Copyright John C. Brown (e-mail: john@DiscoverThat.co.uk Web: www.DiscoverThat.co.uk )
Visio Corporation This is a comercial boxed product
Download the ViSiO for Windows stencils now:
From this web site in the UK (castle5.exe 500Kb)
FTP from Demon's site in the UK (castle5.exe 500Kb)
Download the upgrade stencil now:
From this web site in the UK (V4CST5U.EXE 100Kb) Fixes some shading problems on the stairs and rubble shapes
ViSiO Specific Notes
Each shape is based on the standard 5 foot square. (ViSiO will also allow you to change the scale and print them out for 15mm figures if you wish.)
They were created for use with ViSiO 2.0 for Windows. They work just as well with ViSiO 4 but they do not use any of the newer features.
There is now an updated stencil, to correct a problem with the shading on the stairs and rubble shape. This update is for ViSiO 4 only (8 September 1996)
Files
castle5.txt (Identical to caves5.txt and similar to this html file)
castle5.zip (Compressed file containing the following:)
The update V4CST5U.EXE which is also a self extracting zip file, contains:
Installation
Unzip the files and copy them all to your ViSiO TEMPLATE directory. This is usually "C:\. .\VISIO\TEMPLATE".
If you have only one of the two stencil files you can use them by opening them separately from a new drawing. If you do this, make sure the page scale is set correctly. Use "page set-up" from the page menu. Change the measurements to feet and inches then set the custom scale to 0.875in to 5ft.
The best way to use these stencils is to use the template already created. This sets up the page scales and opens copies of the two stencils ready for you to use. Just select new from the file menu and click on the "Castle and Caves Floor Plans" template which should automatically appear in the list of templates that is displayed when starting the programme on it's own. The template was set up on an 800 by 600 resolution screen, so may need changing for other sizes.
ViSiO 4 users can also copy the files to the templates directory, the template will appear at the very end of the list under the wizards. You can also copy the files to the templates\standard directory to get the new template to list with all of the others. The stencils can be in the standard stencils directory stencils\standard. The template and stencils work just fine with ViSiO 4 but are not arranged to take best advantage of the newer programme.
Separate Stencils
The drawings with in the stencils are complex and therefore large. This uses a lot of memory. To make them easier to modify on slower or lower memory machines than my own, I have split what was once one stencil in to two. To get all of the shapes you still need both stencils, but you can close one while you use the other.
Public Domain
As long as you own a copy of ViSiO you may use this master stencil for any purpose.
ViSiO is Copyright Shapeware Corporation, Seattle. Web Visio Corporation Home Page It is NOT shareware, but is usually available at reasonable prices. It needs Windows to run on a PC. These stencils have been created using version 2.0 of ViSiO. There is now a version 4. It is possible to convert version 2 stencils to version 4 stencils (so I am told.) I have not found it necessary to change them, just use them as they are. There is now one update to the stencils to correct a problem with the shading as indicated above the new update is only available for version 4 of ViSiO.
Page Scale 0.875 Inches to 5 feet
All the objects are designed around the standard 5 foot square. You can change the page scale to suit any size of figure. A nice feature of ViSiO, is that all of the shapes alter automatically with the scale. Even with 25mm figures you may want to use slightly smaller squares to fit more on to the page. For example 20mm to 5 Feet still works well with 25mm figures, but does not match the cardboard plans.
John C. Brown, Essex, England.
Original date 20 May 1995, minor modifications to the download locations 31 May 1999.
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