hansb@carina.unm.edu (Home Shopper) (03/23/90)
Scott Halbert's Reply follows: ******************************* In article <133092@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) writes concerning UltraDesign: > I've seen this product in the store but nobody I know has purchased it > yet. If anyone has used this program could they give a brief review > to the net? My first two questions about CAD programs these days are : I'm don't get a usenet feed, but a friend relayed this to me. I wrote UltraDesign, so I thought I could answer your questions. 1) Is it copy protected ? No. Not on the disk, and no dongle. 2) Can it preview to the printer ? Do you mean a screen dump? UltraDesign supports a full WB1.3 raster dump to the printer which is at printer resolution. It can dump a full page if you want it to (at whatever resolutions that are supported by the driver). Some printers have such nice quality, you don't really need a plotter. 3) What is the "part" support like ? There is a library feature which allows parts to be organized into a part type file. When inserted into the main drawing the parts are copied. I am now working on the next major release of UD which will support a block type of concept like AutoCAD has which will allow references to parts to be inserted at a given scale or rotation where the elements are not copied. 4) Are multiple layers supported ? You may have any number (limited by memory) of named layers. You can also create pen styles which are like layers and allow you to organize the drawing in more than one way. The drawing may also be organized with a heirarchical group structure. 5) Is ARexx supported ? How well ? A full command line interface called dialog mode was written for UltraDesign. The ARexx interface will allow you to compose commands in this language for execution. ARexx command files may be launched from dialog or from pull down menus. Hooks are also in place for the user to change any of UltraDesign's options or variables, such as the units or the drawing size. There are also ARexx result style commands available to get the value of variables inside UltraDesign and for retreiving mouse clicks from the user. 6) What sort of part library can you build for this thing ? This was sort of answered in 3. Part support at this time really amounts to a selective merge from another file. This works quite well except that the parts elements are duplicated every time the part is inserted in the drawing. 7) Is the drawing format documented ? Can I convert it to AutoCAD ? I'm not too keen to document the format of version 1 of UltraDesign, but I will give it out to people who really want it. A few people have wanted it to support it in their packages. When I release V2 of UltraDesign I intend to change the format quite a bit and then I intend to document that format quite well. UltraDesign uses a IFF file type which I intend to submit as a standard when it is stabilized. Since UltraDesign supports quite a few other file standards, it is no big deal to get drawings into and out of UltraDesign. See question 8 for AutoCAD question. 8) Can I use AutoCAD drawings ? UltraDesign will read and write AutoCAD DXF files. So yes. Lots of packages support DXF as well. UltraDesign can read IntroCAD and Aegis Draw files. It will load HPGL and Roland DXY plot files. 9) What sort of Text support is there ? UltraDesign supports some 16 or seventeen stroke style fonts. In V2 there will be many new fonts (we have just hired a font artist) and font tools for the creation of your own fonts. Text height, slant and automatic flipping are supported. 10) Are there any 3D aids ? Projections ? There are some features in line mode which allow vanishing points to be created and allow multipoint perspectives to be done. As yet there are no acutal 3D extensions. 11) Does it do chamfers? Cut to intersection ? Snap to nearest vertice? It does not yet do chamfers, but it does do filets. It will snap to intersections, vertices, midpoints, perpendiculars, or circle centers. Thanks for the interest. Please mail me direct if you have other questions. I've been looking two years for a news feed but... ---Scott Halbert scott@iris.edu WURBsoft Inc. ...!sun!hoptoad!irisaq!scott 5612 Sandhill SW thor@uueaerb.uucp Albuquerque NM, 87121 >>>>>>>> Amiga 1000 owner, February 1986 <<<<<<<<< Become a Home Shopper! Email hansb@ariel.unm.edu for details