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."

This documentation file has text mostly about revisions to DANCAD3D.COM (tm), DANCAM.EXE (tm), and DANPLOT.EXE (tm) made between version v2.5 and version v2.6. Information relating to those revisions may be of interest to persons upgrading from v2.5 of my programs. The text in this section has been revised with some notes regarding some of the revisions made between the original text of file UPDATE26.DOC that was to be included in the v2.6 distribution and the further revisions made to the programs in v2.7. There may be changes made in versions subsequent to v2.7 that alter what is described in this section as it applies to that subsequent version. See also any other documentation files, and pages in this Web site (HTML document) for additional and or more recent information. See also the revised *.TXT file information for information about other revisions made since v2.6.

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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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Use the "Edit, Find in page Ctrl+F" or "Edit, Find (in this page)... Ctrl+F" command in your browser to search for keywords within the documentation text in this HTML page. You will need to search over again in the other pages in this HTML document for the same keyword since your browser may not search for a keyword beyond the current page that is loaded.

The programs in their v2.6 revision have been updated to v2.7 to include improvements and resolve various issues. If you are upgrading from v2.5, or some earlier version, you will probably want to upgrade directly to v2.7, or later, since the v2.6 system may not operate well or at all on computers faster than about 133MHz to 166MHz. If you have been using v2.5 but have not used v2.6 the information in this section might be of interest to you in order to familiarize yourself with the changes the programs have gone through in order to make better sense of comments elsewhere in the documentation that refer to v2.6 and the changes made since v2.6.

This text in this section was originally part of some information for v2.5H users about changes made in the revised version v2.6. This program update information was originally part of the v2.6C documentation that was to be supplied as on disk files, and has been revised and reformatted for conversion to HTML from the previous *.DOC documentation file type, i.e. a DOS *.TXT type text file. Text here that has been included from the original file named SUPDOC26.DOC was originally Copyright (C) 1994, 1998, 1999, 2000 by Daniel H. Hudgins, All Rights Reserved.

All of the program specifications are subject to change with out notice. Information relating to the various versions or revisions is only a general description of design goals, the operation of various revisions of the various versions varies from one revision to another, and so the versions or revisions you have may not operate as described in any particular part of the documentation. Versions of the programs prior or subsequent to v2.6 may not operate according to the instructions and descriptions in this section or any of the other or older v2.6 documentation.

The text in this section has been revised with some notes about changes made between v2.6 and v2.7, however some features in v2.6 where removed or relocated in v2.7 so not all additions present in v2.6 are to be found in v2.7. See also the revised *.TXT documentation for documentation about changes since v2.6.

The information below briefly describes some of the changes made to the programs between v2.5 and v2.6. In general carefully reading the menus and prompts in the programs may be of help in using the new features. Be sure to see also the documentation about changes made between v2.6 and v2.7, as well as any newer documentation.

As much as possible I kept the menus in v2.6 the same as in v2.5 to minimize the need to re-learn commands. The programs where changed considerably behind the menus, and thousands of lines of code where altered and or completely rewritten.

DANCAD3D.COM v2.6C (tm) was the successor to DANCAD3D.COM v2.5H (tm). DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6 was the first version to allow working on drawings of almost "unlimited" size in a single workspace. So long as you have free space on your harddisk, up to about 2GB under DOS 6.22, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6 (and v2.7) will expand the size of the workspace to allow drawings with millions of line segments. The amount of free RAM no longer limits the number of drawing line segments available, although there needs to be enough free RAM for the program(s) to load properly.

If you need to work on a drawing larger than the maximum size of your free disk space, you can use the same techniques that worked with v2.5, i.e. reload the workspace several times, and plot additional lines onto a page file or drawing. You can store parts of a very large drawing on CD-R disks, and write a macro file to prompt you to enter the correct disk in order to combine the parts of the drawing on a JET page file for printing.

DANCAD3D.COM v2.6C (tm) had these programming goals:

DANCAM.EXE v2.6 (tm) and DANPLOT.EXE v2.6 (tm) had these programming goals:

Below I will take up some of the listed improvements and add additional information. Remember that v2.6 was a transitional version between the widely distributed v2.5 and the revised v2.7 which rounded out some of the improvements that where made to v2.6. Some of the features that v2.6 lacked have been added in v2.7 so be sure to read the current documentation before concluding that some desirable feature is absent.

In order to make DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6 more useful I rewrote much of the program to use virtual memory, thereby, for the most part, removing the problem of the "out of lines" error that you would get in v2.5 if you filled up the workspace. The virtual memory will expand the drawing work-space up to about 2GB in size so long as you have storage space free on your harddisk. The maximum free space available on your harddisk may depend on what version of DOS you are using, DOS 6.22 or the equivalent is recommended. Digitizer tablet support makes the CAD programs useful for tasks that are not possible to do without a digitizer tablet, since the tablet allows somewhat accurate tracing and measurements. The Files Save and Load Industry sub-menus might be usable for some limited file importing and exporting.

Note that the v2.6 system of my programs may not operate well or at all on computers faster than about 133MHz to 166MHz. Changes where made in v2.7 that allow my programs to operate on computers up to at least 733MHz and possibly faster.

Note that v2.6 of my programs did not run well or at all under Windows 95 (tm). Changes where made to my programs in v2.7 to help the CAD programs operate in a DOS window under Windows 95 (tm). Although my CAM programs in v2.7 might be able to be operated to some extent in a DOS window under Windows 95 (tm) some features may be degraded or just not work properly, so when using Windows 95 (tm) you should make a "DOS 95" boot floppy disk, and reboot your computer from the "DOS 95" boot floppy disk before running v2.7 of my CAM programs.

Because so much of DANCAD3D.COM (tm)'s code had been changed some commands may work a little slower or faster than in v2.5. In many cases I had to include more than one method of operation in the commands to optimize the execution speed depending on the amount of free RAM memory and the location of the drawing elements within DANCAD3D.COM (tm)'s workspace.

In some of the operational modes of some of the commands temporary files are created, therefore it is important that you keep as much free disk space free as possible, and that you locate the workspace file on a drive other than the drive the CAD programs are operating in whenever possible, so that both the program and the workspace file have lots of free disk space to expand into.

In previous versions of DANCAD3D.COM (tm) the size of the drawing workspace was limited by the amount of RAM installed in your computer, i.e. up to 640KB. DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6C (and v2.7) allows you to make drawings that are larger than your DOS RAM because DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6C will try to automatically swap data in and out of your computer's system RAM to and from your harddisk so that more data can be held in the workspace, i.e. the "workspace file" on your harddisk.

