Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
xtexcad(1)			  TeX Manual			    xtexcad(1)

NAME
       xtexcad - drawing utility that produces LaTeX \picture environments

SYNOPSIS
       xtexcad [-toolkitoption...] [-option...]	[file]

DESCRIPTION
       The xtexcad utility is for drawing graphics which is intended to	be in-
       cluded into a LaTeX document. For this purpose the graphics is saved as
       a LaTeX \picture	environment.

       In order	to produce correct input to LaTeX, the slopes of lines and the
       diameters of circles are	restricted to those that LaTeX supports.

THE FILE MENU
       The following commands are available under the File menu:

       New     Erase the current graphics completely and start a new drawing.

       Load    Load  graphics  from  a	file. This pops	up a file selector and
	       lets you	choose a file. See FILE	FORMAT on how the  input  file
	       must  be	 structured.  A	file which was saved by	xtexcad	can be
	       read in again.

       Save    Save the	graphics under the current file	name,  which  is  dis-
	       played in the title bar of the main window. If the graphics has
	       not  been saved in a file yet, the function is the same as Save
	       As.  An already existing	file is	backed-up by renaming it.  The
	       suffix  .old  is	 appended  to the name of the backup file. The
	       suffix can be changed with the resource backupSuffix.

       Save As Save the	current	graphics under a new file name.	This pops up a
	       file selector which lets	you choose a file  or  specify	a  new
	       file  name. From	now on,	Save will save the graphics to the new
	       file name.

       Quit    Exit from xtexcad.

THE EDIT MENU
       The following commands are available under the Edit menu:

       Copy    This creates a copy of the currently selected item.

       Delete  This deletes the	currently selected item.

       Edit Text
	       If the currently	selected item is a text, a framed box text  or
	       a  dashed box text, this	pops up	a dialog in which the text can
	       be edited.

       Refresh This refreshes the drawing area.

DRAWING	GRAPHICS and the DRAW MENU
       The Draw	menu allows to select the drawing mode.	The currently selected
       mode is indicated by a check mark.

       The first entry,	Pick, switches to the pick mode. This allows that  al-
       ready  drawn items can be selected and modified.	To select an item move
       the pointer over	it and press the left mouse button. Currently, an item
       can be selected when the	pointer	is over	its rectangular	bounding  box.
       Press  the  left	 mouse button repeatedly to cycle through the possible
       items for the current pointer position. (NOTE: To  select  a  text  you
       must carefully point at the anchor point	of the text.)

       When  an	 item  is  selected, it	can be modified	by placing the pointer
       over the	grips. To move the item, press the  middle  mouse  button  and
       drag the	item to	the desired new	location. To change the	size or	direc-
       tion of an object, press	the left mouse button and drag the grip	to the
       desired new location.

       When drawing a Line or Vector, press the	left mouse button to place the
       starting	point of the line or vector.  Then press the left mouse	button
       again  to  place	the end	point. This is now the starting	point of a new
       line. To	finish the line, press the middle or right mouse button.

       For a Bezier first place	the starting point, then the end  point,  then
       the curvature of	the curve using	the left mouse button. Then start with
       the next	bezier.

       For the Framed Box Text and the Dashed Box Text place two opposite cor-
       ners  of	 the  box. Then	a popup	appears	where the text can be typed in
       and the alignment of the	text within the	box and	the  shadow  style  of
       the  box	 can  be selected.  After pressing Ok or Cancel, draw the next
       box.

       For a Text simply choose	the location. Then a popup appears  where  the
       text can	be entered and the alignment can be specified.

       For a Circle Outline and	a Filled Circle	first specify the center, then
       the size.

       For  a  Filled  Rectangle  and a	Rounded	Rectangle specify two opposite
       corners.

THE OPTIONS POPUP
       Pressing	the Options button pops	up a window containing several	toggle
       buttons.	 With  these,  some features can be switched on	and off	(these
       features	can also be controlled with X Resources):

       Enable Grid
	       displays	a grid when pressed. The  distance  between  the  grid
	       points  can  be	specified  in the text entry below in units of
	       \unitlength. The	initial	value of this text field can  be  con-
	       trolled	with  the resource initGridDistance.  Whether the grid
	       is initially on is controlled by	the resource initGrid.

       Snap to Grid
	       When this option	is enabled and the option Enable Grid is  also
	       selected,  only restricted positions in the drawing area	can be
	       selected	(only the grid points).	See also  the  resource	 init-
	       Grid.

