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The Options Menu

The Options menu controls various editor settings such as font and color. Changes made here are retained between sessions.
 
 
Editor
Image optionsfiles.GIF The Files tab contains items relating to the editor's handling of files.

Starting Directory - This defines the default direcory (folder) used in the editor's File Open and Save As dialogs.

File Extensions - Lists file extensions that will be shown in File Open and Save As dialogs. Multiple extensions can be entered for each description by seperating them with semi-colons.

Make Automatic Backup - Save a copy of each file that is overwritten. Copies will have a "bak" extension.

Number Of Files in File menu list - Number of recently opened file names to be shown on the file menu. Can be zero through twelve.

Related files - Defines how files are related and where to look for them. This controls the "Open Related" processing on the File menu. For more information on related files, click here .
 
 
Image optionscolors.GIF Use the Colors tab to specify color preferences for CNC program files. The Highlight Words button shows a dialog where colors can be dragged and dropped on address words to indicate that they should be shown in a particular color. For example, you can specify that all G and M codes be shown in green and all Z-words in red.

The editor attempts to use these colors only for CNC programs. You can cycle through several highlighting schemes using the right-click menu or the Image toggle.GIF button.
 
 
Image optionscharacters.GIF The character font to be used can be specified here.

If Convert Keyboard Input to Upper Case is checked, then all characters entered via the keyboard will be converted to upper case regardless of the CAPS LOCK setting.

 Null characters ( ASCII 0 ) require special handling. They can be deleted when a file is read, or can be represented by the character you set. Do not use any character that might appear in a CNC program. Here, nulls will be shown using the ~ character. Keying this into a file will result in its being converted to a nll character when filed. (Tape leaders sometimes contain null characters).
 
 
Image optionssendto.GIF

The Send To tab allows you to create your own menu items that will appear under the File menu. These menus can call other programs and optionally pass the current file name (and path) to the other program on its command line. A Send To menu item can also be created that copies the current to file to a disk. If this capability is used, the file is instantly copied – if it already exists the current copy will be overwritten.

Enter the command used to start the desired program. The keyword &fn causes the current filename to be substituted in the command.

The arrow keys can be used to reorder the list.
 
 
Image optionsmisc.GIF The Miscellaneous tab specifies the toolbar size and can be used to unlock the toolbar for customizing. (Double-click the toolbar and drag buttons to their desired location or on and off the toolbar.) Normally, the toolbar should be locked.

Tool Tips are the small boxes containing hints that appear when the mouse is positioned over a button.
 
 
 
Machine Tool - Sets options primarily related to the target machine tools.
 
 
Image optionsmachine.GIF Specify the character(s) used to indicate a comment in a CNC program. This is usually an open parenthesis and may include other characters. The two shown here are typical.

The commands used to indicate tool changes etc. are specified here, also. Typically, tool changes are indicated by an M6 or the letter T.
 

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