May 14, 2008, DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) has been revised with new revisions of DANCAD3D.EXE (tm) and DANCAD87.EXE (tm). Major speed improvements have been made to the color correction Grading and Insert commands, color correction of a 2048x1152 frame took about 389 seconds in the previous DANCAD3D.EXE (tm) and now takes about 18 seconds in the revised DANCAD87.EXE (tm), that's almost 22x faster. The speed gain you get will depend on your CPU, if it has a hardware math co- processor, the speed of your harddrives, and the OS you are using. These benchmarks were with an AMD XP 2800, ATA 133 EIDE, and W98SE. There is a preference for using DANCAD87.EXE (tm) for Grading and color correction with the Insert command if your computer has a hardware math co-processor that is faster than the software emulation of the math co-processor Windows (tm) may provide. You will need to bench mark DANCAD3D.EXE (tm) vs. DANCAD87.EXE (tm) to see which is faster on your computer, but DANCAD87.EXE (tm) will probably win in the color correction task, for some other tasks you just need to test because different computers are faster or slower depending on what is going on in the CPU, memory, harddrives, and OS. This work is on going, but I am uploading what I have done so far since it would be important to anyone who is doing color correction of frames to reduce the cost and time involved. Since many changes have been made, if you find anything that has become broken please report it so I can know about it. An about 22x speed improvement changes the time to correct 88 minutes worth of frames from 1.563 years to 26.4 days! The time for 4K (4096x2304) files would be about 4.5 times as long or 118.8 days, or so on a single PC. If you have 10 PCs to divide the workload you may be able to finish color correction of a 2K feature un-compressed DI in less than a month now, perhaps, and a 4K feature un-compressed DI in a few months (4K takes extra time for the OS and yourself to copy and prep files). Improvements such as these are part of on-going work to make the workflow faster, you should stay in contact with me if you are working on a project with my programs so I can get information from you about where the most important bottle necks are that should have high priority. The OS and harddrive seem to be major parts of the speed issue, so using RAID 0 with solid-state harddrives may help but I have not tested that yet. Some text was revised.

April 18, 2008, Two new programs have been released in archive DANCINES.ZIP (tm). The first of these new programs is called DANCINES.EXE (tm) v1.00 and is for automating a movie film scanner to shoot digital images of the movie film frames. DANCINES.EXE (tm) may also be of use in operating a movie film step contact printer or a movie film step optical printer. The second program is called DCRAWBAT.COM (tm) and is for making a batch file to help run a third party freeware program called DCRAW.EXE (tm) to convert digital frame images shot with a DSLR into TIFF frame files, the TIFF frame files can be converted into BMP frame files with some other third party graphics program that does batch conversion. A new Section: 9.75.71 has been added for downloading DANCINES.ZIP (tm). A new Section: 3.85.0.0 has been added for a Web version of the documentation file DANCINES.TXT that comes with DANCINES.EXE (tm) in DANCINES.ZIP (tm). Text in parts of this Web site have been updated, in particular in Section: 1's sub-sections and some other places.

January 2, 2008, The CAD programs in v3.7N DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some important internal changes, users should immediately upgrade to the current revision and report any issues that are found by email with "December 25, 2007 Update issues submission." The number entry prompts now accept frame count values entered as: Feet+Frames, SMPTE time code, and Audio Samples count. This is mostly intended for use in the Kinema Edit command, but will work at other number value prompts such as the in Animate commands. The default values used to calculate the conversion are: 16 frames per foot (for normal 35mm movie formats), 24 frames per second, and 2000 audio samples per frame. You can change the default values at the prompt when entering a value for conversion like this, enter 16F1+5 to change the frame rate to 40 frames per foot (16mm standard) with a value of one foot plus 5 frames, 30T00:00:03:09 sets the SMPTE time code to 30 frames per second and enters 3 seconds plus 9 frames, 4000S144000 converts 144000 audio samples at 4000 samples per frame to frames. When in the Kinema Edit list the default values for the conversions are set or reset to the values used in the current configuration of the Kinema Edit list, so that if you override those settings the default conversion values will get reset, so check that you get the conversion you want or always use the override options. To enter a value at the current conversion enter Feet and Frames like F1234+15, SMPTE time code values like 01:23:12:23, and Audio samples like S2468000. Some shortcuts are possible to make entering many frame number values into the Kinema Edit list easier such as, F2013.23 since it is easier to press the point rather than the plus, and SMPTE like 0:0:5:9 rather than 00:00:05:09 since it is easier to leave out the extra zeros. The abbreviations used in the "Window dub" display should also work for entry, such as S8F0+71 for Super8 feet and frames, R8F0+79 for Regular 8mm feet and frames, and see the docs on the abbreviations used with the "Window dub" display or contact me for more information on non-standard format abbreviations. The Kinema Edit list Grading command's chroma Masking command has two new Key commands, [E]qual and [N]TSC, the [E]qual option sets R=0.3333 G=0.3334 B=0.3333 for the selected color or colors, and [N]TSC sets R=0.3000 G=0.5900 B=0.1100 for the selected color or colors. You would normally press [L] first to select R, G, and B outputs before pressing [E] or [N]. Pressing [Z] zeros the colors back to normal color un-masked values. The [E]qual option converts color footage to Monochrome like Panchromatic film, and the [N]TSC option converts color footage to Monochrome like NTSC/EIA Black & White video. Some other changes were made in the prompts and the Macro processor for the [R]un command.

December 26, 2007, The CAD programs in v3.7N DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some important internal changes, users should immediately upgrade to the current revision and report any issues that are found by email. The Animate option of the Main Menu Preview command has been updated to allow the saving of BMP frames larger than the screen size, such as 4096x2048 or more. This can be used to produce high resolution animation, static titles, or scrolling titles. To make Animation bigger than the video screen size, select the so called BMP video mode, then skip the test frame if you do not want one, and select Animate from the Preview Pop-up menu. You will note that some of the commands such as the BMP save and the Save Pixel commands are not listed in the Preview Pop-up menu when in BMP video mode, but the Animate command is. You have the option of having no background (the background color may be set with the Main Menu Draw Set-up Palette command using color index 0), having a same size BMP static background image, or using a set of moving frames as the background in which case there must be a set of background frames of the same pixel size and the same number of frames as the number of frames with the elements in the workspace displayed over the background frames. The Oversample should be set to between 4 and 16 to for anti-aliasing so that the edges of the titles or other foreground lines are smooth. The LET macro command was revised to do file counts in the Padded and Divided name type by using the parameter PADDED_COUNT and DIVIDED_COUNT, see the revised LET command in Appendix: B. New macro command PADDED_NAME was added for automatic Padded file name generation, see Appendix: B. To make scrolling titles make a font using the font making commands in the Drawing editor, or download and pick one of the fonts, make a text file with the title text in it in the way you want it to look, then use the Block text command to make a text element, then select the Main Menu Preview command and set the Factors all neutral except the Y offset which can be about -0.1 or whatever to make the titles roll upward, then select the Animate option in the Preview command and select enough frames to have the height of the element you made with Block text run off the top of the screen, you can use the Measure command in the Drawing editor to measure the height of the text element, i.e. if your text element is 10 inches high then you would need about 120 frames if the crawl is set to about -0.1 inch per frame with the Y offset factor. To get split titles with the center lined up such that the titles on the right side are left justified and the titles on the left are right justified just make two elements with the Block text command, and select element 0 in the Preview command to have both of them move together. You can get creative since the title elements made with the Block text command can move in 3D space, rotate and change size by using the Preview command Factors values. If you use one set of titles as the background for another pass with different factors and or perspective values or a change to the line thickness you can get outlined titles or ones with a drop shadow, and such. More complex effects can be done with a Macro, but the Factors and or Perspective values in the Preview command combined with the Preview Animate can take care of many needs without having to write any Macro code.

December 8, 2007, The CAD programs in both v2.7I DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and v3.7N DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some important internal changes, users should immediately upgrade to the current revision and report any issues that are found by email.

December 3, 2007, The CAD programs in both v2.7I DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and v3.7N DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some important internal changes, users should immediately upgrade to the current revision and report any issues that are found. In both v2.7I and v3.7N changes were made to the Macro processor used by the Run command. In v3.7N the Files Animate command now also supports the Padded numbered frame filename type. In v3.7N the Main Menu Preview command's Animate option has been revised to save frames in both Pixel and BMP image file type using Short, Long, Padded, and Divided numbered filenames types. When BMP image file type is selected for the output, the image is saved as a 8bpp BMP when the video mode is selected as 1 bpp to 8 bpp, and saved as 24 BPP when the video mode is 15, 16, 24, or 32 bpp (32 bpp video modes are only 24 bpp color data anyway). A new Macro command was added to v3.7N, it is STROKE_PITCH and lets you set the dpi for the thick line stroke pitch, the default is 300 for 300 dpi. There is an equivalent menu command in the Drawing editor Setup sub- menu, the Stroke pitch command. The stroke pitch needs to be set before you use the WYSIWYG in the Main Menu Preview command or you make Hard-Copy print out. Since the Main Menu Preview command can make BMP frames now you can use the Main Menu Preview command to generate moving or still title frames or animation frames for loading into the Kinema Structure so you can edit the titles or animation directly into the Edit list project like images shot on an Animation stand, but without the fuss of using a camera and artwork. Several revisions were made to Appendix: B.

November 22, 2007, SECTION: 4. was revised to include links to the Kodak (tm) LAD sample images and screen shots of the Kinema Edit list's Grading tools Levels, Curves, Masking, and Sharp/Soft.

