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

No part of "This Web Site" (HTML document), including associated files, may be: distributed, sublicensed, transmitted, copied, archived, mirrored, modified, bundled, embedded, sold, given away, rented, loaned, or shared in any form without express written permission in a formal Vendor agreement contract dated and signed in ink obtained directly from Daniel H. Hudgins by registered postal mail. All agreements for permission to distribute expire after a period no greater than one year from the date of the signing of the agreement by Daniel H. Hudgins. See the current "EULA" for information regarding limited copying and storage for the purpose of "Beta Testing" "This Web Site."

To view or use the current version of this Web page you may need to reload or refresh the display of this page by your browser. Just clicking on the browser's [Reload] or [Refresh] icon may not be enough to insure that all of the page's most current contents have been cached and displayed. Some browsers may have additional commands to help display the page's most current contents such as: holding down the [Shift] key and clicking on the [Reload] icon, holding down the [Control] key and clicking on the [Refresh] icon, holding down the [Control] and [Shift] keys and clicking on the [Refresh] icon, pressing the [Control] and [F5] keys, pressing [Control] and the [R] key, or some other combination of keys or clicks. Check to see which commands your HTML browser uses to load the most current page contents into its cache and then to display them onto the screen.

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 was derived from the v2.5 CAD manual, and has been updated somewhat, but differences between different releases of v2.5, v2.6 and v2.7 may mean that some of the information may not apply to the version you are using. Some adjustment may be required for versions prior or subsequent to v2.7A.

You may not distribute, sell, rent, share, or give away these HTML documentation files or printed copies of them. You may not extract text from these HTML documentation files for distribution, sale, rent, sharing, or giving away. You can use the [Print] option in your browser to make one copy for yourself to mark up in order to help me proofread the text for mistakes.

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.

You may need to adjust your browser for best viewing of the pre- formatted text by changing the "font" size using the commands in your browser (see the help in your browser, or use the pull-down menus in your HTML browser.) If some letters in words on the screen appear to be missing or scrambled try changing the font size in your browser as this sometimes happens even though the words are spelled correctly in the HTML code.

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.

DANCAD3D (tm) displays many error messages of its own on the screen to tell you what may have gone wrong. Many of DANCAD3D (tm)'s error messages are sufficiently descriptive as to be a guide, i.e. something like "File not found" means that the program did not find a file with the name you entered, and you should re-try the command with the right filename. Some "Run time" error messages are displayed by the error checking code added by the compiler used to compile DANCAD3D (tm). The some of the compiler error messages are included in the text below. The DOS program itself can also generate some messages like "Abort, Retry, or Ignore." If you see the "Abort, Retry, or Ignore" message always try to fix the problem, i.e. by turning the printer on, or inserting a floppy disk into the floppy drive if you are trying to write to the floppy drive, and press [R] for "Retry", otherwise you might have to re-boot your computer and you will lose all the elements in the workspace.

When my programs crash they sometimes put up an error message with a code number. Many of the possible code numbers you might see displayed are listed below, with a brief description of what error might have caused the program to stop and display the message. My programs have some internal error trapping and display additional error messages as text on the screen, many of which have to do with the user entering invalid filenames or values that are not appropriate for the prompt at that time. The programs crash when some un-recoverable error has happened, such as a disk full error on your harddisk and such. If the programs crash repeatedly doing the same task and you are sure that you have entered valid filenames and values at all the prompts you might look into making a bug report, see current information in SECTION: 8 regarding bug reports.

My v2.7 CAD programs are compiled with a different compiler than is used for v2.7 of my CAM and Utility programs, and so they have somewhat different crash error codes, please note the different codes from those listed below.

Sometimes the OS will display a message like "Abort, Retry, Ignore?" on the screen it may mean you might have forgotten to turn the printer on, you did not close the floppy disk drive handle, or that you have a bad, incorrect, or damaged disk. NEVER press [A] for Abort unless you want to lose everything in progress at that time. Try to correct the mistake you made and press [R] for Retry. This message is produced by DOS and is not part of my programs, so the screen may get a little messed up that is normal under this "near crash" condition. In Hercules (tm) Graphics mode and Monochrome Graphics mode 720 by 348, the "Abort, Retry, Ignore?" message may be displayed as some dots and dashes in a horizontal line on the screen, you probably just need to fix the error and press [R] to get the program to continue, the error text does not display properly because the OS does not know how to display text in that graphics display mode, this false text display may also happen for other errors or crashes in this display mode.

