Maze Creator Users Manual
Contents
1. 30 APPENDIX A KEY SHORTCUT REFERENCE 31 APPENDIX Mouse Gesture Quick Reference 32 Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 3 of 33 INTRODUCTION Maze Creator PRO is a Computer Aided Design software package to facilitate the creation of random mazes with solutions to be printed or exported EMF BMP Clipboard Mazes can be customized in shape number of starting and stopping points The general shape can be altered as well as adding text and graphics A mask can be applied to help rapidly develop new designs You can save your work templates This is a great tool for newsletters newspapers brochures and web site free promotions Many template styles are available such as CICRULAR HEX TRIANGLES OCT BOX SQUARE TILERs and more The PRO version of Maze Creator has special licensing to allow for publishing mazes and 1s directed more to the free lancing professional or printed media company newspaper magazine etc This license allows for the unlimited and unrestricted publishing of your work Circular Documentation Maze mze MazeCreator BEES File Edit Maze Options View Help Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 4 of 33 Maze Creator Settings Selecting a Style Template One of the first things you need to do 15 to select a Template for the maze you would like to create This 15 done through the Maze Options menu an2. Copy to the clip board To rapidly integrate Maze Creator designs into other applications copy the current design to the clip board The current design can be at any stage Template Maze or Solution To do this selecting the Edit menu then Copy You can then go to your other application to paste the maze Save to BMP Templates Mazes Solutions can now be exported as BMP files First display the template maze or maze with solution to export Then from the File menu select Save to BMP They will have the number of colors as your current display mode and the size of the BMP can be configured as follows Bitmap Setup Set to Screen Resolution Bitmap Dimensions 628 637 Humber of mazes i Cancel If you use Set to Screen Resolution your bitmap dimensions will be ignored and you will get a BMP similar to what you see on the screen This is the closest to WYSIWYG what you see is what you get If you don t select this option you can select the dimensions of the exported BMP manually by setting X amp Y After selecting OK you will be confronted with the file save dialog box to choose a location and name for the exported file Save to EMF First display the template maze or maze with solution to export Then from the File menu select Save to EMF Exports the current displayed image as an EMF file A file dialog box will open for you to choose a location and name for the exported file PRINT PREVIEW U
3. Maze Creator Users Manual Circular Documentation Maze mze MazeCreator File Edit Maze Options View Help START HERE Copyright 1998 2008 Greg Peatfield Please check the web site at WWW MAZECREATOR COM for updates to this document This manual covers features of all Maze Creator versions and updated for PRO 1 60 STD 3 60 HOME 1 95 Please refer to the Maze Creator website for feature included in your version of Maze Creator Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page of 33 INTRODUC TO N T EN 4 Me Se HIHD E EEE 5 wisis Cu AO bye Templa NIE EO e 5 Seting tHe Dimensions MEI E T 6 Seine thel Iredlar 7 Selecime Pape 8 PE AMG Gs 9 COCOR C Gil OTA 10 12 ABSOLUTE GROWTH Configuration nennen nen nenne nennen nnns 13 Mouse Gestures amp Keyboard Shortcuts nennen nennen eene 15 Working with Maze Creator Layers ccccccccceeseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 16 Layer ERE M 16 Packard DAYOT oerein nr EE T
4. Whiten sections of the maze and use the Make Maze option you may notice nothing happening This is due to the randomly selected cell being one that has been disabled by your selection Use of this Grow Maze tool gives you more control on how to grow a maze Select this tool and click on the location you would like to start growing the maze This would be required for example if you wanted to fill in the letter O in a maze The inside of the letter will not be filled or will be the only section filled without the use of this tool Solve Feature is obsolete the solution is always created hasn t been removed from the Maze Options menu as of this release Creating the solution for a maze is very simple After printing out your creation select Maze Options gt Solve Maze This will not take very long and will gray out portions of the maze that do not make up the solution The process of solving the maze will be displayed as well Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 18 of 33 Apply a Mask Use this feature to import a BMP file to MASK the current template You would do this to rapidly develop the outline of a maze as in the example below to generate a horse shaped maze This took only 5 minutes to create Your other option would be to spend hours drawing in the horse with the tools listed above It 15 found under Maze Options as Apply BMP Mask Note this is not available for Circular maze styles Masks can be made from your favorite image
5. YES YES YES YES Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 25 of 33 4 P eT Ge M ok cae YES YES YES Background Layer YES YES YES Foreground Layer YES YES YES Control Maze Generation algorithm YES YES YES Maze Template Colors Maze Blackened Erased Solution YES Visible Hidden Start amp Stop Support Alpha Blends YES Control Relative Direction Maze YES Generation algorithm Interactive Features YES YES YES YES Info Window YES YES YES YES Productivity Features On Line Galleries YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES Generate Maze YES YES YES YES Solution Generation YES YES YES YES Maze amp Solution Output Options Import Mask Print YES YES YES YES Print w Solution YES YES YES YES Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 26 of 33 Multiple unique mazes Print w Solutions Export BMP Maze amp Solution Export GIF Maze amp Solution Export TIF Maze amp Solution Export EMF Export Clip Board Multiple BMP GIF TIP Export w Solutions Commercial Publishing No Maze Creator Reference required Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 27 of 33 TECHNICAL SUPPORT Updates can be found at WWW MAZECREATOR COM Registered Users can obtain technical support by one of two methods You can send an e mail message including you registered Email Address number to support mazecreator com Credits Maze Creator utilizes some freeware software libraries CxImage A Open Source graphic l