Each line segment in DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6C takes about 40 bytes so 32MB of hard disk space may allow drawings with up to about 750,000 line segments. With 2GB free on your disk you might get up to about 50,000,000 line segments to work with in a single workspace, although the limit may be less with some commands since they create temporary files that may take up some disk space. DANCAD87.COM (tm) uses about 52 bytes per line segment, and so gives fewer lines free for a given amount of free disk space. Since your drawings will probably have less than 50,000 line segments you should now have enough capacity. As with previous versions, you can combine more than one workspace to make drawings with more lines in them than can fit in one workspace at a time, i.e. by using the JET or DOT page files, by using the video screen through the macro DISPLAY command, or by using the PostScript (tm) or plotter drivers that let you superimpose plots.

Because the workspace is larger than the amount of memory in the 640KB DOS system DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6C (and v2.7) needs to make temporary files on your harddisk to hold parts of the drawing. DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6C (and v2.7) requires that you have free space on your harddisk at all times while DANCAD3D.COM (tm) is being used. A disk full error will probably result in the loss of some or all of the drawing data since the current command will not be able to write temporary files. For many users, if you have more than 20MB free on your harddisk when you enter DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6C the program may operate for simple drawings. If you know that you are going to work on an especially complex drawing you can make sure that you have more harddisk space free, up to about 2.1GB on the "workspace file" drive. The workspace files can be on another drive than the one the CAD program is installed in, if your harddisk is partitioned or you have two harddisks installed in your computer. To change the workspace drive use the command that is in the small menu that comes up over the CAD program opening screen when you first run the program each time.

Always quit DANCAD3D.COM (tm) (or my other programs) back to the DOS prompt before you turn your computer off, (or re-boot, or close the DOS window) otherwise the workspace file will not be closed properly and you will have "lost clusters" on your harddisk. If you have a power failure while running DANCAD3D.COM (tm) you will need to run the DOS program CHKDSK /F or the DOS SCANDISK command to recover the lost clusters. You will need to delete the FILE0???.CHK file(s) created by CHKDSK or SCANDISK in order to free the recovered disk space. If you lose the workspace file the workspace will not restore when you run the CAD program again, so you should always save back-up copies of your drawing elements while you are working on a drawing to avoid losing your work when something goes wrong.

The number of elements available in DANCAD3D.COM (tm)'s workspace at one time was increased from 256 in v2.5 to 999 in v2.6. The value was kept to 999 since a higher value would have mandated changing the file naming convention for the Elements file type. If you find that you need to add additional elements beyond 999 you can use the Join command to consolidate some elements already in the workspace. Some commands may make use of some elements in addition to the elements that were in the workspace before the command is operated, so the actual number of elements you can use may be less than 999. Some commands, particularly in v2.7, make quite a few elements while they work, so when using those commands it might be best to start the command with only the elements that need to be in the workspace being in the workspace.

The Block text command can now be used with any font, i.e. my *.FON font file type, to do page layout since you will probably not run out of lines, so long as you have free space on the harddisk (up to 2.1GB in DOS 6.22). This is important if you want to make tool path files for DANPLOT.EXE (tm) that will have a lot of text, i.e. engraved plaques and such. In v2.7 the size of the font table was increased to allow improved fonts to be held there, but such improved fonts will not load properly in v2.5 or v2.6. Fonts made for v2.5 or v2.6 will probably load into v2.7.

In the small menu that comes up over DANCAD3D.COM (tm)'s opening screen an option has been added to allow you to change the file drive and path that will be used to open and save the drawing workspace file. You can have more than one workspace preserved in a workspace file if you change the workspace file path before entering DANCAD3D.COM (tm)'s main menu. If you attempt to run more than one copy of DANCAD3D.COM (tm) on your system (under a multi- tasking environment) each copy of DANCAD3D.COM (tm) must be in a different sub-directory to avoid file conflicts of the many temporary files created. You should probably not try to use v2.6 of my CAD and CAM programs in a multi-tasking environment. Changes where made to v2.7 to help the CAD programs to run better under Windows 95 (tm). In v2.7 where more than one DOS window is open at one time, you need to be sure that none of the programs in the various windows share or try to access any of the same files, hardware, or ports since such competition may evoke various negative issues and cause problems. It is probably best not to try to use my CAM programs in such a multi-tasking environment, although v2.7 might give limited service, e.g. some features like overdrive ramping not being used, for some non-critical applications if it is the only program running on the computer, but be sure to calibrate the CAM program's timing and feed rates beforehand. If two windows are open running two copies of my v2.7 CAD programs in different sub-directories, the drawing workspace files would also need to be in different sub-directories.

When you go from DANCAD3D.COM (tm)'s main menu to the Write command (text editor) the program no longer asks you if you want to save or abort the elements in the workspace in v2.6 and v2.7, since the workspace is on the harddisk all the time while you are using the program. Never turn your computer off until you have the program Quit back to the DOS prompt, even if your are in the Write command. Do not re-boot your computer until after you have quit my programs back to the DOS prompt.

If you have several megabytes of RAM memory in your computer and you can create a RAM disk, the workspace file can be re- located to the RAM disk to speed up some operations when drawings are large enough to occupy more than one "memory chunk" in the workspace file. Re-locating all of DANCAD3D.COM (tm) to a RAM disk may result in more speed improvement, but would require a RAM disk of about 20MB or more. Remember that the RAM disk vanishes when you turn your computer off, and so any files you wish to retain need to be saved to your harddisk before you turn your system off. Any output macro that you make should only be saved to a physical disk drive. You can use the Files Save Elements command to save the workspace to a physical drive before you Quit the program.

When you quit DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6 or v2.7 to DOS you have three options, Save, Preserve, and Abort. Save and Abort work about as they did in v2.5. Preserve allows you to Quit DANCAD3D.COM (tm) without erasing the workspace file, you can then quickly re-enter DANCAD3D.COM (tm) to continue working on the drawing. Preserve works so long as you do not decrease the amount of free DOS RAM on your system between the time you quit DANCAD3D.COM (tm) and run the program again. If you are going to decrease the amount of free DOS RAM you will need to use the Save option to "preserve" the workspace beforehand. The Save workspace option is slower than the Preserve workspace option since each element will be in a separate file, which can be up to 1000 files if you have 999 elements in the workspace, the 1000th file is *.SET for the element center data. Do not save large file sets to the root directory of your harddisk since the number of filenames available may be limited by the DOS version you are using, you may get a "false" disk full error.

Digitizer tablet support was added in to the CAD programs v2.6 for absolute distance drawing and tracing. I chose to add support for the CalComp Drawing Board II series of tablets. The drawing editor cursor can be controlled for drawing to absolute distances, and the buttons on the tablet "cursor" or pen can be used to activate some commands. The tablet seems to work on my system, but since this feature has had limited field testing I do not know if there are any compatibility problems with other computers, so if you are going to buy a tablet for use with DANCAD3D.COM (tm) try to try the tablet out first with DANCAD3D.COM (tm) to see if it works on your computer, be sure to follow the set-up instructions carefully for the set up of the digitizer tablet.