To help avoid frequently seeing the some of the more common crash error codes you can be careful that the operation of the programs is such that errors of operation are avoided. My programs (tm) may be better run under DOS or the equivalent for the use of some features, running some features of my DOS programs under a multi-tasking operating system may cause those features of the programs to not work as well as they would have under DOS despite the appearance that many of the other program features are working well. When the programs crash it is most often due to improper input, entering a bad value at a prompt or as a value associated with a macro command. A crash can also be caused by running out of free disk space, always make sure you have a great deal of free disk space. After a crash you may see an error number (in hexadecimal) on the screen. The meaning of many of the numbers that you are likely to see have been included below.

Some mouse drivers may not work well with my programs. If the CAD program crashes when you enter the drawing editor or main menu then remove the mouse drivers from your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, reboot and check if the program will run then. If the program will run then, the problem may have something to do with the mouse driver.

Most TSR programs, ones that you run and they stay in memory all the time, should not be used while my programs are being run. Do use TSR programs that write anything to the computer's screen, such as a clock program and such. Do not run print spoolers or anything that runs "in background" while using my CAM programs.

Make sure that you have enough of your DOS RAM 640KB free to allow the programs to operate any of their commands. If the programs crash, try freeing up more of your 640KB memory and see if that changes anything. If the program crashes in a different place when you free up some memory the problem may be that you have some TSR programs using the DOS memory or some other memory problem. Some versions of DOS use more memory than other versions, so you may need to use a different DOS version on your computer to get more RAM available for the programs to use.

Your harddisk may have bad sectors or corrupt data, you may need to re-format you harddisk and re-install good copies of the operating system and programs.

If my programs got onto your computer through a modem, or port, you may have corrupt files. Your data and program disks may have data errors that do not show up in normal disk tests. If the program files are corrupt you should probably delete them, run OS command SCANDISK (tm) with surface and file checking on, and then command DEFRAG(tm), re-boot your computer and then reinstall the programs from a copy you are sure is not corrupt.

Run-time error messages may appear from the CAD program's run-time library of functions and procedures, and can be generated when a fatal error occurs because of bad input, CAD program code, or the interaction of bad input with program code.

If a Run-time error has been generated because of user input, which might include user written macro code, you might be able to modify your input to the program to avoid the crash and error report.

After you get any of these error messages you should re-boot your computer and then run SCANDISK (tm), or CHKDSK (tm) for older DOS versions, to try to fix problems of damaged files left on your harddisk when the program crashed.

DANCAD3D (tm) and DANCAD87 (tm) v2.7 Run-time Error Codes:

01  Overflow of floating point, n > 1E18 or n < -1E18.

02  Division by zero, try entering 1E-18 instead of 0.

03  Negative number square root error.

04  Natural logarithm of zero or negative number error.

10  String was too long.

11  String index value invalid.

90  Array index out of range.

91  Out of range scalar or sub-range.

92  Integer out of range, n > 32767 or n < -32767.

F0  Did not find overlay file,  all  files  named  DANCAD3D  (tm)  and
    DANCAD87 (tm) must be in the  same  directory,  i.e.  the  in  the
    default  directory  (or  sub-directory),  for the program to work.
    You may not have a complete set of files,  or  you  may  not  have
    installed the programs properly.

FF  Heap and Stack collision,  you are  not  leaving  enough  of  your
    memory  free  for  your  macro  (or just DANCAD3D (tm) or DANCAD87
    (tm)) to run.  Look at bytes-free in the macro trace  window.  Use
    fewer  memory  resident  programs.  You  can  reduce the number of
    buffers by editing your CONFIG.SYS file to have BUFFERS=2 to  free
    some memory.

I/O (Input or Output) error messages are like Run-time error messages in that they are fatal errors generated by the program just before a crash to help you figure out what might have gone wrong.

I/O errors may come from the OS or BIOS, and sometimes relate to the program having trouble finding something, or getting something other than what was expected.

Some of these error messages may be produced by file sharing violation errors or network errors, so you should be very careful when using my programs under a Multi-tasking OS not to run another program at the same time or in background, and never to try to access the same file from two or more programs running in different "windows" or "shells" at the same time. Do not run two of my programs in the same directory at the same time.

After you get any of these error messages you should re-boot your computer and then run SCANDISK (tm), or CHKDSK (tm) for older DOS versions, to try to fix problems of damaged files left on your harddisk when the program crashed.

