Copyright 1992,1994,1995 Shamim P. Mohamed
This file is part of the Plotfoil package, which is freely redistributable
under the terms of the Gnu Public License Version 2.

This is the "plotfoil" package (V3.1) for modifying airfoils and printing
airfoil templates from data.  This is not shareware. You don't have to pay
me anything to use this program.  (But if you do send me money or gifts, I
won't complain!) You can give this to your friends -- in fact, I encourage
you to. However, it is not in the public domain; it is copyrighted. Read on
for a summary of terms of copying and redistribution. If you like this
program, please send me a nice picture postcard.

			=== Installation and Use ===

This package only contains MS-DOS and MS-Windows executables. For source code,
get the file plotfoil-3.1.tar.gz from the ftp site; plotfoil will run on any
system that you have a C compiler for. The canonical ftp site is
ickenham.isu.edu but others may have it also.

Plotfoil generates PostScript, does interpolation, spars, templates and
allowances for sheeting.  For more info on the formats supported and options,
see the help file PLOTFOIL.DOC.  The PostScript generated is quite vanilla,
and should print on any PS printer. The PostScript is sent to standard
output.  Use redirection or a pipe to send it to the printer.

If you don't have a PostScript printer, don't fret; the program Ghostscript
will convert postscript to a variety of formats. The complete package is
available from ftp.cs.wisc.edu by anonymous ftp. The plotfoil package only
contains enough of it to print or display plotfoil output.

After you unpack the ZIP file, You should see this README.TXT file and two
directories, PLOTFOIL and GS. Put these directories in your C: drive, as
C:\PLOTFOIL and C:\GS. There are three ghostscript executables: GS.EXE for
MS-DOS on 286 machines; GS386.EXE for MS-DOS on 386 (and above); and
GSWIN.EXE for MS-Windows. You don't need all of them; you can delete any
that you don't plan to use.

Under MS-DOS, I recommend that you add C:\GS to your PATH. You should be
able to run plotfoil like this:

   plotfoil -c 10i airfoils\rg-15 >rg-15.ps

Now this ps file can be displayed like this:

   gs386 rg-15.ps

Or printed to an HP LaserJet4 connected to PRN like this:

   gs386 -sDEVICE=ljet4 rg-15.ps

To see a list of available printer drivers, type "gs386 -?". (You may want
to put all these commands in a .BAT file so you don't have to keep typing
-sDEVICE and all that.)

If you are using MS-Windows, run plotfoil under an MS-DOS shell and save the
output in a file; then fire up gswin.exe. It will create a window with a
prompt; now type

   (\plotfoil\rg-15.ps) run

and it will display the results in another window.

I'd also recommend reading \GS\USE.DOC - it describes ghostscript more fully.

The manual is in plotfoil.man and describes how to use all the programs.
There is also a PostScript version of this manual in plotfoil.ps if you have
a PS printer or have installed the complete GS package. (These files are in
 
the plotfoil direcotry.)

				  =======

Please send any changes, additions, modifications etc. to me. This program is
freely redistributable under the terms of the Gnu Public License. You may give
it away or even sell it, but you cannot restrict what your customers may do
with it - redistribute it, or even re-sell it. If you make a program based on
this one, or using code from this one, and redistribute it in any way, the
same conditions will apply to that program. If you do redistribute this
program (or any program derived from this one) in any way, you also have to
make the source code freely available, and all copyright notices must remain
intact.

For more details, see the file COPYING, which describes the Gnu Public
License.

(The airfoil data are not covered by this license; they are in the public
domain.)

				  =======


******************************************************************************
*                                                                            *
* Plotfoil is dedicated to L. Peter Deutsch for writing ghostscript, Linus   *
* Torvalds and the rest of the Linux team, and Richard Stallman for starting *
* the Free Software Foundation.                                              *
*                                                                            *
******************************************************************************



                               *** Changes ***

3.0 -> 3.1      6/95
 - the -a option to turn sections
 - bug fixes:
   NACA format not handled; missing &yy in read_foil()
   plot() called with incorrect arguments from ui.c, breaking interactive mode
   fixed up some bogus prototypes

2.3 -> 3.0	12/94
 - rewrite and code reorganisation
 - the postscript is now Adobe DSC compliant, with EPSF for single page plots
 - interactive specification of parameters
 - fine-tuning the placement on the page
 - addition of airfoil modification programs:
      editfoil to change camber and thickness
      mixfoil to blend 2 airfoil sections
 - 2.3 bug fixes

2.2 -> 2.3
 - cleaned up the postscript for sheeting - no line outside the airfoil
   outline any more
 - cleaned up spars - now they join up cleanly to the plot line
 - displaced image slightly to account for HP laserjets

2.1 -> 2.2
 - bug fix for too many points
 - fixed the multiple sheet thing to do sections deeper than 7" (In 2.1 the
   multiple thing would only do arbitrary chords, and clip the plot to one row
   of plots. In R/C applications this didn't matter since sections are rarely
   deeper than 7".)

2.0 -> 2.1
 - bug fix in units (re-done)
 - spar and template drawing

1.1 beta -> 2.0:
 - multiple page plots
 - improve interpolation
 - uniform options
 - units for options

On another topic, what do you think of the practice of granting patents on
software? Send me email.

===============================================================================
Shamim Mohamed
shamim@math.isu.edu

Dept. of Mathematics
Idaho State University, Box 8085
Pocatello, ID 83209-8085

Voice: +1 208 236 4472



