HOME  CDS Tutorial Manual
Introduction
 
The purpose of this tutorial is to introduce you to the “look and feel” of CDS.
 
You will learn how to
  • Open jobs.
  • Zoom the display.
  • Pan the display.
  • Use modes and layers (and their function keys)  to control what is   displayed on the active screen.
  • Use a Query to find or alter the attributes of a point.
  • Use the “join”hotkey to find the bearing, distance and grade between any two points.
  • Open multiple windows to allow different “views” of a job.
  • Display different jobs at the one time.
 
The data will have been installed with the program installation.
 
Note: It is not the intention of these tutorials to provide you with basic instruction in how to use Windows.  If you do not already have a basic knowledge of how to use Windows to do the everyday things like; start programs, open folders, select files, minimize and maximize sessions, set up printers and print then it is reasonably pointless in trying to complete these tutorials. Please save yourself time and frustration by first undertaking some basic training so you are comfortable with the basic functions provided by your operating system before you attempt to undertake these tutorials. Once you are ready to proceed, click on the CDS3 icon from your desktop.
 
 
 
 
Now select File from the menu followed by Open. The tutorial data has been stored in a folder named “Foresoft\cds3\Tutor” so you need to use Windows to open that folder for you. You will see that the program is suggesting that you Look In a folder named My Documents. Use the Windows browsing capabilities to search for the folder named \foresoft\cds3\tutor and open it. Once the folder is open the screen similar to that seen below. (Depending on the version of this document, there may be more, less or different files listed in the folder, so don’t worry if the screen is not 100% identical)
 
Each job is stored in a compound file with the extension of .cdsdat  As you select these CDS files with a single click of your cursor, you will see details about the job listed in the relevant descriptive fields, allowing easy identification.
 
The Job, or Database that we are interested in is job “970”, so highlight the file called “970.cdsdat”. The descriptions should indicate that it is data for Tutorial 1A, so double click “970.cdsdat” and the screen should appear as below.
We can also open this file from within windows explorer. In this method we open windows explorer and find the data file 970.cdsdat  Simply double click on this file and CDS is run and the file is automatically opened. 
Please note that the points in the job are not meant to represent anything like the jobs you will encounter in daily practice, but are merely an invented set of points designed to spell out TRPS, and to be used in this Tutorial.
So, if you use your imagination, and can make out the letters of TRPS on your screen we are off to a good start, so let’s explore what functions are available.
 
Firstly, if you look from the top of the screen. The first line contains short cut menus that allow you to jump immediately to various menu items. Experienced users will learn what the varous icons do. As a beginner we suggest that if you can't remember; simply browse to the item via the menu items and associated icons. The second line is the Menu list that contains the various “drop down menus” you will learn to use to complete your tasks. Below the menu list is a row containing a number of icons. These icons change when you select a different menu item.
 
If you run your cursor slowly over the icons, a window will appear on the end of your cursor arrow telling you what each icon accesses, so take a few moments now to position your cursor over each icon in turn to get the idea of what they do.
 
The first function we will explore is the Zoom function which allows you to control the size of the job, or more correctly, how much of your current job is displayed on the screen at any given time.
 
 
Zoom
If you have a wheel mouse you have access to dynamic zoom and pan. Rotating mouse wheel will dynamically zoom in or out. Holding down the mouse wheel and moving the mouse will automatically pan the display. 
 
For finer control you can access a number of Zoom functions. The zoom functions are found under the "View" menu.
 
 
 Extents, Out and In change the view accordingly.
 
Selecting the "Window" menu item or pressing the "Z" key sends you to Zoom Mode.. Your cursor will change to a magnifying glass. The program is now waiting for you to place a Window around the area you are interested in. To do this move your cursor to where you want one corner of the window to be, and hold down the select button (normally the left one) on your mouse. With the button held down, move the mouse to drag the window until it envelopes the area you wish to see at a larger scale.
 For example, in the screen below left you see a window around the “T”  and “R” in this job, and in the screen on the right you see the screen which is presented once the button is released.
 
 
Please note that the program takes the dimension of the window you specify and then expands that in whatever direction necessary to keep the correct aspect ratio of the displayed data.  
Don’t be confused by those programs that allow you to put a window around something, and then only display the contents of the window on the screen, that is not the intention here. 
The other function currently available within zoom is to reverse the effects of the Zoom Window, and to again display the whole job in the active window. 
To achieve this you wish to Zoom Extents, so when you activate Zoom (either from the icon, or pressing Z) immediately press the “E” key to indicate Extents are required, and the screen will be redrawn to show all the points in the job within the active window.
 