As of the time I am revising this section the CalComp Drawing Board II series tablet is still the only tablet supported by v2.7, but I may make some changes someday, so check the documentation current to the latest revision for current information about the digitizer tablet interface.

A "free hand" drawing mode was added for tablet users to trace and draw curves while one of the "cursor" buttons is held down. This free hand drawing mode can be used to make sketch like drawings, perhaps more particularly if a pen shaped tablet cursor controller is used.

With DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6 and v2.7 you can use a CalComp "Drawing Board II" (tm) type digitizing tablet to make drawings or trace drawings. The tablet measures distances in an absolute way, and so can be used for making measurements of angles and distances, on drawings or photographs, by using DANCAD3D.COM (tm)'s measure command, i.e. in the drawing editor.

The tablet must be turned on and set up before you run DANCAD3D.COM (tm). To activate the tablet control of the drawing cursor press [F2] while in the drawing editor, or select [T]ablet from the drawing editor's [S]et-up menu. Do not try to turn the tablet use on if the tablet and serial port have not been configured properly, since activating the tablet without the tablet being ready will make the program lock up. If you forget to have the tablet ready before you activate the tablet interface you will need to reboot your computer and run the DOS commands CHKDSK (tm) or SCANDISK (tm) to recover the lost clusters on your harddisk, you will also lose whatever was in the drawing workspace. Do not activate the tablet interface unless you have properly set up the tablet.

The tablet supersedes the mouse & cursor keys in the control of the drawing cursor. To return control of the drawing cursor to the mouse or cursor keys press [F2] again. Use the [F2] key to change between the tablet and the mouse & cursor keys while drawing.

Read the help screen in the [F2] menu for a listing of the tablet "cursor" button functions. "Cursors" with up to 16 buttons are supported. The one or two button pens, as well as the 4 button cursors can also be used.

To set up your tablet for use do these things:

1. Connect the tablet to the serial port and then turn your tablet on.

2. Run the external DOS command C:\DOS\MODE COM1:9600,N,8,1,P

3. Run the CalComp driver: C:\CALDB\CCMOUSE.COM

4. Run the CalComp utility: C:\CALDB\RMDRV.EXE

5. Click the tablet cursor, using the cursor button, on the "Config/Exit" mark on the top of the tablet, the tablet should beep once and the power and configuration lights will go from dark to lighting up.

6. Put the tablet cursor on the "Bank/B" mark on the top of the tablet, the power light should be out, then click the cursor button, the tablet will beep and the power light will come on.

7. Click the tablet cursor on the "Configuration/Macros- #18" mark on the top of the tablet, the tablet will beep and the power light will go out. If the light comes on, click again, because the whole point of fiddling with the tablet configuration is to turn "B-18" off.

8. Click the tablet cursor on the "Save-#1-Default" mark on the top of the tablet, the tablet will beep twice and the power light will flash.

9. Click the tablet cursor on the "Config/Exit" mark on the top of the tablet, the tablet should beep and the power and configuration lights will become dark.

10. Run DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6 or v2.7, select [D]raw, select [F]ront view, select [D]raw, press [F2], select the use of the tablet. The tablet cursor should then move the drawing cursor around, if not something is wrong. If the tablet "cursor" goes outside the tablet active area the tablet power light will blink, and DANCAD3D.COM (tm) will "go dead" until you put the tablet "cursor" back in the tablet active area. Depending on how you have the zoom set in the drawing editor, the drawing cursor can go off the side of the screen when you move the tablet "cursor" around (if you cannot see the drawing cursor on the screen zoom out with the [-] & [*] keys until you see what area the tablet covers in your drawing.)

Steps 5 through 9 only need to be done once since the tablet will remember the setting of its configuration "buttons", i.e. #B18 being set off. Steps 2 through 4 can be put in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file so they will automatically be done when your computer is powered on. Step 1 will not be a problem, remembering to turn on the tablet, if you have your computer plugged into a power strip with a switch, so that the power supply for the tablet will be turned on when you turn the power strip for your computer on (leave the power switch on the tablet on all the time.)

So all you will have to do normally is press [F2] while drawing in DANCAD3D.COM (tm), all the other steps are done automatically by the tablet and your computer after you set them up once.

The "button" Bank B: #18 is used to set the "CTS Line Enable" to the state 0/OFF. You will probably also want to set "button" Bank B: #10 to state 0/OFF to turn off the tablet pen click off, because DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6 and v2.7 make a click AFTER the cursor button press is detected, whereas the tablet clicks before DANCAD3D.COM (tm) has read the tablet, and may cause you to let the button up on the tablet "cursor" before DANCAD3D.COM (tm) knows the button was pressed. The click DANCAD3D.COM (tm) makes when the tablet "cursor" button is pressed and released can be selected from the menu that comes up when you press [F2] in the drawing editor.

Recommended settings for the tablet configuration would be:

CONFIG # 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
BANK A   1  1  0  1  0  1  0  0  1  1  0  0  0  1  0  0  0  1
BANK B   0  0  1  1  1  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  1  0

The DOS command MODE can be put in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. So can the executable files CCMOUSE.COM & RMDRV.EXE that should have come on a floppy disk with your tablet. See Appendix B in the CalComp Drawing Board II User's Guide, Configurations, for the meaning of the tablet settings.

BE SURE THAT YOUR TABLET IS TURNED ON BEFORE YOU BOOT YOUR COMPUTER, SO THE TABLET CAN BE SET UP BY THE PROGRAMS IN YOUR AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE EACH TIME THE COMPUTER IS TURNED ON.

DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6 and v2.7 use data format "CalComp 9100 Format #1", which is an ASCII data format with a resolution of 0.001 inch. The actual accuracy you can get moving the cursor by hand is about 0.01 inch, so although the tablets can give smaller values in other data formats the extra resolution only makes it harder to hold the tablet cursor still enough to get particular position values. In the tablet menu, you get by pressing [F2] in DANCAD3D.COM (tm)'s drawing editor, you can change the minimum increment that the drawing cursor will move as you move the tablet "cursor" (use larger increment values to make drawing straight lines easier.)

DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6 and v2.7 should automatically adjust to the size of your tablet, i.e. tablets come in different sizes from 12" by 12" to table top size for large drawings. You can change the center point of the tablet relative to DANCAD3D.COM (tm)'s workspace center to enable you to work on drawings larger than your tablet, see the tablet menu in the drawing editor.

For general drawing using a track-ball or mouse will probably be more useful since DANCAD3D.COM (tm) has special processing of the mouse input to make drawing straight lines easier. Processing the tablet input would defeat the purpose of using an absolute position input device. If you can afford both a mouse or track-ball and a tablet they complement each other because the mouse or track-ball is good for general drawing, and the tablet is necessary for tracing accurately.

