AFH Beveler FAQ

The AFH Beveler plug-in filters require:

• Windows 3.1+, Windows 95, or Windows NT 4.0
• Photoshop 3.04 or later
• NEW! Version 2.0c works with many Adobe plugin-compatible programs, such as Paint Shop Pro 4.

1. First, since the file you downloaded (afhbevel.zip) is in ZIP format, you'll need an unzipping program such as WinZip (available from http://www.winzip.com).

2. Open the afhbevel.zip file with your unzipping program. (E.g., double-click on the afhbevel.zip file from Windows Explorer or File Manager if you have WinZip installed.)

3. Choose the *.8bf files for the filters you want to install (e.g., afhbevel.8bf and afhbev2b.8bf). With WinZip, you do this by Ctrl-clicking on the *.8bf file names in the listing of the contents of afhbevel.zip.

4. Extract the *.8bf files to your Photoshop plug-in directory (by clicking the Extract button in WinZip). For Photoshop 3.x, this is typically:

   c:\photoshp\plugins

   For Photoshop 4.x, this is typically:

   c:\adobe\photoshop\plugins

   With Photoshop 4.x, you can also place plug-ins in a subdirectory of the \plugins directory to help keep the various plug-ins sorted out. We suggest placing the AFH plug-in filters in:

   c:\adobe\photoshop\plugins\afh

5. Start Photoshop (re-start it if it was already open), and open an image in RGB mode (the AFH filters will not operate on non-RGB images).

6. Under the Photoshop Filter menu, you should see a submenu "AFH". In this submenu, you should see the names of the installed AFH filters (e.g., "AFH Beveler x.x...").

7. If you *don't* see the AFH filters in the menu, it probably means that your system is missing a file called msvcrt10.dll. Normally this file is installed when Photoshop is installed, but sometimes Photoshop 4 does *not* install this file. Don't panic! We've included a copy of msvcrt10.dll in the afhbevel.zip file. Simply use WinZip to extract msvcrt10.dll to your Windows system directory (typically c:\windows\system), then restart Photoshop, and the AFH filters should appear. (If the filter names still don't appear, then double check all the preceding steps; if that fails, then send e-mail to support@afh.com, describing your system configuration and the steps you have taken so far.)

The AFH Beveler filters operate only on RGB mode images. If your image is in some other mode, such as indexed color for a .GIF file, use the Image/Mode menu to convert the image temporarily to RGB mode, apply the AFH filter, then convert the image back to the desired mode

In Paint Shop Pro 4.0, the AFH Beveler filters operate only on color images with a color depth of 16 million. If your image has a lower color depth (such as a 256-color .GIF file or a Grey Scale image), use the Colors/Increase Color Depth menu to increase the color depth temporarily to 16 Million Colors. Apply the desired filters, then reduce the color depth back to the desired amount using the Colors/Decrease Color Depth or Colors/Grey Scale menu (if necessary) before saving the file in the desired format.

The AFH Beveler filters (versions 1.x and 2.x) operate only on square or rectangular selections. To apply a bevel to a circular or arbitrary selection (such as type), you'll need the AFH Inner Bevel filter, coming soon at this site!

Sorry. We have nothing against the Mac platform (no flames, please!). We simply don't have the resources at present to generate Mac versions of these filters.

If any Mac user is kind enough to regenerate (see next question) and donate Mac versions of these filters, we will be glad to post them for download on this site.

In theory, versions for other platforms can be generated using the Adobe Filter Factory and the sources included in this .zip file.

The AFH beveler plug-in filters are generated with the Adobe Filter Factory plug-in, which is included as an optional component on the Adobe Photoshop 3.0 and 4.0 CD-ROMs. We don't have access to a Macintosh at AFH Systems, so the following description is based on the PC version of Photoshop, but the instructions for the Mac should be similar:

• First, you will need to locate and manually install Filter Factory from your Photoshop CD-ROM. On the PC version, the Filter Factory is located in the folder \Goodies\Plug-ins\Ffactory. In this folder is a file called Readme.wri that describes how to install Filter Factory. (I assume the process will be similar on the Mac.)

• Once you have successfully installed Filter Factory in Photoshop, open it by selecting Filter/Synthetic/Filter Factory... from the Photoshop menu.

• From the Filter Factory dialog, select "Load..." and open the *.afs file for the desired AFH filter (e.g., AFHBev2b.afs). This will load the appropriate Filter Factory formulas and initialize the values of the slider controls.

• Next, choose "Make..." from the Filter Factory dialog. This will bring up the "Build Filter" dialog. Unfortunately, the *.afs source file does NOT initialize the fields in this dialog (and Adobe provides no way to automatically set these fields from a source file), so these entries must be recreated manually by referring to the corresponding PC version of each filter. In particular, you should set the following fields as indicated:

    Category:   AFH
  
    Title:      AFH Beveler 2.0b   (for example)
  
    Copyright:  Copyright (c) 1996-1997 AFH Systems Group
  
    Author:     Alex Hunter
  
    Filename:   afhbev2b.8bf      (for example)
  	

• Finally, the hardest part is selecting and setting the slider controls for the filter being regenerated. Again, do this by referring to the corresponding PC version of the filter. For example (for the AFH Beveler 2.0b), check the boxes for Control 0 through Control 5, and for Control 7. Do *not* check the boxes for Control 6, nor for Map 0 through Map 3. Enter the following labels for Control 0-5 and 7:

    Control 0:   Top/left black level:
    Control 1:   Top/left white level:
    Control 2:   Bot/right black level:
    Control 3:   Bot/right white level:
    Control 4:   Top/left balance:
    Control 5:   Bot/right balance:
  
    Control 7:   Bevel width:
  	

• Choose "OK" in the Build Filter dialog and Presto! the new filter (afhbev2b.8bf) should be created in the FFACTORY folder. Exit from Filter Factory and Photoshop, move the afhbev2b.8bf file to the desired plug-in folder, restart Photoshop, and (if all went well) the new filter should now appear in the filter menu under the "AFH" category.

If we can be of any further assistance in translating these instructions to the Mac environment, please let us know. If you are successful in generating Mac versions of the AFH filters, we would be very interested in obtaining copies of them to provide for Mac users on the AFH Photoshop Plug-ins download page.

Copyright © 1997 AFH Systems Group.
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