Pan the Display.
 
As well as Zooming, it is useful if you can also Pan, which means to move the existing window over the underlying data. To Pan, you can either;
If you have a wheel mouse you have access to dynamic pan. Holding down the mouse wheel and moving the mouse will automatically pan the display. 
 - Press the “P” key, or
 - Select the Icon with  4 arrow heads on the toolbar (seen above).
 
When you enter Pan mode, the cursor will change to be a cross bearing 4 arrow heads as seen above.
All you need to do to Pan is to put the cursor near the point you wish to move, press the left mouse button, and hold it down while you ‘drag’ the cursor to where you would like the point to be.
 For example, in the screen below left we have positioned the cursor near Point 12 in the “R”, then dragged across to near the left hand border, and down a little from horizontal. You will see a line drawn to show where the item will move.
When you release the mouse button the screen will be redrawn in its new location, as seen in the screen shown below right.
 
 
 
Now that you know how to control the extent of the data which is displayed, next you need to consider how you can control what is shown on that display at any point in time as far as the attributes of the points, strings, contours and triangles are concerned.
The combined effects of the Modes and Layers functions control the Display, and first we will consider Modes.
 
Modes - Display
 
You may access the display function from the View -> Params menu item. You can then change the Layer / Modes radio button as required.
 
To change to layers mode you can click on the View -> By Layers icon. To change to modes mode simply click on any of the point number, heights etc icons. 
 
It is often convenient to arrange your data in layers; however there are times when it is more convenient to display your data by point numbers, heights etc.
 
From version 3 and upward we can now display more than one parameter. For example the screen shot to the right shows how we can display point numbers and heights together.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Alternatively, you can also use the function keys which were established in previous versions of Foresight to turn various attributes On/Off. 
The Function Keys and their attributes are as follows.
F1            Help                                        F2            Point Numbers
F3            Strings                                   F4            String Names
F5            Heights                                  F6            Codes
F7            Contours                               F8            Triangle Model
F9            Modes Screen                      F10          Layers Screen
F11          Points (dots)
Please note that there are a limited number of function keys available, and they have been assigned to the most commonly displayed items.
 
If you wish to display Description, Layer Names, Road Number, Chainage or Offset there is no function key available so you will need to use View menu icons to turn these items on or off.
 
 
 
Please be aware that you can limit the display to a specified range of point rather than all points in the job.  Click on View -> Select and you can change the range of point numbers, codes and layers.
 
 
 
Layers
 
 
The Layers icon can be found under the View menu. It can also be quickly accessed by using the F10 function key.
When you select layers, a screen similar to that at right will appear.
Here you will see that there are six different layers in the current job. 
If you do not assign points to a particular layer they will all be placed on a default layer of 0.
Before you start tinkering with the screen, remember that the Modes screen has ultimate control over whether the display takes notice of  the Modes or the Layers parameter screen, and since we have just finished using Modes to control the display, we need to switch it over.
Select "Params" icon and  turn on the Layers button.
 
To get some idea of the capabilities of this Layers function, we will first turn layer 0 and layer “Centre”  OFF so they are not displayed. To do this, position the cursor over the light bulb on the appropriate line. Left click the mouse and the light bulb will be dimmed to signify that the layer is no longer displayed. Note you can also select a number of layers at the one time by “dragging” the mouse over the layers to be selected, but we will leave you to practice this function on your own. 
Once you have turned 0 and centre OFF, Select layer “Are”. Then use the pull down option to choose to display the Height (hgt) for this layer. Now select layer “Pee” , use the pull down option and scroll through the list to assign the “code” to be displayed. Next select layer “Ess” and assign the attribute of “desc” to display the description. If you wish, you can also assign different colours to each of these layers to make identification or differentiation easier, but though you can see the difference on the screen, since this tutorial is printed in black and white, the different colours will not reproduce here.
 
 
 
 
Once you have made the relevant selections select the “OK” button and you should see a display as above. As well as allowing selection of which attributes are to be displayed, the layers function allows you to display only those points in which you have a current interest. So, for example, call up your layers screen again, turn off all layers except “TEE” and “PEE”, and the screen should appear as below.
Hint: One way to achieve this with a minimum of actions is to select “None On” to turn all layers off with one action, and then select Tee and turn it on, and then Select Pee and turn it on. 
The standard Windows method of selecting items using Shift Select  for Groups and Control Select for individual items is applicable in the Layers function.
 
