Aspire K3 Manual
Irmgard Rossie
As part of my research for the talk I gave at jsconf.eu 2018, I bought a ZX Spectrum 48K. I purchased the machine from eBay, but it was indeed an original 1980's Spectrum with a few internals cleaned up.
The manual is an instruction book on how to program the Spectrum. It's a full book, with detailed directions and information on how the machine works, how the programming language works, includes human readable sentences explaining logic and even goes so far as touching on what hex values perform which assembly functions.
This book stirs a passion inside of me that tells me that I can make something new from an existing thing. It reminds me of the 80s Lego boxes: unlike today's Lego, the back of a Lego box would include pictures of creations that you could make with your Lego set. It didn't include any instructions to do so, but it always made me think to myself: "I can make something more with these bricks".
The book cover art is like something from Star Wars: a megacity, high above the clouds. When I casually flicked through the pages, I found explanations of how to create music and graphics, detailed written prose on how expressions work. Even how to pronounce hex values and a table of all the hex values and each of 256 associated assembly functions.
What I find so elegant about this book being provided to you, the consumer, and the Lego ideas on the back of the box, is that it was given to the consumer. The very act of owning the thing plants the seed that greater things can be done with this thing.
Today we have a ocean of knowledge at our fingertips with the internet, but more often than not, you'll be expected to swim out by yourself with no guide or direction. And frankly, it's a lot easier to sit on the shore and just tinker with the thing until the next shiny thing comes along.
I'm a JavaScript developer working professionally on the web since 1999. I run my own consultancy, build products, run training, speak at conferences and curate the UK's best JavaScript conference. You can hire me too.
All CNC machines (routing, engraving, and milling) are potentially dangerous and because Vectric Ltd. has no control over how the software described in this manual might be used, Vectric Ltd. or any associated Resellers cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage to the work piece, machine or any individual, howsoever caused by misusing the software. Extreme care should always be taken and the output from the software thoroughly checked before sending it to a CNC machine.
The information in this manual may be subject to change without any prior notice. The software described in this manual is supplied under the terms and conditions of the software license agreement and may only be used in accordance with the terms of this agreement.
At the bottom of the page you will see an area with View All Help. This will download all the Help Documentation as a single web page which is useful for searching or if you need to create a paper copy of the documentation.
Please note that this document is a Reference Manual. If you require more guidance, or are still learning how to use Aspire, please ensure that you view the Getting Started Video Tutorials in the Aspire Video Tutorial Browser when starting the software, or go to the User Manual section.
Aspire also includes an extensive selection of video tutorials, which are accessible from the Tutorial Video Browser link when application first starts. These tutorials cover every aspect of Aspire's functionality and range in complexity from a beginner's overview, to advanced features and principles. They are intended to be extremely accessible by level of experience or topic and use real-world examples throughout. Videos can be watched online, or installed locally.
The License Dialog is used to set the details you need to activate the software. This dialog can also be used to activate optional modules. The page that initially appears will give you the option to set your license details either automatically from your V&Co account or manually.
This method will allow you to retrieve your details automatically from your V&Co account. To use this select 'Online' and then click Next > on the form. The online section of the form will then be displayed.
You can select any of the product licenses available and information on the type of license will be displayed in the status area. Once the license and any modules have been selected by clicking on them Next > can be pressed to activate these and proceed to the summary page.
This page displays the selected license and module details. If you are changing current license details or adding a module a restart will be required for these to fully take effect. In this case a check box will appear allowing you to restart automatically. If this is checked then when you press Finish Aspire will automatically be restarted to apply the license changes. If you do not select this option the license changes take effect the next time Aspire is restarted.
The 'Registered User Name' from your license information should be entered into the 'Licensed To' area of the form and the license code can either be copied and pasted into the middle row of the dialog or manually typed into the lower section if 'Enter license code manually' is selected. The Next > button will become available when a code of the expected length has been entered.
If the product is already licensed then a module code can be entered at this stage instead of the product code. If you wish to manually activate both a product and module code the product code should be added here and there will be an opportunity to add the module code later. Pressing Next > will set the license and display the summary screen.
The summary screen shows the current licensed user and has an Add Module button to allow additional modules to be added. Pressing this button will display the manual entry form again and allow the module details to be entered.
If the licensed user is changed or a new module is added a restart will be required for these to take full effect. In this case a check box will appear allowing you to restart automatically. If this is checked then when you press the finish button the program will automatically be restarted to apply the license changes. If you do not select this option the license changes take effect the next time the program is restarted.
Your project is represented using 2D and 3D workspaces, each viewed via independent windows called the 2D View and 3D View, respectively. This division usefully maps to the typical workflow in which you will initially focus on the 2D design and layout of your project before moving to the 3D stage of modeling, toolpathing and previewing your finished part.
It is sometimes useful to see both the 2D and 3D representations at the same time. The Page Up and Page Down keys will arrange the 2 views either horizontally or vertically so you can see both workspaces simultaneously. To return to the tabbed display, simply click on the standard Windows Maximize button in the top right corner of either view window.
When you are working on a two-sided job additional icons will appear on the View Toolbar. On the left you will see an icon indicating whether the job you are working on will be flipped horizontally or vertically. This is important because the software will automatically mirror your toolpaths and geometry around different axes depending on this setting. To maintain the correct alignment of your toolpaths you must physically turn the material on your CNC machine in the same direction as you have specified during the design process.
The final additional tool for two-sided job is on the right hand side of the View Toolbar and it allows you to toggle the 3D composite relief to show either the currently active side or your model only, or both sides of your model as a single solid block.
This option opens the Job Setup form, which is used to create a new blank job of the specified dimensions and type. The relative origins for X0, Y0 and Z0 are also specified at this point, and the measurement units can be set in either inches or metric. The Modeling Resolution and default 3D shading color/material can also be set at this stage.
This opens the File Open dialog window and allows 2D DXF, EPS and AI and PDF files to be imported into the 2D View. The imported vectors will always be read in at the size and scale they were created in their original design software. Once open they can be scaled and edited in the same way as vectors created in Aspire. All the Vector tools will be dealt with in that section of this manual.
Images are imported to sketch vectors over the top of them, generate traced vectors or to be used to generate a 3D Component directly from the image. These functions will be covered in more detail in the 2D and 3D design section of this manual.
Files previously created and saved in Aspire will be opened and displayed in the 2D Design window and 3D View if they contain 3D data. All calculated toolpaths are stored/opened from the CRV3D file.
Files from other CAD or graphics software packages such as AutoCAD will be opened in the original size and position. The Job Setup Form is automatically opened showing the maximum X and Y dimensions of the opened design. The actual size of the material can then be specified along with the required thickness and appropriate X0, Y0 and Z0 origins.
Files from typical design software such as Corel Draw can be opened. The Job Setup form will automatically be opened so the required material size can be specified. By default the EPS file will be placed with the lower left corner of the design at X0, Y0.
Files from typical design software such as Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw can be opened. The Job Setup form will automatically be opened so the required material size can be specified. The AI file will be placed with the lower left corner of the design at X0, Y0
Software such as the Adobe product range can be used to convert files from other design and word processing software into the industry standard PDF file format. The text and vector content of PDF files is extracted when imported into Aspire. When importing multiple page PDF documents each page is placed on a separate layer.
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