November 20, 2007, The CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some important internal changes, users should immediately upgrade to the current revision and report any issues that are found by email. A new SECTION: 4.10.30 has been added to illustrate the Kinema Edit list's Grading color correction tools. SECTION: 4.10.30 shows how to use the Grading tools to correct the color in a scan from the standard Kodak (tm) LAD reference test film image, and has example image files to download.

November 8, 2007, The CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some important internal changes.

November 5, 2007, The CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some important internal changes.

November 1, 2007, The CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some important internal changes.

October 24, 2007, The CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some important internal changes.

September 5, 2007, The v2.7 CAD programs in DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some internal changes, users should upgrade to the most current revision.

August 26, 2007, some text was revised.

April 28, 2007, some text was revised.

April 7, 2007, some text was revised.

January 4, 2007, The v3.7 CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with important internal changes, users should immediately upgrade to the current revision.

December 21, 2006, The CAD programs in DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised. The v2.7I CAD programs have a minor internal change. The v3.7N CAD programs have some major revisions to the BMP file to PIX file conversion. The BMP to PIX conversion through the Files Utilities BMP PIX command, the Kinema Edit list's Insert image command, and the macro LOAD BMP command can now automatically resize the source BMP file to any of the video modes selected, and can automatically adapt for 8 bpp and 24 bpp type BMP source files. These changes make it easier to insert PIX frames into the shot directories in the Edit list structure since you can take the images directly from the DVD+/-R disks holding the film recorder resolution BMP frames down to the reduced resolution PIX frames used by the Kinema Edit list's Pick and View commands. Some text was revised.

December 14, 2006, The CAD programs have been revised, the new DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) file is now in the download section. Some new video modes have been added to the VGA and SVGA video board graphics mode selection so that you can use some special video modes without having to change the video board type configuration. Two brand new modes, V320X200M16, and V640X200M16 have smaller file sizes and load faster for computer with limited space and or speed. The V640X350M16 mode allows you to access the E640M16 mode without having to switch into EGA video board configuration, a major convenience when using the Edit list with both the V640X350M16 and V320X200P256 pixel frames to have monochrome in edit viewing resolution or color at reduced resolution. See INFOV37N.TXT for additional information.

December 10, 2006, The CAD programs have been revised, the new DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) file is now in the download section. The Insert audio frame command in the Track list's sub-menu has been revised to include three new Modes, 51, 151, and 201. Mode 51 lets you insert a WAV file anywhere along an audio track to add sound effects, music, and other sounds without having to start from the beginning of the shot, project, or reel. In this way you can insert many sounds along a silent track rather than having to use a separate track for each sound. Mode 151 works like 51 except that it deletes the source WAV file. Mode 201 lets you delete a range of audio frames from a range of audio tracks from a range of shots. Mode 201 can be used to free disk space by deleting audio frames that are not being used in the Mixed audio. The Track list now has [B]egin and [E]nd block commands to mark a block to "delete" or have values entered into repeated to all tracks in the marked block, to save time adjusting the values in the Track lists. See the revised INFOV37N.TXT file for more information. Some text was revised.

December 3, 2006, The CAD programs have been revised, the new DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) file is now in the download section. An Insert image file command has been added to the Edit list sub-menu to complement the Track list's Insert command in making filling in the Edit list structure with image files at various resolutions easier. This new image Insert command can also now perform conversion from the reduced resolution BMP frames into PIX frames for the selected shot in the Edit list, for a range of shot Index values or for the whole project, or for a range marked off in the Edit list with the Begin block and End block commands. The image Insert command can also automatically update the Edit list for changes to shots image pixel frame length, head, key, and tail values in the sync resolution level. This image Insert command greatly simplifies inserting the PIX frame files for the Pick and View commands in the Edit list, and eliminates or reduces the need for writing a Macro to perform the BMP to PIX conversion on the many thousands of reduced resolution frame images required to edit and View the whole project. INFOV37N.TXT in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) was revised. Some text was revised.

November 27, 2006, The CAD programs have been revised, the new DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) file is now in the download section. Some changes were made to the Files Utilities Set commands to work with Padded format filenames that have better compatibility with Windows (tm) programs, and the WAV Framize command has two new de-framize modes that can fill in gaps so that audio frames that have been inserted into the Edit list structure can have some silent frames deleted and still be de-framized back into WAV files without stopping at the first gap, this is important because it lets you make changes to the track more easily after the audio frames have already been inserted. The Edit list Track list sub-menu has a new Insert command to simplify inserting audio frames into the currently selected track, without having to figure out what the path should be for the audio frames and without leaving the Track list, it makes filling up the track lists simpler. INFOV37N.TXT in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) was revised. Some text was revised.

November 25, 2006, The CAD programs and DANCINEL.EXE (tm) have been revised, the new DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) and DANCINEL.ZIP (tm) files are now in the download section. Important new commands have been added and some older commands revised. The CAD programs now have special commands for editing high resolution "Digital Cinema" frames and the automatic mixing of feature film sound tracks. The new Files Utilities Kinema Edit list command is the gateway to many new options and allows the editing and arranging of shots and the viewing of individual shots and edited sequences, at reduced resolution, with multi channel sync sound play back when the right hardware is hooked up. The Link command in the Kinema Edit list can output a CFL, or Cine Frame List, to the revised DANCINEL.EXE v1.01 (tm) to output 2048x1536 24 bpp BMP high resolution frame images directly to motion picture film such that the edits entered into the Kinema Edit list are automatically executed making an edited printing negative that matches the edited multi channel sound mix WAV file(s) produced. The Link command also can mix audio tracks from each shot with audio tracks that run the project length, automatically blop cuts to eliminate pops, automatically activate noise gates to clean up background noise, and automatically peek limit and compress the final mix all in one pass to reduce distortion and enhance dialog presence while maintaining near maximum sonic volume for theatrical exhibition with noisy audiences. Up to 512 tracks can be mixed for any one shot, and up to 16 channels can be output in the final mix down. These features are experimental and undergoing development, all specifications are subject to change without notice, and some features may require additional development to reach operational status. See INFOV37N.TXT and DANCINEL.TXT in the zip files for more information. Some other text was revised.

October 13, 2006, Some text was revised.

September 4, 2006, The CAM programs DANCAM.EXE (tm) and DANPLOT.EXE (tm) in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) and DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some internal changes, these updates replace all previous revisions of the CAM programs. Users should immediately update to these current revisions. Some text was revised.

September 1, 2006, Some additions were made to the FAQ. Some text was revised.

August 24, 2006, The CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised. Two new trigger modes have been added to the ANIMATE command in order to sync the showing of image frames with sound or other images. Sync is obtained by using SMPTE LTC time code. My CAD programs can interface with a T102 (tm) Telcom Research (tm) time code generator/reader by way of a serial COMx port. The ANIMATE command can act as Master or Slave. In Master mode the sound will follow the time code generated by the T102 (tm) for the image frame number if you use a SMPTE LTC to MTC converter box (there are several brands that can be used they have SMPTE LTC in and MIDI out). In Slave mode the ANIMATE command will load the image frame that matches the current SMPTE LTC code being read by the T102 (tm), which can come from a PPS-2 Synchronizer (tm) made by J.L. Cooper Electronics (tm) upgraded with the Plus option (tm) chip. The PPS-2 Synchronizer (tm) with the Plus option (tm) can convert MTC into SMPTE LTC. You will need audio software running on another computer that can sync to and input and output MTC by way of the sound boards Joy-Stick 15 pin connector through a MIDI in/out adapter cable in order to have the audio WAV file play in sync with the frames displayed by the ANIMATE command in my revised v3.7N CAD programs. The SMPTE frame offset needs to be adjusted in both the ANIMATE command and the audio software in order to have the start frame and start beep to align. Magix (tm) deLuxe Music studio 7 (tm) has an option in its WAV editing program to input and output MTC and with the right hardware might be used to play sync sound with my v3.7 CAD programs as both Master or Slave, the Magix (tm) box lists Windows 95 compatibility as well as newer OS. Other audio software that inputs or outputs MTC or can otherwise sync to SMPTE LTC might also work, but you would be experimenting. When Magix (tm) is the Master, do not use the "loop" play back option since the SMPTE LTC from the PPS-2 (tm) may not loop along with Magix (tm) (for some reason), rather use stop and play to repeat the playback. It takes a second or two for the SMPTE LTC to lock sync, so when ANIMATE masters there is a "run up" option to start the audio before the image start frame so that the audio will be playing by the time the second image frame displays. Do not try to run the audio software on the same computer as the ANIMATE command is running, it is too much for the computer to keep up with and the frame rate will be slow and the audio will glitch. These audio sync options are new and may be revised further, if you encounter any issues report them. The best video mode for the pixel frame files to be used with audio sync play back seems to be E640M16, unless you have a very fast computer and super fast harddisk array you should try that mode first (you may need to change from SVGA to EGA with the small video menu that comes up when you start the CAD programs). When making the E640M16 Pixel frame files use BMP 24 bpp source image files and set the dithering to about 24 to 36 in order to get a better gray scale. Some text was revised.

August 16, 2006, DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) has been revised with updated CAD and CAM programs for real memory mode. Some of the graphics code was updated to help give better results in some modes when using an nVIDIA (tm) based PNY Technologies (tm) GeForce 6200 (tm) Verto (tm) video board, and the changes may also help with some other nVIDIA (tm) based video boards and integrated video. These updates replace all previous revisions of the real memory mode CAD and CAM programs, please update the copy you are "Beta Testing". Some text was revised.

August 15, 2006, DANCINEL.EXE (tm) was revised with an improvement to the manual advance mode, this update replaces the previous one. The updated DANCINEL.ZIP (tm) is linked to in Section: 9.75.61.0. Some text was revised.