       Unlimited Slopes	and Unlimited Diameters
	       When  these options are switched	on, unlimited slopes for lines
	       and vectors and unlimited diameters for discs and  circles  are
	       allowed.	  Note,	 that output files produced with these options
	       enabled will not	be accepted by plain LaTeX. Normally, circles,
	       discs, lines and	vectors	 are  precisely	 restricted  to	 those
	       available  with usual LaTeX fonts.  See also the	resources ini-
	       tUnlimitedSlopes	and initUnlimitedCircles.

       Ruler   switches	on a ruler along the top and left edges	of the drawing
	       area with labels	in multiples of	\unitlength.  See also the re-
	       source initRuler.

       Cross Hair
	       switches	on a cross hair	which follows the pointer.   See  also
	       the resource initCross.

       Minimum Length
	       When  this  option  is  enabled,	 xtexcad  obeys	that a minimum
	       length is required for slanted lines and	vectors.   The	corre-
	       sponding	resource is initUnlimitedLengths.

THE SHIFT POPUP
       When the	Shift button is	pressed, a window pops up with which the draw-
       ing can be shifted in the drawing area. There are 4 buttons with	arrows
       for  the	4 directions and a small button	between	them which centers the
       drawing.	 The amount how	far to shift the drawing can be	 specified  in
       the  text entry field below the arrow buttons. The inital value in this
       field can be controlled by the resource initOffset where	the  value  is
       understood in units of \unitlength.

THE ZOOM POPUP
       When  the  Zoom	button	is pressed, a window pops up where the current
       zoom factor (as a percent value)	can be specified. The factor  is  lim-
       ited  to	 the  range 25 through 400.  The inital	zoom value can be con-
       trolled by the resource initZoomFactor.	The button shows  the  current
       zoom  factor.  (The center button of the	Shift popup is useful to place
       the drawing in the middle of the	drawing	area again.)

OPTIONS	and X RESOURCES
       This program uses the X Toolkit and Athena widgets.  The	class name for
       the application is XTeXcad.  It understands all of  the	core  resource
       names  and  classes  and	all of the standard X Toolkit command line op-
       tions.  The following standard X	Toolkit	 command  line	arguments  are
       commonly	used with xtexcad:

       -fn font
	       This  option  specifies the font	to be used for displaying text
	       in buttons and menu entries as well as the text in the  drawing
	       area.  The font used in the drawing area	can selectivly be cho-
	       sen with	the application	resource .font (class .Font).

       -fg color, -bg color
	       This  specifies	the foreground and background colors of	all of
	       xtexcads	windows. The foreground	color of the drawing area  can
	       selectivly  be chosen with the application resource .foreground
	       (class .Foreground).

       -geometry geometry
	       This option specifies the prefered size and position of the ap-
	       plication window.

       -display	host:display
	       This option specifies the X server to contact.

       In addition, the	following application specific resources can  be  used
       to customize xtexcad:

       .initOffset, class .InitOffset
	       specifies  the  initial	value by which the image is shifted by
	       the buttons in the Shift	popup. Default is 10.0.

       .initZoomFactor,	class .InitZoomFactor
	       specifies the inital zoom factor. This value is	restricted  to
	       the range 25 to 400). Default is	100.

       .initGridDistance, class	.InitGridDistance
	       specifies  the  initial distance	of the grid points. Default is
	       10.0.

       .rulerFont, class .Font
	       This resource specifies the font	which will be used to draw the
	       units on	the ruler if it	is displayed.

       .defaultUnitLength, class .DefaultUnitLength
	       This specifies the default TeX dimension	for the	\unitlength of
	       the saved picture. The value must be a floating	point  number,
	       followed	 by one	of the two-letter units	of dimension as	under-
	       stood by	TeX (regardless	of the case): pt, cm, mm, pc, in,  bp,
	       dd,  cc,	 sp,  em  (font-relative  unit,	 roughly 10pt).	 It is
	       highly recommended to chose sensible multiples of pt as default
	       (for example 10pt, 2pt, or 0.5em) because all units are	inter-
	       nally  translated  to pt	and 1pt	corresponds approximately to 1
	       screen pixel at zoom 100	(see also the BUGS  section).  Default
	       is 1.0pt.

       .backupSuffix, class .BackupSuffix
	       This string is appended to the name of backup files. Default is
	       .old.

       *filter,	class *Filter
	       This  resource  gives  the initial value	for the	file filter in
	       the file	selector widget	used by	the Load,  Save	 and  Save  As
	       commands. Default is *.