6. image until the printer driver accepts the graphics This will slow down printing for some but increase driver compatibility A few specific drivers such as Adobe Acrobat need this for proper support FIXED Random number generator sometimes seeded the same maze on fast computers ADDED Multiple mazes with Solutions during print ADDED Multiple Image File Export with Solutions ADDED Export of Image File with Solution ADDED ReRender Maze Option to generate a new maze with solution from the same template FIXED Preview when selected a Tiler option FIXED Reading tle files properly handles last entry if last line is not a blank line FIXED Export to Image File right and bottom edge got clipped with a fine pen size 1 40 FIXED With printing high density mazes the bottom of the maze may have been cut off FIXED Better printer compatibility FIXED Maze Creator will detect and warn if it cannot contact the license server ADDED Debug option to collect information while printing for customer support 1 30 DRAW YOUR OWN SOLUTION BETA Please give feedback and ask questions Fixed File gt New issue now a new maze will clear current template space Direct links to help pages from HELP menu Fixed bad default value that caused page size issues Major bug fixes with Load New file handling this may have lead to certain Windows Compatibility issues START STOP Left button Hidden Right button Color Shown Automatic START STOP i
7. layer and then back again Delete an object You can delete the currently select object at any time by clicking the DELETE button on the toolbar to the left of the screen The object will then be deleted from the layer Move to top If you have an object that is covered by another graphics object on the same layer you can use the TO TOP button on the toolbar to uncover the object To use this feature select the object to uncover Once selected click the TO TOP button This will uncover the selected object forcing it to cover the original covering object Move to back While adding graphics you may cover a smaller graphic completely To get access to the object you need to use the TO BACK button to push the larger graphic behind the smaller object This is done much in the same way as Move to top only you select the graphic covering the smaller object and clicking the TO BACK button on the toolbar The smaller object will now be visible Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 21 of 33 Working with the Text Layer The text layer allows you to annotate your maze When adding text you have full control over the font style size effect and color of the text to add Also note that any text added to this layer will overlap all other layers Working with the text layer is much like that of the graphic layers only you are working with text objects rather than graphic objects After selecting the text layer the toolbar
8. the Inner Radius Cells amount smaller until you achieve your desired result Please note while maintaining a general square cell size the number or cells on any particular radius will increase as you move closer to the outside edge Also be aware that the MASK feature doesn t work with Circular maze styles Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 7 of 33 Selecting Page Parameters The page layout can be configured through the table of the configuration box You can directly open the PAGE table by selecting Page Setup from the File menu It looks like this Maze Creator Settings Style Dimensions Page Advanced Color GROWTH Maze Size inches Width Height Page Margin inches Left Tap 10 1 Enable Printer Debug Information for Support These parameters can be reset after creating a maze e Page Width The width you want the maze to be in inches Can be smaller than the actual paper in the printer e Page Height The height in inches of the maze you wish to create This value can also be smaller than the paper in the printer These parameters only affect printing of a maze e Page Margin Left Bring the maze in this many inches from the left side e Page Margin Top How far down the page the maze should be printed A support feature has also been added to Maze Creator for printing problems e Enable Printer Debug Information This feature should not normally be enable
9. use the Seed tool described in the Editing Customizing section above Once seeded you will have your maze with exactly one solution from each start to stop location You then can print out your creation Solving a Maze OBSOLETE no need to do this solution is always created once a maze is seeded Creating the solution for a maze 15 very simple After printing out your creation select Maze Options gt Solve Maze This will not take very long and will gray out portions of the maze that do not make up the solution The process of solving the maze will be displayed as well Clearing a Maze After generating a maze selecting the Maze Options gt Clear Maze function will remove the random path on the maze template This will allow you to keep your same drawing so you can create multiple random mazes Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 20 of 33 Working with Graphic Layers There are two graphics layers Both operate the same exact way as the other they just happen to be independent from one another Use the background layer for watermarks to light graphics you want the maze to run over and through Use the foreground layer for sharp graphics you want to stand out and not to be covered such as entrance and exit marks etc After selecting a graphics layer the toolbar on the left will appear Working with graphic objects is pretty straight forward Adding and object Left clicking and dragging will display a rectangle Once yo