A new sub-menu was added to DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6's drawing editor to hold some new drawing editing commands. To use some, or all, of these commands you must already have an element in the workspace, since they manipulate elements rather than create elements.

The [J]ockey element sub-menu was added to DANCAD3D.COM (tm) in v2.6 to add some additional manipulations of elements. The [M]edian command lets you center an element on any axis or combination of axis, and on the element center or the drawing workspace center. The [F]it-size command lets you have an element fit a "rectangular" volume, e.g. if the volume is not the same proportions as the element, the element will be distorted to fit. [R]everse reverses the order of the line segments in an element, and so does not change the appearance of the element, but does let you have an element plot in reverse and so is useful in preparing CNC or CAM tool paths. The [L]evel command lets you "level" an element. The [L]evel command is useful to "level" an element created by using a digitizer tablet to trace a drawing or photograph, it is nearly impossible physically to tape a photo level to 0.001 inch on the tablet, so use [L]evel later and you do not need to fuss. [L]evel works by having you pick two points that line up on the horizontal or vertical, misalignment up to 44.9 degrees is allowed. [S]plit lets you "break" an element into two parts by grouping the lines into two elements, the appearance of the element does not change. The [F]ind-points command in the [L]ines sub-menu can be useful in finding the line segment to [S]plit the element at.

Some new macro commands have been added to correspond to some of the commands added to the [J]ockey sub-menu:

# number MEDIAN center mode

WHERE: number = Element number to act on.

       center = C, Center point, use elements current center.
                Z, Zero point, use workspace center 0, 0, and 0.

       mode   = X, Center X axis only.
                Y, Center Y axis only.
                Z, Center Z axis only.
                F, Front, Center X and Y axis, do not change Z.
                S, Front, Center Z and Y axis, do not change X
                T, Front, Center Z and X axis, do not change Y
                A, All, Center X, Y, and Z.

MEDIAN is useful for centering a drawing before you try to print it out, or save the drawing to a file. You should wait to use the MEDIAN command to center your drawing until the drawing is finished because all the points in the drawing can become odd decimal fractions which might make drawing or adding more lines a little harder.

# number FIT_SIZE mode x1 y1 z1 x2 y2 z2

WHERE: number = Element number to act on.

       mode   = I, Isotropic, without distortion.
                A, Anisotropic, fits to all axis.

       x1     = First corner point X of volume to fit.
       y1     = First corner point Y of volume to fit.
       z1     = First corner point Z of volume to fit.

       x2     = Other corner point X of volume to fit.
       y2     = Other corner point Y of volume to fit.
       z2     = Other corner point Z of volume to fit.

If you pick corners for a volume that is not an exact fit for the maximum dimensions of your element, and you use the Isotropic mode, the dimension that has the largest maximum distance will be used to fit the element to the volume, and the other axis will be smaller than the volume you marked. With Anisotropic mode the element will not be distorted if it is an exact fit to your volume, and it will be distorted to fit on all dimensions if your volume is not an exact fit to the shape of your element. Use the Magnify command and the Drag or Offset commands if you want to fit elements manually. If you are working with a 2D element, i.e. a drawing made in the front view, you can set the Z axis volume corner values to 0.

# number REVERSE

WHERE: number = Element number to act on.

REVERSE reverses the line segment order in an element. The REVERSE command was revised between v2.6 and v2.7 so that in v2.7 if you select element 0 as the source element the order of the elements in the workspace will also be reversed, this allows you to use REVERSE twice combined with APPEND to insert line segments in reverse order before element one.

Menu command LEVEL in v2.6, v2.7A, and v2.7B codes using a macro ROTATE command, and so should be coded using the automatic Output macro feature. Macros coded using the LEVEL command in these versions will only level the original element the marked points where taken off of, changing the element loaded would require new points to be marked. Since you need to look at the loaded element in order to see what points to mark, the LEVEL command in these revisions is manually operated.

# number SPLIT line

WHERE: number = Element number to act on.
       line   = Workspace line number to be last line of first part.

To help find the line number to SPLIT an element, look at the commands in the Lines edit sub-menu of the drawing editor.

The Jockey commands should generally be used as the last step if you act on more than one element. You may need to reset the element center(s) after using MEDIAN or FIT_SIZE if you are going to edit individual elements some more.

See also Appendix B of the DANCAD3D.COM (tm) documentation for more information about these and the other Macro commands.

Some new macro commands were added in v2.6 for the Industry standard file formats sub-menu. Most, or all, of the commands in the Files Load Industry sub-menu only read a small sub-set of the commands in each file type, and so may not read your files that you have created with some other program. Always inspect the elements that you load using the commands in the Files Load Industry sub-menu with the Drawing editor or Preview commands to be sure that the elements are complete and proper before using the loaded elements for any purpose or inclusion in a tool path or drawing.

Some additions and changes where made to the Files Save Industry and Files Load Industry sub-menus in v2.7 so see also the documentation about changes made to these sub-menus in v2.7.

To load a HP-GL file with a sub-set of the command set:

LOAD HPGL filename.ext mode scale

WHERE: mode   = 0, HPGL center point, normally, drawing in one quadrant.
                1, Centered, center the drawing around the workspace center.
                2, Same as 0, but with 90 degrees of Z axis rotation.
                3, Same as 1, but with 90 degrees of Z axis rotation.

       scale  = 1 for inch, or some other value to change drawing's size.

To save a HPGL file to disk the special driver HPGL.STF is used with the PLOT command. When the PLOT command uses a *.STF driver the installed port or filename is replaced with the current value of the string variable with the name FILENAME.USE, so the name of the file you want to create needs to be assigned to FILENAME.USE before you use the PLOT command with the *.STF driver(s).

LET$ FILENAME.USE = "YOURFILE.HPG"
# 0  PLOT 0 0 0 -1.0E+18 240 1 0 0 DRIVERS\HPGL.STF

The drivers ADOBE_PS.STF and DXF.STF work the same way.

LET$ FILENAME.USE = "YOURFILE.PS"
# 0  PLOT 0 0 0 -1.0E+18 240 1 0 0 DRIVERS\ADOBE_PS.STF

LET$ FILENAME.USE = "YOURFILE.DXF"
# 0  PLOT 0 0 0 -1.0E+18 240 1 0 0 DRIVERS\DXF.STF

Two other DXF save commands are available, one for saving 2D projections, and one for saving 3D vectors. The DXF2D save file command uses the same parameters as the DANCAD3D.COM (tm) 2D- REAL save file command.

# 0  SAVE DXF2D 0 0 0 -1.0E+18 240 1 0 0 YR2DFILE.DXF

# 0  SAVE DXF3D YR3DFILE.DXF

To save G&M code files use the Files Save Industry G-code Install menu to configure, then the macro command:

# 0  SAVE GCODE YOURFILE.G

The SAVE GCODE command uses the current settings in the special driver DANCAD3D.GCS or DANCAD87.GCS in v2.7. To make changes to those drivers you use the commands in the Files Save Industry G code command.

