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HiWIRE II Frequently Asked Questions
Q: At work they made us switch to Windows NT, and HiWIRE quit working.
Is HiWIRE compatible with Windows NT?
A: Under Windows NT4, HiWIRE runs under what has quaintly been dubbed
"the DOS box". This program tries to emulate the computer hardware
and software environment required by a DOS application like HiWIRE.
Early releases of NT4 contained printer port emulation that was barely
sufficient for simple printing. It was not robust enough to handle
HiWIRE's communication with its dongle.
Since NT4 was introduced, MicroSoft has periodically gathered their bug
fixes into what are euphemistically called "Service Packs". Printer
port insufficiency is reportedly fixed by Service Pack 4. However,
BEWARE SERVICE PACK 5; it reportedly reintroduces the bug SP4 fixed!
Q: On my new Pentium computer, and HiWIRE "can't find dongle". What
should I do?
A: Make sure you're running V2.2r0 or later and the error message when
you try to edit a drawing is "Can't find dongle <nnnnn>", where <nnnnn>
is your license number. If not, your computer may be outrunning the
dongle, and you need to upgrade to the current version which measures
the speed of your machine and compensates for it.
A few recent motherboards' printer ports are apparently not hardware-
compatible with the old IBM/PC printer port. (At Wintek, we finally
were unlucky enough to encounter one -- an AsusTek A7V266 Socket A
motherboard. Pin 17 is programmable on the original; it is wired
low on the new AsusTek.)
There are two possible solutions to this problem:
First, you can fish around in your junkbox for an old printer port
(the cheaper the better), install it into your computer as LPT2, and
use it for the dongle. V2.2r0 (and later) HiWIRE will search ALL
printer ports for the dongle; it need not be on LPT1.
Second, you can return the dongle to Wintek for rework. Email or call
us for instructions on returning your dongle. If your HiWIRE is older
than V2.2r0, you also need to upgrade; the reworked dongle won't talk
to older versions. (In Japan, IBMs were once rare. To run on NEC PCs,
we reworked the HiWIRE dongle to ease the printer port restrictions.
The rework also SEEMS to fix the Pentium-printer-port problem.)
Q: I know HiWIRE is a DOS-based program, but I only have Windows 95 (98,
2000) on my machine. How do I install HiWIRE? Do I have to reboot
in DOS mode?
A: Here's how to install HiWIRE on Windows95(tm). Something similar should
work for W98 or W2000.
1. Insert the first HiWIRE diskette in drive A:.
2. Click on "Start".
3. Click on "Run".
4. Type "A:INSTALL" into the dialog and click "OK".
5. Follow the instructions in the HiWIRE manual except:
a. DO NOT choose 800x600 resolution unless you KNOW your video
card is VESA-compliant. If you're not sure, try it AFTER
HiWIRE is up and running.
b. Unless you have a very good reason, let INSTALL change your
AUTOEXEC.BAT. Don't forget to reboot so these changes can
take effect.
c. To test your installation, Click "Start" then "Run", type
"HW2" into the dialog, and click "OK". (If you chose an
"Other" location for HiWIRE's executive, use the full file
specification. E.g., "C:\HW2\HW2.EXE" instead of "HW2".
Then complete the tests in the HiWIRE manual.
d. When configuring your printer, change the device name as
suggested on page 2-16 of the HiWIRE manual (e.g., from
"LPT1" to ":LPT1").
6. Use a "Wizard" to create a "shortcut" on your "desktop":
a. Right-click in a clear area of the desktop.
b. Click "New", then "Shortcut".
c. Specify "HW2" (or the full file specification if you put
HW2.EXE in "Other") as the command line. Click "Next>".
d. Accept the default or choose something nicer (e.g., "HiWIRE")
for the shortcut name. Click "Next>".
e. Choose one of the ugly MicroSoft-supplied icons. (We'll fix
that later.) Click "Finish".
f. Right-click on the newest ugly icon on your desktop.
g. Click "Properties", then the "Program" tab.
h. Click "Change Icon..." then "Browse".
i. Click or tab your way into the "File name" box and type the
full directory specification for the HiWIRE executables
(e.g. "C:\HW2\EXE") and click "Open". Or, use your favorite
mouse tapdance routine to achieve an equivalent navigation.
j. Double-click to select the pretty "HW2.ICO" and click "OK
to approve the change.
k. Click on the "Screen" tab. Select "Full Screen" usage.
l. Click on "OK" to approve the changes.
m. Test your shortcut: Double click on the pretty icon, and
should be running HiWIRE!
Q: My old printer died. Office Depot was selling the Frammusdoodle 1473CX
on special. Have you written a driver for the Frammusdoodle yet?
A: Actually, you probably already have a "driver" that will work, but you
may need to work up a configuration file. For more on this arcane
process, you'll want to read the whitepaper:
ftp://ftp.wintek.com/pub/hiwire/cfg.txt
Q: My new computer from Circuit City (or Best Buys or ...) runs HiWIRE
for a few minutes (or seconds or hours), but then it hangs. The mouse
quits moving, and I have to reboot. Will your latest version help?
A: There may be a problem with the Celeron running 16-bit applications
(like HiWIRE). Perhaps this is due to unscrupulous remarking/over-
clocking of these once-hard-to-procure parts. On the Intel website
there is a discussion of how to detect remarked/overclocked Celerons.
See: http://support.intel.com/support/processors/tools/ocback.htm
Or, maybe this is yet-another-design-flaw, akin to the floating-
point fiasco of a few years back.