10. DF reference sheet included with your installation Combinations with backets refer to the name of the key within the brackets For example ALT ESC for the Maze Tool Setup would be the ALT key and the ESC key at the same time Mouse Gestures You can command Maze Creator through the motion of your mouse This will take a little practice but once you have mastered it you will not need to hunt for key strokes or selected a menu item Refer to Appendix for the mouse gesture command reference A separate PDF 15 include for you to print Mouse Gesture commands look like this This is 5 command it 15 used to toggle Show Solution The red large circles move to smaller blue circles This is the proper stroke sequence for this command This is how all commands will be illustrated So in this case the stroke will start in the upper right and end at the lower left of the S There are two ways to tell Maze Creator that a mouse gesture is being drawn The easiest 15 to hold down the CRTL key and depress LEFT MOUSE BUTTON at the start of your gesture Hold the CTRL key and LEFT MOUSE BUTTON until you complete the stroke A positive or negative tone will be heard depending upon whether the command was recognized Also the command recognized will be displayed briefly in the upper right of the screen or a small dialog with some debugging information if not recognized Another method frees up one hand You can pr
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12. but will copy important information about your printer device upon printed to the clip board This might be required when working with Technical Support incase a printing problem is encountered Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 8 of 33 Advanced Configuration This tab 15 for setting the PEN WIDTH and other miscellaneous parameter Maze Creator Settings ERRRRRNRRERNRRERNERENERERE f Set to 1 100 f Otherin X 1000 A 0 Iw Make Erased Cells Visible in Layout Show Updated Information Window Animate Maze Creation 8 Solving Random Number Seed 1199671404 Cancel Apply Printing Pen Width has been added due to printing and publishing mazes in newspapers magazines etc you may be required to use a heavier line Some printing facilities need a wider line to assure it will be reproduced accurately at press time The default setting is the Thinnest The thinnest pen width is one physical pixel on your printing device maybe 1 600 of an inch Check with your publishing company for their requested line width There is a pre defined 1 100 of an inch Also you can select other and select a value for X to make the width X 1000 of an inch Select Make Erased Cells Visible in Layout if you need help seeing in complex templates what cells have been erased Maze Creator will highlight those cells in mustard like color to show it is erased The Show Updated Information Window option This feature is cu
13. d then selecting Maze Setup The template or style 1s simply the overall motif or feeling of the maze For example you could choose a maze with a square or circular maze shape Currently there are 7 styles as well as a TILER Templates to choose To help give a feel of the style a sample of the Template is displayed in the Example box You will get the following dialog box Maze Creator Settings Style Dimensions Page Advanced Color GROWTH Template Selection Template Example Octagon Box Trapezoid Box Guad Triangle CIRCULAR Square Tiled Wrap Horizontally Wrap Vertically You can also get this dialog by clicking on the SETUP button on the left hand side toolbar Select the Template Style with which you would like to work As you click on the radio buttons to the left in the Template Selection area the Template Example on the right will update to show a sample of the template Once you have selected your template style click on the Dimensions tab to select the size of the template grid TILED Maze Creator now supports TILERs These are graphic images rather than simply lines used as part of the other styles Please note that some features will work differently or simply not supported with this graphical tile system For example the show erased cells does not function with TILERs Tilers will offer theme based mazes with the possibility of highly rendered graphics If you enable Wrap horizontally wi
14. ddin and E et eT ee ern eee enn eT Neen edema duel 22 SEA Edita 22 NE me eee ne ene eee nee 22 er a 22 So ee E EA Oe a nee ATE Ta ee E ENS Ene ene ere 22 EUST Ne Tn NE ER TPN te EET eon E A Te nr 22 INO 22 VC OPAC eH E 22 Getting your work out of Maze 23 Copy tothe chip Dodi PANNI D OT T RTT 23 AVG IVIL d 23 VELUM ONE 23 Ig dd utis As T n 23 laude E c t 24 Listor BM iit 23 Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 2 of 33 TECHNICAL NY 28 AEA arsenate ae Coe oe A E AAAA AA AE E EAA 28 PRO REVISION HISTORY uet e e e E EE ir 29 E EA E E AAEE AA EA A EAE AEA ETNEA 29 eA M E eee A AAA E AAE E AA E E EAE EAA 29 svp E E AA E E AE A E 29 Po 29 sr 30 be a PN 30 Pee AE RENTE 30 PB LEEREN 30 lei ap
15. e controls are as follows e Setup This is a shortcut to the Maze Setup options usually your first step in creating a maze Reset Use this tool to remove any Blackened Erased START or STOP from the template This will help clean up your creation Blacken This tool can be used to blacken cells of the maze This will allow you to draw pictures or write block letter text on the maze template These cells will remain BLACK and unused after creation of the maze The right mouse button will Reset the cell Erase This tool can be used to create open white areas in the maze This may be useful for you to insert text or a picture within your maze You can create NON RECTANGULAR Mazes by erasing the outer boarder The right mouse button will Reset the cell e START By default Maze Creator will add a START in the upper left of the template if you don t tell it explicitly where there should be a start Use the right mouse button to place a starting cell that will be filled green Use the left mouse button to place a hidden start location The hidden location will be a dimmer green and cause the cell to have no walls when printed or exported If a hidden start 15 place Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 17 of 33 on an edge of the maze template it will appear as a hole in the printed maze Also note that you can have more than one starting point If you don t want a starting location defined then
