!!!  Capture Any Screen on RF Workbench with DOSBox  !!!

Thanks to a tip provided by Mr. Ted Bruce, an RF Cafe visitor, there is now a known means of capturing and printing any screen displayed by RF Workbench. Using a free program named "DOSBox," users can easily capture any screen display and paste it into any Windows program – Word, Excel, Power Point, etc. - for printing. Instructions are given below for how to download, install, and use DOSBox. DOSBox will replace the DOS window that RF Workbench normally runs within, so the use interface remains the same.

NOTE: I have verified that RF Workbench will run in DOSBox on a 64-bit Windows OS. Be sure to use the number keys above the letter and not the numeric keypad when entering numbers!

Please click here for the RF Workbench homepage.

DOSBox for RF Workbench - RF CafeGo to the following DOSBox website and click on the appropriate version for download (probably the Windows option). Save the file to your preferred location. Be sure to read my instructions.

I do not provide any support beyond this page. Please do not write asking for help.

In order to eliminate possible difficulties with the old DOS 8-character file name, I recommend creating a folder named "RFWB40" right off the root c: drive directory. Wherever your copy of RF Workbench resides now, just make a copy of it and paste it into the root C:/ folder. Rename the folder to “RFWB40” in order to eliminate spaces in the file name.

Everything seems to run better if you switch the resolution of your video card to 800x600 pixels, and use something less that than 24-bit color mode prior to performing any of the other steps that follow. If you have a super fast computer, it probably will not matter.

Open the Windows Explorer program and navigate to the folder where the DOSBox program is saved, and run the "dosbox.exe" file.

 

RF Cafe - DOSBox for RF Workbench

 

You will get a window similar to the one below. Enter the following command shown to mount the c: drive.

mount c c:\rfwb40   (Enter)

 

Then enter the following command to log onto the new c: drive

c:      (Enter)

 

RF Cafe - DOSBox for RF Workbench

 

Enter the following command to display the directory content (just for verification):

dir        (Enter)

 

  RF Cafe - DOSBox for RF Workbench

 

Ctrl+F8 increases Frame Skip, which evidently is used to speed up the display rate by eliminating the display of some frames (refreshes the screen less often). Since RF Workbench is not a video game and does not require rapid screen refreshing, I set Frame Skip to the maximum of 10 (hit Ctrl+F8 ten times).

 

RF Cafe - DOSBox for RF Workbench

 

Ctrl+F12 increases the DOSBox cycles, but the instructions warn, “NOTE: Once you increase your DOSBox cycles beyond your computer's maximum capacity, it will produce the same effect as slowing down the emulation.

This maximum will vary from computer to computer, there is no standard.” This is definitely an experimentally determined setting, but I get pretty good performance in the default mode. Probably the faster your computer is, the less you have to worry about it.

Finally, type in the following to launch RF Workbench:

rfwb40.exe        (Enter)

 Use RF Workbench as you normally would. Once you have the display that you want to print, simply use the Alt+PrintScrn key combination to place the DOSBox window on the Windows clipboard, then paste the image into a graphics program or directly into an application like Word, Excel, Power Point, etc.

 

RF Cafe - DOSBox for RF Workbench