DANCAD3D (tm) and DANCAD87 (tm) I/O Error Codes:

01  No file with the name used or wrong drive named.

02  File for input is not open.

03  File for output is not open.

04  File for access is not open.

10  Numeric  format  is  in  error.  Be extremely careful to state all
    parameters  for  a command when used in a macro.  Also put a space
    between all groups of characters.  Do not  use  real  number  form
    where  an integer is called for.  v2.x usually rounds real numbers
    to integers where applicable,  but if the program asks for only  0
    or  1  do not enter 0.499999999 since it will probably get rounded
    the wrong way.  Do not enter letters or symbols where a number  is
    requested  unless  they make up a valid variable name,  in a place
    where variables  are  valid.  Getting  file  types  mixed  up  can
    sometimes  produce  a numeric format error,  so check that you are
    using the right commands for the filetype you  are  working  with.
    DANCAD3D  (tm) and DANCAD87 (tm) use different numeric formats for
    their binary file types,  so  do  not  exchange  binary  filetypes
    between  the  two  CAD  programs,  use  the  ASCII  file types for
    exchange between the programs.

20  Logical device does not allow operation, check the filename used.

21  Direct mode does not allow, report conditions for this error.

22  Not allowed, assignment to standard files.

90  Mismatch of record length.

91  Beyond end-of-file seek.

99  End of file reached unexpectedly.  You got the  file  types  mixed
    up.  Or  the  file  was  not  completely saved due to an I/O error
    (full disk.)

F0  Error writing to Disk, may be disk is full or other disk error.

F1  Full disk directory, no more room on a disk,  or too many files in
    root directory, put the files in a sub-directory.

F2  Overflow of file size, cannot write more records to file.

F3  Files open are too many, you might try to add FILES=20 to your DOS
    CONFIG.SYS  file  if you have enough memory free to have that many
    files open at one time.

FF  File requested has disappeared, you took the disk out.

You should back up your drawings by pressing [B] (back up) in the drawing editor root menu, or [F] (files) [S] (save) [E] (elements) from DANCAD3D (tm)'s main menu. You should back up your harddisk twice a day. You should run the DOS CHKDSK /F or SCANDISK command to check your harddisk every day to make sure you are not having lost clusters. You should use a good AC line filter to avoid power line spikes that will crash your computer.

The [O]utput macro command should always be used when you are making a drawing, so that when the CAD program crashes you can try to regenerate most of it from the saved output macro file.

If you are using the serial ports, AUX, COM1, COM2, be sure that you use the DOS MODE command before you run DANCAD3D (tm) to avoid errors. Also check that the DIP switches on your device are set to the same values as the MODE command. Press [H] [P] [I], [H] [J] [I], or [H] [D] [I] from DANCAD3D (tm)'s main menu to install a printer, laser printer, or plotter port name. Valid port names would be LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, COM1, and COM2. MODE must be put in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to set up the serial ports when the computer boots if you use port names COM1 or COM2.

The serial port must be set for 8 data bits code if you are trying to print dot matrix or HP-PCL graphics. Set the DIP switches on your printer so that the automatic CR (carriage return) on LF (line feed) and the automatic LF on CR are turned off. If you do not turn off the automatic line feed your print out will be ruined by extra line feeds inserted in the wrong places.

If you get a "Disk Full", "Write Error", or "File Creation Error" and know that you have space on your disk that usually means that you have too many filenames in your root directory. You should delete some files and make a new sub-directory to save your files in.

If the message "Abort, Retry, Ignore?" appears on the screen it may mean you have forgotten to turn the printer on, you did not close the floppy disk drive handle, or that you have a bad, incorrect, or damaged disk. NEVER press [A] for Abort unless you want to lose everything in CAD program's workspace at that time. Try to correct the mistake you made and press [R] for Retry. This message is produced by DOS and is not part of of the CAM programs, and so may mess up the screen somewhat. See the note below about the Monochrome Hercules mode.

Note: If you are using the Hercules (tm) graphics mode, or Monochrome Graphics Card 720 by 348 pixel mode, and you forget to close the disk door or use an un-formatted disk by mistake the DOS error message "Abort, Retry, Ignore" will not appear since DOS does not know how to write into the Hercules (tm) graphics mode. The computer will appear to the common user to have locked up, when all you have to do is close the drive or use a formatted disk and enter [R] (Never enter [A] or [I] since you will or may lose all your data you are working with.) This would also happen if you use the FILES COPY macro command to a port while in the Hercules (tm) or Monochrome graphics mode and a port had a time out error (e.g the printer is not connected or is turned off.) If you see a horizontal row of dots and dashes over the graphics screen, usually near the top left, that is a sign of this problem, the dots and dashes may change when you press the [Return] key since DOS is asking for you to press [R] and you cannot see that message, you just see dots. The screen font files *.814 must be installed when using Hercules (tm) video mode. If you cannot get out of this problem by fixing the cause of the error, you will need to re-boot, which will result is a loss of all data in the workspace (which is why it is important to use the [O]utput macro all the time, and to always have free disk space.)

Although the programs have some level of error checking, it is not possible to anticipate every combination of incorrect responses. Please always try to enter values at prompts that make sense.