August 14, 2006, The CAM programs in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised to have the graphics mode display in the tool path teach mode work better when using a nVIDIA (tm) based PNY Technologies (tm) GeForce 6200 (tm) Verto (tm) video board, and may also work better on other nVIDIA (tm) based video boards and integrated video. Since some motion picture film stocks may be, or have been, discontinued I have added some information to Section: 5.1.4.0 about cross processing film stocks and substituting one film stock type for another film stock and how to alter the processing, that way you may be able to keep your cine film recorder working until the end of film production. Some other text was revised. The new CAM programs replace previous protected memory mode revisions, please update your copy to the current revision for continued "Beta Testing".

August 13, 2006, A new utility program named DANCINEL.EXE (tm) has been added to the download section. It is for loading numbered image frame files onto the monitor in a cine film recorder at 2048x1536x32 resolution. It requires a video board that supports 2048x1536x32 in VESA VBE2.0 Linear memory mode, and a monitor that supports the refresh rate and resolution required. DANCINEL.EXE (tm) can be configured for different kinds of film, and can automatically operate the cine film recorder camera and filter wheels. DANCINEL.EXE (tm) can be run from a DOS batch file so the configuration and frame number range can be changed from shot to shot that way automatically. Documentation for and information about DANCINEL.EXE (tm) is in file DANCINEL.TXT in DANCINEL.ZIP (tm) and in the new Sections: 3.80.0.0 and 9.75.61.0. See also the documentation and video in this site about building a cine film recorder. Some text was revised.

August 10, 2006, Both the v3.7 CAD and CAM programs has been revised in DANCAD16.ZIP. These updates change some internal details relating to the Parallel Port, and replace all previous v3.7 revisions. Some text was revised.

July 29, 2006, The v3.7N CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP have been revised with changes to Macro and Menu ANIMATE command. This attends to an issue with DEMO1.MAC automatically running the Macro ANIMATE command and the forward and reverse single frame stepping was made to loop in ANIMATE mode 1. Some text was revised.

July 28, 2006, The v3.7N CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP have been revised with changes to the 4 bpp support and changes to some other parts of the video mode code to attempt to compensate for some of the issues relating to the use of a GeForce (tm) 6200 video card. These changes may also help with some other video cards issues, in particular those cards using nVIDIA (R) or PNY (R) graphics BIOS. Some other minor code changes were made. These updates replace previous updates. "Beta Testers" should report any video board issues to me immediately, see Section: 8. Some text was revised.

July 20, 2006, A schematic and photos have been added for the SYNC1 circuit for the ANIMATE command to display Pixel frames synchronized to Audio track playback in a new Section: 5.22.10. Links to these illustrations have been added to Section: 4. Some text was revised.

July 17, 2006, The v3.7N CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP have been revised with a new and revised menu and macro commands. The new menu commands are in the Files Utilities Set sub-menu and the Files Animate and WAV LINK commands has been revised. The new macro commands correspond to the changes in the menus. INFOV37N.TXT may be revised later since I am still working on and testing these new commands. Animate can now lock the Pixel file frame display rate to the computer's crystal clock and sync to a start beep on the audio track. You can also sync manually by tapping the control key. If you seem to be stuck in Animate, try pressing [Ctrl], [SpaceBar], [Return], [Escape], and [Q], since the program may just be waiting for you to press a key. WAV LINK was revised with a new Mode 3 that makes beeps twice as loud as the maximum audio level so that a circuit using a LM393N chip can trigger the Animate command to sync showing frames automatically. The best video mode for running Pixel frames in sync with sound at about 24 fps seems to be the Monochrome 640x350x4 EGA mode (video mode keyword E640M16), with the dithering set to around 32 to 48 when converting the Pixel files from 24 bpp BMP image files. Do not play the sound on the same computer as the image frames are being displayed. A computer of around 2.8GHz may be required for some of the new features. Be sure to reset your computer's time of day and date clock after using the Animate command Mode 2 since it resets the computer's clock and the clock's time will be wrong, the date may be wrong as well. Some text was revised.

June 23, 2006, Some text was added to Section: 2.

June 16, 2006, The v3.7N CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP have been revised with a new and revised menu and macro commands. The new menu commands are Files Utilities WAV Framize, Files Utilities WAV Link, and Files Load Obsolete OUT. The new macro commands are WAV FRAMIZE, WAV LINK, and LOAD OBSOLETE OUT. A new video palette has been added so that color photos, motion picture frames, and video image frames can be converted into 8 bpp Pixel files, this palette is called by the P256 keyword as part of the 8 bpp video mode keyword, e.g. V320P256, or S640P256 through S2048P256. The macro GRAPH_MODE command was revised to support the P256 palette. The menu and macro ANIMATE have been highly revised and now support three types of file numbering, Long, Short, and Divided. A new macro command named DIVIDED_NAME has been added to help create file sets using the divided filename type. See the revised text in INFOV37N.TXT and Section: 3.3.7.34 for more information. Some text was revised.

June 1, 2006, Appendix: B Sections: 3.4.52.0 and 3.4.52.W have been revised to include information about the WAV BIN2WAV and WAV WAV2BIN commands. Some text was revised.

May 31, 2006, Some changes were made to the HTML and text.

May 30, 2006, Two new sections have been added relating to the Nipkow and WAV commands. Section: 4.90.10 has photos of source images used with and result images generated by the Nipkow commands. Section: 4.90.20 has wave-form illustrations for the video signals generated by the Nipkow commands, and recorded from video signals generated by the Nipkow commands. Two example audio ZIP files named ANIP240A.ZIP and ANIP050A.ZIP have been added to the Audio part of Section: 4.0.0.0 that have video WAV files recorded from video generated by the Nipkow commands, the source 'Teddy' BMP frame files, macro code, and a README.TXT file. Some text was revised.

May 23, 2006, The v3.7N CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP have been revised with a new menu command and two new macro commands. The new menu command is Files Utility WAV BIN, which has two modes, to convert a Binary (any type file) or a ASCII file into serial audio sound data in a WAV file, and the reverse conversion. The two new Macro commands are WAV BIN2WAV and WAV WAV2BIN, which are the macro equivalent of the Files Utility WAV BIN command. The audio WAV files of serial data these new commands can create and convert might be used to transmit files of various kinds from one computer to another in various ways. See the revised text in INFOV37N.TXT and Section: 3.3.7.34 for more information. Some text was revised.

May 7, 2006, The v3.7N CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP have been revised some more to deal with the "read only" attribute issue. Some text was revised.

April 29, 2006, Some text was revised.

April 20, 2006, Some text was revised.

April 18, 2006, The v3.7 CAM programs in DANCAD16.ZIP have been revised some more to deal with the "read only" attribute issue. Some text was revised.

April 17, 2006, The v3.7 CAD and CAM programs in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised to deal with some issues caused by copying files using a CD-R or DVD+/-R disk, primarily that the "read only" file attribute gets "stuck" on even after the files are copied back to a harddisk. To fix this the v3.7 programs can reset the "read only" file attribute to "read/write", so if you need to use the "read only" attribute to protect files or for some other reason, you should not install my programs on your harddisk. Some other changes were made that are described in the revised INFOV37N.TXT file and Section: 3.3.7.34. Some files and text were revised.

March 11, 2006, Appendix: B was edited to include the NIPKOW BMP2NIP, NIPKOW NIP2BMP, NIPKOW NIP2WAV, NIPKOW WAV2NIP, and NIPKOW WAV2WAV commands, see Section: 3.4.52.N.

March 10, 2006, DANCAD3D.EXE (tm) and DANCAD87.EXE (tm) have been revised with some internal changes, the revised programs are called v3.7N. These revised programs replace all previous versions, all "Beta Testers" should update to these revisions. INFOV37N.TXT was revised. Some text was revised.

March 4, 2006, DANCAD3D.EXE (tm) and DANCAD87.EXE (tm) have been revised, the new version is called v3.7N. This new version has new commands to generate WAV files containing video signals made from images in BMP files. One use for these new command is to display computer generated animation on a Nipkow disk scanner. Other uses are for experimenting with Low Definition television signals, transmitting images and drawings over narrow bandwidth channels using modulated signals, and generating sounds from pictures and drawings, or images from sounds or wave data. Commands are included for conversion to display of images from WAV files on the computer's screen, converting sets of animation or image frames, and modulating and demodulating WAV data for recording and transmission. See INFOV37N.TXT in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) for more information. These updates replace the previous ones. Section: 3.3.7.34 has been added for the INFOV37N.TXT documentation. Some text was revised.

November 5, 2005, A link to Zip file A0000100.ZIP was added to the audio part of Section: 4. Zip file A0000100.ZIP archives WAV_EX01.WAV so that you can hear and test a stereo audio file generated by v3.7M of the CAD programs. WAV_EX01.WAV was generated by macro WAV_EX01.MAC that is included in the initial v3.7M revision of DANCAD16.ZIP (tm). Some text was revised.

November 4, 2005, DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) has been revised with a new version v3.7M of the CAD programs. The v3.7M CAD programs have new commands to Save and Load WAV files. Text was added to Appendix: B and the FAQ. Some text was revised in various other sections.

September 18, 2005, some text was revised in various sections. Some changes were made in Section: 8 and 8.35. The AOL AIM screen name for IM chat support has been changed to DANCAD3D to make it easier to remember.

