CADVANCE News

October 2003                                                Oct. 2003 Issue

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In 1993, ISICAD introduced CADVANCE for Windows, which ran on the Microsoft Windows 3.X operating system.  CADVANCE version 5.0 was the first Windows based CAD system to be introduced with a full set of ubiquitous features which included Multiple Document Interface (MDI), common application interface,  clipboard and OLE compatibility.  Also included was a newly designed macro programming interface called CADVANCE Developer Interface (CDI) and CADVANCE Basic Language (CBL) as its macro language.  CDI provided a fully Microsoft Windows compatible interface for most professional programming environments like C that could write a Dynamic Link Library (DLL).  Many of the features introduced in this ground breaking product were not fully matched by CADVANCE's main competition for many years.

Invoked from the CADVANCE utility menu, CBL provides customization and automation functions right out of the box.  CBL, CADVANCE's default macro language, similar in syntax to Microsoft Visual Basic is also fully Windows compatible.  Direct calls to the Windows API as well as custom DDL's and Active-X objects are well within the scope of its capabilities.

Over the years, CADVANCE users have discovered the benefits of using CBL for creating custom macros that make repetitive or difficult tasks easier to perform.  The built-in macro recorder makes it easy to create reusable functions with a minimum of programming skills.  Running a CBL macro is as easy as picking a shortcut key on the keyboard.

With all of its capabilities, CADVANCE's CBL macro editing environment only provides basic editing and debugging features.  Large applications are difficult to write and CBL macro speed is limited due to being an interpreted language.  Users of CADVANCE LiTe can only run macros created and compiled in the full version and cannot create CBL macros of their own.  

To overcome the limitations of CBL, CDI allows alternative application development environments to be used.   Many popular products that can create Windows compatible DLL's can be used to create custom applications for CADVANCE.  The majority of these products use C as the programming language.  C preferred by software development companies can be difficult to learn and code. 

An alternative to C is a product made by Borland called Delphi.  Delphi, a Rapid Application Development (RAD) environment uses Object Pascal as its language and is easy to use.  Delphi provides a full set of professional features for CADVANCE application development and makes CDI features not available to CBL macros accessible.  A number of applications have been written using Delphi, most notable and used by many CADVANCE users is AETools.  FIT has plans to further utilize Delphi for its other add-on products currently written in C.

Features not directly available to CBL are easily accessible using Delphi.  Custom forms are simple using Delphi's forms editor.  Debugging applications using the Delphi debugger allows rapid detection of programming errors.  The ability to create custom objects known as Auxiliary Objects is only possible by writing a custom DLL.  Delphi allows deployment of functions in a single plug-in library for easy distribution and maintenance of applications.

The gain in speed of custom applications may be the greatest advantage for most custom applications.  CBL macros that seem slow will benefit the most from conversion.  The transition from CBL to Object Pascal requires learning a different programming language.  The CADVANCE specific CDI function calls remain the same and useful macros written in CBL are fairly easy to convert. 

CADVANCE requires Delphi applications to be written as DLL's.  Usually located in the CADVANCE program directory, DLL functions can be invoked from the Utility/Applications menu.  CBL macros and other Delphi DLL's running inside of CADVANCE can have access to these functions as well.  The following would need to be added to the CADVANCE.ini file so that the application would be visible in the Applications menu.

[3rd Party (CADVANCE.ini)]
Multiline &Hello=AuxNew CadvUtils.dll 2D
Multiline &Hello=AuxEdit CadvUtils.dll 3D

Borland Delphi is an important addition to any CADVANCE users set of tools for creating custom CADVANCE applications.  CADVANCE is also a great platform for Delphi developers that are looking to create powerful CAD applications.

