace them with INPUT and so on. To edit a file in the input list, and re-read it, simply do the above procedure, and replace the "R" with the "E" character. The file will come up in the ME10 editor, and then, after saving, be re-read.

Classes and Seminars

We live in a complex world. You can spend your time backing over things in the dark, or you can take a training class and learn how to drive through it. We at BORGWARE would prefer that you take the latter course!

This year we add to the craziness, by introducing a two day SAMBA course. This course will teach the basics of a great Open Source Software product, which allows you to turn your Unix server into a powerful SMB server. SMB is the default protocol used by Microsoft.

Why use it?

For one thing, that good old Unix box in the corner is an extremely good file server, and it's also very stable. Cost is another issue. With SAMBA, there are no per-client licensing fees to pay. Add as many PC's to your network SAMBA server as you want. The only limiting factor will be the load on the server. This is really not much of a limit, for a lot of HP-UX hardware.

Lastly, SAMBA is extremely flexible. The shares (like exports in the NFS world) can be controlled with granularity not available in the proprietary PC server world.

Since SAMBA is free, however, there appear to be limitations. One is support. The other is training.

BORGWARE addresses both of these problems. If you need support for SAMBA, you can obtain a service contract for a minimal fee, depending on what level of support you want. And training - we have training, just look at the schedule at the end of this newsletter.

Of course, good old ME10 training is available, as well as SolidDesigner, Pathtrace EdgeCAM, POSIX shell (scripts), and Systems Administration.

BORGWARE continues to offer incentives to improve your current CAM systems. Does your company have SmartCAM(tm) or some other CAM package that you are currently dissatisfied with? Come to a half-day seminar, and find out just why PathTrace EdgeCam is the leader in the growing CAM market.

EdgeCAM also works very nicely with AutoDesk(tm) Mechanical Desktop. If you have an interest in this functionality, you may wish to attend BORGWARE's EdgeCAM for Mechanical Desktop seminar.

Both seminars last only one half of a day.

BORGWARE Seminar Schedule

Seminar	Date and Time	Location
EdgeCam 4 Mech Desk	Jan 18 9:00 AM	Kent Ohio
SmartCam Conversion	Jan 18 1:00 PM	Kent Ohio
EdgeCam 4 Mech Desk	Feb 18 9:00 AM	Cleveland OH
SmartCam Conversion	Feb 18 1:00 PM	Cleveland OH
SolidDesigner for ME10 Users ($$$)	Feb 25 9:00 AM	Kent Ohio
EdgeCam 4 Mech Desk	Mar 18 9:00 AM	Kent Ohio
SolidDes. Advisor	(Series)	Kent Ohio
Sheet Advisor	Mar 2 8:00 AM	Kent Ohio
Designer Advisor	Mar 2 10:00 AM	Kent Ohio
Work Manager	Mar 2 1:00 PM	Kent Ohio
Part Advisor	Mar 2 3:00 PM	Kent Ohio
EdgeCam 4 Mech Desk	Apr 22 9:00 AM	Cleveland OH

More Pathtrace seminar info is available at

www.pathtrace.com/frames/usseminars.htm

The 1999 BORGWARE Class Schedule

Class Description	Month	Days
ME10	May	11-13
ME10	July	13-15
ME10	Sep	14-16
SolidDesigner Base	Mar	8-10
SolidDes. Annotation	Mar	11-12
SolidDesigner Base	July	5-7
SolidDes. Annotation	July	8-9
SolidDesigner Base	Nov	8-10
SolidDes. Annotation	Nov	11-12
SAMBA	Apr	20-21
SAMBA	Aug	24-25
SAMBA	Dec	9-10
POSIX Shell	Apr	6-7
POSIX Shell	Aug	10-12
POSIX Shell	Dec	6-8
Unix Systems Admin	Feb	8-12
Unix Systems Admin	Jun	7-11
Unix Systems Admin	Oct	11-15