July 28, 2005, DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) has been revised with some changes to the v2.7I CAD programs. The v2.7I CAD programs mouse interface has been altered for running on faster computers under DOS. There may not be any apparent functional difference on some OS, but their may be some on other OS. These revised v2.7I programs replace all previous Real Memory Mode v2.xx versions. The Protected Memory Mode v3.7L programs might be used in preference to the v2.7I programs on computers with compatible hardware and OS. Some text was revised.

July 20, 2005, some text was revised.

July 3, 2005, some text was revised.

July 2, 2005, some text was revised.

June 22, 2005, some text was revised.

May 20, 2005, several changes have been made to the look of this Web site and some new sections, text, and images have been added. The seven thumbnail images across the top of each page depict the major aspects of the CAD and CAM programs this Web site is about. Those thumbnails when clicked on link to further information, larger images, or video to help new "Beta Testers" to get a general idea of how my CAD/CAM system operates. The left most thumbnail shows the new high resolution drawing editor, and the images linked to show the appearance of the Drawing Editor at several resolutions from 640 up to 1920. The thumbnail second from the left shows an image of an animated robot from an example Macro file in the Downloads section. The third thumbnail from the left shows a 3D contoured surface that is used in related images for the production of a 3D tool path file. The forth thumbnail from the left shows an actual 3D tool path and links to information about drawing tool paths. The fifth thumbnail from the left shows some stepper motors and links to a page that has information about stepper motors and how they are used with my CAM programs to automate machine tools or robots. The sixth thumbnail from the left shows DANCAM.EXE (tm) executing the example tool path by operating stepper motors in a vertical milling machine to machine a part out of aluminum plate, this thumbnail links to a narrated video clip showing DANCAM.EXE (tm) automatically making a 3D part. The seventh thumbnail from the left is a special image that is used to tell you the current status of the IM help support for "Beta Testers". It is easier to up-load one thumbnail when I log on or off of my IM program than to reload all of the HTML pages, so the IM status is indicated in the thumbnail at the top of each page in this Web site. You must refresh ALL of the images your browser displays in order to see the actual current IM status thumbnail, click on the IM status thumbnail for more information about getting the up-to-date IM status reading. To clean up the INDEX.HTM page some text was moved or revised. Three new sections were added, SECTION: 3.5.10.0 for information about getting started and installing the program distributions, SECTION: 3.5.20.0 for information about problems and issues relating to running the programs on a computer using Windows (tm) as the OS, and SECTION: 3.5.0.0 to link to the aforementioned. Some revisions were made to SECTION: 8, so please review those before contacting me.

May 1, 2005, DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) has been revised with some changes to the v3.7L CAD programs. The CAD programs now buffer the pop-up menu in the Drawing Editor to memory rather than disk, which may help speed up use of the Drawing Editor in SVGA modes on some computers, or when the programs are run under DOS type operating systems. See INFOV37L.TXT or Section: 3.3.7.32 for more information on the changes made.

April 24, 2005, both DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some major changes to the CAM programs DANCAM.EXE v2.75 (tm), DANPLOT.EXE v2.75 (tm), DANCAM.EXE v3.75, and DANPLOT.EXE v3.75 (tm) compiled on or after April 24, 2005. "Beta Testers" should immediately download and upgrade to the most current revisions of the programs. These updates replace all previous revisions. DANPLOT.EXE v2.75 (tm) requires about at least 553360 bytes of DOS memory free to load, and so may not load into DOS without editing your AUTOEXEC.BAT (tm) and CONFIG.SYS to remove the CD-ROM and other drivers to free up DOS memory. Under FreeDOS (tm) if the OS pops out of the program right back to the prompt it may be because there is not enough memory to load the program. DANCAM.EXE v2.75 requires somewhat less DOS memory than DANPLOT.EXE v2.75 and so may be easier to get to load under DOS. Both of the v3.75 CAM programs should use less DOS memory than the v2.75 CAM programs, and so should not have so many issues if the CD-ROM and some other drivers are loaded. If you experience difficulties with these new updates, try increasing the amount of DOS memory free and if you are running them under DOS try removing the mouse driver from your AUTOEXEC.BAT and or CONFIG.SYS file so that the mouse driver is not loaded, the programs can then be operated using the cursor and other keyboard keys.

April 21, 2005, both DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some changes to the CAD programs. The way the JET, DOT, and READY commands convert shading of triangles has been altered to effect the contrast, for instance in perspective display modes 41 and 61. Some other code was revised in the CAD programs. Several new sections have been added to Section: 4, i.e. Sections: 4.20.1.0, 4.20.2.0, 4.20.3.0, 4.30.3.5, 4.20.4.0, 4.20.5.0, 4.20.5.5, 4.20.6.0, 4.20.7.0, 4.20.8.0, 4.20.51.0, 4.20.52.0, 4.20.81.0, 4.20.81.5, 4.20.91.0, and 4.20.91.5, in order to provide illustrations of the perspective and stereoscopic display modes, background generation modes, the use of the Ready command, and related issues such as filled in shapes and conversion of brightness values in an image of a surface to contour lines for a tool path file. A link was added to Section: 4's sub-section index to Section: 4.20.0.0 which has links to its sub-sections. Some text was revised.

April 2, 2005, both DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some changes to the CAD and CAM programs. The new CAM program versions are DANCAM.EXE v2.75, DANPLOT.EXE v2.75, DANCAM.EXE v3.75, and DANPLOT.EXE v3.75. These CAD and CAM program ZIP file revisions replace all previous distributions. Some text was revised in this Web site.

March 13, 2005, DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) has been revised with some internal changes to the v3.7L CAD programs. These CAD program ZIP file revisions replace all previous distributions. Some text was revised in this Web site.

March 11, 2005, both DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some changes to the CAD programs. The major change in the new CAD v3.7L is the addition of all of the perspective display modes from the Main Menu Preview command and macro DISPLAY command to the drawing editor, i.e. perspective display modes 1 through 74. Since it was not possible to access the 1920x1440 and 2048x1536 video resolutions at the 4bpp and 8bpp color depth in previous versions, eight new video graphics mode keywords have been added, S1920M16 through S2048C256, to enable selecting those high resolution video modes in the Main Menu Preview command, the Drawing Editor, and other commands that use the graphics mode selection keywords. The way in which v3.7L accesses the Z-Buffer for rendering has been revised to improve rendering speed compared to v2.7I, approximately 2.5x as fast, although improvement will vary depending on the OS used, harddisk speed and buffer size, and other system and or image differences will affect results so the results you might measure will probably vary. Minor changes were made to v2.7I. These revisions replace all previous distributions. A new SECTION: 3.3.7.32 has been added for the HTML version of INFOV37L.TXT. Some text was revised and added.

March 4, 2005, both DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some changes to the CAD programs. The program's INSTALL.BAT files have been updated. Some changes were made to the user interface in both the v3.7K and v2.7I CAD programs. Some other text was revised.

March 1, 2005, both DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some changes to the CAD programs. The CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been updated to with some changes some of the SVGA graphics procedures. Some changes were made to the user interface in both the v3.7K and v2.7I CAD programs. A bulletin was added to INDEX.HTM and SECTION: 2's FAQ about problems with Windows (tm) programs that force automatic popping out of DOS program windows. Some other text was revised.

February 28, 2005 PM, DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) has been revised with some changes to the CAD programs. The CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been updated to with some changes to the graphics procedures, and other changes and maintenance. The demo macro DEMO1.MAC (tm) was revised to work better with the current v3.7K revision. These updates replace the previous ones. Some other text was revised.

February 28, 2005 AM, DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) has been revised with some changes to the CAD programs. The CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been updated to with some changes to the graphics procedures. Some other text was revised.

February 24, 2005, both DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with some changes to the CAD programs. The CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been updated to with some changes to the SVGA graphics procedures. Some changes were made to the user interface in both the v3.7K and v2.7I CAD programs. Some revisions were made to SECTION: 8.20, 8.30, and 8.35. Some other text was revised.

February 19, 2005, the Newsletter in SECTION: 1.3.0.0 has been revised. Some other text has been revised.

January 21, 2005, both DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with several changes to the CAD programs. The CAD programs in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been updated to version v3.7K and now includes the selection of VESA SVGA high resolution display modes in the Drawing editor, up to 1920x1440x32bpp or possibly higher if your video board and monitor support those modes through the VESA SVGA modes and is compatible with the programs. Version v3.7K also seeks the 4bpp and 8bpp video modes differently from past versions and may offer better compatibility on some video boards. Version v2.7I in DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) has also been revised with some code maintenance and small changes here and there. The CAD programs now display a warning not to pop in and out of the programs while in the SVGA modes since Windows (tm) may not always be able to restore the programs, possibly resulting in loss of the workspace and or other files being worked on. These updates to the CAD programs replace all previous revisions and versions. A new section 3.3.7.31 has been added to this Web site of the HTML version of INFOV37K.TXT which replaces INFOV37J.TXT in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm). See the Bulletins section of INDEX.HTM for more information. Some information was added to SECTION:2's FAQ about some issues with the use of the programs. Some text was revised.

December 20, 2004, Some text was revised.

December 19, 2004, both DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with changes to their INSTALL.BAT files. Some information has been added to the Bulletins section of the INDEX.HTM page and the FAQ about using the DOS ATTRIB command to try to fix problems that might be caused by the file attributes getting changed "willy-nilly" by some file copying programs. Some text was revised.

November 23, 2004, both DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised with minor changes. Appendix: B has been revised to include macro commands added in v2.7I. Direct e-mail submission has been included for a trial period, see the banner at the top of each HTML page for the current e-mail address to try. Some text was revised.

November 14, 2004, some information was added to the FAQ and Bulletins sections regarding problems that may be caused by Windows (tm) or other printer drivers or spoolers that capture the data stream to the printer port. Some text was revised.

