Conference 7.286::atarist

Many months ago there was a lot of raving in the old notesfile about how
good "CAD 3D" was.  I then asked the simple question "Will it help me
design an addition on my house?", and the program was never again
mentioned in the Atari notesfile again.   My question was never answered.

    Cad 3D and now Cad 3D2 isn't recommended for doing precise plans
    for architectural renderings.  You can make measurements and scale
    objects, however.  I do recommend using Cad 3D2 and the supplementary
    Architectural Design disk to do representations of your house in
    a loose but realistic format.  It will allow you to look at it from
    all angles.  Once you find a design you like, then I would recommend
    a program like Drafix to do the precise plans of your house in perfect
    scale.  I hope this helps and doesn't confuse you.  Many times I
    have wanted to design an object or render a drawing (I'm a graphic
    designer) and Cad 3D2 has made it simple and convenient.  After
    I see what I'm after, I'm able to use a more precise method of planning
    it out to scale.  I am aware of an architect in Boston who uses
    the Atari ST and Cad 3d2 to help his customers see their new house
    or and addition to their existing house.  He then uses the built
    in animation program and rotates the house for his clients to see.
     It works for him.  I'm sure it could work for you.
    
    Rick

    I bought DRAFIX last fall at an ATARIFEST and haven't been disappointed
    yet. The only thing on your list that it won't do is output small parts
    of a drawing except as a screen shot in DEGAS format (curves are
    not smooth as the format is bit map not object). There is even a
    new DotPlotter available that does highest resolution to dot matrix
    or laser printers. I've recently seen the price at $139 mail order
    plus $45 for DotPlotter.
    
    Address;
    
    Forsight Resources Corp.
    10725 Ambassador Dr.
    Kansas City
    Mo. 64153
    
    The product is well supported as it is a mature and respected PC
    program, there is even a bi-monthly newsletter that includes a healthy
    amount of the ST version.

I have Athena Draw which seemed to work allright.  It is intended for
engineering drawing and, among its other features, includes an automatic
isometric facility:  you draw the three views, then go through them to
mark the same line in each view, and it pulls the whole thing together
in isometrics.

It can draw "any" size drawing, and it is quite easy to draw a line that
is, say, 145.5 inches long.  It had one minor problem for my purpose:
it doesn't understand "paper scale" versus "thing scale" -- I wanted
to draw something at a scale of 1/2 inch to a foot, with dimensions
in, say, 10pt type.  Instead, I had to draw everything to full scale
and draw my dimensions in letters that were 4 inches high.

One very nice feature is that drawings can be segmented into 256 "layers".
At any time, you draw into one layer, and can have one or more layers
visible.  (This lets you print drawings with or without dimensions, for
example.)

There is also a nice "parts library" facility that lets you build a part
out of smaller components, then insert it as a complete entity into a
drawing.  It comes with a 100+ page manual.

It writes to an Epson (or Panasonic) printer.  It can also output to
GDOS.  The store price is $95.00

Since I'm moving away from the Atari, you can have my copy for $70.

Martin.

I have had GFA draft for over a year. It will support drawings up to A4 in
real paper dimensions you are free to select scaling both in terms of the
units and the scaling applied at the time of printing or plotting. It support
most dot matrix printers and many plotters on either the serial or parallel
ports (or both!).

It is supplied with some component libraries and allows the user to select
any screen segment to be stored (on disk) and re-used as an icon (which you
can be associated with a function key and distorted at will before placement).

Lines can be made to join exactly and a grid used for snap mode. It is capable
of cross hatching but not solid filling. Line width is selectable and it
supports all the usual shape drawing capabilities.

You can have up to 7 (or is it 8) planes of differeny colours (it works with
LVP 16 and other H-P graphics langage plotters in colour).

Drawbacks, you can only draw on plane 1 (the others are overlain from disk!)
which means considerable file manipulations if you want to change any other
plane). No support of solid fill (useful for PCB design) and rather poor
text fonts!

For the money a year or so ago it was about the best I found....but being
in France that doesn't mean much. All in all it's pretty good and I have not
found any bugs yet....at least not in GFA Draft!


Nigel

    Sorry for this late reply, better late than never.
    
    I have the CAMPUS cad program, I think it's much better than GFA-draft.
    A dutch magazine tested both CAMPUS and DRAFIX, they were given
    about the same rating. I think CAMPUS just works fine.
    The feature I'm missing in the cad programs is to print a drawing
    devided over more than one sheet.
    So my maximum output is A4 (since I haven't got a plotter).
    What I would like to have is a cad program that provides for larger
    outputs: Print the drawing in 4 sheets, tape them together.
    
    Something like this:    AB   -->   printer   A ---> tape  AB
                            CD                   -            CD
                                                 B
                                                 -
                                                 C
                                                 -
                                                 D

    I know there is a program for making posters that performs this
    task, any CAD programs for this too??
    
                         Jan-Willem

    
    Hi Jan
    	Can your Campus output a HPGL plotter file to disk.??? And can
    you upload it to a VAX with an LPS40??
                                         
                                         
    	If so I have a   TRANSLATION program HPGL to Postscript, written
    by a nice fellow in DEC in the US. It will output to A3 size and
    in six levels of gret scale to simulate the six plotter pen colours
    
    Give me a mail if you want it !!
    
    Cheers
    
    PAt K.   

    I'm going to look into the possibility of outputting an HPGL file
    from DRAFIX tonight, even if it can't right now (I haven't received
    DOT PLOTTER yet) this HPGL to POSTSCRIPT converter could be usefull.
    Any chance you could make it available from your account to whomever
    (in DEC of course) wants it?
    
     

    I just looked at the ad for DotPlotter for DRAFIX and it says that
    it can "print your drawings to fit your printer page, or to print
    any size drawing in segments".

    
    Hi, I will put the HPGL.exe and HPGL manual in an open account for
    anyone to pull them and anything else that takes your fancy.
    
    The account is RDGENG::disk$csse01:[keane.st.utl]*.*
    

    Re: .10
    
    No priv's to copy...
    
    I don't mean to pick on you in particular, but people have a habit
    of doing this a lot (yes, even I have done it).  If, from your
    account, you do a "$ DIR RDGENG::DISK$CSSE01:[KEANE.ST.UTL]" you
    will quickly determine whether or not the rest of the world can
    copy your file.  I am only saying this here as it may benefit others
    in the future so that they may not make the same mistake.  If you
    have proxies on your system you might want to make that a
    "$ DIR RDGENG""::..." to make sure you bypass any proxies (note
    the null access string).
    
    						Thanks,
    						-Dave