Copyright (C) 1986-2008 by Daniel H. Hudgins, All Rights Reserved.

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This Web site is dedicated to the thousands of "users" of my programs, those who have helped test my programs over the last 22 or so years, and especially those who shared their experiences with me.

You must read this notice: This is a licensed Web site (HTML document and associated files). You must read and agree to be legally bound in contract by the Terms of Use and conditions given in the End User License Agreement ("EULA"), Legal Notices, Instructions, Warnings, Disclaimers, and all other text in "SECTION: 0" of "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) before reading or using any of the information, software programs, and or files, contained in, linked to, and or associated with, "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files). Any use or "Beta Testing" of "This Web Site" constitutes your acknowledgment of your full agreement with the current End User License Agreement ("EULA") and your decision to have this current license supersede all prior and contemporaneous agreements and understandings. Information and files in "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) have been placed here so that long time users of "The Author's" programs DANCAD3D.COM (tm) , DANCAM.EXE (tm) , or DANPLOT.EXE (tm) could help proofread the text of the documentation files or screens displayed, and also help test data files, example files, and or any software programs that might be made available from time to time, to aid "The Author" in finding mistakes, bugs, and other errors, omissions, defects, mistakes, and faults. Everything in "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) is "Beta Test", "Beta Code", Experimental, Preliminary, requires proofreading, or is being evaluated for possible revision, and is NOT warranted to be free of defect. To help "The Author" report any bugs, foul-ups, defects, or mistakes that you find, see "SECTION: 8" for instructions. "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) and all other files and programs by Daniel H. Hudgins are made available "AS IS" without warranty of any kind express, expressed, or implied. All offers and specifications are subject to change or discontinuation without notice of any kind. Please read "SECTION: 8" of "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) before trying to contact "The Author."

The text in this section has been revised to include some of the developments for a revision of version v2.7B, program versions, updates, or revisions prior or subsequent may work differently and so what is stated here may not apply to the particular version, update, or revision you might have, i.e. those other versions. The documentation is only generally descriptive of the programs, you should check the operation of each particular program that you will be "Beta Testing" since operation of the programs is subject to change without notice.

This HTML documentation section has documentation mostly about my CAD programs DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and DANCAD87.COM (tm). Most the discussion about DANCAD3D.COM (tm) also applies to "Beta Testing" DANCAD87.COM (tm), the math co- processor version, as well, except for some differences in some of the files saved and the need for a math co-processor. See also the other documentation in this Web site for additional information, particularly the CAM program documentation and the supplemental documentation, tutorials, and appendices. The disclaimer, and most of the other legal text is currently located in SECTION: 0, therefore you must read the disclaimer, End User License Agreement (EULA), legal text and other text in SECTION: 0 before you read any of the other documentation or use any part of this HTML document, this section, or associated files and programs.

I may expand or revise the documentation someday, so check back from time to time to see if any new or revised files have been up-loaded to the Web site.

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Documents may be available to download from time to time, you can check SECTION: 9 to see what the current situation with regard to downloadable files is. The names of these documentation files may change, and they may be edited, combined, or eliminated in the future, without notice.

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DANCAD3D (tm) and DANCAD87 (tm) are CAD programs that you might "Beta Test" for the making of high quality line drawings, 3D color animation with shading and hidden line removal, and tool path files for automatic CAM manufacturing.

DANCAD3D (tm) lets you make 2D line drawings like using a pencil and ruler, or you can make 3D wire frame line drawings by drawing lines that go in any direction in the 3D drawing workspace. DANCAD3D (tm) approximates arcs, circles, and other curves by joining short line segments whose end points fall on the desired curve.

Version 2.7 expanded the capabilities of previous versions by allowing the storage of drawings using triangle elements as well as "free" line segment elements. Triangle elements can be used for color hidden line display with shading controlled by the placement of the "light source." Color animation can now be displayed using the SVGA video modes supported, and exported as a set of BMP files for the color animation frames. The triangle elements can also be used for preparing some types of 3D surfaces for making 3D tool path files for manufacturing.

DANCAD87 (tm) is a version of DANCAD3D (tm) that uses the 8087 compatible math co-processor. DANCAD87 (tm) may be slower or faster than DANCAD3D (tm) on different computers, and will not run on processors that lack a floating point math co- processor. DANCAD87 (tm) may have somewhat higher accuracy, and uses somewhat more memory both in RAM and on the harddisk. Some of the drawing file types saved with DANCAD87 (tm) will not load into DANCAD3D (tm) since the '87 version uses a different binary storage file format, and so the ASCII file type would need to be used to exchange drawings between DANCAD3D (tm) and DANCAD87 (tm). DANCAD87 (tm) may not be available for some corresponding versions of DANCAD3D (tm).