November 8, 2004, the protected memory mode versions of the CAM programs DANCAM.EXE (tm) and DANPLOT.EXE (tm) in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised and replace all previous versions. Some text was revised.

November 4, 2004, the CAD programs in both DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised and replace all previous versions. Some text was revised.

November 2, 2004, The new v3.7J CAD program versions DANCAD3D.EXE (tm) and DANCAD87.EXE (tm) have been released in the current DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) file in the download section, these new revisions replace all previous revisions of DANCAD16.ZIP (tm). The new v3.7J CAD program versions run in "protected memory mode" and require a 80286 or better processor. These v3.7 protected memory mode versions of the CAD programs can operate more than twice as fast on some tasks as compared to the previous v2.7 real memory mode CAD programs (speed differences depend on the computer system and OS used for testing, your results may not correspond to results described). Text in SECTION: 3.3.7.30 has been replaced with the text from file INFOV37J.TXT from the revised distribution archive DANCAD16.ZIP (tm). SECTION: 9.70.51.0 and SECTION: 9.70.61.0 have been revised and the illustrations associated with them moved to SECTION: 4. New sections have been added, SECTION: 4.10.0.0 Program Screen Shots and Examples from CAD/CAM distribution, SECTION: 4.10.10.0 Screen shots from CAD programs in v2.7 or v3.7 distribution, and SECTION: 4.10.20.0 Example Output relating to CAD programs in v2.7 or v3.7 distribution. The v2.7I CAD program versions have also been revised in the new DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) archive file, see SECTION: 9.70.51.0. Some other text was revised.

September 20, 2004, example macro archive ROBO-12C.ZIP (tm) has been revised and this new version replaces all previous revisions. See the download section to update this download.

September 19, 2004, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7I have been revised with some internal changes and the new files have been released in the current DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file in the download section, these new revisions replace all previous revisions. If you had trouble getting GENEVA3C.MAC or ROBO-12C.MAC to run, try this new revision it may work better.

September 7, 2004, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7I have been revised with some internal changes. DANCAM.EXE (tm) v2.74 and DANCAM.OVR (tm) have been revised and the new files replace all older ones. Example macro files SIMTOOLS.MAC (tm), SIMLATHE.MAC (tm), and SIMVMILL.MAC (tm) have been revised to v1.1 for the current v2.7I of the CAD programs. These new files have been released in the current DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file in the download section, these new revisions replace all previous revisions. Some text has been revised.

August 30, 2004, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7I have been revised with some internal changes and the new files have been released in the current DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file in the download section, these new revisions replace all previous revisions. Some text has been revised in Section: 2.0.0.0, and some other places.

August 26, 2004, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7I have been revised with some internal changes and the new files have been released in the current DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file in the download section, these new revisions replace all previous revisions. Some text has been revised.

August 20, 2004, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7I have been revised with some internal changes and the new files have been released in the current DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file in the download section, these new revisions replace all previous revisions. Section: 4.0.0.0 has been revised, the video clips are now also available for viewing in Windows Media (tm) player file type. Some text has been revised.

July 6, 2004, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7I have been revised and the new files have been released in the current DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file in the download section, these new revisions replace all previous revisions. Section: 8.35.0.0 has also been revised, information on how "Beta Testers" can try to instant message me through AOL AIM (tm) as well as through icq (tm) has been added. Some text has been revised.

July 5, 2004, A new Section: 8.35.0.0 has been added to describe live On-Line personal submission by "Beta Testers" by means of icq (tm) chat. In order to facilitate submission I am experimenting for a while with letting "Beta Testers" use live chat with me. See the current revision of Section: 8.35.0.0 for more information. Some text has been revised.

July 2, 2004, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7I have been revised and the new files have been released in the current DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file in the download section, these new revisions replace all previous revisions. File INFOV27I.TXT (tm) in DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and Section: 3.3.7.9 has also been revised. Some text has been revised.

July 1, 2004, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) have been updated to version v2.7I and the revised files have been released in the current DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file in the download section, these new revisions replace all previous revisions. Version v2.7I re-introduces the graphing utility found in early v1.xx versions, makes changes to the Pull point and Rapid pull commands in the drawing editor, and incorporates many small and internal changes. See file INFOV27I.TXT (tm) in DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) or the new Section: 3.3.7.9 for more information about changes in v2.7I. Section 9.70.51.0 was updated to show what kind of graph the new EXAMPLE1.GTF generates. A link to this new graph illustration was added to Section: 4. Some text has been revised.

June 21, 2004, Some text has been revised. Some information regarding the 2.1GHz speed limit in file "Ndis.vxd" of Windows 95 (tm) and Windows 98 (tm) was added to the FAQ in Section: 2. Some information was also added to Section: 2 about browsers that degrade the illustrations by employing "shrink to fit" on them when they are displayed. Bulletins regarding these issues were added to the home page Bulletins section.

June 19, 2004, Some text has been revised.

June 8, 2004, Some text has been revised.

May 1, 2004, Some text has been revised.

April 26, 2004, Some text has been revised.

April 7, 2004, Some text has been revised.

April 6, 2004, Some text has been revised. Section: 8.30 has been revised.

April 3, 2004, Some text has been revised.

February 8, 2004, Some text has been revised in Section: 8, and some other places. Sections: 8.40 and 8.90 have been withdrawn, pending metamorphosis perhaps.

February 4, 2004, Some text has been revised.

February 3, 2004, Some text has been revised.

January 30, 2004, Some text has been revised.

January 29, 2004, Some text has been revised.

January 15, 2004, Section: 9.11 has been revised, and new Sections: 9.11.10, 9.11.15, 9.11.20, 9.11.25, 9.11.50, and 9.11.95 have been added. Some other text has been revised.

January 8, 2004, Section: 8.30 was revised.

January 7, 2004, Section: 8 has been revised, and new Sections: 8.10, 8.20, 8.30, 8.40, and 8.90 have been added. There have been a number of experimental changes made to the support and correspondence guidelines to enhance the reporting of bugs and such. Some other text has been revised.

January 6, 2004, Some text has been revised.

January 4, 2004, Section: 9.10 was revised.

December 30, 2003, Some text has been revised.

December 28, 2003, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7H have been revised in file DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm), these revisions replace all previous revisions. Internal changes have been made to the parts of the CAD programs that relate to saving the C16 graphics modes to a BMP file in order to lighten the colors, and some other internal graphics code changes were made. Some text has been revised.

December 27, 2003, two new sub-sections were added to the main INDEX.HTM home page of this Web site, the Bulletins sub-section is for transitory messages to visitors a.k.a. "Beta Testers", and the Quick Start sub-section has an overview and some information about how to start installing the programs for "Beta Testing" them. Some other text has been revised.

December 26, 2003, some information has been added to Section: 2 in the FAQ section relating to compatibility issues with video boards and operating systems. Check that you are not using an OS or OS settings that interfere with direct Port I/O. If you are using an OS that interferes with direct Port I/O you should run the CAD and CAM programs on a computer with a compatible OS, such as DOS 6.22 or Windows 95 (tm) for the CAD programs, and DOS 6.22 for the CAM programs. Some other text has been revised.

December 23, 2003, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7H have been revised in file DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm), these revisions replace all previous revisions. Internal changes have been made to the parts of the CAD programs that relate to selecting VESA video graphics modes. Some text has been revised.

December 19, 2003, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7H have been revised in file DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm), these revisions replace all previous revisions. Changes have been made to the parts of the CAD programs that relate to the "Raster-to-Vector" commands Files Utilities BMP ASCII and Files Utilities ASCII Pixel commands. The Files Utilities BMP ASCII command can now automatically detect if the BMP file is 8 bpp or 24 bpp and convert some files of both types. The Files Utilities ASCII Pixel command can now convert 15, 16, 24, or 32 bpp Pixel files into ASCII files. The macro commands UTILITY BMP256_TO_ASCII and UTILITY SCREEN_TO_ASCII have undergone corresponding changes. See the new text in Section: 3.3.7.8 and the new text in file INFOV27H.TXT of DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) for more information. Information in Appendix: B has been revised to be more up to date regarding some of the recent changes to some of the macro commands. Some other text has been revised.

December 14, 2003, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7H have been revised in file DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm), these revisions replace all previous revisions. Changes have been made to the parts of the CAD programs that relate to the "Oil Painting" commands Files Utilities BMP Oil and Files Utilities BMP Matching commands. The way BMP Oil is coded to the automatic output macro file has been revised. The BMP Matching command now has four options, Mode 0 to match the colors on the video screen, Mode 1 to print a list of mixing instructions, Mode 2 to make a color 24 bpp BMP color swatch you might print out on a color printer with a third party program so that you can match the paint color on the color print out, and Mode 4 which saves a macro and batch file to automate making of the painting tool path files and executing the painting tool path files in the CAM program. See the new text in Section: 3.3.7.8 and the new text in file INFOV27H.TXT of DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) for more information. Some other text has been revised.

December 3, 2003, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7H have been revised in file DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm), these revisions replace all previous revisions. Changes have been made to the parts of the CAD programs that read and write to the SVGA VESA 24 bpp and 32 bpp video modes so that the byte order of the color bytes can be selected, see the new text in Section: 3.3.7.8 and the new text in file INFOV27H.TXT of DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) for more information. Some other text has been revised.

December 1, 2003, DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) was revised so INFOV27H.TXT could be revised. Sections: 3.3.7.8, 3.4.52.0, 3.4.52.D, 3.4.52.S, 3.4.52.U have been revised to include information about the macro commands UTILITY BMP_TO_BMP and STEREO. Links for these new macro commands were added to the keyword list. Some other text was changed.

