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."
This section has text mostly about revisions to a "Beta Test" version v3.7 of my programs, and might be looked to for updated information relating to changes from v2.7, regarding some of the revised or added program features. There may be changes made in versions subsequent to the revisions of version of v3.7 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 any more recent information.
The HTML documentation in this SECTION: 3.3.7.32 was derived from the text in the file INFOV37L.TXT that is, or was at one time, included in my *.ZIP file archive DANCAD16.ZIP (tm). You may find the current revision of DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) to download by going to SECTION: 9.70.61.0. My file DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) may also archive some other types of files like the ones described in this section, so check the current *.ZIP file in its current revision to see what exactly might be in it.
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.
My current file DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) is a *.ZIP file that holds a current "Beta Test" version of my programs and associated files for "Beta Testing." This section refers to the preliminary revision of the CAD programs v3.7L version, and the preliminary revision of the CAM programs v3.75 version, look for other sections or documentation relating to any subsequent revisions.
The use and copying of these programs and files are governed by my current Terms of Use and End User License Agreement ("EULA") which are located in SECTION: 0 of this "Beta Test" Web site. You must read and fully agree to be legally bound by the current End User License Agreement ("EULA") before you use or "Beta Test" any of the files in my file DANCAD16.ZIP (tm). If you are unable to read and agree to the current End User License Agreement ("EULA") do not use or "Beta Test" any of the files in my program distribution, the DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) archive file.
Be sure that you scan the programs and files in my DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) for virus or other contamination since you are responsible for checking them before you use them. These programs and this information are made available "AS-IS" and are without warranty of any kind express, expressed, or implied. Since these programs are "Beta Test" you must agree to become a "Beta Tester" before you make any use of them, see the End User License Agreement ("EULA") in this "Beta Test" Web site for more information. Be sure to read the current instructions in this "Beta Test" Web site regarding procedures for reporting program bugs and other such problems.
On some systems the *.ASC data files, or *.MAC macro files, may be able to be renamed *.TXT to avoid certain kinds of file type misinterpretation by text editor type programs and such. Thank you for helping test these "Beta Test" CAD and CAM programs.
A *.TXT file version, similar to some of the text in this Section, may be included in the v3.7L and v3.75 revision of my DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) distribution archive file (see the "downloads" SECTION: 9 of this "Beta Test" Web site). See the text in any files like README.*, FILES*.TXT, and INFOV37*.TXT stored in my current DANCAD16.ZIP (tm). You should check for the current types of document files because they may be more up-to-date than this *.HTM file, or it is possible that this HTML file could be more up to date, depending on which one got worked on last.
Below is text from file INFOV37L.TXT that was written to be included in a preliminary revision of version of v3.7L of my DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) distribution for preliminary information about changes in version v3.7L of the programs. You should read this information before you try to use or "Beta Test" the revised programs. This information is in addition to the previous documentation, i.e. a supplement to, and does not go into detail about many of the previously documented features, so you should therefore review the other sections and documentation as well.
The text of INFOV37L.TXT was derived from some notes I made to myself as I worked on the code for v3.7L, so you should check this document, and the other documentation, against the programs before you do any "serious" testing of the programs since there may be some differences between the descriptions here and the current state of development of commands and features in the programs. Please report any discrepancies between the documentation and the programs or files that you find. Some of the text from this section may have been incorporated into the other sections of this Web site, in doing that some of the text may have been further revised, and so may contain additional information, therefore after reading through all of this section you should also read through all of the other portions of this Web site, even those portions that might seem to be duplicates.
I have kept this preliminary information in one long file so that you can use the "find in page" feature of your HTML browser to search for a keyword relating to some new command or feature you are looking for more information about, otherwise you might have to search through more files.
See also the This Section and About DANCAD16.ZIP (tm) sub-sections above, as well as SECTION: 3.3.7.30, SECTION: 9.70.0.0, and SECTION: 9.70.61.0 for more information about v3.7.
DOCUMENT: INFOV37L.TXT
Copyright (C) 2005 by Daniel H. Hudgins, All Rights Reserved.
Terms of use: This "Beta Test" document may only be used in accord and within
the limitations imposed by the current End User License Agreement "EULA" posted
at the author's Web site www.DANCAD3D.com (sm) in file S0000000.HTM, any other
use or copying is prohibited. This document is provided "AS IS" without
warranty of any kind express, expressed, or implied. Mistakes, errors, and
omissions should be reported according to the instructions in SECTION: 8 of the
current "On-Line" version of my Web site www.DANCAD3D.com (sm).
