XenoDream Tutorials

Initial Basics

One of the first things a new User should probably do is establish the settings, which will make the program and parameters unique to them. Upon starting XenoDream, the User is shown the FILE tab (see fig.1 below), where the "Creator" field should be set to your own default value (maximum of 100 bytes or characters). This value will be added to each saved XenoDream Parameter file (those with an extension of .XEP). After entering a value, press the "Set Default" button and it will be written to the XENODREAM.INI configuration file.

XD File tab

fig.1
Within the configuration file, there are several other options that are set through the program itself, where some values change dynamically and others per one's static choices. A handful of these may be set by using the Main menu selection of OPTIONS | PREFERENCES... (see fig.2 below).

fig.2
Chosing the Perferences will display a popup dialog window (see fig.3 below). One of these settings is the "Starter Files" field, which specifies the directory path (or program folder) where certain .XEP files are located.

XD Preferences

fig.3
These specific starter files may be selected in three different ways:

Through the Main menu of FILE | STARTER SHAPES (see fig.4 below), which causes a popup dialog window showing all the .XEP files (see fig.5 below) within the directory path specified in the above Preferences settings. NOTE: Opening files through this method is a little different than opening an .XEP file through the normal method, the program only loads the shape and view parameters, ignoring the coloring, lighting and regions of the parameter file.

Through the Main menu of FILE | OPEN (see fig.4 below), which causes a standard Windows dialog for opening any .XEP file from any location on one's computer, network, attached storage media, etc.

And lastly by the use of the "Random Starter File" button, as seen by the large green button on the FILE tab (see fig.1 above).

fig.4

fig.5

By the way, within the XENODREAM.INI configuration file, you will notice several different sections (besides the primary DEFAULT section). Each of these relates to a separate window within XenoDream, where several of these mainly are for saving the window's size and position on the monitor (or desktop).

Also under the Main menu selection of OPTIONS, there is another useful choice called SHOW HINTS (see fig.2 above). When this is set, anytime your mouse's pointer is positioned and held over most controls, a small context sensitive screen tip is displayed (see fig.6 below). This is an easy way to provide helpful information about controls within any window of the application.

Rendering

fig.6
Another item that should be noted is on the RENDERING tab. The Render Size drop-down list currently holds up to twenty-four (24) different settings. These are usually arranged in the order in which they were last used, or LIFO (Last-In-First-Out). The default setting is 800x600 when initially starting XenoDream, and will be the first selection in the drop-down list. The next selection in the list will be whatever image resolution an individual used prior to this value.

Rendering

fig.7
To have the Render Size default to something other than 800x600, there are a couple of issues that need to be discussed here. One of these concerns the other area where modifying the configuration file may be used (but is not necessary). Using a text editor on the XENODREAM.INI file, there should be several fields within the Default section that begin with the word "Rendersize" followed by an equal sign (=), and possibly a width/height value, such as "800x600". These can be modified to dimensions that an individual tends to work with the majority of the time. Just make sure XenoDream is not running, then use a text editor and save your changes.

This page is still being refined off site. Please return later as updates are made available to this XenoDream Tutorial.

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