November 30, 2003, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7H have been revised in file DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm), these revisions replace all previous revisions. Two new stereoscopic image format codes, i.e. 1 and 2, have been added so that separate images from a stereo pair might be saved that also incorporate ghost masking. The text in Section: 3.3.7.8 and text in file INFOV27H.TXT of DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) have also been revised. Some other text has been revised. A second revision of the CAD programs was released later in the day which replaces the earlier ones.

November 27, 2003, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7H have been released, these revisions replace all previous revisions. Changes have been made to the main menu Preview command, and the macro DISPLAY commands to allow for stereoscopic display of elements in the workspace with a variety of stereo methods including but not limited to Anaglyph, Shutter Glasses, prism or mirror viewers, and free viewing. The stereo mode is selected by a format code number and some other associated values. If you do not want a stereo display, just enter stereo format code 0. Your video board and monitor must be compatible with the program's VESA SVGA 15, 16, 24, or 32 bpp video modes in order to view the stereoscopic images on screen from within the programs. 32 bpp modes only display 24 bpp of data the other 8 bits are ancillary. If your video board is incompatible or does not support the required video modes, or you want to make a large or odd size image you can try to use the BMP video graphics mode to save the image to disk as a BMP file. A new STEREO macro command has been added to setup the values needed for stereoscopic display, the STEREO macro command is put before the DISPLAY macro command each time you want to make a stereoscopic image. Some new commands have been added to the Files Utilities BMP sub-menu that manipulate BMP files in various ways, they also have corresponding new macro commands. The new BMP utilities can be used to make color images from separate scans made by using DANPLOT.EXE (tm) as a scanner scanning program. See the new Section: 3.3.7.8 and file INFOV27H.TXT in DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) for more information on the changes. Some other internal changes were made in the CAD programs. Some text was revised.

November 16, 2002, some text was revised.

September 5, 2003, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7G have been revised with some internal changes, these revisions replace all previous revisions. A new Section: 9.30.42.0 has been added for downloading the revised macro ROBO-12C.MAC (tm). ROBO- 12C.MAC (tm) is a revised version of ROBO-12B.MAC (tm) that is setup for display of the animation frames in 24 bit color with shading and hidden line removal. There are menus for selecting the frame output type, i.e. to the harddisk for on screen display or to a cine film recorder, for selecting on of three different views of the animated scene, and for selecting the video display mode and resolution. You should only select video display modes that are valid for use on your computer. If your video board only presents 24 bit "true-color" display by using the 32 bit VESA modes you can try to edit the GRAPH SEEK commands in ROBO-SUB.3G to change the seek bpp mode from 24 to 32. This macro should, in general, only be run under the September 5, 2003, or later, CAD program revisions. If you encounter any problems running ROBO-12C.MAC you can report them by using the current prescribed methods described in Section: 8. Links to the ROBO-12C.MAC (tm) frame illustrations and animated GIF files have been added to Section: 4. Some text was revised. Later in the day sub-macro ROBO_E09.MAC was updated in ROBO-12C.MAC (tm) so that it would work better when run under DANCAD87.COM (tm).

August 22, 2003, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7G have been revised with some internal changes, these revisions replace all previous revisions. Some text was revised.

August 20, 2003, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7G have been revised with some internal changes, these revisions replace all previous revisions. Some text was revised.

August 19, 2003, Some information was added to the FAQ. Some text was revised.

August 18, 2003, DANCAM.EXE (tm) and DANPLOT.EXE (tm) v2.74 and v3.74 have been revised with some internal changes, these revisions replace all previous revisions. These updates are in the download section's files DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and DANCAD16.ZIP (tm). Some text was revised.

July 26, 2003, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7G have been revised with some internal changes, these revisions replace all previous revisions. Some text was revised.

July 24, 2003, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7G have been revised with some internal changes, these revisions replace all previous revisions. Some text was revised.

July 21, 2003, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7G have been revised with some internal changes, these revisions replace all previous revisions. Some text in some sections was revised.

July 15, 2003, text in Appendix: B and Appendix: N has been revised to take into account some of the changes made in v2.7F and v2.7G. Some text in other sections was also revised.

July 4, 2003, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) have been revised to v2.7G. Major changes have been made to the video board support so that SVGA VESA 15, 16, 24, or 32 bpp display modes can be used with the Preview, DISPLAY, ANIMATE, and related commands. These changes expand on the additions to v2.7F and allow anti aliasing and related 24 bit "true-color" type display options from the BMP or F0B24 display mode to be used in Pixel files and displayed on screen by the ANIMATE, LOAD PIXEL, DISPLAY, Preview, and related commands when a compatible SVGA VESA video board is used. Information on the changes has been added to file INFOV27G.TXT in the revised DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file and in the new documentation Section: 3.3.7.7. Some text in various sections was revised.

May 25, 2003, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) have been revised to v2.7F. Major changes have been made to the hidden line removal display modes. A Z-Buffer is now used in addition to triangle sorting to sort each pixel in the rendered scene, thereby reducing some of the problems associated with the former sorting method using just triangle sorting. These revisions should simplify drawing elements for use with the hidden line display modes since triangles in elements can intersect and the parts of the triangles that should show are displayed. Drawings can now be output to a 24 bit "true-color" BMP file with anti-aliasing oversampling, sub-pixel undersampling, and tone dithering to reduce tone banding in the surface shading. A special BMP graphics mode allows you to save the drawing to a BMP file of variable size, so you are not limited by the image sizes that your video board can display, just be the maximum size of the Z-Buffer file, i.e. about 2.1GB, or the amount of free disk space that you have, if less than about 2.1GB. A new macro ZBUFFER1.MAC has been added to the distribution to show how some of the new options are programed into a macro file, it makes and example 24 bit BMP file. The file INFOV27F.TXT now replaces INFOV27E.TXT in file DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm), and has some information about changes to the programs. The CAM programs have been revised to change the default video aspect adjustment so that a value of 1.0 should display on flat panel displays that have a 4:3 aspect ratio, i.e. square pixels in VGA 640 by 480 mode. Both DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) have been revised, and INFO16.TXT (tm) has also been revised. A new Section: 3.3.7.6 was added for the on-line version of INFOV27F.TXT, some new illustrations were added to Section: 9.70.51.0 to show the 24 bit "true-color" output, and some text was updated in other sections.

April 9, 2003, The example macro file DEMO1.MAC (tm) has been revised for use with the current CAD program revisions. Since DEMO1.MAC (tm) is in DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file has also been revised. This new revision of DEMO1.MAC (tm) replaces all previous revisions, and requires being run under the accompanying CAD program revision.

April 6, 2003, Two new sections, i.e. Section: 4.1.80.0 and Section: 4.1.90.0 have been added. Section: 4.1.80.0 has some illustrations of the effect of the various CAD DOT and JET page file shading modes. Section: 4.1.90.0 has some illustrations of the definitions of the various CAD macro trigonometry functions. Section: 4.1.0.0, Section: 4.0.0.0, and some other text have been revised.

April 4, 2003, Two new sections, i.e. Section: 4.1.60.0 and Section: 4.1.70.0 have been added. Section: 4.1.60.0 has some illustrations of the effect of the various CAD calligraphy spacing modes. Section: 4.1.70.0 has some illustrations of the effect of the various CAD line attribute values. Section: 4.1.0.0, Section: 4.0.0.0, and some other text have been revised.

April 1, 2003, A new Section: 4.1.20.0 has been added which has some illustrations of the effect of the various CAD perspective display values used with commands like DISPLAY, SAVE 2D, SAVE DXF2D, DOT, JET, PLOT, and such. Section: 4.1.0.0, Section: 4.0.0.0, and some other text have been revised.

March 29, 2003, A new Section: 4.1.10.0 has been added which has some illustrations of the effect of CAD commands that transform source to result elements, like CURVE_FIT, THICKEN, LATHE, BETWEENS, and SLOPE. Section: 4.1.0.0 was also added, and Section: 4.0.0.0 and some other text have been revised.

March 26, 2003, A new Section: 3.1.17.0 has been added to supplement the information about the printer and plotter drivers. Some text was revised in some other sections.

March 16, 2003, The DXF file type support in DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) v2.7E has been revised and the programs now have a LOAD DXF command to load a 3D element through the use of the DXF 3DFACE entity. 3D element files such as some of the "free" 3D DXF files from places like the Web site "www.3DCAFE.com" might now be able to be loaded into the CAD programs for display in drawings and animations. Since the 3D DXF symbol files you might download were drawn for use in other programs the way they were drawn might not be optimized for use in my programs, however the use of the LOAD DXF command's option to create back-to-back triangles, and the use of the triangle DIVIDE command might be used to try to correct for some problems with how the symbols were drawn so that they display better. The LOAD DXF command might also load DXF entities 3DLINE and LINE. DXF files with entities other than 3DFACE, 3DLINE, and LINE should not be used with the CAD programs at this point in development. The SAVE DXF commands have been revised and some can now save the line color data. The DXF colors are mapped through a user adjustable table file, so you can adjust the mapping of the colors for loading and saving if you need to. You can now save 3D DXF files of triangle elements made in my CAD programs with the SAVE DXF3DFACE command and possibly display those elements in other programs that read DXF files with the 3DFACE entity. The SAVE DXF2D and SAVE DXF3D commands have also been revised. New macro commands were added for the LOAD DXF and SAVE DXF3DFACE commands. See INFOV27E.TXT and Appendix: B for more information. DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) was revised. A new Newsletter has been posted in Section: 1.3 to reflect more current events. Some changes were made to the "EULA" in Section: 0. Some changes were made to the HTML code of this Web site so it would display better on the Linux Dillo (tm) Web browser for Linux (tm) users who might use that browser to read the DANCAD3D (tm) documentation "On-Line." If you have had problems completing the download of my updated *.ZIP files you might try a program like Star Downloader (tm), see Section: 9.10.0.0 for more information. Some other changes were made to the text here and there.

