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 supplemental documentation, SECTION: 3.4, has text that adds to what is in the documentation that has been converted to HTML. This section is derived from several older documents by the author. You can help proofread the revised documentation to see if I missed bringing any of the text up to date. See also the other documentation in this Web site for additional information. If you are testing any version of my programs subsequent to v2.7 be sure and see what updated information, if any, goes with that version. Some information in this section will not apply to prior versions, since some commands have changes and other commands did not exist in those prior versions.

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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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This section supplements the information in the revised DANCAD3D.DOC, revised CAMPLOT.DOC, revised UPDATE26.DOC, revised UPDATE27.TXT and the other HTML documentation. You should read all of the other HTML documentation before you read this section, since the other sections give you some more general material. A brief description of the sections of the supplemental documentation follows, you can click on the index below to read the actual supplemental sections.

This tutorial, a revised version of Lesson 7 from the v2.5 documentation, is a step by step set of instructions that you can work through to better know where the commands are that are used to make a set of symbol files. The Alias symbol feature lets you load a symbol at the drawing cursor by pressing [Alt] and one of the number or letter keys. What symbol file will be loaded is determined by an Alias index file which the program uses to look up the filename that corresponds to a given key combination. The names of up to ten index files can be entered with DANCAD3D (tm) main menu's [C]hange command. The active Alias index file is selected by pressing [PgUp] while drawing. You can write or edit the Alias index file with the [W]rite command in DANCAD3D (tm)'s main menu. Loading Alias symbol files is the same as using the Load command, but is quicker since the symbols filenames to not need to be manually entered each time.

Click here to go to SECTION: 3.4.7.0, Tutorial Lesson 7: Making ALIAS files.

DANCAD3D (tm) has commands that can organize a set of drawings of the letters, numbers, and symbols into a font file, *.FON, that will work with the lettering commands. A font grid is used to make sure that the drawings are made to the right dimensions. You can create your own font files, including fonts in some foreign languages, by using the steps and commands in this Lesson 7, a revised version of Lesson 10 from the v2.5 documentation.

Click here to go to SECTION: 3.4.10.0, Tutorial Lesson 10: Making Fonts.

This is some information and discussion about writing macros. Some experience and knowledge of programming will help in making sense of this material.

DANCAD3D (tm)'s macro feature lets you make a file with commands in it and have the program run itself. Macros can be a simple list of a few commands or a quite involved program. The program can also "write" a macro for you by using the [O]utput macro command.

Click here to go to SECTION: 3.4.40.0, Macro information and discussion.

Appendix B contains information on macro commands currently available. Refer to Appendix B if you get an error message from your running macro. The most common error is leaving out one of the parameters that go with a macro command. The display of an error message will occur after the actual error most of the time since one number looks like any other, e.g. if an error is reported because you only gave five numbers to a macro command that requires six the error message will be triggered by the next macro command since the macro interpreter will think that the next command should be a number that belongs with the previous macro command. So work backwards from the end of the list of parameters until you find the parameter that is missing or in error. Also be sure that you use the # symbol to select the element number of the element to act on for those commands that act on the currently selected element.

If DANCAD3D (tm) v2.7 crashes, while a macro is running, look at Appendix G to check for the meaning of some error message that might be displayed. You may need to rewrite parts of your macro to work around bugs or mistakes.

Click here to go to SECTION: 3.4.52.0, Appendix B: Macro Commands.

DANCAD3D (tm)'s macro processor has some built in math functions, Appendix C lists many of them and gives some instruction on how to use the math functions in writing macro code. Appendix C also covers some similar aspects of String syntax.

Click here to go to SECTION: 3.4.53.0, Appendix C: Macro Math and String syntax.

Appendix D has some information on using the [W]rite command. The [W]rite command is in DANCAD3D (tm)'s main menu. Although some other ASCII text editors might be able to be used to edit your macro code, the [W]rite command is the text editor that would normally be used.

When you are using the [W]rite command press [F1] for a pop-up menu, then [T]utor to get some help screens that show the editing commands.

Click here to go to SECTION: 3.4.54.0, Appendix D: Editing macros.

When one of my CAD, CAM, or Utility programs crashes some error code numbers may be displayed, you can look in Appendix G to possibly get a clue as to what might have happened.

Click here to go to SECTION: 3.4.57.0, Appendix G: Error messages.

Many of the macro commands, as well as the ASCII drawing file format, specify the drawing line attributes by using a set of four numbers, i.e. color, width, shape, and style.

In general you should use the macro Output feature and the drawing editor to code the line attributes other than color and width. The shape and style attributes are complex since different bits in their value have special meanings.

For some "advanced users" knowing some of the details of how the line and triangle attributes are coded might be of interest. If you where going to write a program in some computer language to make element files for loading into my programs, knowing which bits do what might allow you to control more aspects of the element's display or processing. Likewise if you where going to write a program that would read element files saved from my programs, knowing something about the meaning of the file attributes might allow you to have your program do particular things when different attributes are detected in the elements saved. Attribute information might also be of interest for those who will be editing macro and ASCII files with the [W]rite command. Since many of the attributes where not meant to be manually assigned, they where only to be created by the programs themselves for their own internal use, many combinations of attributes are disallowed. To figure out which attributes are allowed you would need to make some example elements with the attributes you wish to use, and only set the attributes within the values that you see is valid. Error trapping for disallowed attribute bits may not be very good, and invalid attributes will probably cause problems with use or display of the elements, so do not try to set the attribute bits yourself unless you have looked at how the bits are used by the program version you have, and are willing to accept that your elements may get lost, erased, produce unexpected results, or make my or your programs crash. The meaning of the various attribute bits may change, so I do not recommend distributing programs that read or write them since you may need to edit your programs to work with any future versions of my programs, and versions of your programs in use would make or have problems with compatibility.

Appendix N describes the attributes that were used in v2.7G. If any future versions are released the attributes that are used may be altered, or have new meanings, so what is stated here may not be complete, or up to date, for versions subsequent to v2.7G.

Click here to go to SECTION: 3.4.64.0, Appendix N: Line attributes.

SECTION: 3.4.07.0 Revised v2.7 Tutorial Lesson 7: Making Alias files.

SECTION: 3.4.10.0 Revised v2.7 Tutorial Lesson 10: Making Fonts.

SECTION: 3.4.40.0 Revised v2.7 Macro Information and Discussion.

SECTION: 3.4.52.0 Revised v2.7 Appendix B: Macro Commands.

SECTION: 3.4.53.0 Revised v2.7 Appendix C: Macro Math and String Syntax.

SECTION: 3.4.54.0 Revised v2.7 Appendix D: Editing Macros.

SECTION: 3.4.57.0 Revised v2.7 Appendix G: Error Messages.

SECTION: 3.4.64.0 Revised v2.7 Appendix N: Line and Triangle Attributes.