       .initSnapGrid, class .InitSnapGrid
	       This  resource  specifies  whether  only	selected points	on the
	       grid can	be chosen. Default is off.

       .initRuler, class .InitRuler
	       This resource specifies whether the ruler is  initially	drawn.
	       Default is off.

       .initGrid, class	.InitRuler
	       This  resource  specifies  whether the grid is initially	drawn.
	       Default is off.

       .initCross, class .InitRuler
	       This resource specifies whether the cross is  initially	drawn.
	       Default is off.

       .initUnlimitedSlopes, class .InitUnlimited
	       This  resource  specifies  whether lines	and vectors with arbi-
	       trary slopes can	be drawn. Default is false.

       .initUnlimitedCircles, class .InitUnlimited
	       This resource specifies whether circles with  arbitrary	diame-
	       ters can	be drawn. Default is false.

       .initUnlimitedLengths, class .InitUnlimited
	       This  resource  specifies  whether very short lines and vectors
	       can be drawn.  Default is false.

FILE FORMAT
       xtexcad can read	not only files saved  by  itself  but  also  by	 other
       means,  for  example hand written files.	For a file to be understood by
       xtexcad it must contain the following:  Optionally,  a  \unitlength=TeX
       dimension  command, a \begin{picture} phrase (without white space after
       \begin) with or without the  optional  argument,	 zero  or  more	 \put,
       \qbezier,  or  \bezier  commands,  and an \end{picture} phrase (without
       white space after  \end).  Everything  before  \begin{picture}  (except
       \unitlength)  and after \end{picture} is	ignored.  The \qbezier command
       can come	with or	without	the optional argument.	Its value, however, is
       ignored and will	not be written to the file any more when the  file  is
       saved.

       A  file	created	 by xtexcad always assigns a value to \unitlength. The
       whole file is inside a group (curly braces) so that this	assignment  is
       local.	For  a	newly  created	file, the value	of \unitlength will be
       taken from the resource defaultUnitLength whose default is 1.0pt.  If a
       file is loaded in, which	assigns	a value	 to  \unitlength,  this	 value
       will  be	preserved. This	means that if you find that the	picture	is too
       large or	too small for the LaTeX	document, you can manually scale it by
       editing the \unitlength in the resulting	file. If you  later  edit  the
       file  with  xtexcad,  it	 will not destroy this change, and the picture
       will appear scaled accordingly in the drawing area  of  xtexcad,	 since
       1pt corresponds to 1 screen pixel (at zoom 100).

SEE ALSO
       Leslie  Lamport:	LaTeX: A Document Preparation System, Goossens et al.:
       The LaTeX companion.

BUGS
       Modifying objects lacks some features like cross	hair. It is also  very
       unfriendly  with	 servers  that do not support backingstore.  The grips
       should be transparent.

       The shadow style	is currently ignored.

       Some aspects (the shadow-part of	the text placement popup) may not work
       when linked with	X11R4 libraries	because	the Toggle widget changed  its
       behavior	from R4	to R5.

       The  optional  argument of the \qbezier command is ignored and does not
       get saved to the	file when a picture is loaded and saved	later.

       Redrawing after modifying an item is worse than bad.

       Internally, all units are translated to TeX points (pt),	and  1	screen
       pixel (at zoom 100) is taken to be approximately	1pt. However, this may
       result  in  rounding  and  positioning  errors  if \unitlength is not a
       proper multiple of 1pt.

       Sometimes, especially when drawing very short lines, it is possible  to
       produce	unsupported  LaTeX-slopes of lines and vectors.	Working	with a
       large zoom factor helps.	Also, for some \unitlengths the	 minimum  line
       length computed is too short.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright 1991 by Klaus Zitzmann, 1993-1996 by Johannes Sixt.  The file
       selection   widget   is	copyrighted  by	 J.K.Wight  <J.K.Wight@newcas-
       tle.ac.uk> which	itself uses code written by Byron Rakitzis  <byron@ne-
       tapp.com> (the regexp package).

AUTHORS
       Klaus Zitzmann <zitzmann@infko.uni-koblenz.de> wrote TeXcad 1.2.

       Johannes	 Sixt  <Johannes.Sixt@telecom.at> rewrote much of that version
       and produced this version of XTeXcad.  Most of the changes from 2.3  to
       2.4 are due to Notker Amann <amann@isr.uni-stuttgart.de>.

Contributed Software		2000-October-01			    xtexcad(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=xtexcad&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.0>

home | help