| 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
astro compass astrocompass shepherd ogee azimuth altitude hour angle Jaipur VRML ecliptic ISB virtual worlds kids teaching learning
| 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 |