Rules was designed to give the user the most flexibility possible in the step-by-step process of designing packaging and die making. Years of industry experience have been assembled in AlphaCorr™ products to allow you to work the way you want to, the way you think—according to your in-house processes. Rules is designed to fit into your successful process without interrupting or adding a lot of additional support requirements.

Drawing Sizes

The Main window represents infinite space. A design can be drawn anywhere in that space and should be drawn at a scale of 1:1. Rules will scale output automatically for you when you print to desktop printers. You should always design at a scale of 1:1 when using Rules products. The only time Rules uses scaling in its output is in printing to a desktop printer.

Drawing Area

Turn on the grid by choosing Layout → Show Grid (Ctrl+G, Win) (Cmd+G, Mac). Right click and choose grid or Layout → Preferences → Grid to adjust the grid units. You will notice a small triangle somewhere on your screen. This triangle represents the origin (0,0) although when drawing in Rules it is not important. Right click and choose grid or Layout → Preferences → Grid to adjust the grid units. You will notice a small triangle somewhere on your screen. This triangle represents the origin (0,0) although when drawing in Rules it is not important.

Tools and Tips

In the upper left corner of the screen there is a small white strip across the top, the current operation is displayed in this area and is called the message line. Whichever tool you have chosen is displayed by name in the “message line” along with the next step to take for that tool or operation and any key modifiers that are available in the tool. Pick the Select tool from the Main Tools (arrow) and press the Shift key and then the (Ctrl, Win) (Opt, Mac) key and notice how the options change in the message line. While getting used to Rules, its a good idea to watch this message line to remember what to do next or get tips on extended functions of tools.

Grain Direction and View Indicators

The Grain Direction indicator is in the upper left corner of the screen and changes when you change the grain direction in the Data Manager. The indicator helps you be sure which grain or corrugation direction you are dealing with as you design. The indicator is a simple graphic drawn to the screen only and will not appear on any output unless you specify that you want it.

The view indicator is in the upper right hand corner and is the same type of graphic, but indicates which view you are dealing with, either Inside or Outside. Both of these indicators are simple Rules drawings so you can substitute any drawing you wish to make for these graphic indicators or you can turn either or both of the graphics off in the Utilities → Rules Preferences.