LAYERS & MEMORY
I work in the facility department here at Intel and we use the AEC packages.
I have been given information that you all there are going to develop a
Planning AEC package. I would like to tell you of a problem we are having
with the present packages. It has to do with the layering of the packages.
Most of our engineers take existing entities and differentiates them with new
or removed entities. With the restriction of the LISP files this becomes
more work than starting from scratch. As a solution I believe it is possible
to use a different nomenclature for the layers. This would conform to
established standards and that system was pointed out in the CADalyst article
"Escape from the Labyrinth" by Robert Hartman of the Hawaii A.I.A. (v5#2).
In the article the layering follows the CSI standard for layering. From a
programming standpoint numerics ar easier to manipulate and combined with
user modified LISP files that are no more than associated lists, the AEC LISP
files could still provide what they at present do so well and allow user
modification, provide a standard that will transport between packages, and by
using layering labeling in extract files provide the standard ordering coding
be built in. The second question I have has to do with the memory allocasion
that AutoCAD does when one SHELL's out. My system is a 386 based one with an
Intel above board giving me 3Meg, we have another identicle system that has a
MEM20 board and QEMM driver (mine has no driver as it is all extended). On
my system I can get 400K SHELLed out while on the other I'm lucky to get 170K
and it has 4Meg of extended. I later configured it to have 2Meg of extended
and managed to squeze 175K SHELLed. How does AutoCAD deal with this
SHELLing? In order to make these computers real Workstations we need more
SHELL memory. Any suggestions? Answers? Godsends? Thanks,
— Kevin