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Instructions for adding your own Pin Guard Images to PC Archery

Requirements
In order to add new images to PC Archery you will need the following:

Digital Camera or Scanner.
Image editing software that will allow you to crop images and to generate (draw) images.

Overview
There are 4 steps to adding your additional pin guard images to PC Archery.

Take a digital picture of your pins.
Create a mask image for the pin guard image.
Create a property file to provide PC Archery with information about the pin guard image.
Copy the images and property file to the correct folder.

Step 1:

The first step is to get a picture of your pin guard. The easiest way to get started is to look at an example. The image on the right is what you are after. With a image editor (or Internet Explorer) look at the file:
C:\Program Files\PC Archery\bows\guards\short.jpg
(this path assumes you installed PC Archery in the default location on your harddisk)

You want to take a picture and then crop it to look like this image. The actual size and aspect ratio do not have to be exact, however the image must NOT be wider that 400 pixels or higher that 400 pixels.

Save the image as xxx.jpg
xxx can be any name you want to use as long as it does not already exist in the folder C:\Program Files\PC Archery\bows\guards\

short.jpg

Step 2:

Next you need to create a GIF image that PC Archery uses to determine what part of the pin guard image will be visible and which part will be hidden. White is hidden and black is visible. Look at:
C:\Program Files\PC Archery\bows\guards\short_mask.gif

This can be done using an imaging editing software called PaintShop Pro or other image editing software. You can get a trial version of PaintShop Pro at www.jasc.com

Using PaintShop Pro open the Pin Guard image and crop it to size, if needed. Next add a layer to the image. Color all the pixels on this layer white or black. Use the brush tool to outline the bow and then use the fill tool to color it in.
Once done, save the black and white image as a GIF.
Name the image xxx_mask.gif where xxx is that name you used in Step 1.

short_mask.jpg

Step 3:

Now you need to tell PC Archery about your Pin Guard image. You do this by creating a text file like the one at the right.
Again look at
C:\Program Files\PC Archery\bows\guard\short.prp with a text editor

The first two lines are comments
The name can be anything. It is the name that will be displayed in the Pin list.
xOffset and yOffset are not used simply set them to 0.
ppi is the Pixels Per Inch of the image. To calculate ppi determine the height of the pin guard in the image in pixels, then measure the height of the pin guard in inches.
ppi= (height in pixels)/height in inches.
ppi MUST be larger that 66. If it is not, make the pin larger relative to the image size. (The image has to stay the same size but the pin needs to get bigger)

Save the file as xxx.prp where xxx is that name you used in Step 1.

contents of short.prp

# Bow Properties for Short
#
name = Short
xOffset =0
yOffset =0
ppi =158.1

Step 4:

Copy these 3 files to the folder
C:\Program Files\PC Archery\bows\guards\

Run PC Archery, go to Bow Setup and select the new pin guard image.