The bitmap location is flipped, however the image itself
remains as-is. Thus, the bitmap retains its integrity in all flipped views --
obviously, the five-dollar note is not going to be correctly displayed if it
becomes a mirror-image.
The text is flipped, and angle correctly flipped also,
however the direction of the text remains as-is. Thus, the text remains readable
in all flipped views, and never becomes a mirror-image. The rationale for this
is that you may have a composite-object in the menu library, with text in it.
This object is to be used in the diagram in various places, and may require to
be oriented in different directions -- however the text must always remain
readable.
The menu "Control/Rotate selected elements 90 degrees"
achieves this.
The selected elements are rotated 90 degrees in a
counter-clockwise direction.
"File/Save" and "File/Save as..." will save the .EVE
file.
"File/Selected elements save as..." is a useful variation
on save-as. It will save-as only the selected elements.
Go to the section "Selection of
multiple elements" to find out how to select elements. The original .EVE is closed.
When EVE was first created, files were saved uncompressed. Later, a compression
technique was adopted, a custom method developed by myself. This custom
method has very small compress and uncompress code, however compression
is mediocre. With version 3.30 of EVE, LZP compression was introduced.
EVE is backwards compatible, that is EVE can open and save data files as
uncompressed. EVE can also open the old compressed format data files, but
versions 3.30+ cannot save in this format. Versions 3.30+ open and save
in LZP format by default.
All EVE data files, regardless of compression format or lack of, have the
filename extension ".EVE" -- there is no need to have different
extensions, as EVE is able to determine the storage format by examining
information stored inside the file.
To give an indication of the merits of the three data formats, the "eveintro.eve"
data file saved uncompressed is 158,848 bytes. Saved in the old compressed
format it is 56,430 bytes and saved in the new LZP format it is 43,359
bytes. A small .EVE data file was previously 640 bytes in the old format
and became 317 bytes in the LZP format.
Just for interest, note that WinZip v8.0 compressed the uncompressed "eveintro.eve"
file to 32,295 bytes in normal mode, and 30,507 bytes in maximum mode.
An extra 28 bytes must be added to these values for correct comparison
with the above EVE compression formats. Also, the small .EVE data file
compressed to 330+28 in normal mode and 315+28 in maximum mode. Experimenting
with some other .EVE files, sometimes WinZip did better, sometimes not.
For example, a very large EVE diagram in LZP format was 117,490 bytes,
whereas WinZip managed 127,702+28 normal mode and 121,680+28 maximum mode.
As EVE automatically saves data files in the LZP format, they are about
as small as possible, which is good for storage and particularly good for
transmission, such as an email attachment. There is no need to zip a .EVE
file prior to transmission.
"File/Export selected elements as EMF..." saves the
selected elements as a Windows Enhanced MetaFile (EMF) vector graphic file. This
file CANNOT be opened inside EVE.EXE.
EMF files are Microsoft's enhancement of the WMF vector graphic standard.
EMF files can be inserted and pasted into many Windows applications and
opened in graphic editors. However, many applications do not display them
correctly. The WMF format is better supported, however the curved lines
in .EVE files are bezier curves, requiring EMF format.
In versions of EVE prior to 2.70, I had the menu option
of export as WMF, however I have removed it. I found that WMF support in
applications is very patchy and inconsistent. However, all is not peaches and
cream with EMF either.
Even some of Microsoft's own apps don't display EMF files
properly! (* refers to the 1st released version, 1999) --
Many applications will convert the EMF/WMF file to
bitmap, which is unsatisfactory.
If an application will only import WMF, it's a crappy
app. EMF is superior and is the way to go. I've given the bad news above about
some apps that do not import EMF properly, however many applications do, and do
it properly.
Another way to get vector output that looks reasonably
like what is seen on screen, is to print to PDF file -- see section "Printing to Adobe .PDF".
Another new and exciting standard for vector graphics is
SVG, and the Web Edition of EVE can export to SVG. See section "Exporting as SVG file". This is the way to go for the future.
The free Adobe Acrobat PDF viewer is not suitable. You
need to purchase the Adobe Acrobat full product. This includes a printer driver
called "Acrobat Distiller", which can print to file.
What you do is right-click on the "Acrobat Distiller"
icon in the "My computer/Printers" folder and choose it as the default printer.
Then start EVE.
When you print, output will be to a .PDF file. This is a
vector image that can be viewed in the Acrobat reader.
A great advantage of the PDF format is its portability,
including inclusion on web sites, as The Abode Acrobat reader integrates with
web browsers. You can also insert a PDF file into some Windows applications that
support OLE.
There are other .PDF generators out there, including a
free one, and I would like feedback on how well they work with EVE.
However, I recommend that you checkout SVG as your first option.
The bitmap image produced via the clipboard can be pasted
into any Windows application. To reduce graininess, it is recommended to zoom-in
one step in EVE.EXE, change the video card to a higher resolution if required,
expand window to full-size, copy to clipboard. In a wordprocessor such as
Lotus/IBM WordPro, paste the image then right-click on the image to change
graphics properties. Select "Graphics scaling..." and change to "50%", "40%" or
whatever is required. The image will display to fit the required space on the
page, but when the document is printed, the graphic will print at full
resolution -- ie., scaling on-screen does not make change the actual image file
and all the bits are still there -- I cannot guarantee that this will work for
all wordprocessors.
You can get remarkable results by using this technique.
An extra word of advice -- I recommend that bitmap files exported from EVE via
the clipboard be saved as GIF files, not JPG. GIF does a much better job with
line drawings, and the file will be smaller. GIF's 16 or 256 colors limit is
fine, except when you have JPG bitmap images embedded in the EVE diagram.
Unfortunately, when you paste a bitmap into some
applications from the clipboard, the application automatically converts it to
JPG format. Some applications have a "Paste special" menu item that gives you
some choices.
What I have learnt over the years is that it is good to
have several of each kind of application installed on your PC -- one of them is
bound to do the right thing!
The technique of zooming in, as described above, is fine,
however it also means that you see less diagram in the window. The way around
this problem is to create a table in your wordprocessing document, and paste
pictures into each cell of the table. Here is how:
You can then scale the images to say 25%, to get them to
fit on the page. With professional wordprocessors such as WordPro, the original
images are retained in the document, even though scaled down, and will print all
the bits on a printer of sufficient resolution.
You can get superb quality using this technique, with the
advantage that it is exactly as seen on the screen. WMF/EMF files do not have
this consistency over different applications.
This option is kind of like "Save as...", except that it
saves the EVE data file inside EVE.EXE. The resulting
file has a filename like "something.eve.exe", and is an executable.
What actually occurs during the save process, is that a
copy of EVE.EXE is made and the datafile is appended to it. Thus there is just
the one file.
Double-click on this .EVE.EXE file, and EVE runs, with
the data file automatically opened.
Why would you want this? Having it as a single file could
have some use, such as an email attachment. It remains to be seen whether this
option proves to be useful for users.
Scalable Vector Graphics is the new international open
standard for vector graphics. You need the Web
Edition of EVE to activate this feature.
Here is an SVG image created inside EVE. It is about
one-sixth the size of the equivalent GIF file:
v1.93 Enlarge and shrink any group of elements. v2.18 Flip horiz.
and vert.