16. esolved output was fine but UI had problems Add images to the maze background or foreground Add text to the maze Send to printer with solution Solution generated as soon as a maze is created Complete control over maze creation algorithm hard direction and relative direction parameters can be set User interface more straight forward more menu items in the proper dropdown Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 30 of 33 APPENDIX A HOT KEY SHORTCUT REFERENCE HOT KEY SHORTCUTS Maze Tool MySolution Template Gallery CTRL F1 Maze Tool SEED ALT SPACE ReRender Maze CTRL R OBJECT TOOLS ee Object Tool Move Bottom ALT DOWN LAYER SHORTCUTS SET ACTIVE TOGGLE VISIBLE CTRL 3 CTRL SHIFT 3 CTRL 4 CTRL SHIFT 4 CTRL SHIFT 5 Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 31 of 33 APPENDIX B Mouse Gesture Quick Reference E Tc Initiate Mouse Gestures by holding the CTRL button and making the gesture with your left mouse button depressed Alternatively tap the SPACE bar and the next left mouse button mouse movement will be interpreted as a gesture The gesture is sensitive to direction of the mouse trace To accurately trace a gesture refer to the table below trace from the RED to the BLUE Valid Gestures on all Design Layers rer EIE m m CIRCLE 22 Sey 7 Left Right Opens the SETUP screen Copies the current maze image to Opens the file save dialog box Toggle
17. ess the space bar to signal to Maze Creator that a gesture will follow on the next LEFT MOUSE BUTTON click A tone will be played once the space bar is pressed to give feedback that a gesture should be drawn Mouse gestures use artificial intelligence to compare what you draw to what is in the command library This means you only need to be close to the command not exact Here is a mouse sequence example for this command N ws MOUSE BUTTON DOWN ICETHIALEFT MOUSE BUTTON DOWN LEFT BUTTON UP Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 15 of 33 Working with Maze Creator Layers Another new arrival to Maze Creator is the concept of layers Older users of the product will remember simply working with Templates There are now 2 graphic layers and a text layer that have been added This will allow more creativity and productivity within Maze Creator I the past users exported the maze template into another application to add graphics or text This 15 now history The layers have a defined paint order The paint order relates to the sequence by which the layers image text will be rendered upon the output device Layers laid down first will be covered by layers laid over it later Layer Toolbar The layer selection toolbar will allow you to select or view what 15 the current active layer Here 15 what the toolbar looks like The buttons from left to right are as follows Background Layer First graphics layer in the paint order P
18. etails Text Layer If you want to add instruction or notes upon the template now you can do it with the text layer This is the forth and final layer in the paint order so it will overwrite all other layers You will be able to select the location size font color and style of the text to place Please see the section Working with the Text Layer for more details Selecting Viewing Layers To work on a layer you need to set it as active Do this through the menus Maze Options gt Active Layer gt layer or through the hot keys listed below You can hide layers to help reduce clutter while laying out your project which can be done through the view menu View gt layer or the shortcut listed below Please note the Solution layer is only visible after seeding a maze and is not available as a work layer Back Ground CTRL 1 CTRL SHIFT 1 Fore Ground CTRL 3 CTRL SHIFT 3 Solution NA CTRL SHIFT 5 Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 16 of 33 Working on the Template Layer Please note that the Template layer is the default layer when you start working with Maze Creator Please see a later section on changing the active layer Loading amp Saving a Maze Template amp Gallery You can load and save your creations through the File menu Although you can save a generated maze or solution the power of Maze Creator 15 the ability to load save maze templates Templates can be of a company logo illustration or anything else y
19. f you don t set one default to hidden style Fixed Tiler BLACKEN ERASE didn t map properly O O OOO Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 29 of 33 Added START STOP to Tiler features Drive C could not be found you may not register this software error eliminated Very rare in cases you don t have a C drive Real time update of screen when Tiler is selected Optimized printed doesn t work for all users disabled Printing printing Many improvements upper left corner is moved into printable range for your printer Updates Screen will now shrink if you start a maze project New in 1 20 Tiler maze template type Import TIF GIF and BMP Images Export TIF GIF BMP and EMF files Alpha Blend Images into Template Transparent GIF file supported Minor speed improvements Minor Bug fixes New Fixes in 1 10 Layer buttons better labeled Application Startup speed improved Some overall speed improvements in growing the maze BMP export has been fixed to remove extra whitespace EMF export has been fixed to remove most of the extra whitespace Fixes in 1 02 Fixes some Windows XP bugs TEXT tool crashes Maze Creator PRO With no background image the Maze Creator paper is used and printed by default New in 1 01 First public release TEXT style can be changed color font etc o Select Font o Select Font Style o Select Point Size o Select Effect o Select Color New in 1 00 Some interactive rendering issues r