This preliminary document may have some brief descriptions of changes made to
my CAD or CAM programs DANCAD3D.EXE (tm), DANCAD87.EXE (tm), DANCAM.EXE (tm),
and DANPLOT.EXE (tm) relating to the "Beta Test" release of v3.7. This file is
meant to be included in the initial "Beta Test" v3.7 distribution to help long
time users acquaint themselves with some of the many changes that have been
made to the programs. If you are not a long time user you will most probably
need to read all of the text located at my "Beta Test" Web site
www.DANCAD3D.com (sm) before you read this document in order to make practical
use of it. This document is not a complete list of changes made to the
programs, and may not reflect the operation of the version of the program
accompanying it in all respects. The programs may be still undergoing change,
so the results obtained from any of the commands may be different than
expected, and the operation of older commands may have changed as well. Since
so many changes have been made to the programs you should not expect any of the
commands to operate as you have used them in the past, and you should
frequently back-up and save what you are working on so that you do not lose
everything when the program crashes. All specifications, descriptions, and
instructions are subject to change without notice.
Be sure to see also the text from files INFOV27*.TXT, *.TXT, *.BAT, *.DOC,
*.HTM, and any other newer INFOV37*.TXT information that is at www.DANCAD3D.com
(sm).
I would like to thank the thousands of users of my programs who have helped
"Beta Test" the many revisions of my programs since about 1986, I hope you will
enjoy checking out some of the newer program features that I have spent so many
years working on. Best wishes for success in your projects.
---
NOTES FROM RELEASE OF THE V3.7L CAD PROGRAMS, MARCH 2005
If you have not already read INFOV37J.TXT and INFOV37K.TXT please do that
before installing and beginning "Beta-Testing" the new v3.7L of the CAD
programs, since it goes over some of the changes from v2.7 to v3.7 that you
should be aware of. Text from INFOV37J.TXT and INFOV37K.TXT should be in
SECTION: 3.3.7.30 and 3.3.7.31 at www.DANCAD3D.com (sm). You should also
review the update and info documentation relating to v2.7 and updating from
v2.6 if you have been using an older version or to familiarize yourself with
the changes that have been going on.
The major changes from v3.7K to v3.7L are: the addition of all of the
perspective display modes, i.e. 1 through 74, from the Main Menu's Preview
command (and the macro DISPLAY command) to the Drawing Editor, the speed of
filling the Z-Buffer has been enhanced improving rendering speed in display
modes that use the Z-Buffer, and new graphics keywords have been added for
access to video resolutions 1920x1440 and 2048x1536 for the 4bpp and 8bpp VESA
SVGA graphics modes.
In the Drawing Editor you enter the perspective display modes through sub-menus
in the Drawing Editor's [V]iew command. In the [V]iew command you select the
[H]idden option, then select option [H]idden from that sub-menu. The available
perspective display modes fall within the range from 1 to 74 in the initial
revision of v3.7L. The Z-Buffer keep modes are not supported in the drawing
editor at this point, so do not add thousands to the display mode code. The
program will generally switch to perspective display mode 10 if an out-of-range
or un-supported mode code is entered, since display mode 10 can display both
line elements and triangle elements. When just line elements are to be
displayed you should not use the [H]idden option in the Drawing editor, rather
use the [W]ire-Frame display options.
A list of the display mode code numbers and their meaning should be in a
section at my Web site, http://www.DANCAD3D.com (sm). Some Perspective Display
modes look or work better when higher bpp (bits per pixel) video modes are
used. Perspective Display mode 1 works with all video resolutions, color or
monochrome. Perspective Display mode 23 works with the 16 color or gray scale
video resolutions. Perspective Display mode 64 works with the 8bpp, 15bpp,
16bpp, 24bpp, and 32bpp display video resolutions. Perspective display mode 64
might be usable with the gray scale M16 4bpp video resolutions, but when used
with the C16 4bpp resolutions it looks grainy so perspective display mode 63
might be a better choice in order to see the edges better. The other
Perspective Display modes have application for special needs, such as in the
generation of tool path files or inspection of triangle elements while drawing
models, but may be of somewhat limited utility in the Drawing Editor. For
perspective display modes that display shading, or shading with lighting, the
[V]iew modes that are not "flat on" such as the [P]erspective view mode rather
than just [F]ront, [S]ide, or [T]op may give a greater sense of depth to the
displayed elements.
