Running the ME-10 Translators
in Batch Mode (Windows)

by Eric Chan
Apr 30, 1999

Some of our users have asked: How can I run the ME-10 translators in batch mode so that I can translate many files without manually loading each file?

This can be done because Artwork's translators actually consist of two separate programs - A GUI that collects information from the user and a command line engine that does the work. It is possible to launch the engine directly from the command line if you know the correct syntax.

Command Line Syntax to run the Translation Engine

"c:\wcad\mechvu\miengine.exe"      -Full path to the translation engine.


[Required Arguments] ****************************************************

"c:\tmp\demo1.mi"                  File Name of the Input ME10 file.


  
-dxf "c:\tmp\demo1.dxf"            instructs engine to Generate DXF output, 
                                   specifying the path/filename.
          OR

-iges "c:\tmp\demo1.igs"           instructs engine to generate IGES output.
                                   specifying the path/filename.


-noview                            required to suppress display.



-unicode -cmap "c:\WCAD\Asm850\unicd2mi.map"      Unicode conversion using unicd2mi.map
  
          OR

-nounicode                                        don't use unicode conversion map



-outdir "c:\tmp\out"                   Output directory. Use this if you want to specify
                                       the output directory but you want the engine to
                                       name the output file based on the input file.
  
-winmap "c:\tmp\demo1.map"             points to the map file that controls
                                       text and font scale settings.
e.g. demo1.map

       [Text_Settings]
       FONT_0="C:\WCAD\Asm850\standard.shx" 1
       FONT_1="C:\WCAD\Asm850\symbols.shx" 1
       FONT_2="C:\WCAD\Asm850\fixed.shx" 1
       FONT_3="C:\WCAD\Asm850\block.shx" 1



[Optional Command Line Arguments] *********************************************


-dbg                  Generate a detail log report after the translation.

-colors               Grouping by color (default is grouping by layer) This is
                      a very useful option since ME-10 users generally segregate
                      data by color instead of by layer.

-nohatch              Ignore hatching (default is hatching on).

-explode              Explode text.

-noclin               Drop construction lines and circles.

-ltr d                d is the line type scale (default is 0.05).

-grid d               Force to use d as the grid instead of the
                      embedded grid value found in the ME10 file.
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