March 10, 2003, both v2.74 and v3.74 of DANCAM.EXE (tm) and DANPLOT.EXE have been revised, and the updated program revisions have been added to the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) files in the download section. These may be significant revisions of the CAM programs and replace previous versions. If you are testing the CAM programs you should probably replace the version or revision you are currently testing with these updates.

February 10, 2003, v3.74 of DANCAM.EXE (tm) and DANPLOT.EXE (tm) are made available for download in Section: 9.70.61.0. The new v3.74 CAM programs are compiled for 16 bit Protected memory mode, and load into the computer's high memory rather than use the overlay file that was needed for v2.74. The new v3.74 requires a 80286 or better processor and 2MB or more of high memory in addition to the lower 640KB of memory. A DPMI loader is included with the new programs to load them into high memory for use under DOS. The older 8 bit Real memory mode version of the CAM programs, i.e. v2.74, continues to be available for use on systems with only 640KB of memory, or just an 8088 type processor. DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) was revised to include revised v2.74 CAM program files. A new DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) downloadable file was placed in the download section for v3.74 of the CAM programs as an add on to DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) for those "Beta Testers" that want to upgrade their CAM program testing to v3.74. Some new documentation was added in Section: 3.3.7.30 to display an HTML version of the INFO16.TXT file included in DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) relating to developments in v3.7 of the programs. Some text was revised here and there.

February 2, 2003, the DANUTLPK.ZIP (tm) file was updated with revised versions v2.7E of the utility programs CHAIN.EXE (tm), OFFSET.EXE (tm), JOBDONE.EXE (tm), COUNTER.EXE (tm), these updates replace previous versions. Some text was also revised.

February 1, 2003, the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was updated with revised versions of v2.7E of the CAD programs and revised versions of the v2.74 of the CAM programs, these updates replace previous revisions. INFOV27E.TXT was also revised, as was some text in the Web site.

January 31, 2003, the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was updated with a revised version of v2.74 of the CAM programs, DANCAM.EXE (tm) and DANPLOT.EXE (tm). Some text was also revised.

January 30, 2003, the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was updated with new v2.7E1 of the CAD programs. Some changes were made to the Files Load Industry Gcode file command, it now supports G14 and G15 for Helical thread cutting, and such. In the drawing editor, an new command called Helix was added to the 3D shapes sub-menu. The Helix command in the drawing editor can make spiral, taper and other shapes that the G14 and G15 commands did not define. The operation of the G40, G41, and G42 G code commands in the G code interpreted has been altered, see INFOV27E.TXT for an example showing the change. A new macro command HELIX was added to correspond to the drawing editor Helix modes one and two. The Jump command in the drawing editor has a new option to jump the cursor to the last point of the last element, so you can continue drawing tool path lines without having to manually line up the drawing cursor on the previously drawn line. See INFOV27E.TXT for some details. The distribution download page Section: 9.70.51.0 was revised. Some text was revised in various sections, including Section: 3.3.7.5. INFOV27E.TXT was revised in the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file.

January 22, 2003, the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was updated with new v2.7E0 of the CAD programs and v2.74 of the CAM programs. Some changes were made to the Files Save Industry Gcode file command, and the Write command. See INFOV27E.TXT for some details. The distribution download page Section: 9.70.51.0 was revised to include screen shots from SIMLATHE.MAC, SIMVMILL.MAC, the Load G code command Trace screen, and the screen in the Binary File Editor. The INSTALL.BAT file in DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) was revised so that you would not need to extract all of the files over again if it was run twice. Some text was revised in various sections, and a new Section 3.3.7.5 was added for the Web version of INFOV27E.TXT.

January 18, 2003, a new set of sections discussing general metalworking issues has been added to the Web site. The new sections and sub-sections are: Sections: 7.20.0.0, 7.20.10.0, 7.20.20.0, 7.20.30.0, 7.20.30.2, 7.20.30.4, 7.20.40.0, 7.20.40.2, 7.20.40.4, 7.20.50.0, 7.20.50.2, 7.20.50.4, 7.20.60.0, 7.20.60.2, 7.20.60.4, 7.20.70.0, 7.20.70.2, 7.20.70.4, 7.20.80.0, 7.20.80.2, 7.20.80.4. Links to the new photos were added to Section: 4. Some text was altered or added in other sections.

December 23, 2002, the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was updated to revise v2.7D of the CAD programs. Some changes were made to the SAVE BMP file command, video board access, and such. Some text was revised.

December 12, 2002, the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was updated to revise the INFOV27D.TXT file and revise v2.7D of the CAD programs. A new SIMULATE command was added to the CAD programs that might be used to display an animated simulation of the removal of materiel from a work-piece while a tool path is executed. Three new demo and example macro files are now included in the distribution, SIMTOOLS.MAC, SIMLATHE.MAC, and SIMVMILL.MAC. Additionally a variety of tool outlines are now also included in the distribution for use with the new SIMULATE command. Some changes were made to various commands in the CAD programs as well. Some other text was revised.

December 4, 2002, the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was updated to revise the INFOV27D.TXT file and revise v2.7D of the CAD programs. Some other text was revised.

November 30, 2002, the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was updated to replace the INFOV27C.TXT file with INFOV27D.TXT and revise the CAD programs to introduce v2.7D. Changes were made to the Hidden line display modes, and video board palette setting to hopefully speed up some operations. You will now need to press the [Control], [Ctrl], or [Ctrl] and [X] keys to abort or interrupt the re-drawing of the screen in the Preview, DISPLAY, and Drawing Editor commands, as well as some other commands that display lines to the screen in the CAD programs. The macro PGEAR-1C.MAC in file PGEAR-1C.ZIP has been revised. A new Section: 3.3.7.4 was added for the HTML version of the INFOV27D.TXT file. Some other text was revised.

November 24, 2002, the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was updated to replace the INFOV27C.TXT file and revise the CAD programs. Some other text was revised.

November 19, 2002, the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was updated to replace the INFOV27C.TXT file and revise the CAD and CAM programs. Some other text was revised.

November 18, 2002, the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was updated to replace the INFOV27C.TXT file and revise the CAD and CAM programs. The Save and Load G code commands in the CAD programs were revised to Filter EOB characters from the man readable codes, and to automatically skip past such filtered man readable codes. The CAM programs' RPM test was revised to display the motor RPM in a different way when the pulse rate multiplier is being used. See the revised text in INFOV27C.TXT or Section: 3.3.7.3 for more details on the changes. Some other text was revised.

November 17, 2002, the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was updated to replace the older UPDATE27.TXT documentation file with a smaller INFOV27C.TXT file that just covers some of the more recent changes. The text that was in the UPDATE27.TXT file has been revised a little and split into three new Sections: 3.3.7.1, 3.3.7.2, and 3.3.7.3. Some other text was revised here and there.

November 14, 2002, the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was updated to include newer revised CAD v2.7C programs and a revised UPDATE27.TXT file. DANCAD87.COM (tm) was revised in various the ways. You may need to change or review the settings in the Files Save Industry G code configuration files, and delete the drivers (and some other files) from use with previous distributions. The CAD programs were altered in some other ways as well. See the new text near the bottom of the revised UPDATE27.TXT file for more information about the changes and what you need to do before installing the revised programs, see also the revised Section: 3.3.7.0. Some other text was revised in some other places.

November 6, 2002, the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was updated to include revised CAD v2.7C and CAM v2.73 programs and a revised UPDATE27.TXT file. The Load and Save G code commands were revised to be changed in various the ways. You may need to change or review the settings in the Files Load and Save Industry G code configuration files. The CAD programs can now generate man readable codes for NC punch tapes, and there is a new Binary File Editor for working with files in non-ASCII codes such as EIA, ISO, and EBCDIC. See the new text near the bottom of the revised UPDATE27.TXT file for more information about the changes, see also the revised Section: 3.3.7.0. Some other text was revised in Appendix: B, and some other places.

October 19, 2002, some text was revised.

September 23, 2002, some text was revised.

September 22, 2002, the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was updated to include revised CAD programs and a revised UPDATE27.TXT file. The Load and Save G code commands were revised to be changed in various the ways. The Load G code command now has two conversion modes in order to process absolute values for I, J, and K, as well as relative incremental values. You need to change the settings in the Files Load Industry G code configuration files, or a copy of them, in order to select the second conversion mode. See the new text near the bottom of the revised UPDATE27.TXT file for more information about the changes, see also the revised Section: 3.3.7.0. Some other text was revised, including changes to Sections: 3.1.35.0, 3.1.50.0, and 7.10.20.0.

September 15, 2002, Section: 7 was revised, reorganized, and has had some new illustrations added. Section: 4 was revised to include the new illustrations in Section: 7. Some other text was revised.

September 12, 2002, the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was updated to include revised CAD programs and a revised UPDATE27.TXT file. The Load G code command was revised to change the way the F variable is processed in some cases, see the text near the bottom of the revised UPDATE27.TXT file for more information about the changes, see also the revised Section: 3.3.7.0. Some other text was revised.

September 2, 2002, some text was revised.

August 29, 2002, the DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was updated to include a revised UPDATE27.TXT file. Some of the text in various sections was revised.

August 28, 2002, the Newsletter and some of the text in various sections was revised.