In v2.7 a LOAD GCODE sub-set command was added to complement the SAVE GCODE command added in v2.6.

These macro commands should automatically be coded by v2.6 into your macro file when you use the macro automatic Output feature.

Industry type files saved from my programs may not work with your particular software that you are trying to use. Industry type files created by other programs may not load into my programs properly. In some cases you may be able to edit the files with a text editor in order to fix the particular problem, or write a small program in BASIC, or some other computer language, to alter the file in some way to make the files more readable.

As was mentioned v2.7 added some more ways to import and export drawing data for use in different ways so that you can try to include imported elements from scanned drawings and such, those additions are discussed in the v2.7 update documentation.

DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6 added support for string variables to the macro language, v2.0 through v2.5H had only supported numeric variables. String variables are used to substitute for the parameters to the macro commands that are not numbers, i.e. filenames, words, and letters. The primary use of the string variables would be to allow you to input filenames, and pass lettering strings to the macro LETTERING command.

New macro commands to work with strings are: LET$, INPUT$, and OUTPUT$. LET$ creates and initializes a string variable so the variable can be used. INPUT$ lets the user enter a string from the keyboard. OUTPUT$ displays the contents of a string variable on the video screen. OUTPUT$ can be used as a replacement for the ECHO macro command.

One subtlety of using the string variables needs some extra emphasis and explanation. When you enter just the variable name, without a preceding $, you are passing the variable name to the command literally, you would only pass the literal variable name to the few commands that use the variable name to act on the variable. If the variable name is preceded by a $ symbol then the contents of the variable are passed to the macro command. It is possible to have a string variable contain the name of another string variable and so there may be instances where either form would be permissible, and so the program cannot tell if you want the name of the variable or the contents of the variable without you explicitly telling the program which one you mean by using the $ symbol. Normally you would want the contents of the variable supplied when a string variable is used for a string or variable name, and so the variable name would be preceded with the $ symbol, i.e. $MYSTRING.VAR and such.

String variables are saved as individual disk files, the variable name can be a full filename including a path. String variables can be saved to a RAM disk to speed up access, e.g. E:\VARNAME.1 and the like. Since string variables are filenames be careful that you do not use an important filename for a string variable name. You can have as many string variables as your disks will hold.

String constants are put between two quotation marks, e.g. "SOME". It is possible to combine string variables and string constants by using the square brackets, e.g. [ "A B" + $SV1 + $SV2 + " C D. " ]. If you do not want a string and one is called for by the macro command you can pass a null string with "". If a string constant needs to contain a quotation mark you can follow the quotation mark in the string with a percent symbol and the macro processor will ignore the quotation mark in the middle of the string, e.g. ""%WOW!"%" assigns "WOW!" to the string, where as "WOW!" would be WOW!.

EXAMPLE: LET$ STRVAR.123 = "This is a "%special"% case."

In order to bring up a file directory a pre-defined string constant variable name DIR is in the macro environment. By using $DIR "*.*" you can get a file directory to come up and when you select a filename the selected filename will be returned like the contents of a string variable. The string "*.*" following the $DIR is a default file mask used to select the filenames displayed in the directory.

EXAMPLE: LET$ varname = $DIR "*.*"

The LET$ command must be used before a string variable is used to initialize the variable.

LET$ varname = varvalue
LET$ varname = $DIR "mask"
LET$ varname = $DIR $varname

The varname is a filename. The varvalue can be either: a string constant ("S"), the contents of a string variable ($VARNAME), or a string statement between square brackets ([ "This " + "that." ]). The mask, used with the $DIR feature, is any file mask like one used with the DOS DIR command ("*.*", "*.MAC", "FONTS\*.FON", "?????SET.???"). When the string variable contains the name of a file or a file mask, the varname can be used as the default mask with the $DIR feature. Remember to initialize the variable that holds the default path.

The INPUT$ command lets the user enter strings while a macro is running. To make menus you would use the LOCATE, ECHO, and OUTPUT$ commands along with the INPUT$ command.

INPUT$ varname default

The varname is a filename. The second parameter, default, is a default string you want displayed. The default can be a string constant ("SOMETHING"), or a variable, including the variable being assigned. The statement INPUT$ VARNAME.4 $VARNAME.4 is valid if the variable has been previously assigned, and therefore is already on the harddisk, and lets the user edit what is already in the variable. The user can edit the string line of text displayed with the usual cursor keys, back-space, [Ins], and [Del]. The string is passed and the macro proceeds when the [Return] key is pressed.

EXAMPLE: TEXT
         LOCATE 1 2
         ECHO Enter string: %%
         INPUT$ VARNAME.4 ""

The OUTPUT$ command is normally used to display the contents of a string variable on the video screen.

OUTPUT$ $varname

The varname is a filename that was used as a string variable.

EXAMPLE: LOCATE 1 3
         LET$ VARNAME.4 = [ "The string is: " + $VARNAME.4 ]
         OUTPUT$ $VARNAME.4

If you want to have a string variable converted into a lettering element in the drawing workspace (to be included as part of a drawing) you can use the VAR$ operator as the text string parameter to the macro LETTERING command. The VAR$ operator replaces the text string when the macro LETTERING command is used. To use VAR$, you replace the text constant (on a macro code text line by itself) with VAR$, and place the name of the string variable, preceded by a dollar sign, i.e. $ (ASCII code number 36) on the macro code text line immediately below, the other parameters to the lettering command are placed on the next macro code text line, or lines, below the name of the string variable. Putting the $ symbol in front of the string variable name tells the macro processor that you want the contents of the variable used for the text.

VERSION v2.7A
; TITLE94.MAC, BEGIN EXAMPLE MACRO CODE USING VAR$
; Copyright (C) 1994, 2000, 2002 by Daniel H. Hudgins, All Rights Reserved.
; Check www.DANCAD3D.com (sm) for more information about this macro.

INIT

LET$ FONTNAME = "FONTS\*.FON"

; You can skip the initialization of the
; variables after the macro is run once.

LET$ LINE1 = "R.A.R. 2479"
LET$ LINE2 = "EI150,1-27-94"
LET$ LINE3 = "TWIN PEAKS"


TEXT
LOCATE 1 2
OUTPUT$ "Enter text line #1: "
INPUT$ LINE1 $LINE1

LOCATE 1 3
OUTPUT$ "Enter text line #2: "
INPUT$ LINE2 $LINE2

LOCATE 1 4
OUTPUT$ "Enter text line #3: "
INPUT$ LINE3 $LINE3

LOCATE 1 6
OUTPUT$ "Enter font name...: "
INPUT$ FONTNAME $DIR $FONTNAME

LOCATE 1 8
OUTPUT$ "Working..."

