1. First off, think of the Cheapware CD, Volume I as simply a big storage area for the 150 Cheapware disks. We say this because, unfortunately, Cadkey, Inc. (before DataCAD LLC took over) did not make any effort to provide a uniform installation procedure for the data on the disk; they simply copied our disks directly onto the CD. Also, for the reasons outlined below, for the most part the data can't be used as is directly from the CD --Cadkey's hype of point & click? Sorry, but forget it! Also remember that Cheapware is contributed by many, many different authors, so procedures will vary from disk to disk. (Cheapware is "cheap" after all -- $1200 worth of software for only $100 bucks. Some effort may be required on your part.)

2. Because of the nature of the CD as a "read-only" media, all the files on the disk have what is called a "read-only" attribute. This attribute makes many files unusable as is in DataCAD, which must read and write to certain files. This attribute is not a major problem -- but be aware that if you use Windows File Manager or Win95 Explorer or Norton Utilities or other shell file managers, they will copy this attribute, rendering these files unusable. Your best bet is to use plain old vanilla MS-DOS's COPY or XCOPY command to take files off the CD. If you do use Windows 3.x or Win95 to transfer files, you should use your File Manager's Properties command to toggle off the "Read-Only" attribute that you will find toggled on for each file you copied in Windows.

3. You are probably also frustrated because when you tried to pull up a Template directly off the CD, you got a blank grid displayed, and it may seem that your system is trying to search your A: drive. Template files as you may know are simply plain text files of the directory paths where the symbol files can be found. This problem occurs because the original template files have been written to look for the symbols off the A: drive. Use the procedure(s) below to solve this problem.

4. Okay, do you want a relatively fool-proof method to use the Cheapware CD? Try these steps:

a. From the catalog, select a "disk" that you would like to check out.
b. Go out to your DOS prompt.
c. Change your current path to match the main directory of the disk you have selected; e.g. for P002, People Template, your current path should be D:\PRIME\P002 (where "D:" is your CD drive);
d. Copy all the files to a floppy disk in your A:\ drive as in

5. A Better Way to use Templates! Since Cadkey didn't bother to re-write the templates for direct use off the CD, we did it ourselves and it is available as Cheap Tricks Ware Disk R148 or S66. This disk contains all the templates of the CD re-written so they will pull them off the CD directly, and you don't have to do any further installation. (If you use DataCAD 7, order Disk R148; if you use DataCAD 5 or 6, order disk R148-X, substitute for X the letter of your CD drive, e.g. R148-G, where G is your CD drive. Cost is $5 + $1 media/postage.)

6. Also, please note that disk B35, Linetype Explode Macro is not compatible with DataCAD 6 or 7 and disk B61, Keyfile Writer is not compatible with DataCAD 7. Sorry.

7. At the request of the author, all of Brian Galm's items have been officially withdrawn, so that means there is no technical support or updates available for them and you use them at your own risk.

8. Please note that Item S60, XLS2DXF (Excel to DXF) from our CTW listing has been officially withdrawn. The authors of this item, Ideal Engineering, have contacted us and told us that the item as advertised is not "shareware" as we listed, but only a working "demo" program (and an outdated one at that!) and they would much rather that you get the updated copy of this demo directly from them at their web site: