ONLINE USER GUIDE

**** Please note the information below is also included in the readme.rtf included with SpiraPaint!

OPTIONS MENU

The program is unique in that one can use the full screen to draw. An options menu is pulled down by "right clicking" the mouse. Here's a summary of the Key Features:

The Drawing Color and Canvas Color are used to pick the foreground and background colors of the picture. Although you can only have one canvas color per picture, you can have as many drawing colors as you like. Picking a new canvas color will erase the picture!

If you check Gradient and specify more than one loop in the Loops field, the drawing color will gradually change. A fun way to try this out is by changing the drawing color to black, canvas color to black, and draw using thirty or so loops with a value of 1 or greater in the Rot+ field. The picture that is drawn will seem to emerge from the background.

The Refresh checkbox next to the color selection buttons will change the drawing color at random, when the Random button is clicked.

The XScale and YScale allow you to stretch or shrink your picture in the horz. and vert. axis. The higher the number, the more it is stretched and the lower the number, the more it is shrunk. These numbers will automatically adjust based on the numbers you enter for each wheel, so the picture created fills the screen as best as possible. You may manually change these numbers as well. The Refresh checkbox next to the scale fields will adjust these automatically for "best fit" within the screen when the Random button is clicked.

The 1 To 1 Checkbox will always draw a picture roughly the same height and width when the Random button is clicked. When unchecked, the picture will fill the screen as best as possible.

The Aspect Checkbox keeps the numbers in synch--if you adjust one Scale value, the other will automatically adjust so the picture keeps the same shape.

The Color Bar shows the currently selected Drawing Color. If you click it with the left mouse button, it will randomly select a new drawing color. If you right click it, it will randomly select a new background color, but be aware that it will also erase the picture.

The Wheel field controls the overall outcome of the draw process. You can move from wheel to wheel for entry by clicking either of the two "Wheel Select" buttons. There is a slider for adjusting the wheel value for the selected wheel, and a numeric field for typing the value in.

There are two checkboxes on the left and right of the Wheel field. When the right checkbox is checked, the Random feature will drop a random value in the field for the selected wheel. By leaving the box unchecked for the selected wheel, Random will not assign a random value to the wheel when clicked. When the left checkbox is unchecked, random will not refresh any of the wheels. This is meant especially for Multi wheel pictures, when you want to experiment with different ratio values while leaving the wheel values alone.

Please note that on drawings where Multi is unchecked, SpiraPaint draws traditional two wheel drawings. Wheel #3, when selected, controls the Pen position.

When "Multi" is checked, a new "Wheels" button appears. This lets you choose the number of wheels for Multi wheeled pictures. Clicking the left button will increase the number, and clicking the right button will decrease it. The maximum number of wheels SpiraPaint! can draw with is 24.

The Ratio field underneath the wheel field is enabled when the Multi checkbox is checked. The Ratio values control the relationship between the wheels when multiple wheels are used. The "Wheel Select" button selects the ratio so you may adjust its value. There is a checkbox which controls whether the random feature will refresh the ratio field for the selected wheel. There is a slider for adjusting the ratio value for the selected wheel, and a numeric field for typing the value in.

There are two checkboxes on the left and right of the Ratio field. When the right checkbox is checked, the Random feature will drop a random value in the field for the selected ratio. By leaving the box unchecked for the selected ratio, Random will not assign a random value to the ratio when clicked. When the left checkbox is unchecked, random will not refresh any of the ratios. This is meant especially for Multi wheel pictures, when you want to experiment with different wheel values while leaving the ratio values alone.

The checkbox to the left of the text Ratio will only allow odd ratio values to be picked by the Random feature, keeping pictures more symmetrical.

If you click the label "Ratio", the label will be underlined. This will allow the Random feature to choose negative values for the wheels when checked. Although this makes for more interesting patterns, they may appear smaller. The Size% field can be used to adjust the size of such a picture if the pattern SpiraPaint! draws is really interesting.

Added in release 1.8 is a new feature, enabled for multi wheel drawings. The Symmetry fields and button are used with multi wheel drawings. The relationship of one ratio to another determines how many "arms" or "spokes" a picture might have. The first field is used to determine the number of "spokes" for the picture, the second is used for the starting ratio value.

