My original dhShadow macro (written in the 90's) had logic to produce a single outline. When I wrote the more recent Shadow macro I had lost the source code of the original (External Iomega Jazz Drive, floppy disks, and the HD of a PC that had not been powered up for a decade or so had all failed) and I did not re-develop the logic to produce the single outline at that time.
Last year I found an old CD backup, so I now have that original source code that processed the overall outline. This logic was pretty slow on the PCs of the 90s, but one user who is still using that original macro actually contacted me a little while ago to say that he had re-enabled the outline option and was pleasantly surprised how quickly it performed on today's PC! It certainly needs to process hundreds or even thousands of polygons, but I don't believe that a model used to analyse shadows needs to produce millions of polygons. My focus is more on analysis (e.g. finding the effects of a new structure on the sunshine amenity of existing areas or on other areas of the new structure itself).
It will also work with all entities including Smart Entities.
That is more problematic for me. Mark Madura told me a little while ago that the smart entities had
not been exposed to DCAL for Delphi, but I have wondered from time to time if entity fields such as 'SuperData' may relate to those smart entities. At any rate there is no documentation or example to illustrate how to access or use smart entity data even if it is technically possible do so.
With your much more recent experience with the actual DataCAD source I expect that you have a good understanding of the internal workings of the smart entities, so you are probably far better equipped to access the smart entity data with a macro (if that is possible, or perhaps you can integrate it more closely into DataCAD).
There are probably at least a few people who would very much appreciate that extra functionality that I am currently unable to provide.