Thanks Jack Squirrel! My problem now is to transfer an array of double from the 'Doc to the 'View. I can make the transfer via a CArray of CString 's, which would be ok but messy. When I say 'transfer' I mean read the contents of doubles filled and working nicely in 'Doc into 'View. Clicking them all across with the mouse is not on the agenda. Thanks. Zeitweise wissen wir nicht was wir wissen.

"Read the data into the document" - done. Because it's binary, I thought it needed to be read in and processed byte by byte. To do this I wrote a routine : BOOL CMyDoc::OnOpenDocument(LPCTSTR lpszPathName) { if (!CDocument::OnOpenDocument(lpszPathName)) return FALSE; // lots of my code to convert various doubles, ulongs, ushorts etc into physical numbers and attributes // // all data processed, ready for display// //Now we're stuck. // } Now, the problem I have is, *how* do I pass the data to - and to *which* routine - in order to paint, say, a box on the screen, using that data? Automatically, i.e. no mouse input, no keyboard input. I don't want to draw using the mouse, and it is not a dead text file that I am reading. The whole concept is an automatic process, in which the user is prompted for a path, and then the application processes a bunch of different files, mostly binary, and then *should* output a simple graphical representation of some mechanical items on the window, based on the data that was processed. E Dyot

Having created lots of mickey mouse applications using the wizard, as well as trying out examples in the half dozen fat books I have bought, I am nowhere nearer to understanding the what where and how of how to structure an application. I have nice examples of how to output text in a window, how to draw lines, OR how to read in data from the keyboard, but there seems to be Jack Beep around on how to tie any two of these obviously mind-boggling concepts into the same app. What I want to do is read and process data from a binary file (done, that was easy) and then use some of that data (actually x-y positional data) to write shapes to the window. Any help or ideas much appreciated.:confused: E Dyot