After you enter the Symmetry values, click the button with the x. If you notice the starting ratio value is adjusted after clicking the button with the x, that's because the symmetry feature has determined the drawing wouldn't appear symmetrical with the starting value entered. You will also notice that the checkbox by the ratio field on the left of the menu screen is unchecked. This is so Random won't accidentally erase the Symmetry values. When you are finished experimenting with this feature and wish Random to refresh the ratio field normally again, just click the box to the left of the ratio field.

Load Image and Save Image allow you to load a previously saved bitmap background, or save a picture. You can then add to the picture using SpiraPaint! if you wish, or you can use "Save Image" to save a background that can be used in Windows or sent to a printer or another picture processing program.

Load Parms and Save Parms allow you to load the set of parameters that make up a picture. I have included many samples you can load, which allow you to see how different sets of numbers create different results.

Rotations determines how many times the "pen" will go around before finishing. A status will appear telling you where the program is at. Be forewarned the larger the number of rotations, the longer it will take to draw the picture. Usually, 60, 120 and 180 may be used. This number will automatically adjust based on the numbers you enter in Fixed, Wheel or Pen for the most efficient number of rotations to draw a complete picture. If you watch the picture draw, you may see interesting patterns with fewer rotations, so you can enter a rotation value of your own if you wish.

Rot Start allows you to draw a picture, change colors, then rotate the picture slightly to add a color. Beautiful pattern overlays can be created with this feature. The text field to the right of the Rot Start checkbox has slightly different results than the Rot Start field, it turns the entire picture. I commonly use it in combination with the scale fields to create multi colored and intricate pictures.

Draw will draw the picture based on the settings provided.

Random will generate random pictures with a random foreground color, scaled to fit the screen. Random also erases any previously generated picture unless you uncheck the checkbox next to the Clear button. A special feature has been added since the 1.6 release. The number in the ratio field will determine the largest number random uses for those fields when you click the checkbox off and on to the right. The default is 19, meaning random will fill the ratio fields with a number between -19 and 19. However you can change the range of numbers picked for each ratio field by changing the number. So if you enter 150 in the Ratio field then click the checkbox off and on Random will pick a number between -150 and 150.

Clear will clear the screen.

When the box next to Clear is unchecked, Clear will restore the last snapped picture. This can be used in combination with the "load image" function to add a SpiraPaint! picture to any background. You can load the image, "Snap" it, and it will become the background that Clear uses when the box is left unchecked.

Print will allow you to print your picture.

STOP! lets you stop a picture in progress.

Snap! introduces a new feature as of version 1.75. When you click Snap!, a "snapshot" is taken of the picture on the screen. If you later use Random or use any of the scroll bars and uncheck the box next to the Clear button, the new Random or adjusted picture (when using the scroll bars) appears on top of the snapped picture. Of all the features I have added to SpiraPaint!, this one is perhaps my favorite. It allows the SpiraPaint! artist greater means to visualize how a layered picture might look. You can use Snap! as many times as you wish to build up layered pictures.

Res. controls how fine a picture will be created. Low numbers in this field can create some interesting, and some odd patterns. If the button is checked to the right of the Res. field, the Random feature will place random values in the Res. field.

Size% adjusts the overall size of the picture. Reduce or increase the value, and the picture will shrink or grow with "100" being 100 percent normal size, 50 half, and so on..

Underneath Size% is a slider for adjusting this field. The slider is useful when doing Multi wheel pictures with negative wheel values, so they fill the screen.

The slider supports adjustments in size from zero to 500%.

Center: The X and Y fields allow you to move the center of the picture, allowing you to position several copies of the same picture around the screen.

Circle - Will make the picture follow the shape of a circle.

Triangle - Will make the picture follow the shape of a triangle.

Square - Will make the picture follow the shape of a square.

The "1" button controls the line thickness used when drawing. If you click it, SpiraPaint! will switch between four line thicknesses and the button will display which line thickness (1-4) is chosen.

The "F" button puts a border around the picture, which comes in handy for printing.

