===DF Designer: User's Manual===
aka, "How the hell do I work this thing?"

==Introduction==
DF Designer is a fort layout *planning* tool.  It enables you to work out your designs before you start to build, and even see how they look in 3-D.

Note that DF Designer does *not* talk to DF; it's not a visualiser for your existing fort, or a memory hacker, or anything like that.

==System Requirements==
To run DF Designer, you will need either Linux or Windows, unless you have the tools to compile onto another platform.  Note that Windows is not officially supported.  There is also an unofficial port for Mac OS X, maintained by HebaruSan.
DFD uses about 7MB of RAM for the default map size; at the maximum possible map size (2048*2048*256), it uses about 2GB.
The Isometric view is executed on CPU (not GPU) so might be slow on older or low-end machines.
The Minimap will /really crawl/ on large maps.

==Compiling (Linux)==
You will (probably) need libsdl1.2-dev, SDL_image, and SDL_ttf.  Working out precisely what is needed, and where to put it, is left as an exercise for the reader ;)
Then, run make.  If there's an error about symbolic links, make should ignore that and so can you.

To start DF Designer, run './designer' or double-click on the executable (symlink).
Command-line options:
-n,--no-confirm		Don't pop up confirmation windows for non-undoable actions.
-i,--no-full-3d		Use the simpler version of the Isometric view (no rotation) - should probably work better on slow machines
-h,--no-help		Don't run the key-help through the console at startup (can still get key-help by pressing {{key|h}})
-x=<number>			X-Size of world (default=96; max=2048)
-y=<number>			Y-Size of world (default=96; max=2048)
-z=<number>			Z-Size of world (default=24; max=256)
-z0=<number>		Ground Z-level (default=9)
<filename>			Loads the dfdmap <filename>

==The Basics==
DF Designer has two modes, Edit (top-down slice) and Isometric (view only).  You can switch between these modes with the keys 'e' and 'i' respectively, or toggle with 'v'.
You do your actual building in Edit mode.  To edit a tile in any way, you move your cursor over it (you should see a little yellow box around the tile you're currently hovering over), and then left-click.  You can also click-and-drag, thus allowing you to designate several tiles.  To choose /what/ to build, press one of the designation keys (press 'h' for a listing).  You can see which tool is currently selected from the icon below the menu.  You can also select tools using the menu system (menus 2 and 3).
Isometric mode is actually a misnomer; it renders in 3D and you can rotate the view in both azimuth ('[' and ']') and elevation ('{' and '}').

==In more detail==
To find out which key does what, press 'h', and some help will scroll up that fancy console on the left.
There are also many functions only accessible through the menu.
You can designate rectangular areas by right-clicking twice.  Beware, though, because you can't undo (yet).
You can also do designations by pressing Ctrl-* where * is a designation key.  So, for example, Ctrl-t places a stair, as well as selecting 'stair' as the current tool; you can also use spacebar to place.
Load and Save with 'l' and 's', or from the File menu.  Suggested extension, ".dfd", though it's up to you..
Edit has two submodes, COLOURS and DF-TILES, two methods of displaying what's in each tile.  Select them with 'c' and 'x' respectively, or from the View menu.
DF Designer doesn't implement anything near the full ontology of buildings and constructions in DF; however, as the versions go by, it should increase.
'Objects' - beds, chairs, tables, and other stuff - don't appear in Isometric mode right now, because I haven't done any models or anything like that for them yet.
"Shadowing" is DF Designer's way of showing you what's on nearby levels, in Edit-COLOURS mode; fainter versions of the z-levels above and below are superimposed upon the current level.  You can toggle shadowing from the View menu (4/5).
"Semislice" allows you to choose whether the slice in Isometric mode cuts above or below the floors.  You can toggle semislice from the View menu (4/5).
You might notice that shadowing and semislice both use the same menu button.  In fact, they are controlled together; whenever one is turned on, the other is turned off.  Since only one has any effect at once (they affect different modes), this shouldn't matter.

That's basically it.  You might wonder what the rules are for placing things on top of other things, and whether what was there before stays there; answer: it's all ad-hoc.  Just try stuff; after all, you can always get back to what you had before (though if you've put lots of work in, you might want to save first, because there's no 'undo' feature yet).

==Export Floor Map==
You can export a floor map from the File menu.  Note: Remember not to export the floor map over the top of the map save; use a different filename!  (Suggestion: append '.txt' for the floor map)  DF Designer doesn't have a function to import from floor-maps; you don't want to lose your map save, right?
Cunning features of the floor map include condensing of series of identical Z-levels.

==Troubleshooting==
If the program refuses to run, or the window disappears almost straight away, or anything like that, try running from the command line - that way you'll see the error message, which should generally help (and if it doesn't, you can include the error message in your bug report).