LETTERING
VAR$
$LINE1
0 -1.70 0  0 0 0  0.9 0.8
1 25 16 0    0 1 0.333333333 7
C J $FONTNAME

LETTERING
VAR$
$LINE2
0 0 0   0 0 0    0.9 0.8
1 25 16 0    0 1 0.333333333 7
C J $FONTNAME

LETTERING
VAR$
$LINE3
0 1.70 0   0 0 0  0.9 0.8
1 25 16 0    0 1 0.333333333 7
C J $FONTNAME


GRAPH_MODE B&W { Preview }
# 0  DISPLAY 0 0 0 -1.000E+18 200 1 0 0

LOCATE 1 25
OUTPUT$ "Press [Space] to continue..."

WAIT ; Wait for a Key to be pressed.

; END EXAMPLE MACRO CODE USING VAR$

The IF THEN GOTO command has been extended to include strings. To compare strings use the IF$ THEN GOTO command. Operators =, <, >, <=, >=, and <> are allowed.

EXAMPLE: IF$ $STRVAR1 >= $STRVAR2 THEN GOTO :LABEL123

As with all other aspects of the macro language keywords, operators, and parameters need to be separated by a space character.

Two new sub-menus were added to DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6 which are accessed from DANCAD3D.COM (tm)'s main menu. The menus are Files Load Industry, and Files Save Industry. Additions and changes where made to the commands in these sub-menus in v2.7.

The macro commands equivalent to the Load and Save Industry commands added in v2.6 where discussed above.

DANPLOT.EXE (tm)'s main menu option #2 was also altered in v2.6. DANPLOT.EXE (tm)'s menu option #2 was changed again in v2.7 so the information about what this option in DANPLOT.EXE (tm) did in v2.6 does not apply to v2.7 The conversion of HPGL sub-set files for plotting within DANPLOT.EXE (tm) was moved to the Files Load Industry sub-menus in the CAD programs. To plot a HPGL sub-set file using DANPLOT.EXE (tm) v2.7 first load the HPGL file into the CAD program's workspace, examine and edit the imported element, then use the Files Save ASCII command to make the tool path file for use with DANPLOT.EXE (tm) v2.7.

DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6 and v2.7 can read and write HPGL sub-set files that use only a sub-set of the HPGL commands, see the Files Load Industry HPGL and the Files Save Industry HPGL sub-menus. You might be able to use some other CAD type programs that make HPGL files that contain only HPGL commands PA, PR, PU, PD, and SP, to make drawings that DANCAD3D.COM (tm) can try to load. Use the other program's plotter driver for HP74XX or HP75XX type HP plotters, and have the data go to a disk file, rather than the plotter port. Scanned drawings may be able to be converted to HPGL data by using a third-party "Raster-to-Vector" program. When loading the HPGL sub-set drawing file four options are given for the centering of the loaded data. To alter the window clipping limits, DANCAD3D.COM (tm) uses when HPGL files are saved, edit DANCAD3D.COM (tm)'s HPGL.STF driver, with the Hardcopy Plotter Install command.

In DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.7 you can directly import scanned artwork by saving the image as a BMP line art file, thereby eliminating the need in many cases for the step of converting scanned images into HPGL files before importing them. See the Files Load Industry BMP command in v2.7 of the CAD programs. Color or gray scale BMP file images might also be imported by using the commands in the Files Utilities sub-menu in v2.7 of the CAD programs.

DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6 and v2.7 may be able to save line segments to a subset of a DXF type data into a file, see the Files Save Industry sub-menu. Options for saving the data as 2D perspective or 3D data are given in the DXF sub-menu. Files saved by the DXF commands only use a subset of DXF commands and may not load, or may not load properly, into other programs that read DXF data. Even if the files load, the results may not satisfy your requirements. Using one of the other file types may work better. You might also be able to scan in printout made by DANCAD3D.COM (tm) in the normal way, to use in your other program.

In v2.7 if you want to include a drawing in some document you might do better to save the drawing as a BMP type graphics file.

DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6 and v2.7 can write line segments using a sub-set of PostScript (tm) commands into a drawing file, see the Files Save Industry Postscript sub-menu. The Laser command in the Hardcopy sub-menu is set up to output PostScript (tm) (using the *.LZR drivers) or HPGL/2 (using the LJIII???.PLT drivers) directly to a laser printer. If you use a serial port to send drawings to your laser printer, you should use the DOS MODE command to set the serial port to match your laser printer's serial port settings before you run the CAD programs.

In v2.7 if you want to include a drawing in some document you might do better to save the drawing as a BMP type graphics file.

DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6 and v2.7 can write line segments using a sub-set of G code commands to a file, for making CNC tool path files, see the Files Save Industry sub-menu. M codes can also be installed to be included in the file made. You can configure DANCAD3D.COM (tm) to convert different line colors used in the drawing of your tool path, to become corresponding feed rates in your G code tool path file saved.

In v2.7 you can also output G codes directly while using some of the drawing editor commands while you are drawing the tool path file. This output of the G codes lets you output arc commands G02 and G03 as well as the movement commands G00 and G01. See the NC sub-menu in v2.7's CAD drawing editor.

DANCAM.EXE (tm) and DANPLOT.EXE (tm) were expanded in v2.6 to create tool path files as well as execute tool path files. A special version of the Jog command called the Teach mode allows you to move the tool around, record the movements you made to a file, then that file can be used to replay the motions.

The Jog command was altered to support the Joy-stick, and display position in large numbers, i.e. DRO.

The home up to switches was improved to support ramping and have a digital noise filter to correct for noise in the switch contacts.

The configuration menus were altered.

DANCAM.EXE (tm) and DANPLOT.EXE (tm) in v2.6 and v2.7 can use the Joy-stick to move one, two, or three motors at once. The Joy-stick is installed with the configuration sub-menu option #1, i.e. board types, etcetera. If you have a Joy- stick that has a throttle control the throttle can operate the Z axis. If your Joy-stick does not have a throttle control you can connect a second Joy-stick whose "Y" axis will control the Z axis of your automated machine.

The Joy-stick port, a.k.a. game port, pin out is given in SECTION: 3.2.40.0. You can wire up a high quality Joy-stick using the pin out information if you want something better than the available game type PC joy sticks. If you use a Joy-stick extension cable be sure that the cable has all the pins wired or else the Z axis may not work.

In the teach mode the buttons on the Joy-stick work like the [Ins] and [Del] keys in DANCAD3D.COM (tm)'s drawing editor. When teaching in DANPLOT.EXE (tm) the tool should be in the "down" position while marking lines, since DANPLOT.EXE (tm) tool path files only contain the line segments for the tool down condition, movements while the tool is up are implied by the "gaps" between disconnected parts of the drawing.