Slide is a new feature introduced in version 1.6. It starts the random feature and keeps it running like a slideshow. A new picture will be generated every five seconds after a picture is completed. To stop the random slideshow, click Slide again. When a slideshow is active, Slide will appear in bold.

Exit exits the program

OPTIONS MENU - Enhanced Features:

Some pretty complex pictures can be created very quickly using some enhanced features I've added to the program. Loops controls how many times the program will repeat drawing a picture. The loops field works in tandem with Gradient (as already mentioned above) and the following three fields:

Dec

Normally a number between 0 and 1, after each loop the picture's size is reduced. In example, if you enter ".99" in this field, each loop will draw a picture 99 percent of the previous size.

Rot+

This will rotate the picture after each loop.

To the right of the Rot+ field is a checkbox. When checked, the Rot Start field is reset to its original value when it's used with the Loops feature.

Pen+

This will adjust the pen value after each loop.

To the right of Pen+ field is a checkbox. When checked, the Wheel3/Pen will reset to its initial value when Pen+ is used with the "Loops" feature.

Dec, Rot+ and Pen+ can all be used together, or by themselves. Take a look at some of the parm samples I've included in order to see examples of how these are used.

KEYBOARD CONTROLS

In the program, there's a few features that can be used via the keyboard.

If you press "d", a random picture will be drawn.

If you move your mouse over an area and press the "esc" button, it will fill that area with the currently selected color. A "Stained Glass" effect can be achieved with this quite easily. Also, for users with a 3-button computer mouse, pressing the center button will also trigger the fill function. Additionally, for users with a 3-button mouse, if you hold shift while pressing the center button a "mirror fill" effect will be seen.

If you move your mouse over part of the picture and press the space bar, the color underneath the mouse cursor will become the selected color.

Pressing "Printscreen" at any time will allow you copy your picture and paste it to any application.

The "Backspace" button serves as an "Undo". It restores the previous picture to the screen.

INCLUDED SAMPLE IMAGES

Included with SpiraPaint! are some sample pictures in jpg format so you can get some idea of what SpiraPaint! can create.

REMOVAL OF SpiraPaint!

To remove SpiraPaint!, first backup any saved pictures you wish to keep, then delete the SpiraPaint! folder. That's it!

HINTS AND TIPS

If you put the mouse cursor over any item, a brief help message will appear explaining the use of the feature (New in Version 1.6)

Using the multi wheel feature, the resolution should be multiples of 180. This creates the best looking pictures.

When using the multi wheel feature, the higher the ratio, the higher the resolution should be set. A good number for the resolution if any of the ratios exceeds 100 is 7200.

Beautiful "lace" or "snowflake" patterns can be generated when Multi and Ratio are both checked, and "4" is entered a value for Loops with "45" in the Rot+ field. Selecting random or slide after making these adjustments can offer hours of beautiful pictures.

REVISION HISTORY

Oct. 05 2008 - Released version 1.5

Oct. 11 2008 - Released version 1.51. Refreshed user interface to make program easier to use. Updated documentation and Sample files. Note that version 1.5 samples will not work with this version.

Nov. 1 2008 - Released version 1.6. Added support for up to eight wheels. Added Slide show feature which generates random pictures automatically. Added multi-wheel random "seed" feature that allows for control of the types of pictures created with the random/multi wheel feature. Added line thickness feature. Added "Tooltips"--when you hover over a button, field or checkbox, brief help will display describing the feature's function.

Nov. 8 2008 - Released version 1.65. Added "-" checkbox used for multi wheel pictures. Optimized program gaining about 50 pct. speed improvement.

Dec. 1 2008 - Released version 1.7. Improved user buttons and controls, added support for up to 24 wheels, added Scroll Bar for adjusting Ratio values. Added Scroll Bar for adjusting picture size. Please note a redesign of the spt format used to save SpiraPaint! parameters will cause any parameters saved with previous versions to not load properly. This redesign was required for 24 wheel support and to support any future enhancements to the program.

Dec. 2 2008 - Released version 1.75 Added "Snap" feature to aid in design of layered pictures.

Dec. 8 2008 - Released version 1.8 Added Symmetry and global random wheel and ratio clear features.

Dec 14 2008 - Released version 1.81. Fixes bug causing error after loading certain parameter files.