Re: hpgl code and plotters

Raymond,

Yes, designCAD had great printer/plotter drivers...

Side note to Chris L; yes, I was thinking of the SYSTEMS working
together when I said re-ordering of entities was handled internally
in my earlier post. Like Raymond mentions below. DesignCAD used to
RULE the engraving/sign industry. remember the "incredible machine"
era of the engraving/ sign industry? When Scanvec was brand new?

It is a little hard to realise now that things are so much
more "open" overall, that this mix and match we all take for granted
wasn't always so... And different mfrs. banded together to present
themselves as a unified system. Now most of these alliances have spun
back off into separate companies, each duplicating their
partners "core competencies", or deciding they can make a go without
that part of their business. DesignCAD was produced by one of 2
brothers. the other brothers company sold educational training aids.
They combined into Viagrafix. And now it seems that the focus has
gone away from selling CAD.

Using pens (the SP command in HPGL is still a common way to do 2-1/2D
files with hpgl. The machines using hpgl for 3d, like lpkf, and
roland, use addtl. commands not in the hpgl language.

Hope this helps.

Ballendo

P.S. Ray, It was me who asked about HI plotters. Since you have an
unanswered private email in to me now, I'll include my request with
your answer.

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "Raymond Heckert" <jnr@a...> wrote:
> Chris,
>
> As I recall, DesignCAD V5.0 (c.1991) directly output HPGL code
suitable for
> a plotter (I used a 7475 B-sized plotter), and it had a feature to
allow
> "re-ordering" the line-work to allow for faster execution. (Back
then, D.C.
> used to include about 100 or so different drivers for various
printers,
> plotters, etc). I think some people simulated 3-D CAM by calling
out the
> (then 64) different layers as machining planes. I myself only
used it as
> a plotter. By the way, on one of the threads, someone was looking
for info
> in HI (Houston Instruments) plotters. I have a DMP-161 (D-size, 8-
pen).
> I'll be glad to share any "legit" info, if they'll contact me off-
line.
> BTW, DesignCAD would also output directly to varoius vinyl-cutter
machines,
>
> Ray Heckert jnr@antigopro,net
>
> ----------
> >>Ballendo:
> > > Different customers; different tools. And toolpath order is
generally
> > > taken care of by the engraver or vinyl cutter internal s/w.
> >
> >Chris:
> >
> > Whoooaa thar ! "Toolpath order - taken care of by the
engraver/vinyl
> > INTERNAL s/w" ??
> >
> > This I never saw. I never had any machine that anylized <snip>