Be sure that the Joy-stick centering controls are at their center point when configuring the Joy-stick so that the Joy- stick will have its proper full range when used. You may need to fiddle with the centering controls, and redo the configuration, to get the full range from +100 to -100 in the Joy-stick testing screen in the configuration sub-menu set up. You should use a good quality Joy-stick to avoid problems with the stick flopping off center, since if the Joy-stick's springs do not keep the Joy-stick centered when not in use the motors may begin to rotate.

Reversal of the Joy-stick direction orientation is available in the configuration menu, e.g. to make up for the motor direction differences. If you have servo motors on your automated machine, an option to have the motor ramping off in the Jog and teach mode commands is available, since only with the ramping off can the motors reach top speed while jogging with the Joy-stick (because the program does not know when you will let up on the Joy-stick.) When jogging with servo motors and the ramping off in the jog and teach modes you should "let up" on the Joy-stick slowly to avoid having the motors overshoot their commanded position.

Some Joy-stick boards only support one Joy-stick so the use of the throttle control for the Z axis will not work when using such game port boards. When using the game port on a sound board you may need to run a driver program before the game port will be enabled.

In v2.7 support for a handwheel incremental encoder that uses some pins on the game port not used by the Joy-stick was added, this lets you turn a handwheel to rotate the motors on your automated machine at different speeds. Also added in v2.7 was an analog scanning probe input through the game port that allows DANPLOT.EXE (tm) to scan photographs, drawings, and other objects in your automated machine.

You can now jog the tool (or work-piece) around to mark out line segments for an ASCII tool path file. The tool path created with DANCAM.EXE (tm) or DANPLOT.EXE (tm) can be edited with DANCAD3D.COM (tm).

You can exit the teach mode and re-enter the teach mode later to append additional line segments. The motor power must be on and the tool at the "home" reference point when you enter the teach mode in order for the motion to be repeated accurately later.

The way to make a tool path file is to jog the tool to the starting point of a line segment (i.e. the starting point of the tool motion to be saved to the tool path file) and click the Joy-stick button #1 then move the tool to the other end of the line segment and click the Joy-stick button #2. You can also use the [Ins] and [Del] keys (and the cursor keys) on the keyboard to save lines to the teach file. This "drawing" of the lines in the teach mode works just like drawing lines in DANCAD3D.COM (tm)'s drawing editor. The orientation of the Y axis (or the others) may be reversed from DANCAD3D.COM (tm) depending on how you installed the scaling factors in DANCAM.EXE (tm) or DANPLOT.EXE (tm). How your motors are installed and are wired up can also reverse how the tool path looks in DANCAD3D.COM (tm), you may need to use FLIP in DANCAD3D.COM (tm) before and after you edit the tool path to see and edit things the right way around, then Flip it back before saving for using in your machine.

You might be able to make quasi curves by activating the curve fitting option of the teach mode. The curve fitting option might let you mark a few points on a curve, then the curve fitting option should smooth out the curve, and append the smooth curve to the open tool path file you are saving. The maximum cord length on the curve made is user selectable. The curve fitting option in the teach mode was revised in v2.7.

You can change the "line color" sent to the ASCII file while you are in the teach mode, see the menu of commands in the teach mode.

In v2.7 the option of loading "canned" tool cycles, or other preset motions or symbols, at the tool position was added. The units displayed can be selected in v2.7. In v2.7 the feed rates used while in the teach mode, and saved to the teach mode tool path file saved, can be selected to correspond to time and distance values through the settings made in the feed rate table for various line colors. In v2.7 a pop up menu lets you select many of the teach mode commands with your mouse.

In the Jog and teach modes you can have the measurement of the position displayed with large numbers to make the display easier to read from across the room. The digital read out, DRO, can measure "absolute" from the zero point (like the center of DANCAD3D.COM (tm)'s workspace), from the home position (which is set up in DANCAM.EXE (tm)'s or DANPLOT.EXE (tm)'s configuration menu), and from the "scratch pad" reference point. The scratch pad reference point can be reset while in the Jog command to make movements relative to the tool's current position when the scratch value is made zero. In the teach command the from "mark" point reading gives you the distance from the marked point or last point of a line segment saved. The "Jog" measurement is the movement relative to the position the tool was in when you entered the Jog command, you can exit and re-enter the Jog command and the position read out will be correct as long as the motors and electronics have not changed, i.e. you did not turn off your motors or re-home the machine.

When the, Jog or teach mode, small size numbers display is on the screen you can now read the angles of, and the total distance along, the line being measured. The distance can be 3D if X, Y, & Z are different.

In the Jog and teach mode commands you can now (post v2.5) enter the absolute or relative coordinate values, using the [G]oto command, for a desired position and the motors will have the tool travel to that point.

For the readings to be displayed to be accurate you need to have the tool at home, and have the motors power turned on, before you enter the Jog or teach mode commands. When the backlash compensation is used, for the backlash compensation to operate properly you need to keep in mind what direction the first move is in, just like starting the plotting of a file, so that the "slack" does not get taken up the wrong way around.

In v2.7 when the handwheel incremental encoder is selected the numbers for the axis selected for movement by the incremental encoder are highlighted in the DRO display. You can select the axis to have the incremental encoder to move by pressing the [X], [Y], or [Z] keys on the keyboard while the encoder is enabled.

Some improvements in the home switch operation were made in v2.6. A digital noise filter was added to compensate for intermittent false signals that can arise from micro switches. The digital noise filter can also help if what triggers the switch has a tendency to "sag" back so that the switch changes state without the motor making a step (which might happen from vibration or motor overshoot.) If the motor speed ramping is active the motors will now "ramp up" until they reach full speed or a home switch toggles. Having the motors "ramp down" is not possible since the location of the home switches is "unknown," which is why the home switches are used, i.e. to find the home position. Since the travel to home does not ramp down, if servo motors are used, the home switches should have enough "over travel" to compensate for the overshoot i.e. when the final move toward home is made the speed is reduced to minimize the effect of overshoot. A small display was added during the "move home to switches" to display the status of the home switch inputs on the parallel port, as an aid in debugging your home switch Hook-up.

In v2.6 the timing procedure was somewhat improved for control of the feed rate for any value of the stepping delay entered.

In v2.7 the feed rate control was changed to work in time and distance units. In v2.7 the feed rate table was changed and allows the selection of various features controlled by 127 line colors. In v2.7 the user can select the type of units used for the time and distance values entered. The CAM programs where altered in v2.7 to operate on a broad range of computer speeds from very slow to faster than v2.6 could be used on. A p.w.f. increaser was introduced in v2.7 to allow slow stepper motors to be operated from very fast computers. The maximum feed rate was improved in v2.7. Also in v2.7 a rapid motion type was added in addition to the previous linear motion type, this along with overdrive ramping can allow stepper motors to make more rapid motions under some circumstances.