For legacy and other reasons selection of video graphics modes under 15bpp
resolution has been through use of special keywords for each graphics mode. In
v3.7L eight new graphics mode keywords have been added, in a form in keeping
with the related video modes, as follows:
S1920M16 = Monochrome 16 Gray shades at 1920 by 1440 4bpp SVGA resolution.
S1920C16 = 16 Color shades at 1920 by 1440 4bpp VESA SVGA resolution.
S1920M256 = Monochrome "256" palette at 1920 by 1440 8bpp VESA SVGA resolution.
S1920C256 = Color "256" palette at 1920 by 1440 8bpp VESA SVGA resolution.
S2048M16 = Monochrome 16 Gray shades at 2048 by 1536 4bpp SVGA resolution.
S2048C16 = 16 Color shades at 2048 by 1536 4bpp VESA SVGA resolution.
S2048M256 = Monochrome "256" palette at 2048 by 1536 8bpp VESA SVGA resolution.
S2048C256 = Color "256" palette at 2048 by 1536 8bpp VESA SVGA resolution.
The 2048 by 1536 video modes may not have been tested yet since my video boards
have not displayed those modes on my monitor at the time I am writing this, so
let me know if there are any problems with those, or any other, graphics modes.
When you use the graphics mode keywords LIST, or SEEK, at the video graphics
mode prompts to select the 15bpp through 32bpp VESA SVGA video modes, the video
resolution is read from the video board, and so more or odd pixel dimension
resolutions may be available in those bpp resolutions than are available
through the fixed keywords for the 4bpp and 8bpp video resolutions, so check
with LIST and SEEK if you have a monitor that needs some odd pixel resolution.
In other words LIST or SEEK may display video modes supported by your video
board that do not show up in the screen that graphics mode keyword VESA
displays.
Not all video boards or monitors support the 1940 by 1440 or 2048 by 1536 video
resolutions in the 4bpp or 8bpp resolutions, so you may not be able to "Beta
Test" those modes on your computer.
In v3.7L the 4bpp and 8bpp video modes are selected by seeking the mode code in
your video board, rather than by selecting a fixed video mode code, as was done
in v2.7I. This may allow v3.7L to find some video modes that fail to select in
v2.7I. The mode codes displayed when the VESA, LIST, and SEEK graphics mode
keywords are used are not interchangeable between all computers, because of the
incompatibilities between video board mode codes, Pixel files generated on one
computer may not display on another computer. To transport SVGA pixel files
between incompatible video boards, you might convert the Pixel files into BMP
files, and then back again on the other computer, or run the macro that
generated the Pixel files on the incompatible computer to generate a fresh set
of Pixel files encoded for that particular video board.
To change the background color of the drawing editor screen use the [S]et-up
sub-menu's [P]alette command and change the color assigned to line color 0,
which is also the background color. Do not draw lines in the background color,
since they may not be visible on the screen.
The way v3.7L accesses the Z-Buffer for rendering triangle elements for hidden
line and shaded display has been altered and enhanced, which should generally
result in faster re-draw times compared to the concurrent v2.7I revision. The
OS used may have a big affect on the re-draw time when the Z-Buffer is used,
Windows 95 (tm) generally being faster than DOS 6.22, particularly when newer
7200RPM harddisks are used with "ATA 66" or "ATA 100" and an 8MB buffer.
In the initial revision of v3.7L the oversampling and undersampling are not
used in the Drawing Editor to shorten the screen redraw time. If you want to
see your elements displayed using those features you can use the Main Menu
Preview command or the macro DISPLAY command. Likewise the stereoscopic
display modes are not supported in the Drawing Editor in the initial revision
of v3.7L, but you can Quit the Drawing Editor and use the Main Menu Preview
command if you want to view your elements in Stereoscopic 3D, which may look
better with the oversampling and or undersampling used in the 24bpp or 32bpp
video graphics modes.