The error numbers used by my CAM programs may be different from the error numbers given by my CAD programs depending on the version of the programs you are using. Some of the early versions of the CAM and Utility programs used the same compiler as the CAD programs, but the current v2.7 uses a different compiler and gives some different error codes when it crashes. The general idea is the same though, so be sure that you have the programs installed properly, make sure you have enough free RAM and free disk space, make sure that you do not use the wrong OS or have TSR programs loaded, do not forget to turn your printer and other equipment on and have the equipment's drivers working before you run my programs, and always enter valid values and filenames at the program's prompts.

After you get any of these error messages you should re-boot your computer and then run SCANDISK (tm), or CHKDSK (tm) for older DOS versions, to try to fix problems of damaged files left on your harddisk when the program crashed.

Some of these error messages may be produced by file sharing violation errors or network errors, so you should be very careful when using my programs under a Multi-tasking OS not to run another program at the same time or in background, and never to try to access the same file from two or more programs running in different "windows" or "shells" at the same time. Do not run two of my programs in the same directory at the same time.

CAM and Utility Program v2.7 Error Message Codes:

001 DOS error: DOS function requested not valid, wrong OS version?

002 DOS error: Could not find the file requested, bad filename.

003 DOS error: Could not find the file path requested, check path and filename.

004 DOS error: Too many files have been opened, try editing your CONFIG.SYS to have FILES=99.

005 DOS error: Access to file has been denied, some filename is not right or other error.

006 DOS error: The file handle is not valid, quit programs and re-boot after this message.

012 DOS error: The file access code is not valid.

015 DOS error: The drive number requested is not valid, check your filenames.

016 DOS error: The current directory cannot be removed, check file path.

017 DOS error: The rename command cannot be used across drives, check filenames entered.

018 DOS error: There are no more matching files, check filenames.

100 I/O error: There was an error reading from disk, file may be corrupted run SCANDISK (tm).

101 I/O error: There was an error writing to the disk, disk may be full free disk space.

102 I/O error: The file requested was not assigned beforehand, check filenames used.

103 I/O error: The file requested has not been opened, might be after disk full error or bad filename?

104 I/O error: The file requested has not been opened for input.

105 I/O error: The file requested has not been opened for output.

106 I/O error: Numeric format in file is in wrong type, mixed up filetypes?

150 Critical error: Protect from write has been set on disk, do not write to protected disks.

151 Critical error: The requested is unit is unknown.

152 Critical error: The drive is not ready for use, have drives ready at all times.

153 Critical error: The OS command requested is unknown.

154 Critical error: There was a data error during CRC check, bad drive or file?

155 Critical error: There was structure error during a request to a drive.

156 Critical error: There was a seek error on requested disk, check your disk drive.

157 Critical error: The media type requested is not known.

158 Critical error: Did not find the sector requested.

159 Critical error: Paper needs to be put in the printer.

160 Critical error: There was a fault writing to a device.

161 Critical error: There was a fault reading from a device.

162 Critical error: There was a failure of the hardware requested.

200 Fatal error: There was a division by zero error.

201 Fatal error: In checking a range an error was found, too big or small.

202 Fatal error: The stack overflowed causing an error, free more DOS memory.

203 Fatal error: The heap overflowed causing an error, free more DOS memory.

204 Fatal error: A pointer had an operation that was not valid.

205 Fatal error: There was an overflow in a floating point number, try adjusting the scales.

206 Fatal error: There was an under-flow in a floating point number, try adjusting the scales.

207 Fatal error: An operation involving a floating point number was not valid.

208 Fatal error: The manager for the overlays was not installed, check overlay path.

209 Fatal error: There was an error trying to read the overlay file, be sure the overlay file is in the right directory.

210 Fatal error: The object needs to be initialized beforehand.

211 Fatal error: During a call involving an abstract method there was an error.

212 Fatal error: While trying to do a registration of a stream there was an error.

213 Fatal error: An index for collection was not in the proscribed range.

214 Fatal error: There was an overflow during an attempted collection causing an error.

215 Fatal error: There was an overflow during arithmetic causing an error.

Some of the errors might arise from an internal bug, but generally the crash error messages come up when some input to the programs is invalid, and the program may not fully shunt the errors caused by a chain of events that where started by invalid input. Since disk full errors can cause files to get lost or erased you should be careful to use the right file names and keep enough free memory and disk space for the programs to create their temporary files and operate normally. You may not be aware that you entered invalid values or filenames by accident. If you get the programs to crash in the same place over and over, and are sure that you are entering valid values and filenames, that your disk, memory, an OS are proper, and you are using the most recent update, then check out SECTION: 8 with regard to bug reports.