Edited by John Walker
Except as otherwise noted in the text, this book is in the public
domain and may be reproduced, distributed, and quoted as long as the
source is cited. The Third Edition of this book was published by New
Riders Publishing in 1989 as ISBN 0-934045-63-6, with copyright
retained by Autodesk, Inc. This edition was prepared solely by the
editor, to whom Autodesk returned rights to all the material in the
Third Edition plus the new Autodesk documents which appear here.
``Autodesk'' is used herein solely to identify the company, not to
imply endorsement of or responsibility for the content of this book.
Autodesk retains no copyright interest in the material published
herein, and is neither responsible nor liable in any form for this book
and its content.
FOURTH EDITION.
Production Notes
This World-Wide Web hypertext edition of The Autodesk File was prepared in August of 1994, and is a complete and unabridged reproduction of the PostScript and Adobe Acrobat electronic editions published in February of 1994.
The Autodesk File was written using the document preparation system, and was converted into a WWW HTML file by Nikos Drakos' marvelous LaTeX2HTML. Translation of this document into HTML required in excess of 1 gigabyte of virtual memory and more than one hour of CPU time on a 136 MIPS Silicon Graphics Indigo2 workstation with 128 megabytes of physical memory.
Autodesk, the Autodesk logo, AutoCAD, AutoCAD AEC, AutoSketch, AutoLISP, and Authorized AutoCAD Training Center are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. AutoSolid, AutoShade, CAD/camera, The Engineer Works, ADI, DXF, ACAD, Advanced User Interface, AUI, AutoFlix, Auto Book, AutoCAD-80, AutoCAD-86, and Autodesk Forum are trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. IBM, PC/XT/AT, Personal System/2, and PC-DOS are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. Apollo, DOMAIN, and AEGIS are trademarks of Apollo Computer, Incorporated. DEC, VMS, VAX, and VAXstation are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. Sun Microsystems, Sun Workstation, Sun-2, and Sun-3 are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Incorporated. Silicon Graphics is a registered trademark and Indigo2 is a trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. Microsoft, MS, MS-DOS, and XENIX are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Intel, 8080, 8086, and 8088 are trademarks of Intel Corporation. Lotus, 1-2-3, and VisiCalc are trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. Texas Instruments is a registered trademark of Texas Instruments Corporation. WordStar is a registered trademark of MicroPro International Corporation. BASIC is a registered trademark of the Trustees of Dartmouth College. dBase, dBase III, and Ashton-Tate are registered trademarks of Ashton-Tate. Unix is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories. is a trademark of the American Mathematical Society. CompuServe is a trademark of H&R Block, Incorporated. Marinchip, M9900, QBASIC, and WINDOW are trademarks of Marinchip Systems, Ltd. The Golden Age of Engineering, Tools For The Golden Age Of Engineering, and Turbo Digital and its associated logotype are trademarks of Marinchip Systems. CP/M, CP/M-80, CB80, CB86, CP/M-86, and PL/I-80 are trademarks of Digital Research, Inc. Glasnost and Perestroika are trademarx of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Xanadu is a trademark of Xanadu Operating Company, Inc. Labitat is a trademark of External Tanks Corporation. Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh, Lisa, and HyperCard are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Cray and X/MP are registered trademarks of Cray Research, Inc. COMPAQ is a trademark of COMPAQ Computer Corporation. ComputerLand is a trademark of ComputerLand Corporation. Selector V and Micro-Ap, Inc. are trademarks of Micro-Ap, Inc. ANSYS is a registered trademark of Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc. Post-it is a trademark of 3M Corporation. Bernoulli Box and the IOMEGA logo are registered trademarks of IOMEGA Corporation. MSC-NASTRAN is a registered trademark of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Z80 and Z8000 are registered trademarks of Zilog, Inc. Big Mac is a trademark of McDonald's Corporation. SOLUTION 3000 and MILLMASTER are registered trademarks of Micro Engineering Solutions Inc. DesignPlus, ManufacturingPlus, DesignExpert, and ManufacturingExpert are trademarks of Micro Engineering Solutions Inc.
Other product names mentioned herein may also be trademarks used here for identification purposes only.
Editor: John Walker