TriDComm - 3D file manager for Windows
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Warning!
This program may have bugs. Use at your own risk.
The author makes no warranty expressed or implied,
including but not limited to the warranties of
merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
The author will not assume any liability for any alleged
or actual damages arising from the use of this program.
TriDComm is copyrighted and all rights are reserved by
the author Lajos Kelemen. Feel free to give copies away
and to distribute it through online services, however
you may NOT distribute TriDComm for commercial purposes
without a written permission from the author.


System requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You need openGL, Win9x/NT/ME/2k and a
decent PC with a 3D accelerator card
for acceptable performance.


Installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unzip the files from tridcommxxx.zip to a directory of your choice. That's all.


Uninstallation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Delete tridcomm.exe and ngc3132a.bmp from the directory where you installed
it and delete tridcomm.ini from directory windows or winnt
or wherever it is. That's all.
(Maybe you shouldn't delete the zipfile if you want to use it later:)


Usage
~~~~~

Menus

Options/background color 
- you can set the background color of the active window (default is black)
Options/active window color 
- you can set the color of the status bar of the active window (default is skyblue)
Options/selected file color 
- you can set the color of the selected file (default is red)
Options/file plane color 
- you can set the color of the file plane (default is pale green)
Options/font
- you can set the font of the file names/directories, you must restart the program to use the new fonts
Options/view/command buttons
- you can make command buttons (F2-F10) visible/non-visible
Options/view/status
- you can make the status bar visible/non-visible
Options/view/header
- you can make the header bar visible/non-visible
Options/view/ctrl buttons
- you can make control radio buttons (zoom/pan/rotate) visible/non-visible
Options/view/lasticon
- you can make visible/non-visible the icon of the last file clicked,
  the icon is in the upper left corner
Options/view/3D text
- you can make texts displayed in 3D perspective
Options/view/file plane
- you can make the transparent file plane visible/non-visible
Options/view/bkg. pict.
- you can make the background picture visible/non-visible
Options/view/get bkg. pict.
- you can set the name of the background picture (default is ngc3132a.bmp)
  you can use only bmp files as a bkg. picture and the pixelsize of the
  width/height of the image must be one of these: 2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024
Options/exit
- guess what :) 

Web/Search
- starts your default browser with Google's URL

Help/Controls
- shows a short instruction how to zoom/pan/rotate/select
Help/About
- just for my vanity :)




mouse operation

you can select the window to be active by clicking on it
you can open/close a directory in the dir. tree to see its subdirs by clicking on it
click on a file/dir on the file plane to have it in "clicked" state (it will be surrounded by a transparent shape)
CTRL+left mouse drag - rotate
ALT+left mouse drag - pan
CTRL+ALT+left mouse drag - zoom
right mouse click in a window - pop-up menu
double click on a dir - goes to that dir
double click on a file - invokes the program associated with it

zoom/pan/rotate radio buttons for one hand operation
(sometimes I am lazy:)
- mouse drag does the selected operation (zoom/pan/rotate)
default is pan
zoom/pan/rotate by CTRL and ALT keys has precedence over these radio buttons
You can also use the "Z" , "P" , "R" keys to chose zoom/pan/rotate
You can also use the arrow keys to move the file plane in the zoom/pan/rotate states


Command buttons
Important: a file is selected if it was shift+left clicked or right clicked
F2 - rename selected file
F3 - view file last clicked (built in viewer for jpg, bmp, ico, emf, wmf)
shift+F3 - hexadecimal view of file last clicked (sorry but it's very slow)
alt+F3 - binary view of file last clicked (sorry but it's very slow)
F4 - edit last file clicked (uses Notepad.exe)
F5 - copy selected files from the active window to the other window
F6 - move selected files from the active window to the other window
F7 - make a new directory in the directory of the active window
     (if you don't specify full pathname with drive)
F8 or Del key - delete to recycled bin
shift+F8 or shift+Del key - delete for good (not to recycled bin)
F9 - compare two selected files (two files in one window or 1/1 file in two windows)
F10 - finds a file in the given directory and below

ESC key during zoom/rotate/pan
- press and hold ESC key while dragging mouse. the active window won't be updated till
  you release the ESC key (this is for slow machines)

INS key   - toggles the last "clicked" file/dir to be selected/nonselected
Enter key - does the same action on a "clicked" file/dir as doublecklick
shift+arrow keys - move the "clicked" state


pop-up menu (right mouse click on a window)
display/name
display/size as height
display/size
display/date
display/attributes
display/directory tree
sort/by name
sort/by extension
sort/by size
sort/by date
sort/reverse sort
invert selection - inverts the selection state of files/dirs, you can also use the "*" key on NUMPAD
set attributes - set attributes on the files selected in the active window
reset view - if you are lost in a dir (nothing to be seen) use this
DOS window - opens a DOS window
ZIP - compresses the selected files
unZIP - expands the selected zip file








Header bar

Drive combobox for selecting working drive in active window
 -this goes to the root dir of that drive
 -you can use CTRL+drive letter also, this goes to the root dir of that drive

File name field for filtering the files to be shown

Button with "\" goes to root dir
Button with ".." goes to parent dir
Button with "rhsa" for filtering files to be displayed by their attributes





Version history :
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

0.4  -  on web on  7. November 2000.
0.4a -  on web on 14. November 2000. (some cosmetic and bug correction)
0.5  -  on web on  9. December 2000. (added: display last icon, font setting, zip/unzip possibility)
0.6  -  on web on  7. April    2001. (added: directory tree, 3D text, transparent file plane,
                                             built in graphic file viewer, faster find, websearch by Google)
0.7  -  on web on  2. May      2001. (added: navigating and moving the file plane by keys, last icon for every file type,
                                             default font setting at first start)
0.8  -  on web on  7. May      2001. (added: load/view background picture, transparent file plane visible/non-visible)

Contact and website :
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

website :  http://www.geocities.com/tridcomm/
email   :  tridcomm@freemail.hu



Special thanks to Daniel Plakosh. TriDComm uses his openGL panel
component. You can find the component at
http://www.cobweb.net/~dplakosh/

TriDComm uses Info-ZIP group's sources for zip file handling
(http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/)