In either case, a workaround that SEEMS to help is to use the BIOS
setup routines to "disable L2 cache". A Celeron-compliant BIOS must
provide this facility. HiWIRE is so efficient you won't notice the
the speed degradation. (Remember, HiWIRE ran fine on a 4.5Mhz 8086!)
You may want to reenable cache when running bloatware applications.
Q: I've just installed a HiWIRE upgrade, and now I get the error message
"incompatible versions (exe/ovl)".
A: Your old version of HW2.EXE has been moved, and the newer version did
not overwrite (and thus upgrade) it. Typically you did this to place
HW2.EXE into a directory that was part of your DOS "PATH" so you could
start HiWIRE from any directory.
The new HW2.EXE is installed into the directory specified by the
"HW2_HW2=..." line in your setup data file (whose filename is given
by the DOS environment variable "HW2").
Fixing this problem is a two step process. First, find all files named
"HW2.EXE", and delete all but the newest. Second, if you DO want to
move HW2.EXE, be sure to edit the setup data file to reflect the new
location. If you skip this step, you'll encounter this problem the
NEXT time you upgrade.
Q: When I print my schematic on a dot-matrix or PostScript printer, the
schematic connection dots aren't printed. In addition, the wires near
the connections have disappeared.
A: In the printer's configuration file, you have elected to "Draw pads
with center holes" which may be appropriate for PCBs, but not for
schematics where connection dots are drawn using small pads. These
pads (and nearby wires) are obliterated by the much larger "hole".
To change this option from the Main menu, select "Change setup", then
click on your configuration file. Select "Plotting options", then
click "Draw pads with center holes" until the status line above says
"Draw pads with center holes: No".
Q: When I try to create Gerber photoplot data, the program EP hangs. If I
type Ctrl-C, the program prints "ep - interrupt!" then returns to the
Main menu.
A: Using a text editor (e.g., select "Other utilities", then "Edit a text
file"), edit the DE script MKAPTS.D. Change the assignment statement
"BOTHOK=1;" to "BOTHOK=0;". In V2.1r0 and earlier, this statement is
near the end of the file. Beginning with V2.2r0, this statement is
near the front of the file.
NOTE: Please let us know if you have this problem with V2.2r0 or
later. We've never been able to reproduce this problem at Wintek, but
it may have been fixed when we corrected other problems in V2.2r0.
Q: EP doesn't print my invisible labels, even though I've chosen "Print
invisible labels" in the configuration file.
A: Plotter optimization was added to HiWIRE beginning with V2.0r3. To
facilitate this operation, the optimizer discards everything that
won't be plotted (e.g. objects on other layers and invisible labels).
However, until V2.2r0, this item was inadvertently left in the HiWIRE
plot menus.
For an equivalent capability, use the DE script PL.D. Don't forget to
sort the new drawing (e.g. Edit and save it) before plotting the now-
visible labels. See the comments at the front of PL.D for details on
invoking DE from the DOS command line and for some additional uses
for PL.D.
Q: I tried to use the DE script CHGTRCS.D and it immediate fails with a
compilation error. What gives?
A: There is a bug in the script that distributed with early copies of
V2.2r0. A corrected version is available from:
ftp://ftp.wintek.com/pub/hiwire/chgtrcs.d
Q: The documentation for GERBIN.EXE says it will work without an aperture
file. When I try that, GERBIN complains that it can't read the
aperture file and quits. Where is the problem?
A: A corrected version of GERBIN.EXE can be found at
ftp://ftp.wintek.com/pub/hiwire/gerbin.exe
Q: When I select the "Display executive setup" command, my screen clears
and then the computer hangs. Now what do I do?
A: Get a new version of HDWRLST.EXE from:
ftp://ftp.wintek.com/pub/hiwire/hdwrlst.exe
Q: When I use the autoplacement facility, some of my arcs disappear.
What am I doing wrong?
A: This is a bug in PAP.D. Get a corrected version from:
ftp://ftp.wintek.com/pub/hiwire/pap.d
Q: When I use the script RENUMB.D, it seems to read the drawing, but then
stops with a "usage" message. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
A: You are probably using the script correctly. Get a new version from:
ftp://ftp.wintek.com/pub/hiwire/renumb.d
Q: When I create my Gerber files, some of the traces are missing. What
happened?
A: You may be using PHOTO.BAT or (your own batch file) for creating Gerber
data with V2.2r0 (or later) of HiWIRE. PHOTO.BAT was included with
V2.0r3 and V2.1r0. It was NOT shipped with V2.2r0; CAM.D replaced it.
The batch file is using a newer PO.EXE which sometimes merges lines on
different layers unless it is run in "color mode". To prevent this
unwanted (in PHOTO.BAT) merging, edit the batch file to explicitly
request a white background. For example
change: "po -osorted.tmp -l248,249,250 myfile.pcb"
to: "po -osorted.tmp -lw248,249,250 myfile.pcb"
Note the added "w" to redundantly specify the background color. (Color
plotting was not fully implemented in HiWIRE until V2.3r2, but PO.EXE
supported it in V2.2r0.)
Q: When I print a HiWIRE drawing to our network printer, some diagrams
print fine, but others seem to be truncated. How can I get all of my
drawing to print reliably?
A: When using a Novell network, you need to instruct its print spooler to
NOT terminate the printing when it sees a Ctrl-Z in the print data
stream. This End-of-Text-File character is VERY common in printer
graphics data. Novell's "CAPTURE" program has a parameter that should
solve the problem: "NT" -- turns off the conversion of tabs to blanks
and all other control character interpretation.