CBL (BASIC) version of DrawLine
Sub DrawLine()
Dim i_ret as Integer
Dim l_ret as Long
Dim i_term as integer
Dim i_menu as integer
Dim startPoint as CDI_DD_POINT
Dim endPoint as CDI_DD_POINT

CdiDeleteCursor
i_ret:=CdiGetPoint('Line point #1', startPoint, i_term, i_menu)
i_ret:=CdiGetPoint('Line point #2', startPoint, i_term, i_menu)
i_ret:=CdiObjStartLine(startPoint,CdiGetActLayer(),CdiGetStyle(),CdiGetWeight(),CdiGetCurColor())
l_ret:=CdiObjAddtoLine(endPoint,CDI_DRAWTO)
l_ret:=CdiObjEnd(CDI_TRUE,CDI_TRUE,CDI_OBJECT_COLOR)
End sub

Delphi version of DrawLine
procedure DrawLine;
var
i_ret:integer;
l_ret:LongInt;
i_term:integer;
i_menu:integer;
startPoint:CDI_DD_POINT;
endPoint:CDI_DD_POINT;

begin
CdiDeleteCursor;
i_ret:=CdiGetPoint('Line point #1', startPoint, i_term, i_menu);
i_ret:=CdiGetPoint('Line point #2', startPoint, i_term, i_menu);
i_ret:=CdiObjStartLine(startPoint,CdiGetActLayer,CdiGetStyle,CdiGetWeight,CdiGetCurColor);
l_ret:=CdiObjAddtoLine(endPoint, CDI_DRAWTO);
l_ret:=CdiObjEnd(CDI_TRUE, CDI_TRUE, CDI_OBJECT_COLOR);
end;

Simple Delphi DLL

library CadvUtil;

uses
 Windows,
 SysUtils;

//CADVANCE declarations go here
procedure CdiPutMsg(information_msg: pchar); stdcall;
   external 'CAD1.DLL';

procedure CdiPutInfoMsg(title: pchar; info_msg: pchar); stdcall;
   external 'CAD1.DLL';

//functions and procedures go here
procedure StartApp;stdcall;
begin
  CdiPutInfoMsg('CADVANCE Utilities', 'Hello World');
end;

procedure DllExitHandler(Reason:integer);
Begin

  case Reason of
    DLL_PROCESS_DETACH : ;
    DLL_PROCESS_ATTACH : ;
    DLL_THREAD_ATTACH : ;
    DLL_THREAD_DETACH : ;

  else
  end;

end;

//list the exports here
exports
  StartApp;

begin
  { Perform DLL initialization }
  DLLProc:=@DLLExitHandler;
  DLLExitHandler(DLL_PROCESS_ATTACH);

  CdiPutMsg('Initializing utility module, please wait...');

end.

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Editor's Note:  Takashi Furukawa, President of F I T, Inc., said, "As part of future product development plans, CADVANCE will be enhanced and upgraded using C++ and the future CADVANCE add-on applications will be developed in Delphi and C++."

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To AETools V2002 Site License users:

We discovered that there was some confusion with the AETools V2002 Single Version vs. the Site License version.  Improvements were delivered for the Single License version, but not for the Site (the
latest AETools Site version should have been delivered but was not).

If you are running AETools Site License V2002, please check the "Last Modified Date" of the AETools Site License file and confirm that its "Last Modified Date" is earlier than November 2003.  Then, download from here, un-zip the AET2002SITE.ZIP file and install AETools Site.

The improvements are:

AESetup, AEPlan Tab.  The dialog has increased up to 48 setups.  
Permits the user to change the labels on the "Group Options" screen.  So the three labels which currently say "Group 1", "Group 2", and "Both" are user-definable.

 

CADVANCE 2002 SP5 Available

CADVANCE 2002 Service Pack 5 Update is available at no charge, to all CADVANCE Full Version 2002 Users!

Please download and run SP5.

Contact us for more information  sales@fitinc.com or (800) 931-3171 x14

FAQ's   Frequently Asked Questions from CADVANCE users.   Please see F.A.Q.'s  Have a Question?  Send it to us at support@fitinc.com