20. he growth behavior of the maze Maze Creator Settings Style Dimensions Page Advanced Color GROWTH Cancel Now what do all of these settings mean Well read on You will find there are only two major behaviors to Maze Creator s growth control Relative and Absolute The PRO version has both of these settings available the other versions only have ABSOLUTE control We will cover these features in a later section Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 12 of 33 ABSOLUTE GROWTH Configuration With the Movement relative to current direction unchecked as shown below you are specifying the ABSOLUTE direction for the movement of the GROWTH engine Maze Creator Settings RN Above also represents the default behavior of the growth engine This is the default behavior of the growth algorithm much like earlier versions of Maze Creator When in doubt reset the values back to these settings This implies that there is equal chance to move in any one of the compos directions printed in red These angles are the same as on this printed page 0 degrees will grown up the page 180 down 270 to the left and 90 to the right This growth algorithm is very sensitive to the SEED location of the maze Play with these parameters ultimately the probability 15 set as the value at the angle over the sum of all the values Please note that these should be integer values only no decimal point 1s allowed Also 0 the number
21. ibrary initiated by Davide Pizzolato More information can be found at www cximage com Tommy Cole for his music which he has supplied Maze Creator and 1s include in the Flash Tutorial Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 28 of 33 REVISION HISTORY PRO New in New in New in New in 1 60 ADDED Wrap maze Horizontally and Vertically ADDED Mouse Gestures command Maze Creator by mouse movements ADDED Paste graphics into Foreground amp Background from Clipboard DIB BITMAP ENHMETAFILE ADDED Paste text into Text layer IMPROVED Maze generation algorithm closer adherence to generation rules should make more complex mazes IMPROVED User Interface to help make selections more obvious ADDED COLOR selection to over ride the default Maze Creator Color scheme Maze Pen Color Solution Blacken Erased Only during Design of Template Start Stop colors both visible and hidden for design purposes ADDED Opacity setting for TILER now supports version TLE 1 50 ADDED prototype of 3D Maze Rendering you will not see this feature ADDED start of Image Processing dialog you will not see this feature 1 50 ADDED TILER Gallery added download and install new TILERs as they are released ADDED Save MZE Files version 2 file format includes all text amp images FIXED Some printer drivers failed to accept a High Resolution Maze Maze Creator will now slowly reduce the resolution of the
22. ke sure the object is unselected The cursor will change to an arrow indicating the directions it will resize the object Left click and drag the control handle to its new location to resize Release the left mouse button when you have achieved the desired new size to complete the action The text will word wrap to fill the new object outline That object will now become the selected text object Delete an object You can delete the currently select object at any time by clicking the DELETE button on the toolbar to the left of the screen The object will then be deleted from the layer Move to top If you have a text object that is covered by another object you can use the TO TOP button on the toolbar to uncover the object To use this feature select the object to uncover Once selected click the TO TOP button This will uncover the selected object forcing it to cover the original covering object The current object will become unselected Move to back While adding text you may cover a smaller text object completely To get access to the object you need to use the TO BACK button to push the larger object behind the smaller object This is done much in the same way as Move to top only you select the object covering the smaller object and clicking the TO BACK button on the toolbar The smaller object will now be visible The originally covering object will become unselected Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 22 of 33
23. lacing items on this layer will be BEHIND the template The maze will flow over these images When placing images on this layer you should use the ERASE tool to clear that section of the template The other recommendation would be to place faint watermarks or images that will not corrupt the lines of the template layer Please see the section Working with Graphic Layers for more details Template Layer Here is where the maze is created Form the outline and detail for the template cells set start stop locations and seed the maze on this layer This 15 second the paint order so it will overwrite the background layer letting the background show through in the center of the cells and in erased areas of the template Please see the section Working with the Template Layer for more details Foreground Layer The second graphic layer and is third in the paint order Images placed on this layer will cover both the template and background layers Although you may not need this layer it is here as convenience You could use the background layer and alter the Front to Back settings of all the images to get the same affect This layer should speed up some of your graphics placements Since this layer will be JN FRONT of the template layer you could end up with a hidden portion of the template Be sure to erase fully under graphics that may cover template cells Please see the section Working with Graphic Layers for more d