DANCAD3D (tm) organizes the lines or triangles used to make up drawings into groups called elements. The drawing editor in DANCAD3D (tm) lets you insert or delete any line, or erase any element, at any time during the making of a drawing. Elements from one drawing can be saved to the harddisk and used individually or in groups in other drawings. When elements are loaded into the drawing "workspace" they are numbered according to the order in which they are loaded or created. In the drawing editor elements can be selected by their number, or by placing the drawing cursor on one of the points in the element displayed. In the drawing editor you can turn off the display of some of the elements to speed up the display of the elements you are working on by use of the Update list. Elements can be saved one at a time, or as an Elements set. The Initialize command can be used to clear the workspace so that a new set of elements can be loaded or created.

DANCAD3D (tm) can run itself automatically from a type of scripting file called a macro command file. DANCAD3D (tm) can also create macro command files automatically by incorporating macro commands into an automatic output macro file that corresponds to the menu commands you activate while using the program. Use of the automatic output macro feature gives you some protection against making mistakes while drawing since the mistake can be edited out of the output macro with the Write command text editor and the drawing regenerated to the point before the mistake happened, by running the edited output macro, in the macro command processor, i.e. command [R]un in the main menu. Press [O] from the main menu, or the drawing editor [F]iles sub-menu to turn on the automatic output macro file. See Appendix B for information about the particular macro commands.

DANCAD3D (tm) has a built in facility for animating drawings so you can see the objects depicted in the drawing rotate to get a better idea of their three-dimensional shape. By using DANCAD3D (tm)'s macro language individual elements in the drawing can be rotated and moved to simulate the operation of a dynamic mechanical system. Various display modes can be used with the macro DISPLAY command for wire-frame, hidden line, and 3D color shaded surfaces display modes of the elements in the workspace. The macro ANIMATE command can display sets of animation frame files saved to the harddisk with good speed for the appearance of motion, the SVGA and VGA modes may require a fast computer, but the EGA, CGA, and Hercules (tm) frames might display on some slower computers well enough. Computer animation can also be displayed by making an animated cine film, DANCAD3D (tm) can automatically send signals to advance the cine camera to expose each frame, see the macro SIGNAL command.

When my CAD programs are used with my CAM programs DANCAM.EXE (tm) or DANPLOT.EXE (tm) an automated machine tool can manufacture parts directly from drawings of cutting tool paths drawn or edited in DANCAD3D (tm) or DANCAD87 (tm). DANCAM.EXE (tm) and DANPLOT.EXE (tm) can also make tool path files by a "teach" mode, or by scanning the part with a probe. Tool path files made by DANCAM.EXE (tm) and DANPLOT.EXE (tm) can be edited in DANCAM.EXE (tm) or DANPLOT.EXE (tm). The CAD programs DANCAM.EXE (tm) or DANPLOT.EXE (tm) can also read and write "standard" CAM G code files for conversion to or from my file types. Together my CAD and CAM programs make a system that may let you: generate, import, export, edit, and execute files for automated manufacturing. You can build you own automated machine, or modify a machine tool to be driven from motors that you attach to it. The motors are controlled directly from the computer's parallel port by my CAM programs. You can build your own motor driver electronics, or purchase suitable electronic modules ready made. See the CAM program documentation for more information.

DANCAD3D (tm) is divided into four major sections, i.e. the main menu and its sub-menus, the drawing editor, the write command text editor, and the macro program file processor. The four parts of DANCAD3D (tm) are accessed from its main menu by pressing the first letter of the command name or by clicking the left mouse button when the menu bar is over the desired command. The four main sections of DANCAD3D (tm) are described below with the some of the principle sub-functions listed. Check the menus in the programs for all of the commands listed in the version you have.

DANCAD3D (tm) holds drawing line segments and triangles in a three-dimensional space called the "workspace". The workspace can hold lines of dimensions up to +/- 1E18 units (one followed by eighteen zeros.) The smallest line segments supported are +/- 1E-18 units. DANCAD3D (tm) uses a scaling factor to adjust the size of the line segments you draw in order to make them fit on the printed page. You can change the scaling factor with the main menu [P]review or [C]hange commands to make drawings larger or smaller than life size. DANCAD3D (tm)'s default scale of 240 draws one unit of distance in the drawing editor as one inch on the print out. Changing the scale to 120 would make one unit in the drawing editor equal one half inch on the print out. Any ratio of scales to units can be worked out allowing DANCAD3D (tm), DANCAD87 (tm), DANCAM.EXE (tm), and DANPLOT.EXE (tm) to work in metric or any other system of decimal units.