August 27, 2002, some text in various sections was revised.

August 26, 2002, some of the sections relating to the update documentation have been revised and moved around. The text that was in Section: 3.70.0.0 is now in Section: 3.3.7.0, and the text that was in Section: 3.3.0.0 is now in Section: 3.3.6.0. Section: 3.3.0.0 has been changed, and Section: 3.70.0.0 has been removed. Some text and links in other sections was also revised.

August 23, 2002, new versions of my CAM programs have been posted in the download section. The DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) archive distribution files have been revised and replace previous versions. Some changes have been made to the CAM programs, the version code is the same but the *.EXE file dates are newer. The file date information in Section: 9.70.51.0 and some other text have been revised.

August 22, 2002, new versions of my CAD programs have been posted in the download section. The DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) archive distribution files have been revised and replace previous versions. Some changes have been made to the CAD programs, the version code is the same but the *.COM file dates are newer. UPDATE27.TXT and some other text in this Web site has been revised. The DANCAD3D.DOC information in Sections 3.2.10.0, 3.2.20.0, 3.2.30.0, 3.2.40.0, 3.2.50.0, 3.2.60.0, 3.2.70.0, 3.2.80.0, 3.2.90.0 has been revised for v2.7B, and new Sections 3.2.43.0, 3.2.45.0, 5.40.10.5 have been added for additional revised information for v2.7B.

July 14, 2002, new versions of my CAD programs have been posted in the download section. The DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) archive distribution files have been revised and replace previous versions. Some changes have been made to the CAD programs, the version code is the same but the *.COM file dates are newer. UPDATE27.TXT and some other text in this Web site has been revised. The DANCAD3D.DOC information in Sections 3.1.0.0, 3.1.10.0, 3.1.20.0, 3.1.30.0, 3.1.41.0, 3.1.44.0, 3.1.47.0, 3.1.50.0, 3.1.60.0, 3.1.70.0 has been revised for v2.7B, and new Sections 3.1.15.0, 3.1.25.0, 3.1.35.0 have been added for additional information about v2.7B.

June 14, 2002, new versions of my programs have been posted in the download section. The DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) and DANUTLPK.ZIP (tm) archive distribution files have been revised and replace previous versions. A number of small changes have been made to the CAD programs, and some also to the CAM programs and utilities. The new program versions are DANCAD3D.COM v2.7B (tm), DANCAD87.COM v2.7B (tm), DANCAM.EXE v2.72 (tm), DANPLOT.EXE v2.72 (tm), CHAIN.EXE v2.7B (tm), COUNTER.EXE v2.7B (tm), JOBDONE.EXE v2.7B (tm), and OFFSET.EXE v2.7B (tm). UPDATE27.TXT and some text in this Web site has also been revised.

May 26, 2002, some of the text was updated, including some in Section: 3.4.0.0 and 3.4.64.0, Appendix: N, which was revised and expanded to include some explanation of the attribute bits used to define triangle attributes employed in v2.7.

May 14, 2002, some of the text was updated, including some in Section: 3.4.54.0 and 3.4.57.0.

May 12, 2002, some of the text was updated, including some in Section: 3.4.53.0.

May 11, 2002, some of the text was updated, including some in Section: 3.4.40.0.

May 10, 2002, The tutorial lessons 7 and 10 on how to make lettering font files and alias symbol file sets for my CAD programs in the supplemental documentation section have been revised for v2.7A, see Sections: 3.4.7.0 and 3.4.10.0. The L7.ZIP and L10.ZIP "ZIP" files of the file sets, like those created during execution of the lessons, have been revised for v2.7A, see Sections: 9.18.7.0 and 9.18.10.0 for information about downloading the revised files. Some other text was revised.

May 4, 2002 PM, Some of the text in various sections and UPDATE27.TXT has been revised. The DANCAD3D.ZIP distribution file has been revised with a new UPDATE27.TXT file.

May 4, 2002 AM, Appendix: B has been revised with the addition of information about the new commands added in v2.7A and changes to some of the prior macro commands that were made in v2.7A. The DANCAD3D.ZIP distribution file has been revised, new versions of DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) are included, these are minor updates, the documentation file UPDATE27.TXT has been revised and some additional information was added, also some new macro program files have been included i.e. BMPTEST1.MAC (tm), BMPTEST2.MAC (tm), and ADDV27A.MAC (tm). Text in Sections 2.0.0.0, 3.44.0.0, 3.52.0.0, 3.70.0.0, 9.70.51.0, and some other places has been revised. The background color has been changed.

March 13, 2002, Some of the text was revised.

March 6, 2002, Some of the text was revised.

February 17, 2002, Some of the text and HTML code was updated. Sections 4.0.0.0, 9.30.21.0, 9.30.22.0, 9.30.31.0, 9.30.32.0, 9.30.41.0, 9.70.51.0 were revised to have both *.GIF and *.ZIP animation files so that you can download the *.ZIP version of the *.GIF file if your browser will not show all of the frames in the animated *.GIF file. Various sections or files may have also been revised.

February 16, 2002, Some of the text was updated. Sections 9.30.22.0 and 9.30.32.0 were added for revised animation macro files PGEAR-1C.MAC and GENEVA3C.MAC that have an option to use the SVGA color hidden line display modes. The DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file was revised and replaces the previous versions, you will need to download and install the revised versions of DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm) (they are in the revised DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file) before you try to run the revised macro files. Sections 4.0.0.0 and 9.30.0.0 were revised as well as some parts of other sections.

February 1, 2002, Some of the text was updated and FAQ revised.

January 4, 2002, Some of the text was updated. A new DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file replaces the January 3, 2002 file, changes were made to some of the menu command procedures in the CAM programs that make the menu bar move better when the CAM programs are used without EMS or are run on a floppy only system. Some other small changes were made to the CAM programs, you should probably replace the copy you downloaded with the newer update.

January 3, 2002, Some of the text was updated. A new DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file replaces the December 19, 2001 file, changes were made to some of the automatic output commands, some macro commands, the Preview command, conversion from PIX or BMP to ASC, and two new experimental commands were added for making tool path files to try to make "oil" paintings from BMP files using your robot, see the UTILITY BMP256OIL and MATCHING command descriptions in the revised UPDATE27.DOC file in the new DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file.

December 28, 2001, Some of the text was revised in Sections 1.20.0, 4.0.0, 9.30.21, 9.30.31. 9.30.41, and 9.70.51.

December 19, 2001, Quite a bit of the text was revised. Sections 3.70, 9.70, and 9.70.51 were added. The new DANCAD3D.ZIP (tm) file for updated "Beta Test" versions v2.7 was added to the download SECTION: 9.

November 9, 2001, Some of the text was revised.

October 27, 2001, Some of the text was revised.

September 24, 2001, Some of the text was revised.

September 3, 2001, Some of the text was revised.

July 14, 2001, Some of the text was revised.

June 6, 2001, Some of the text was revised.

March 29, 2001, Some of the text was revised.

March 26, 2001, Some of the text was revised.

March 8, 2001, Some of the HTML code and text was revised and re-formatted. Some changes were made to the instructions in SECTION: 8 pertaining to the mailing of the Correspondence Forms.

February 28, 2001, Some of the HTML code was revised and re- formatted.

February 25, 2001, Some of the HTML code was revised and re- formatted.

February 24, 2001, Some of the text was revised and re- formatted.

February 19, 2001, Added *.RAM video clip metafiles to SECTION: 4, this allows the video clips to be viewed by "Streaming" if you have a 56K modem or faster connection and a your connection is not having congestion problems. I changed how my URL works by bypassing my forwarding and connecting directly to the site host, this might make some things work better, and have your bookmarks link to the page you are trying to bookmark (if you get an "Error: 404" go back to the main INDEX.HTM page and follow the links to the information you are looking for, since it may have moved or something). Some of the text was updated.

February 12, 2001, Added DANUTLPK.ZIP (tm) so SECTION: 9, this updates some of the original utility programs, check the README.TXT file in the *.ZIP file, and SECTION: 3.75.0.0 for more information about these utility programs. Some of the text was updated and small additions and changes were made to several sections.

January 30, 2001, Some of the text was updated, and some of the HTML code was revised to fix some links that gave an "Error 404" message even though the file was really there and the link was good except for case typos and such. Be sure to clear your browser's cache after getting an "Error 404" before you visit this site again or you may get the same error even though the bug has been fixed.

January 9, 2001, Some of the text was updated.

December 30, 2000, Video clips added that have information about Stepper motors and using them with the CAM programs and a tool path file in the construction and operation of an automated milling machine. Some of the text was updated.

December 24, 2000, Video clip added that has information about making a PCB using DANCAD3D (tm) and toner transfer film. Some of the text was updated.

December 17, 2000, Video clips added that have information about displaying computer animation using the video board, and about the constriction of a Cine Film Recorder to make computer animated movies. Some of the text was updated.

December 14, 2000, Video clips added that have information about making hard-copy with PCL printers, Dot Matrix printers, and Pen Plotters, and a clip with some information about DANCAD3D (tm) program features. Some of the text was updated.

December 7, 2000, Initial version of this "Beta Test" Web site up-loaded, replacing the the temporary Web site.

December 5, 2000, temporary Web site reached about 4000 hits.

September 2000, temporary Web site reached about 3000 hits. An Auto-forwarding Web page set up to forward visitors to another Web host where the site was installed for a while.

July 2000, temporary Web site reached about 2000 hits.

May 2000, temporary Web site reached 1000 hits.

February 1999, started writing the HTML code for this "Beta Test" Web site. While working on the HTML code for the current "Beta Test" Web site a temporary page was put up.