Release notes for VARKON version 1.16C

Two new MBS functions IVAL() and FVAL() have been added to faciliate stable string to int and float conversion. Both routines return status and number of characters read. The old routine VAL() is still supported for compatibility but removed from the documentation.

The INBIN() MBS-procudere now has an extra optional parameter that can be used to control how many bytes to be read. This can be used to read 8 or 16 bit integers into a VARKON INT which is 32 bits or to read a 32 bit float into a VARKON FLOAT which is 64 bits.

New functions to import ASCII- or binary-formatted STL-files have been added to the VARKON library. A function that exports VARKON models in ASCII STL-format has also been added. See the create/part/stl menu. STL files are used by many CAD-systems to export/import faceted approximations of 3D solid models. STL files can also be used by many visualization tools and for rapid prototyping. See create/part/stl in the standard menus.

The SUR_TRIM() procedure in MBS can now also be used to interchange parametric directions of the resulting surfaces. See the documentation on SUR_TRIM() for more info.

A minor bug related to the use of f122 and f123 (exit VARKON) linked to buttons in graphics windows has been corrected.

A new function f201 in the SAVE AS menu saves all files in the current job with a new name. JOB-file, MBO-file and RES/RIT-files can also be saved individually as before.

Function f170 (Edit part) now supports promt strings using the t-modifier. It will automatically strip the leading "@" in an optinal parameter and it will also present a default promt for parameters that have no prompt defined.

Function f10 (Interactive delete entity) now promts with type and ID of the entity to delete. If you pick a part the name of the part is displayed as well. Purpose of this add is to make it easier to verify that you pick the right entity before it's deleted.

All Unix plotterdrivers have been updated to support the WIDTH attribute as well as the old PEN-file system. Available drivers are "postscript", "hpcl5", "hp7475", "epson" and "ibmpro". The postscript driver also supports color.

The ON() function now supports b_planes. You can reach any position on a b_plane by specifying two parameters U and V ranging from 0 to 1. Linear interpolation between the 4 corners of the b_plane is used to calculate the resulting position.

The help system is now supported by the "Edit Part" function (f170) so that pressing the help button will display the help file of the part you are editing if there is one. Earlier versions of VARKON displayed the help file of the "Edit Part" function itself which is less interesting.

Some of the routines involved in surface intersects CUR_INT(...) have been revised resulting in more stable calculation of intersects.

Text can now be used also in 3D. A new text attribute TPMODE (TextPlaneMODE) controls which plane the text is oriented in. TPMODE = 0 forces the text always to be displayed in the plane of the screen. TPMODE = 1 gives a true 3D appearence. Interactive functions f226 and f227 have been added to change and set the TPMODE attribute.

The "varkon.act_csys_pen" resource that was missing in the english version of VARKON:s ini-file for UNIX has been added. The active coordinate system is now automatically displayed in red color also for english users.

The default colors of pen 2, 3 and 4 in the UNIX version of VARKON have been swapped with pen 5, 6 and 7. Dark red is now light red, dark green is light green, dark blue is light blue and vice versa. This colorscheme is already default for the Windows95/NT version of VARKON.

A bug in a low level routine of the (UNIX-) user interface that sometimes made it impossible to accept a value in a input window using <CR> from the keyboard has been fixed.

The graphics/view/shade/dynamic rendering function f200 now supports also points, lines, curves, coordinate systems and text. Version 1.16A of VARKON only supported b_planes and surfaces. Still not supported are arcs.

6 new MBS routines have been added to the Windows95/NT version of VARKON that makes it possible to acces data in external databases through ODBC. ODBC supports local and networked databaseservers from most commersial vendors and also access to data created in Microsoft Excel. We have tested the new interface with a local Excel database and a customer is using it with a networked database in a IBM AS400. The new routines are: ODBC_Connect(), ODBC_Execdirekt(), ODBC_Fetch(), ODBC_Getstring(), ODBC_Disconnect() and ODBC_Error().

A bug in the MBS compiler (mbsc) that made it impossible to use larger integer literal values than 214748000 has been corrected. The max value of an integer literal is now 2147483678 or 2**31 as it should be with 32-bit integers. You might think this is not very important but to one of our users it was !

A bug that crashed VARKON if errormessage files were not properly installed has been corrected.

The graphics/view/shading/dynamic rendering function f200 now has 2 new recources that can be set in the ini-file to control position, size and window title. Interactive resize is now also supported.

VARKON:s help system has been updated to work with HTML documents as well as plain ASCII text files. The standard distribution of VARKON no longer includes the VARKON_ROOT/doc directory. Instead, VARKON_DOC now points to VARKON_ROOT/man where the VARKON documentation should be installed. If the VARKON documentation (v_man and m_man) is downloaded and installed in VARKON_DOC (VARKON_ROOT/man) as described on the download pages the new help system will use these files. An external HTML viewer/browser is required. The VARKON ini-file includes a new resource "varkon.html_viewer" that controls which browser to use. Netscape works as well as Microsoft InternetExplorer. If the resource is not defined VARKON will only search for text files and display them in a VARKON list window. From now on the help system only recognizes textfiles as files named *.txt andt HTML files as files named *.htm. The older type textfiles named *.DOC are no longer supported because of the problems with interpretation of ."DOC" as Micrsoft Word documents.

All VARKON plotterdrivers now support a new -ws option that scales linewidth. If not set, all linewidths are scaled with the ordinary scalefactor -s. If set, -ws is used as scalefactor for linewidth instead of -s. This makes it possible to scale linewidths independantly from the scale used for the geometry.

A bug that resulted in the wrong line coordinates calculated if lin_tan2() was used with a local coordinatesystem active in a 3D-module has been corrected. lin_tan2() now works as it should in 2D and 3D with or without local systems activated.

The "change linewidth" function (f185) now supports multiple entity selections. You can edit the linewidth of many entities in one operation.

A minor bug in function f92, "Create DXF file" related to 2D circles has been corrected. The criterion for a DXF CIRCLE is now that the difference in angles is 360 +-0.001 degrees. All other VARKON arcs will be treated as DXF ARC.

Function f200 "Dynamic rendering" now has dynamic rotation, panning, scaling, perspective and light intensity controlled by the mouse. You can also switch between wireframe_polygon and shaded_surface representations.

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