The number of line segments that DANCAD3D (tm)'s workspace can hold is limited by the free space in the harddisk partition used by the workspace file, i.e. less than 2.1GB. 10MB or so free on the harddisk would be enough for working with simple line drawings, but complex drawings or tool path files with a large number of curves may require much more disk space. You should avoid having the computer have a disk full error, since you may lose your drawing workspace, always try to keep plenty of disk space free for the type of drawing you are working on. Use the automatic output macro feature to make an output macro of your drawing so that you can try to regenerate the workspace after an error. Back up the workspace frequently with the Files Save Elements command in case the output macro does not regenerate the workspace properly, so that you have a second "Plan: B" backup in case of multiple errors.

Using DANCAD3D (tm) starts by drawing some elements with the drawing editor. You may want the automatic output macro turned on so that you can later edit the macro file program of what commands you used while you were drawing. After you have created a set of elements you would write a macro file to manipulate the elements and make an animated movie of how the elements will interact in the device you are engineering. Once you have debugged the design of the device you are working on you would draw blue-prints of the various parts to be manufactured, or draw tool paths directly with DANCAD3D (tm) and save the tool paths in ASCII file type for use with DANCAM.EXE (tm) or DANPLOT.EXE (tm). If you are using DANCAM.EXE (tm) or DANPLOT.EXE (tm) you would probably save the ASCII tool path file to a floppy disk and use the computer in your shop to run DANCAM.EXE (tm) or DANPLOT.EXE (tm) to read the ASCII tool path files and cut out the parts. After testing the parts in operation you might need to use DANCAD3D (tm) to edit the tool path ASCII files and manufacture a second prototype before making a production run of parts with DANCAM.EXE (tm) or DANPLOT.EXE (tm).

If your project concentrates on the production of drawings as the final product rather than parts, you would just use the drawing editor and the Hardcopy sub-menu from DANCAD3D (tm)'s main menu. See the video clips about setting up and using printers and plotters. Color drawings may be able to be printed using MSPaint (tm) by saving the drawing from the main menu Preview command as a BMP file by using the SVGA video modes, provided you have a color printer and a good driver for your printer installed in windows. To find MSPaint (tm) use the Start Find windows command in Windows 95 (tm).

If your project involved only the production of an animated movie you would use the drawing editor and the text editor to make elements and write macros. The SIGNAL macro command can activate a cine film recorder automatically from within DANCAD3D (tm) automatically. See the video clip, and documentation about building a cine film recorder elsewhere in this Web site.

In order to have the automatic dimensioning command letter numbers correctly you may need to draw the drawing with a drawing editor scale different than the preview scale that the drawing will be printed with. In effect you draw to have the numbers in the dimension values read to the units you want, and you print to give the numbers some absolute and real ratio to the absolute and real physical dimension of the units name. If you want one inch on the drawing to equal one foot in reality you are really asking that the drawing be printed at 1/12 real size, but you would probably want one inch to read 1.000 in the automatic dimensioning (even though the one inch dimensioned would only be 0.0833333 (1/12) inches long on the print out.) So when you make the drawing you draw so the cursor position numbers on the top of the drawing screen have the correct distances (in the units you wish to use) and then you figure the correct scale that will print the drawing the size you want it to be, life size, bigger, or smaller.

At a scale of 1 DANCAD3D (tm) will print 1 / 240 inch per unit drawn.

For 1 unit drawn to equal 1 inch on print out use scale of 240.
That comes from: 240 * (1 / 240) = 1         = 1:1 ratio.
                                             = 240 / 1
                                             = scale of 240

1 inch on printout to 1 foot actual distance = 12 to 1 ratio
(1/12" on printout to 1 unit drawn)          = 240 / 12
                                             = scale of 20.

