Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2010 7:49 amI sure agree that old DCAL is very good, and although it has a learning curve to begin, it is very usable, especially for repetitive tasks.
The problem is that although Datacad suggests that it is for developers, it really is not. It is limited to parametric drawing routines, although it is possible to do some pretty interesting other things. In the early 90's I had DCAL performing a variety of advanced text features such as managing text size based upon plotting scales, rearranging text for different scales, writing and editing text as paragraphs, and even generating and reformatting keynote types of text. That was long before Datacad introduced any of those features in their text tools. There were limitations in the DCAL language however that prevented going to the next step and generating a program for market. I had to give up, because there was also a limitation with the folks at Datacad, they not only were not supportive, they were pretty much totally unresponsive to any dialog.
DCAL for Delphi is much more powerful, and more of a challenge to get your head around. It has the power to do much more, than Legacy DCAl, but in this case, the interface provided by Datacad has problems, and they do not respond to inquiries or suggests/requests so there are many advanced ideas that cannot be fully developed and brought to users. In addition, while Datacad has continued to develop new capabilities such as semi/smart walls and etc., these new types are not documented or easily accessible to DCAL
If I sound disappointed, it is because I am. I really enjoy the programming for the CAD environment and would love to pursue it in the this cad program I know so well
The problem is that although Datacad suggests that it is for developers, it really is not. It is limited to parametric drawing routines, although it is possible to do some pretty interesting other things. In the early 90's I had DCAL performing a variety of advanced text features such as managing text size based upon plotting scales, rearranging text for different scales, writing and editing text as paragraphs, and even generating and reformatting keynote types of text. That was long before Datacad introduced any of those features in their text tools. There were limitations in the DCAL language however that prevented going to the next step and generating a program for market. I had to give up, because there was also a limitation with the folks at Datacad, they not only were not supportive, they were pretty much totally unresponsive to any dialog.
DCAL for Delphi is much more powerful, and more of a challenge to get your head around. It has the power to do much more, than Legacy DCAl, but in this case, the interface provided by Datacad has problems, and they do not respond to inquiries or suggests/requests so there are many advanced ideas that cannot be fully developed and brought to users. In addition, while Datacad has continued to develop new capabilities such as semi/smart walls and etc., these new types are not documented or easily accessible to DCAL
If I sound disappointed, it is because I am. I really enjoy the programming for the CAD environment and would love to pursue it in the this cad program I know so well