Following are the step by step instructions to create a small project and design its layout in an interactive manner. For large projects it might be more convenient to create the necessary data files outside Spiral with a file editor capable of creating pure ASCII files and then to import the project from these data files.
Spiral follows the standard Windows graphical user interface (GUI) conventions. This tutorial will focus on the features unique to the Spiral program and assumes that you are familiar with the Windows environment and the execution of Windows applications. More information on the Windows user interface can be found in the Windows User's Guide.
More detailed explanations and instructions can be found in the sections on the Project Data and Design Algorithms. A summary of all the available actions in Spiral can be found in the section on the Command Reference. A list of traditional and World Wide Web (WWW) references for further reading is given in the Reference section. Finally, we will be using the classical Tompkins layout example in this tutorial and the data for this project are summarized in the section on Sample Projects.
For more information see:
Steps to Be Done Before Starting A New Project
Adding Departments to a Project
Adding Department Affinities to a Project
Setting Department Shape Constraints and Penalty