The motor testing commands were improved in v2.6. The regular ramping below the pull in p.w.f. is now turned off during some of the motor test options, to reduce erroneous results. The backlash compensation has also been defeated so that the motor will stop at the "starting position" after some of the tests. Motor test #2, the start and stop test, has been expanded to help catch motor resonance problems that might allow the motor to pass the test with too small of a p.w.f. value. When you use motor test #2, the start and stop test, it is generally a good idea to increase the (minimum) value of the pull in p.w.f. found to have the motor come back to its starting point by about 20 percent to insure a margin of safety. In general when using servo motors the pull in p.w.f. would be set to 0, or a value that the servo motor can just keep up with without overrunning the counters in the servo driver module, and have the feed rate mostly controlled with the line color to feed rate configuration set up in the feed rate table. Try using the Jog commands to test servo motors, in order to get the motor up to its maximum speed on long movements. A menu option was added to the motor testing menu to allow the pull in p.w.f. to be changed without doing the tests, i.e. for testing servo motors with the ramping on in the Jog command.

Note that the above information about the motor testing applies to v2.6, subsequent versions may require, or offer, some different adjustments and commands to be used.

In v2.7 the feed rate table was changed to allow the feed rates to be entered as time and distance values. In the motor testing sub-menu of v2.7 there is an automatic self calibration command that you need to use after you do the motor testing so that the internal timing of the CAM programs will be adjusted to the speed of your computer in order for the CAM programs to calculate the time and distance for the various feed rates entered into the feed rate table for the various line color values that may be used in the tool path files executed.

Also added to the motor testing sub-menu in v2.7 is a second p.w.f. value for each axis, called the overdrive p.w.f. value. The overdrive p.w.f. is for use with stepper motors when you want the motors to make rapid point to point movements at speeds above the maximum speed obtainable using the regular pull in p.w.f. and linear type motion. The value for the overdrive p.w.f. would range from being equal to the regular pull in p.w.f. down to perhaps half that value, provided the over-voltage used for the stepper motors could get them to rotate that fast reliably. When the overdrive p.w.f. is not being used its value should be set to a value equal to the regular pull in p.w.f. In general the overdrive and rapid feed motion type would only be used with stepper motors, and not servo motors. When testing the overdrive p.w.f. value for each axis you would need to use the Jog command, which you can access from the motor testing sub-menu, since the motors will need to move over some distance in order to ramp up to their maximum speed using the overdrive ramping settings. When the overdrive ramping is used the regular ramping would normally not be used.

DANPLOT.EXE (tm) v2.6 was arranged to read a sub-set of HPGL commands and directly control the motors. In v2.7 the conversion of HPGL sub-set files is done by loading the HPGL sub-set file into DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.7 by using the Files Load Industry HPGL command, examining and editing the loaded line segments, then saving the tool path file with the Files Save ASCII command. In v2.7 there some specialized editing commands that allow you to extract drill points and optimize plotting order, so it is probably better to load the HPGL data into the CAD programs for processing rather than trying to plot a direct raw conversion in DANPLOT.EXE (tm) v2.6.

The HPGL sub-set commands supported are PA, PR, PU, PD, and SP. The SP, i.e. "select pen," command is converted to the current line color, and therefore will control the dwell (in v2.7), pause for machine operator, relays, and feed rate. Conversion of SP to line color is equivalent, e.g. pen #2 is tool path line color #2, pen #16 corresponds to line color 16, and so on.

Since only a sub-set of HPGL commands is supported you may not be able to load HPGL files made by the particular program you want to use, or you may need to change the plotter driver used by the program you want to use to make the HPGL file compatible with my programs.

In v2.7 you might try using the Files Load Industry BMP command in the CAD programs to convert scanned drawings and artwork into elements that can be edited for use as tool path files. There are also some commands in the Files Utilities sub-menu that can convert BMP images such as photographs and such into 3D elements that might be useful for making specialized tool path files.

The official v2.6 CAM program distribution included a v2.6 macro file, BIPOLAR2.MAC, that when run would generate the drawing files for the printed circuit board traces, the component placement drawing, and the hole location drawings of a special stepper motor driver circuit board. This BIPOLAR2 circuit board was for use with my CAM programs to operate some types of small two or four phase stepper motor.

Some of the information relating to BIPOLAR2 was moved from the revised CAMPLOT.DOC documentation to SECTION: 5.40.10.0.

Changes to the way some of the commands in DANCAD3D.COM (tm) v2.6 operate may cause macros (particularly automatic output macros) made with v2.5 to not produce the same result. The LATHE, THICKEN, WINDOW, and PURGE commands in v2.6 may make elements with a different number of line segments. The problems arise if the DELETE command, or ALTER line command were used in the same macro, since DELETE, or ALTER make direct reference to the line number in the workspace array, which would be different when the macro is run under v2.6. Macros created under v2.6 should run on v2.6 without too many problems. In general this is not a major problem for most users, but you may have to edit the line number references in some macros created on v2.5 if you want to run those macros on v2.6 (or v2.7).

Compatibility can be achieved, without manual editing of the old macro, if you run the old macro under v2.5H then save v2.5H's workspace as a set of Elements, then load the elements into v2.6 (or v2.7) with the automatic output macro turned on, then continue editing the drawing in v2.6 (or v2.7). This fix works because v2.6 (or v2.7) is loading whole elements rather than making line number references. The new v2.6 (or v2.7) output macro, which would start with INITIALIZE and LOAD ELEMENTS macro commands, would be used in place of the v2.5H macro for appending additional macro commands from v2.6 (or v2.7).

You might want to set the file buffers in your CONFIG.SYS file to BUFFERS=80, when you use v2.6, to speed up access to the overlay files. If you use SMARTDRV to cash your harddisk, try setting your buffers to BUFFERS=10.

In v2.7 the new VERSION macro command prevents macros that have not been edited to conform to the revised macro commands for v2.7 from running, so if you have written any macro files using macro commands from v2.5 or v2.6 you will need to edit your macro files to make the needed changes before you can run the macro files in v2.7. If you did not use any of the macro commands that have been changed you will just need to add the VERSION macro command at the top of the macro file. You can try to check and see if any of the macro commands you have used in your macro files have been changed by looking at the current information in any update files that may be included in the current distribution and also you can try to look at any of the revised on-line documentation, including Appendix B.

This revision of text from some of the legacy update documentation has been retained so that if you are upgrading from v2.5, or some even older version, you can get some idea of what changes were made in v2.6.

Since v2.6 may no longer be available, this section may only be relevant to registered users who already have the out of date versions mentioned.

This section is primarily about changes made from v2.5 to v2.6 of my programs, be sure to look over the current On- line documentation, particularly documentation for v2.7 and any other revisions that have been made.

Since v2.6 lacks many of the improvements included in v2.7 and since v2.6 may not operate properly, or at all, on newer fast computers, you will probably be upgrading directly from v2.5, or some previous version, to v2.7 or higher.