24. ll allow the maze to flow from the left edge of the maze to the right edge as if these to were joined Likewise vertically wrapping allows the maze to flow off the top to the bottom Both of these can be selected at the same time Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 5 of 33 Setting the Dimensions Depending on the Style you selected you will see a dialog box that looks like the following Maze Creator Settings Style Dimensions Page Advanced Color GROWTH Dimensions Cells Wide jo Cels Long fo Cmos The Dimensions box is active due to the selection of a maze template that can be represented by a width and length They would be all but the CIRULAR maze You can represent the rectangular maze templates in the number of CELLs wide and the number of CELLs long The basic BOX has one maze unit per CELL Sorry for the confusion but with the introduction of newer styles the CELL became multiple units For example the HEX template has 4 maze units per CELL two wide and two long We will redefine CELL after the Dimensions of the maze are set later the smallest unit of the maze will be referred to as a CELL e Cells Wide Enter the number of cells wide you want your template to be You may be surprised with certain Styles since the actual width may be a multiple of the cells requested Some styles have 2 or 4 units across per CELL If this is undesirable divide the Cells Width number in half etc e Cells Lo
25. n either side represent the amount of turning the path can take to the left or right The bottom number STOP is used to force the growth algorithm to stop what it was doing and pick a new starting point by connecting to the existing path and continuing Use this in proportion to the other values to limit the length of the paths that are grown by the engine This STOP behavior also occurs if the algorithm determines there isn t a valid path to continue the growth straight to the left or right as allowed buy the probability values entered in this configuration box Asa direction is blocked by something the probability of moving in that direction 15 set to zero Once all paths are blocked and there is zero percent chance of moving the path with STOP This algorithm is much less sensitive to the starting SEED location Setting the right values here will give your maze the feel of a repeating pattern Experiment with these setting watch what happens to the template and the solution each time you seed the maze For circular mazes straight is radial in or out clockwise or counter clockwise Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 14 of 33 Mouse Gestures amp Keyboard Shortcuts Maze Creator has built in productivity Along with the standard keyboard shortcuts that are expected mouse gestures add another level of productivity and speed Keyboard Shortcuts Refer to APPENDIX A for a list of keyboard shortcuts You can also print the separate P
26. ng Enter the number of cells long you want your template You may be surprised with certain Styles since the actual length may be a multiple of the cells requested Some styles may be 2 or 4 units long per CELL If this is undesirable divide the Cells Long number in half etc Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 6 of 33 Setting the Circular Dimensions If you selected the Circular maze style you will see the following dialog box Maze Creator Settings Style Dimensions Page Advanced Color GROWTH Circular Inner Radius Cells Inner Radius Size l4 cone There are only two parameters to configure for a Circular template These define the size of the hole in the middle of the maze and the number of inner ring cells the maze will contain The Inner Radius Size defines size of the hole It can range from 0 1 up to 99 9 Typical values will range from 4 to 60 but experiment with this number in combination with the Inner Radius Cells The Inner Radius Cells is the count of cells on the inner ring of the maze For small percent radius a small number of Inner Radius Cells should be selected Maze Creator uses this number and the Inner Radius Size to render your maze template The goal in the rendering 15 to keep a somewhat square shape for the maze cells If you select OK and you see nothing but a white background as your template you need to re adjust these values Start by making
27. olor by clicking on the Restore Defaults button at the bottom of the dialog Please note these settings do not affect the colors used by a Tiler Maze Creator Settings Style Dimensions Fage Advanced Color GROWTH Pen Color Maze ams Erased visible Opt C Blackened Solution L r Visible Stop Start The following items can be altered e Maze Pen Color The lines used to draw the maze itself e Blackened Color used to BLACK an area of the maze Erased Color for display purposes only to help illustrate where the maze has erased sections by the ERASE tool e Solution Fill color used to show the solution to the maze e Visible START STOP color to print in the start stop locations e Hidden START STOP color to display while laying out the maze color not printed in final output Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 10 of 33 p tS e m m SM TEE aa 7 353179 332 If you would like you can customize the color if the quick select swatches don t meet your needs Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 11 of 33 GROWTH Configuration This tab 1s for setting the maze GROWTH behavior This is one of the most powerful features of the program The GROWTH control gives you the designer a chance to influence what the solution of the maze will be like Look at the GROWTH screen below Notice the 8 numbers in a circle This 1s what you will change to alter t
