What are CMD and COR files? How should they be used?

In iPOGO, the batch command file (CMD) is an ASCII text file. This file contains the commands necessary to compute all the coordinates on the project.

On small to medium-sized projects, the CMD file can contain Computing commands and Printing/Plotting commands intermingled throughout the file without too much difficulty. For these projects, we recommend placing all Computing commands in the beginning of the file and all Printing/Plotting commands at the end of the file with appropriate comments and notations.

However, on large projects, we recommend splitting the Computing commands and the Printing/Plotting commands into separate files and using the following file and data management techniques.


• Create one master CMD file for all the Computing commands in a project.
  
• Use the master CMD file to create the binary coordinate file (COR) for the project.
  
• Archive the master CMD file for protection.
  
• Create any number of CMD files for the Printing/Plotting commands by project area.
  
• Process the Printing/Plotting CMD files using the binary COR file for coordinates.
  
• Create incremental Computing CMD files for new computations and process with the binary COR file until the computations can be fully verified and approved.
  
• Append the verified computations to the master CMD file by using the standard copy and paste functionality of the editor.
  
• Use the master CMD file to create a new binary COR file for the project.
  
• Archive the updated master CMD file for protection.
  
• Repeat the process.


This process has been time-tested and proven very efficient for working on large projects for the following reasons.


• A single CMD file that is maintained for several years on a large project can become quite large and awkward to add new computing and printing commands.
  
• The chance of someone accidently modifying a computation within the file increases over time and should therefore be protected.
  
• The time required to load and process the batch file increases with file size.
  
• Many times the user only needs to print out the results of inverses, area closures, and plot linework without computing any new coordinates.
  
• If required, several network users can work simultaneously on the same project without interfereing with each other.
  
• Printing/Plotting commands process very quickly when the binary coordinate file is used to provide the coordinates.


In summary, the user can store all the coordinates in the binary COR file and archive the master CMD file for protection. The binary coordinates in the COR file can be combined with new computing commands to generate new coordinates until such time as the new computations are verified. Then the new computing commands can be appended to the bottom of the master CMD file and a new binary COR file can be generated. And, Printing/Plotting commands can be processed very quickly with the binary COR file.
(applies to iPOGO, 5.0, 06/30/2001)