Since the Pixel Trace command in the v3.7L Drawing Editor is designed to load
24bpp or 32bpp Pixel files when those graphics modes are active in the Drawing
Editor, scanned photos can be brought in for manual tracing, or matching with
rendered elements. When you scan the images for use with the Pixel Trace
command you need to crop the image at the exact screen dimensions for the video
mode the Drawing Editor will be set to, i.e. 800 by 600 pixels for the 800 by
600 pixel video modes, and then save the image as a 24bpp BMP file. When you
use the Main Menu's [F]iles [U]tilities [B]MP commands to convert the BMP file
into a Pixel file, you need to select the same video resolution as will be used
for tracing in the Drawing Editor. The 24bpp BMP file gets converted to 15bpp,
16bpp, 24bpp, or 32bpp depending on which video resolution you select for the
conversion, which should be the same mode selected for the Drawing Editor.
Some video boards do not support the 24bpp video modes, so conversion to 15bpp,
16bpp, or 32bpp Pixel file might be your only way to trace over the 24bpp BMP
image in the Drawing Editor. Sometimes graphics programs will save the BMP
file with a pixel size one or more pixel larger or smaller than what you
thought you had cropped the image to, and this will result in failure to
convert the BMP file into a Pixel file in my programs, so use your scanners
graphics program to check the "image information" to make sure the cropped
image has the right pixel dimensions.
The [O]n-screen [P]ixel trace command in the Drawing Editor can also display
scanned images in the 1bpp, 4bpp, and 8bpp video display resolutions when an
8bpp BMP image is converted into a Pixel file of the same palette as the
palette that the Drawing Editor will be used with. When the 24bpp BMP file is
converted to a 15bpp, 16bpp, 24bpp, or 32bpp Pixel file there is no palette
conversion in this sense, just an adjustment to the color resolution for the
number of bits available to display the red, green, and blue colors. The 1bpp,
4bpp, and 8bpp video modes do not display the primary colors with enough bits
in their limited palettes, so when an 8bpp BMP file is loaded the BMP file's
palette must be converted to the limited palette that is used in the Drawing
Editor. The M256 palette used with the 8bpp video modes will probably show the
least loss when loading monochrome 8bpp BMP images that have a gray scale.
Likewise the M16 palette used with the 4bpp video modes will generally look
better than conversion to the C16 palette, for use with [P]ixel trace. Palette
conversion must be used for 8bpp BMP files not created within my programs,
since the Drawing Editor only uses the five specific palettes, M2, M16, C16,
M256, and C256 for video modes that display 1bpp, 4bpp, and 8bpp, therefore if
the conversion from BMP to Pixel omits the palette conversion the native
palette values from the BMP file will probably not correspond to the right
screen colors. If you generate an image with the Main Menu Preview command
using the same video mode keyword as will be used in setting the graphics video
mode for Drawing Editor, palette conversion is not needed since both the
Preview command and the Drawing Editor would be using the same color palette.
---
NOTES FROM REVISION OF THE V3.7L CAD PROGRAMS, MAY 1, 2005
The v3.7L CAD programs now buffer the Drawing Editor screen into high memory
when the Drawing Editor's pop-up menu comes on screen in the high resolution
VESA SVGA video modes, rather than saving the screen to disk as in previous
versions. An extra half megabyte of high memory is now required for use when
the CAD programs are installed for SVGA use with the option S from the video
board selection menu that comes up when you run the programs for the first
time. If there is insufficient memory available, selecting simple VGA video
board type option V, should reduce this extra high memory requirement. The
extra memory required for this buffering should not be a problem on many
newer systems.
The buffering of the Drawing Editor's pop-up menu screen space to high memory
may help make using the Drawing Editor in high resolution SVGA modes operate
faster, particularly on computers with slow harddisks, or when running the
programs under DOS type operating systems.
The macro command "remark" has been altered in v3.7L to also support the REM or
REMARK command keyword, in addition to ; and { }. This REM option was added so
that remarks could be inserted into the text of a macro that would survive
processing a macro with the STRIP macro command or the Files Utilities Macro
Strip command. Normally when you would use the STRIP commands all of the
comments would be removed in order to speed up execution of the macro.
However, now you can insert some comments in such a way that STRIP will leave
them in the file, in that way you will not lose important remarks when you use
STRIP to remove unimportant remarks or remarks inserted by the automatic output
macro command option.
Some changes were made to the mouse interface, if you have problems with the
programs try disabling the mouse driver and see if that changes the program's
behavior other than not having the mouse work. Under DOS you would remove the
mouse driver's name from your AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS file.
---
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Please visit my Web site On-Line at: http://www.DANCAD3D.com/ for additional
information. Please report bugs, mistakes, or other problems with this
document or the programs, see SECTION: 8 at the current On-Line version of my
Web site for current instructions.