28. on the left will appear T amp up Adding and object Left clicking and dragging will display a rectangle Once you have size of the object you wish to add let go of the left mouse button This will open a font select dialog box so you can select the size style color etc of the text object you wish to add Select when you are satisfied with your selection An edit box will now be formed within your selected area Enter the text as you want it in the box Select Edit an object The currently selected text object will have an edit control where you can change the text if desired To change the selected object float the cursor over the new object and left click An edit control will now form for you to edit the selected text object Unselect an object If you desire you can unselect the current object This makes moving and resizing of a text object easier This can be accomplished by left clicking somewhere on the layer and releasing where no object exists This can also be done by changing to another layer and then back again Moving an object First make sure the object to move is unselected Place the cursor over the object left click and drag the object to its new location Once in place release the left mouse button to finish the move That object will now become the selected text object Resize an object Float the cursor over one of the eight control handles for the object to be resized To make this easier ma
29. ou desire The template is the grid on which the maze will be generated You can then quickly generate a random maze and solution if desired This function only saves the template it will not include any of the text or graphics added to the other layers This feature will be added later The Template gallery is another feature to get your started quickly Make sure you have an active internet connection select the File menu then select Show Template Gallery Review the list of thumb nails and descriptions and simply click on the template with which you would like to work Editing Customizing a Maze Once you have configured the maze Maze Creator will display a template of the maze it will create You can use the Edit tool bar to make changes to this template shape or looks The Edit Tool Bar from left to right See Figure 1 Reset Blacken Erase Add START Add STOP Seed Maze and Solve maze om El Start STOP Figure 1 Maze Layer Edit Tool Bar To use a tool first left click on a tool Move to the location on the template where you would like the chosen to take place Left click on the cell to apply the tools effect For Reset Blacken and Erase you can hold the left button down and move the mouse to draw or cover a large area Each cell the mouse passes over will have that tool s effect applied Please remember that here CELL means the smallest unit of the maze template That is one single enclosed space Th
30. rrently obsolete and will likely be removed from Maze Creator in the future It is best to leave the unchecked With this box check you will receive information banners amp special offers at the bottom of your screen These are not always revenue generators for Maze Creator but simple a way for Maze Creator to help other small Software product or service business get free exposure You can remove the check from this box to free up the space at the bottom of the widow NOTE The information is not updated and you will see very old offers Okay if you want to see what Maze Creator is doing when it generates a maze select the Animate Maze Creation amp Solving check box Be sure you have the extra time since this option could slow the process down depending upon the size of your template Random Number Seed In most cases you will not need to change this value If you ever want to recreate a maze you had done before this value will need to be changed to the SEED value of the original maze You will need to record this value if you are ever interested in doing this You will need to make sure that Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 9 of 33 in re creating that maze you make the same selections as before same blackened whitened starting locations etc COLOR Configuration To change the default maze template colors for the different portions of the maze click on the colored box to the right of the name Restore the default c
31. s by forcing them to a sellout format and then flood filling sections you want to be the maze as gray Near black colors will blacken that part of the template Near white colors will be erased from the template other colors such as gray will be the active template where the maze will be generated For example will become when applied as a template WWW MAZECREATOR COM Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 19 of 33 Mask Gallery Much like the On Line Template gallery there is an On Line MASK gallery This is found under the Maze Options menu as Show Mask Gallery This gives good examples of Masks what they look like and how they can be used Make sure you have a live internet connection before requesting the gallery Review the thumb nails and select It is that easy Seeding a Maze When you are satisfied with your customizations and edits to the maze template you need to Seed the maze You have two options by which you can Seed a maze The simplest method would be to select Maze Options gt Make Maze option This 15 a quick method if you have no edits to the maze Otherwise you should
32. s the Show Solution view Rolls through different design the clipboard option layers to left Right Left Question Rolls through different design Opens this Quick Reference layers to right Guide Valid Gestures only on Graphic amp Text Design Layer M Rectangle Up Arrow Jumps to Maze Template design Paste clipboard object into Delete current object from design Move current object to top of Move current object to top of layer current design layer layer current design layer current design layer Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 32 of 33 Mouse Gesture Quick Reference Initiate Mouse Gestures by holding the CTRL button and making the gesture with your left mouse button depressed Alternatively tap the SPACE bar and the next left mouse button mouse movement will be interpreted as a gesture The gesture is sensitive to direction of the mouse trace To accurately trace a gesture refer to the table below trace from the RED to the BLUE Valid Gestures only on Maze Template Design Layer M R Left Arrow Right Arrow Open PRINT dialog box Apply image mask to current Re render Maze amp Solution Select START Tool Select STOP Tool maze template Backslash Reverse Slash Slash Reverse Backslash Select RESET Tool Select BLACK Tool Select ERASE Tool Select SEED Tool Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 33 of 33