 
Query / Edit
 
This is
 
 
 
Click on Points -> Edit menu item. You can also enter "?" from the keyboard. Once the dialog is displayed you can either type in the number of the point you are interested in or point to it with the cursor. It's details will be displayed. A line is drawn from the top left corner of the window to the point to indicate it's position. The table on the right side of the query dialog refers to additional attributes that can be associated with the point. Clicking on the "Less" button hides the attribute display.
 
In addition you can use the “Next” and “Previous” buttons to scan forward and backward through the database.
 
If you wish to alter the values of a point, you can position the cursor in the relevant field, and type in the value you require. 
 
The function will NOT allow you to change the point number of a point, but you can alter any of the other database fields, so please be careful and make sure you know what you are doing before you start. 
 
If you do change any of the values, once you select the “OK” button you will be asked to verify that you wish to save the changes which you have made, and you must select Yes if you wish the changes to be made permanent.
 
 
 
Joins / Inverts 
 
You will often need to know the bearing and distance between two points in your job, and in CDS we call this a “Join”. ( It is also known as an “Inverse” in some areas.) 
Click on the Points -> Join button. You can also access this function by pressing the “J” key on your keyboard. This is one of the “Hot Keys” which you need to remember to make better use of the software easier. 
 
If you select Points 1 and 9,  the bearing and distance between them will be displayed as seen in the screen at right. If both points have valid heights.
then the percentage grade between them will also be displayed. You will also see a line drawn on the screen between the points.
 
 
 
 
 Multiple Windows 
 
In some cases it is useful to have two (or more) different views of a particular job, and this can be easily achieved as shown below, but before you start, use your Layers function again and turn all the layers On. 
 
First pull down the “Window” menu from the menu list, and select the “New Window” option. You will see a second window appear with your job displayed in it, and when it appears it is “cascaded” over the existing window, partly obscuring the first window. 
 
So you can see the contents of both windows at the one time, CDS has function to allow you to “tile” the windows, and because jobs are of different shapes, you have the ability to tile either vertically or horizontally. 
 
If you again pull down the Window menu and select the option to Tile Vertically, the screen will appear as in the diagram below left, while if you choose to Tile Horizontally, you screen will resemble the screen below right.
 
 
 
If you Tile Vertically, and then Zoom a window around the “R” shape in the job, you should see a screen as below left.
 
If you have 2 or more windows open at any time. Only one window can be active. The active window can be determined by looking at the “bar” along the top of the window. One will be coloured, while the other will be “greyed out”, and the one which is coloured is the active window.
(Because you can set screen colours to your own taste, we can’t predict what colour the bar will be, but you will see the difference) 
 
If you wish to switch to make the other window active, simply position the cursor within the window and press your left mouse button. You will see the “coloured bar” changes to indicate the new active window. 
 
Any changes which you make as far as Modes or Layers are concerned will take effect immediately in the active window,  but will not become apparent in the non-active window until it is redrawn. 
 
You can use this feature to give yourself a simultaneous display of two different attributes of the points on display.
 
 
Multiple Jobs on Display
 
To achieve this, open your first job as normal, and then use the File Open command to open the second job you are interested in. This will automatically open the second job in a new window that will be overlaid over your first job.
Then you use the Window menu and either Tile Vertical or Tile Horizontal depending on the shapes of  the respective jobs. The screen below shows an example of what can be achieved with job 970 in the left window and job DAM in the right window. 
 
Please Note that just because the function to open different jobs is available, it does NOT mean that you should use it every time you come to the computer. 
It is a fact of life that if you have two jobs open at the one time, the speed of processing of each of the jobs is necessarily degraded over the speed  achieved with only one job open, so use the function when you need to, not just as a matter of course.
 
 
 
This ends the initial general introduction to the look and feel of CDS, and if you are comfortable that you know how to use Windows generally, and the functions of CDS explained in this exercise then you can commence on the next tutorial example. If you are not completely comfortable with your ability to work within Windows, to maximise and minimise windows, to alter the default printer, to open and close files and windows then please save us, and yourself, a great deal of heartache and frustration by taking the time to now become comfortable with these items before you go on.