1 inch actual distance to 1 foot on printout = 1 to 12 ratio
                                             = 240 * 12
                                             = scale of 2880

1 unit = 1 mm = 240 / 25.4 (mm per inch)     = scale of 9.448818898

1 mm on print out to 1 m of actual distance  = 1000 to 1 ratio
(one drawing unit prints 0.001 mm)           = 9.448818898 / 1000
                                             = scale of 0.009448818

1 mm of actual distance to 1 cm on print out = 1 to 10 ratio
(one drawing unit prints 1 cm)               = 9.448818898 * 10
                                             = scale of 94.8818898

As you see in the above examples DANCAD3D (tm) used 240 units to the inch as its reference value (although DANCAD3D (tm) used 240 units per inch internally as a reference value, the accuracy of DANCAD3D (tm) drawings can be many of times more accurate than this reference value.) All scaling factors are then worked out in ratio to one drawing editor unit of cursor movement to 1/240 of an inch on the final print out. That is if you print the drawing with the scale set to one the drawing cursor would have had to move 240 drawing editor units for the line to print one inch long. If you change the scale for printing to 240 then the drawing cursor would only have to move one drawing editor unit to produce a line one inch on the print out. Any other system of measurement can be used if you find the correct ratio between 1/240 (0.0041666) of an inch and the absolute size of the units you want to use (from Angstroms to light years.)

The reference scale of 240 is a legacy from version v1.0, and comes from the dot matrix printers having 240 d.p.i., that is one drawing editor unit was the width of one dot made by the dot matrix printer when the scale was set to one for printing. Since v1.0 new printers and video modes with different resolutions have been added, so there is generally no longer a direct relationship between the pixels in the print out and the drawing editor units, unless you find such a scale that matches your application. The program now adjusts the scale using the printing drivers to have the width of the main menu Preview command screen come out to about eight inches on the print out, unless the driver is not installed for 8 1/2" wide paper.

Always keep in mind when setting the scale that larger numbers make the drawing look larger, and smaller scales make the drawing look smaller.

Inside the drawing editor you can freely adjust the scale value to zoom in or out without having any effect on the length in the workspace of the lines that were drawn, only how large they are displayed on the screen. The value of the world scale entered with the main menu Change command is important since the world scale value entered with the main menu Change command effects the thickness of line segments in the print out and WYSIWYG display of the drawing editor. If you use the [W]YSIWYG command in the drawing editor [S]et-up sub- menu to toggle the WYSIWYG off then back on the program will ask you for the world scale value you want to use for calculating the line widths, this world scale value should be set the scale that will be used when the drawing is going to be printed.

The use of the Magnify command alters the relationship between the units drawn and the printing scale. For instance if you MAGNIFY an element by 2 on all the axis you would need to divide the printing scale by 2 to have the element print at the same size (magnify and scale are reciprocal.) If you want to adjust the shape of elements (distort or correct for distortion) you can use different MAGNIFY values for the x, y, and z axis, where as the display scale effects all axis uniformly.

DANCAD3D (tm) holds drawings in the workspace as a series of line segments or triangles. The number of line segments or triangles is limited by the amount of free disk space on your harddisk for the workspace file. In general if you have more than 10MB free on your harddisk you can make simple drawings, e.g. about 30,000 line segments. If you have more space free on your harddisk DANCAD3D (tm) will automatically expand the size of the workspace file to hold more line segments or triangles as needed up to the disk full limit. To avoid a disk full error it is best to dedicate a 2.1GB harddisk partition to the exclusive use of the workspace file. You can select the drive the workspace file will be in by using the [W]orkspace command in the small menu that pops-up over the program's opening screen. You might use the DOS command FDISK to make four partitions of about 2.1GB on an 8.4GB harddisk. It may be best not to use FAT32 mode on your harddisk with my programs since the programs work using the DOS 6.22 file size limits.

Curves, circles and other shapes are described in the workspace by short line segments. The line segments can be very short. Using line entities in DANCAD3D (tm) drawings allows complete freedom of editing and manipulation of the shapes outlined. DANCAM.EXE (tm) and DANPLOT.EXE (tm) can read line segments just like DANCAD3D (tm), and therefore can follow and cut out any shape. The line segments used in a tool path can be shorter than one motor "step" or encoder "count" so the tool path does not need to limit the resolution of curves machined, the limit is in how you have constructed your machine, that is if you have your machine limited to a step size of 0.0001" the tool path can be limited to points closer than that, so the use of line segments does not mean that curves are segmented in a way that will show up in the surface finish of the parts manufactured. Free form curves can be used and you are not limited to "arcs" or other fixed shapes. The macro language can be used to create curve elements using mathematical formulas, see Appendix C in the supplemental documentation.

