Introduction
These programs were designed for Shop and Field use, primarily for the Custom Sheet Metal Trade; however they can be used by most trades like the Welding Trades, Plumbing Trades, Carpenter Trades, Masonry Trades, Machine Shops Etc. I consider this “Program/Calculator” combination a very useful tool rather than a computer because its portable and you can take it anywhere, on any job and use it on the spot for roof pitches, angles, finding large radius’s, Layout etc. If you’re not very good at shop layout, with this tool you can be as good and probably more accurate and faster than a good shop layout man that is not using this tool, REMEMBER YOU DON’T NEED TO KNOW THE MATH. You can be a real asset to your company. You can apply these programs to more than they were intended for, just use your imagination. As you will see, the Manual is a “VISUAL” type manual that can be used like a computer monitor for location & direction if needed. The programs in the manual all have samples you can run through with your calculator in hand to make them very easy to understand. It is VERY IMPORTANT to read ALL the “NOTES”, they help you to understand and will make things clear. The basic tools for shop layout are a 4 ft. minimum steel ruler, a set of trammel points, small dividers/compass, a large divider/compass, a scribe/pencil, and a scratch-all, just your basic layout tools. You don’t have to drag a sheet of material out and waste it and your time laying out plan views, elevation views, or do any triangulation; the calculator does this for you based on the Input it asked you for. It then gives you all the DIMENSIONS & SPACINGS you need to develop a dead accurate pattern. You just have to add for seams & laps Etc., in fact all the layouts in the manual were Layed-Out to Scale in AutoCad using these programs. It will also give you Drill sizes, Pulley Diameters, V-Belt sizes, RPM’s of driven and Driver, Percentage of opening of perforated sheets, Weights of Steel and Aluminum shapes, Cubic Yards of Concrete/Sand Etc., Stair Treads, Metric Conversions and more.
These programs were written for the CASIO 98xxG series calculators, Most 9850 series have 32kb of Ram memory except the 9850GC with 64kb Ram. They work excellent on the CFX-9860G 64kb. When you EXIT a Program in the 9860G series you hit AC, it will prompt you to hit EXIT to exit the program. The first time you hit EXIT it brings up the CODE (Program Language) and if you hit any other key than the EXIT a SECOND time, it will place that key in the CODE and cause an error in the program. You either have to go into the program code and delete the key or Re-Load the program. You just have to be very aware of this condition if you are using the 9860G series calculators. Always hit AC>EXIT>EXIT to exit the program. This will become habit in a very short time. The programs also work great in the 9750G series but this model only has 28kb of memory and will hold fewer programs, (See MEMORY ALLOCATION, page 29 in the manual). The Model FX-9860G & CFX-9850 GC Series with 64kb of RAM Memory are the calculators of choice because they hold all the programs with room to spare for future programs or your own custom programs. The CASIO calculator with these programs is very user friendly, even if it looks intimidating. I found the Texas Instruments Calculators not as user friendly for the average person and this is why I chose the CASIO 9850/60 series calculators to program. All of the programs read out in DECIMAL form first, then reads in fractional form second, to the closest 32nd of an inch, plus or minus a 64th, (Default), This makes it easier for the average person to read the fractions if he doesn’t know how to read decimals. You could look at decimals as a percentage of an inch, I.E. 9/16” = .5625 or 56% of a inch when reading a tape and this will get you in the ball-park. You can change the default fraction to the closest 64th, 32nd, 16th, 8th, 4th, or even a ½” as the default if you wish, by double clicking the subroutine “FRAC” in the FA-123/124 program list, and bringing up the program code. You just make a simple change in the program Code. See page 30 in the manual.