Release notes

Release notes 1.19B

# Release notes for Varkon 1.19B

Varkon 1.19B is a big step towards a completely new graphical user interface (GUI) with new functionality and new "feel and look". The new GUI is based on new dialog windows and new types of graphical windows. Varkon 1.19B is released in order to get feedback on the changes made so far. We hope to continue the development of the new GUI and aim on a new major release Varkon 2.0 later on. This means that Varkon 1.19B will only be available for Unix/Linux. We do not plan to release 1.19B for Microsoft Windows. It also means that the documentation is not 100% updated. We do feel however that 1.19B is much easier to use than previous versions of Varkon and we hope that you will not hesitate to try it out. Please give us all feedback you can, it's a great help in the development.

Here are some features of the new GUI:

- A new color theme with different colors for button's, backgrounds and highlighted buttons.

- A new menu window with buttons for different ways to enter positions etc. (click here for screen dump)

- A new view dialog window with enhanced view handling. (click here for screen dump)

- A new grid dialog window to set, blank or unblank the grid. (click here for screen dump)

- A new levels dialog window to list, name, blank or unblank levels. (click here for screen dump)

- A new attributes dialog window to set all active attributes. (click here for screen dump)

- Tooltips for all buttons and icons in the new windows

- A new print dialog with easy_to_use printer configuration/setup

- A new create part dialog

- An optional Message_and_Command window that displays Varkon messages and can be used to execute macro's. (click here for screen dump) (here is another picture with the Message_and_Command window pulled up to show the command history)

- A new interactive graphical window (WPRWIN) based on OpenGL

- Enhanced graphical window (WPGWIN) window based on X-Windows with 2D- or 3D-grid that can be used as a help to enter positions. The 3D-grid is automatically aligned to the XY-plane of the currently active coordinate system

- Surfaces can be visualized shaded with light or as wireframes

- New graphical attributes NULINES and NVLINES control the number of curves used for wireframe display of surfaces

- New graphical attributes PFONT and PSIZE control the font and size of points

- Buttons replaced with icons (contributed by Maciek) in graphical windows

Varkon 1.19B also includes:

- A new text oriented file format for JOB-files. JOB-files are now compatible over all platforms. The new JOB-files are however not compatible with earlier versions of Varkon. This means that if you load a job created with an earlier version of Varkon all JOB settings (views, levels etc) you may have done will be reset to their default values.

- A new plotter/printer configuration system. Configuration is interactive and settings are stored in a text file.

- Basic support for trimmed surfaces. Trimcurves are either cubic/rational or NURBS curves in the UV-plane of the surface. A new MBS routine CUR_COMP_ARR can be used to create trimcurves. A new MBS routine SUR_TRIM_USRDEF can be used to create a surface with trimcurves.

Here are some things we have removed from the system:

- Support for "Drawing scale". MBS routine ACT_DSCL is removed.

- Support for old type Tektronix/VT100 graphical displays.

- MBS routine SHADE_VIEW is replaced by the functionality of the new graphics window.

- MBS routine MATERIAL_VIEW changes to CRE_MATERIAL in order to be analogous with CRE_PEN.

And finally a few known bugs:

- The HIDE function (hidden line removal) is not working. This will be fixed in the next release.

- User defined materials may be defined but have no effect. This will be fixed in the next release.

- User defined light sources may be defined but have no effect. This will be fixed in the next release.

Good Luck
The CAD research group
Department of Technology
Orebro University
S-70182 Orebro
SWEDEN

Varkon version 1.19C svn# 120