elg@killer.Dallas.TX.US (Eric Green) (03/12/89)
So far, the best "general" drawing package I've encountered is Aegis Draw Plus. It is a good compromise between features and ease-of-use -- I've seen more-featurefull programs that were too hard to use, and programs like IntroCAD that are basically useless, they're so simple. The only problem is that it's slow as mollasas! So, does anybody know: Does it use the standard Amiga IEEE libraries? Can it take advantage of a CMI board with 68881? It obviously does floating-point math... which is why it's as slow as it is. Anybody ever heard of an "integer" draw program which allows the scalability of a full-fledged package but on an integer basis? I once experimented with a version of DDA that used only integer math... it was fairly simple, you just maintain things as dividend/divisor pairs until you need to plot the actual point. Or a program that uses its own floating-point format that's faster than usual formats? (for those of you who've never dealt with floating point before -- division and multiplication are ridiculously simple, adding and subtracting require scaling & are thus slower, EVERYTHING is slower if the major fields are not on a byte/word boundary & are thus difficult to access). The 68881 is the preferred solution, of course, but I'm desperate for just about anything.... the existing draw packages simply are TOO SLOW, at least what I've seen. -- | // Eric Lee Green P.O. Box 92191, Lafayette, LA 70509 | | // ..!{ames,decwrl,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg (318)989-9849 | | \X/
billsey@agora.UUCP (Bill Seymour) (03/18/89)
From article <7513@killer.Dallas.TX.US:, by elg@killer.Dallas.TX.US (Eric Green):
: So far, the best "general" drawing package I've encountered is Aegis
: Draw Plus. It is a good compromise between features and ease-of-use --
: I've seen more-featurefull programs that were too hard to use, and
: programs like IntroCAD that are basically useless, they're so simple.
:
: The only problem is that it's slow as mollasas!
No argument here... I tried to use it at the dealers to get a
plot file for the Lucas shematics... Darn thinkg seemed to take *days*
to redraw the screen! And it did redraws at almost any most click...
: So, does anybody know:
: Does it use the standard Amiga IEEE libraries?
: Can it take advantage of a CMI board with 68881?
No such luck. They must be using ffp instead of IEEE since the
Processor Accelerator only speed it up a bit, enough to see, but not
as much as a math chip would. The new version (AEGIS Draw 2000) has a
'math chip' version, but it needs a 68020 or else it crashes.
: The 68881 is the preferred solution, of course, but I'm desperate for
: just about anything.... the existing draw packages simply are TOO
: SLOW, at least what I've seen.
Take a look at X-CAD, if you get a chance... Now *that's* a fast
CAD program!
: --
: | // Eric Lee Green P.O. Box 92191, Lafayette, LA 70509 |
: | // ..!{ames,decwrl,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg (318)989-9849 |
: | \X/
--
-Bill Seymour ...tektronix!reed!percival!agora!billsey
...tektronix!sequent!blowpig!billsey
Creative Microsystems Northwest Amiga Group At Home Sometimes
(503) 691-2552 (503) 656-7393 BBS (503) 640-0842timg@ziebmef.uucp (Tim Grantham) (03/20/89)
In article <7513@killer.Dallas.TX.US> elg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green) writes: >So far, the best "general" drawing package I've encountered is Aegis >Draw Plus. It is a good compromise between features and ease-of-use -- >I've seen more-featurefull programs that were too hard to use, and >programs like IntroCAD that are basically useless, they're so simple. > >The only problem is that it's slow as mollasas! > >So, does anybody know: > Does it use the standard Amiga IEEE libraries? > Can it take advantage of a CMI board with 68881? > ... [stuff deleted] >The 68881 is the preferred solution, of course, but I'm desperate for >just about anything.... the existing draw packages simply are TOO >SLOW, at least what I've seen. > The newest version of Draw Plus, Draw 2000, contains a 68020/68881 version. My preliminary tests with a Lucas Board with 512K indicate that it is at least twice as fast with redraws. Aegis says that it will run up to 4 times faster. Tim. -- timg@ziebmef.UUCP {uunet!mnetor!lsuc,utgpu}!ncrcan!ziebmef!timg