SHIP.LSP program to prepare drawings to be shipped out in conformance
to the receiving party's requirements.

Please read the following documentation prior to running this program.

Sierra Hermitage
Rod Young, programmer
140 Mesa Vista Drive
Bishop, CA  93514
Phone: 619-387-2479


It can be both inconvenient and embarrassing to ship drawings to clients
or colleagues that they can not load or that are confusing to an operator
who is not familiar with your layering convention, fonts, menus and
system variable settings.  SHIP.LSP prepares your drawings for shipping
by resolving many of these issues.  

This can be the result of a number of things:

		You use a layer name conventions different than the other party.

		You use font files that are proprietary and the other party
		doesn't have, or use, them.

		Your fonts are not compatible with the other party's graphic style.

		Your system variable are set different than the other party's normal
		settings.
		
		Your drawings use external references that were not included in the
		shipping.

Many of these same issues apply to drawings that are shipped TO you,
in which case, you will want the other party to use this program.

SHIP.LSP in intended to be used with RUN LISP (see RUNLISP.TXT) to
automatically batch process multiple drawing.  However, it can be used
on one drawing at a time, or on multiple drawings by using a script file.
Scripts are a pain to prepare so save yourself lots of time and order
RUN LISP today.  It will probably pay for itself the first time you use it
and it provides the key to other AutoCad automation.  If you don't use
RUN LISP, you may need to rework the last few lines of the main program
where the save drawing path is built.  When using RUN LISP the drawing
name (getvar "dwgname") is the full path but a script or manual use of
this program will probably require that you concatenate the path and
name.

Other RUN LISP compatible programs that come with RUN LISP.
	
		AUTOPURG.LSP	purges unused layers, styles, blocks, etc

		AUTOPLOT.LSP	plots to plot files

		FONTSUB.LSP		substitutes fonts

		ASLDLIB.LSP		creates slides of drawing and SLIDELIB.EXE compatible
							input file for creating slide libraries
		ABKOUT.LSP		wblocks out all blocks within a drawing - use with
							ASLDLIB.LSP to create slide libraries of your block
							and/or build ICON menu entries.									

All of the above programs can be used with RUN LISP to batch process
multiple drawings automatically in unattended mode.  Plus, RUN LISP will 
work with any other autolisp program that is suitable for batch processing,
without the need to prepare script files.  That means that you can easily
batch process drawings to create dxf files, renderings, data extraction files,
you name it.  You can also automate drawing maintenance easily.

See RUNLISP.TXT for other AutoCad automation programs available from
Sierra Hermitage, including automations that cannot be done from AutoLisp
alone (even with script files) - such as plotting directly to printer/plotter 
and converting R13 to R12.

RUNNING THE PROGRAM:

This program sets both systems variables CMDDIA and FILEDIA to zero.  You
must restore those values manually after running the program.  Before
running the program you should check to see what your normal settings
for those variables are by typing the variable name at the command line.

YOU MUST create a directory off of the directory containing the drawings
named SHIP prior to running this program.  The drawings to be shipped are
put in that directory and your original drawings are unaltered.

SHIP.LSP has multiple functions, some of which require that an input file
be supplied by you.  Most of these files will apply to all drawings that
you may ship, so once prepared they can be reused.  If you do not want
to enable a particular function, don't furnish the required text file, but
be sure there isn't an old one still hanging around.


**FONT SUBSTITION**

If you wish to substitute fonts, create a text file with one line for each 
font substitution in the following format:

oldfont newfont factor

Omit 'factor' if there is no size difference between the two
fonts.  Factor is the ratio of the old to the new.  One space
only between oldfont,newfont and factor.

Name this text file FONTSUB.TXT and place it in the same
directory as the drawings to be changed.

Because changing fonts can result in problems if the font sizes
are different, keep your old drawings until you are sure that 
all is well. This program will save the new drawings in a 
subdirectory called SHIP off of the directory containing the 
old drawings. YOU MUST CREATE THAT DIRECTORY prior to running 
this program.

**LAYER RENAMING**

If you wish to rename layers to conform to your client or college's 
requirements, you must supply a text file of those settings in the following
format:

oldlayername1 newlayername1
oldlayername2 newlayername2
...

ie:
rr railroad
txt text

just one space between
This file must be named LAYER.TXT and be in the same directory as the
drawings

***EXTERNAL REFERENCES***

SHIP.LSP automatically binds all attached references and detaches all
overlay and unresolved references.  If you plan to ship the external
references and don't want this feature enabled, delete the lines in
this program between the xxxBEGIN EXTERNAL REFERENCE ROUTINExxx and
the xxxEND EXTERNAL REFERENCE ROUTINExxx.  Please note that the FONTSUB
function will not apply to external reference styles in external references
that are not bound.  Also, please note that unresolved references will not
be detached if they are currently inserted into the drawing.

***ZOOM EXTENTS***

SHIP.LSP automatically zooms to extents.


***SYSTEM VARIABLES***

The supplied file, SYSVAR.TXT, is an input file to change system variables
saved in the drawing to the most common setting for those variables.  It
must be in the same directory as the drawing.  You are free to add additional
variables, or change the values, but be sure that variables are ones that
are saved in the drawing (or you'll end up changing your own variables that
are saved in the acad.cfg file).

sysvar1 setting1
sysvar2 setting2
...

ie:
cecolor bylayer
celtype continuous
...

just one space between

This file must be named SYSVAR.TXT and be in the same directory as the
drawings. 

The following is a list of system variables saved in the drawing together
with the most common settings:

ATTDIA 1
BLIPMODE ON
CECOLOR BYLAYER
CELTYPE BYLAYER
COORDS 0
DRAGMODE AUTO
FILLMODE 1
LIMCHECK 0
PLINEWID 0
QTEXTMODE 0
REGENMODE 1
THICKNESS 0
UCSICON ON

Please note that the values are those that you would type at the command
line and not those that you would use with SETVAR.