Line segments or triangles drawn into the workspace are assigned an element number that the line segments belong to. The line segments also have a line segment number but for the most part only the element number is used by you when working on the drawing. It is possible to have all the line segments of a whole drawing in only one element, but it is much better to break up drawings into several elements so that individual elements can be rotated, moved around (offset or dragged), and magnified (for fit.) New elements are begun with the drawing command [B]egin new in the [E]lements sub-menu. When drawing, lines or triangles are appended to the last loaded or created element unless you use the [B]egin command to start a new element. If the workspace is empty and you start drawing the drawing editor should create element number 1, or in a macro you should use BEGIN before APPEND. If you want a command to act on all of the elements in the workspace select element number 0, zero, otherwise only one element at a time will be changed in many commands, so you may want to use the JOIN command to group elements.

DANCAD3D (tm) offers to save the drawing elements currently in the drawing workspace when you quit to DOS (NEVER turn your computer off or [Ctrl] & [Alt] & [Del] until you have quit from DANCAD3D (tm)'s main menu and returned to the DOS prompt.) If you let DANCAD3D (tm) save the elements in the workspace for you, when you Quit, the elements will be reloaded the next time you run DANCAD3D (tm).

Having the program save the drawing you are working on is just fine until you have finished the drawing and want to work on another drawing. When you are finished working on a drawing you should press [F]iles [S]ave [E]lements from the main menu and save the drawing elements. Then select [I]nitialize from the main menu to clear the workspace so you can start a new drawing.

Drawings can be saved as a single element file rather than saving all the elements individually as separate files. The ASCII or 3D-Quick file formats allow all the elements to be joined into one mass if you enter element number 0 as the element you wish to save (the element 0 trick also works on most of the other commands such as rotate and magnify if you want to act on all the elements in the workspace rather than just one.) See also SECTION: 3.1.30.0 about file types.

If you want to load a drawing you saved as in the above section, first save what is now in the workspace as in the above section. Once you have saved what is in the workspace (if it is anything that needs to be saved) you can select [I]nitialize from the main menu to clear the workspace. Next select [F]iles [L]oad [E]lements from the main menu and carry on as you wish with the loaded drawing's elements.

If you forget to use the [I]nitialize command before loading a new drawing you will have two or more drawings in the workspace at the same time, if this happens you can use the [E]rase command in the drawing editor's [E]lements sub-menu to erase the unwanted elements. To figure out what element number goes with what element you can use the [U]pdate list command in the drawing editor's root menu to turn off all but one of the elements and see which one shows up in the display.

Finished drawings can be saved as Pixel file frames, and loaded quickly for rapid viewing or animation. Pixel files do not load into the 3D workspace, they are just flat images from the screen, and so cannot be edited like the 3D elements in the workspace, therefore you should save your drawings in both the 3D element file types and Pixel file types so that you have something you can work with for changes at some future time.

In the drawing editor root menu there is a [B]ack-up command that will save all the elements in the workspace. You can [B]ack-up your drawing every so many minutes, or before each new command, to try to protect what you have drawn so far.

The automatic output macro also helps to protect your drawing from mistakes by recording many of the commands you enter through the menus as their equivalent macro commands to a macro command file of the name you selected when you turned the out macro file on. You can select the output macro file name, and turn the output macro feature on by pressing [O] from the main menu in the CAD programs. Pressing [O] in the main menu also lets you re-open a macro file started before by using [A]ppend mode to add more macro commands to be bottom of the macro, although you may need to delete some INITIALIZE commands that got into your macro file by accident to get it to run properly later. If you make a mistake, you would then turn off and edit the output macro for your drawing in the text editor ([W]rite from the main menu) to remove the last command line or lines of text at the bottom of the output macro file. Always remember to save the edited output macro back to the disk before you exit the text editor. Initialize the workspace (or otherwise restore the workspace to the state it was in when the output macro was started) and run the output macro with in the macro interpreter, [R]un from the main menu. You can then turn the output macro feature back on, and continue to append new and hopefully correct commands to the output macro and finish your drawing as if the catastrophic mistake did not happen. When some errors occur, such as a disk full error, you may need to turn off the output macro, quit the program, erase files and otherwise fix things, shut down your computer, and restart everything with the problems corrected, otherwise you will just keep getting errors over and over again. If under Windows 95 (tm) you are unable to erase a file after an error, you may need to shut down and re-start your computer to correct a "phantom" file sharing conflict before you will be allowed to erase or rename the file. Always check that you have the output macro file on before using any of the commands in the program that you will want to have saved to the output macro, otherwise you may find that you have been editing your drawing for two hours and have not been saving any of the commands that would allow you to edit the macro to regenerate the drawing. If you forget to turn on the output macro, save what is in the workspace as a set of elements then make a new macro that starts with INITIALIZE then LOAD ELEMENTS to begin again appending the output macro commands with the elements as they are from that point in the development of the drawing.