33. se FILE gt Print Preview to see what your maze 15 going to look like You will see on Page 1 you maze and on Page 2 the solution When you are ready you can PRINT your maze Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 23 of 33 PRINT Printing is easier than ever with Maze Creator Once you select print you will see the following dialog box Maze Creator Print Dialog tems ta Print Maze Iw Back Ground Layer iw Maze Layer Iv Fare Ground Lauer Text Layer Iw Maze Solution Back Ground Layer Iw Maze Layer Iw Fore Ground Laver Text Layer Humber of Mazes to Print Select Printer Cancel You can choose to print the Maze the Maze Solution or both Simply place a check mark next to what you wish to print You can use the Select Printer button to choose a printer other than your default If you are happy with your print settings click the PRINT button This will send your output to the Windows printer device of your choice Note that you don t have to select a physical printer It could be a FAX PRINT CAPTURE or other windows compatible print device Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 24 of 33 List of Features by Product PRODUCTS ni Template Styles ves YES YES YES YES YES YES VES YES YES ves YES YES VES YES Template Functions YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES
34. simply add a start using this tool and Reset Otherwise when you generate the maze Maze Creator will automatically add a starting location STOP By default Maze Creator will add a STOP in the bottom right of the template if you don t tell it explicitly where there should be a stop Use the right mouse button to place a stop cell that will be filled red Use the left mouse button to place a hidden stop location The hidden location will be a dimmer red and cause the cell to have no walls when printed or exported If a hidden start is place on an edge of the maze template it will appear as a hole in the printed maze Also note that you can have more than one stop If you don t want a stop location defined then simply add a stop using this tool and Reset Otherwise when you generate the maze Maze Creator will automatically add a stop location My Solution This feature is experimental for the PRO version of Maze Creator Select this tool click on the template and drag your mouse for the solution you wish You will need to experiment with this tool Clicking adjacent to the last path should connect to that main path This tool can cause sections of the maze to become unreachable This is desirable to create start stop locations that don t have a solution Seed If you use the Maze Options gt Make Maze menu selection Maze Creator will randomly select a starting cell and start growing a maze before your eyes When you start to Blacken and or
35. u have the size of the object you wish to add let go of the left mouse button This will open a file dialog box so you can select a graphics object to insert into the active graphic layer Find the graphic you wish to add and click OPEN to finish the action You can select CANCEL if you do not wish to add an object Moving an object Move the cursor over the object you wish to move left click and drag the object to its new location Once in place release the left mouse button to finish the move Resize an object Float the cursor over one of the eight control handles for the object to be resized The cursor will change to an arrow indicating the directions it will resize the object Left click and drag the control handle to its new location to resize Release the left mouse button when you have achieved the desired new size to complete the action Select an object The currently selected object will have a solid outline where other objects on that layer will have a dotted outline To change the selected object float the cursor over the new object and left click The outline of the object will become solid to signify the select object Unselect an object If you desire you can unselect the current object This isn t overly useful for graphic objects but may be desired for a fast preview This can be accomplished by left clicking somewhere on the layer and releasing where no object exists This can also be done by changing to another
36. zero can be placed in any boxes to deny growth in that direction Try entering 0 in all but one direction and keep clearing and re seeding the maze at different locations while viewing the solution This will give you a good feel for how it works Then set multiple values such as setting 0 to a value of 19 and 90 to a value of 1 this means 95 of the time it will go up the page and 5 to the right of the page When the growth algorithm senses that it cannot move in a direction it sets that percent as ZERO If there is no probability to move in any direction a random connection will be made to the existing paths and the process will start again For a circular maze UP is towards the outer edge of the maze DOWN 15 towards the center hole LEFT 15 a counter clockwise path and right is a clockwise path Maze Creator PRO User Manual Page 13 of 33 RELATIVE GROWTH Configuration With the Movement relative to current direction checked as shown below you are specifying the RELATIVE direction for the movement of the GROWTH engine Maze Creator Settings Style Dimensions Fage Advanced GROWTH Straight 45 am 45 m Relative growth is very powerful it allows you to force a LONG SHORT path as well as STRAIGHT or TWISTED paths The settings above have special meanings as printed in red The top value means the probability to move straight or forward making the path straight The angles o
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