ILLUSTRATING SHADOWS
focusing on education and interesting practical aspects of sundial design
FREE SOFTWARE ON THIS PAGE, and
ONE PAGE COMPARISON OF MANY CAD, GRAPHICAL, AND PROGRAMMING SYSTEMS
FREE  or LOW COST ~ GOOD  ADMINISTRATIVE SOFTWARE  FROM  ELSEWHERE

FREE  (my pages also have code examples for one or more dials)    BASIC   C/C++ DeltaCAD Pascal VisualBasic   FORTRAN   java  

JustBASIC                                                                                                      A free BASIC IDE system,                                                             see my stuff here

Visual Basic                                                                                                  A small free Visual BASIC IDE (7mb) from Envelop.               see my stuff here

FORTRAN                                                                                                      A free compiler, linker and so on.                                                see my stuff here

PASCAL systems     and also this one                                                     A free 8mb fully integrated development environment (IDE)  - modern
                                                                                                                        windows layouts,
www.bloodshed.net/devpascal.html , and ditto at 28mb
                                                                                                                        
www.freepascal.org/ with excellent documentation but  DOS wondow type
                                                                                                                        layout.                                                                                                
see my stuff here

COBOL                                                                                                           See this page for COBOL that is free and usable, also low cost version.

C and C++ systems                                                                                     A free IDE for C and C++ that matches the 8mb IDE for PASCAL. The notes
                                                                                                                         in the zip file updated
Jan 2008 to compare with Visual C++  my dials are here

JAVA (the IDE plus the JDK)                                                                      You need the IDE and the JDK   my dials are here

Python                                                                                                            The JAVA replacement, and my dials are here along with notes.  Jan 13, 2008

Free CAD 2d                                                                                                 CADstd: Works well, you need to pay close attention to
                                                                                                                        snaps otherwise you will get very frustrated with trying
                                                                                                                        to draw angles. Not programmable.

ProgeCAD 2d CAD       from ProgeSOFT                                                  Large and full featured, free. Has LISP and C++ like scripting.  
                                                                                                                         The LISP method of programming harks back to an earlier age. CADstd (not
                                                                                                                         programmable) and DeltaCAD (programmable) are perhaps better choices
                                                                                                                         for 2d dialling. I have h-dial, v-dial, and v-dec scripts that work but DeltaCAD
                                                                                                                         is still my choice for  programability, and TurboCAD for non programmed
                                                                                                                         drafting and 3d modeling. Check my LISP page which tells you how to get
                                                                                                                         ProgeCAD from ProgeSOFT
:  my LISP page has good notes, and also an
                                                                                                                         h-dial, v-dial, and a v-dec dial as well.  ProgeCAD is a good product, well
                                                                                                                         worth checking out. Its purchased version supports Visual Basic
Jan 7, 2008

Scilab                                                                                                              A free mathematical system, however, these h- v- and vdec dials show how
                                                                                                                         you can  program Scilab for dials, tabular and graphical.        
      Jan 14, 2008

Euler                                                                                                               A free mathematical system, however, these dials show how
                                                                                                                         you can  program Euler for dials, tabular right now.         .               
Jan 18, 2008

Octave                                                                                                            Like Euler and Scilab, and I have free dial programs for Octave.   Feb 15, 2008

Acrobat viewer                                                                                               Essential for the books on this web site. Also,
                                                                                                                        as I add hyperlinks for VRML and video to the
                                                                                                                        booklets, this is the only way to go. Hyperlinks
                                                                                                                        in Acrobat are smooth, the same hyperlinks in
                                                                                                                        Word cause endless security warnings.

Word, Excel, Powerpoint viewers                                                             Look but don't touch software.

VRML browser plugin                                                                                 Cortona for Mozilla, Netscape, and  Internet
                                                                                                                        Explorer,   Needed for vrml browsing.                                        
see my stuff here

standalone VRML viewer                                                                           Standalone viewer, good for vrml objects, less
                                                                                                                        so for virtual worlds, use a web browser offline for
                                                                                                                        that. It does offer chroming the colors, neat.

LOW COST   

Excel and Word compatible software                                                     The 602 spreadsheet that is very low cost  is Excel
                                                                                                                        compatible and you can modify sheet content.

DeltaCAD                                                                                                      The standard for gnomonics, or dialling.                                 see my stuff here

PocketC                                                                                                         Both source and standalone .PRC dial programs.                        Feb, 2008   
Sundial Sun Dial Sundials Sun Dials Design Book Books articlesspreadsheets Gnomics Gnomonics Horology Dialling Dialing Clocks EOT Equation of time Middleton Sciathics Lunar Moon construction hobby gnomon cutout popup building
astro compass astrocompass shepherd ogee azimuth altitude hour angle Jaipur VRML ecliptic ISB virtual worlds kids teaching learning
My PayPal page has the different options and prices
Book purchase
options are
here...
FREE ~ VRML SOFTWARE

Before using any virtual world (.wrl), you must have a browser plug-in. Otherwise all you will see is coding. I have only tested and used the Windows versions of this software. Don't view
vrml figures without the plug-in.
                               
WINDOWS:    Browser:  Cortona (4.2 and 5.0)                                    This shows virtual world scenes so you
                                                                                                                      can walk around and view them.
This web
                                                                                                                      page has several worlds, the Jaipur observatory
                                                                                                                      is perhaps the most complex, yet it is small.
                                                                                                                      This
web page has some individual vrml models.
                          Scene builder:  
ISB                                                         This builder is from Parallel Graphics who has
                                                                                                                      excellent support. The ISB is a scene builder,
                                                                                                                      and is free if you have less than a number of
                                                                                                                      surfaces. For under $100 you get the unlimited
                                                                                                                      version. Having used vrml since 1998, this is
                                                                                                                      easy to use and cost effective.
MAC:                 Browser:  Cortona OSX and Cortona MAC                 I have not tested nor used the MAC products.
FREE  ~ GOOD  SUNDIAL SOFTWARE  FROM  ELSEWHERE

SHADOWS           www.shadowspro.com           comprehensive, license is reasonable and free version covers many
                                                                                    common needs , can upgrade to more features
SUNSET               www.yoredale.uklinux.net/programs/programs.htm           sunset.xls
                                                                                    good sunrise and sunset calculator
SUNTIMES           www.fv01.dial.pipex.com/suntimes.shtml     program has a world map and sun times
CAD PROGRAMS ~ ~ ~ personal preference DeltaCAD for programmability, TurboCAD for drafting and 3d.

Apart from the free CAD program mentioned above, this web site and the books all used TurboCAD deluxe which is around $100, and additionally they have an animation add-on at an
extra price.
IMSI provides TurboCAD. Some of my TurboCAD tcw files are here.  This is a full 3d CAD system, very popular, and well worth the cost. Scripting exists only at the TurboCAD
Professional level, see
here for a VBS script or two.

Other products exist, such as
Rhino, and also ProgeCAD which has a LISP scripting language.

DeltaCAD is a 2d only system, however it has a powerful scripting language that they call macros.
DeltaCAD is available for around $40 and you can see some of my macros here.           
    
The objective of ILLUSTRATING SHADOWS and it's web site was to
use software that was either free or less than about $100.
Nothing is truly free, so if you like a product, consider buying their purchased versions which have more features and better options. Hint - feel free to buy the book
ILLUSTRATING SHADOWS  and ILLUSTRATING MORE SHADOWS!
2008