i got the drawing viewer to comile and run on the second try last night. much easier that before. my wife appropriated the serial cable(it was hers) that i was using with the plotter, for her scanner. i'm going to go out and pick up a new cable this afternoon. i'll let ya know how it goes -- Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of DOS, and danced the skies on Linux silvered wings. http://pfrostie.freeservers.com/cad-tastrafy/ http://www.freelists.org/list/cad-linux