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**** PD3DCTL IS PUBLIC DOMAIN AND NOT FOR SALE **** Antic presents PD3DCTL.ACC Motion-Control Accessory For use with CAD-3D 2.0 By Tom Hudson PD3DCTL.ACC (Public Domain 3D Control Accessory) is a desk accessory which allows you to create a motion-control file (with extension .CTL) with a text editor and load it into the accessory for execution from within CAD-3D 2.0. The accessory will then control CAD-3D 2.0 as if it were being operated by you from the normal user interface, creating a CYBERMATE animation sequence. When changes are made to modes or objects, you will not see the CAD-3D control panel change -- it will be updated when the accessory terminates. This admittedly rough accessory was the test bed for the CAD-3D 2.0 desk accessory communication pipeline during the program's development. A full-featured interpreted control language with variables, labels and MANY more commands will be available October from THE CATALOG. In addition to fully automated control of all currently available CAD-3D 2.0 functions, this new product will add many new functions to CAD-3D 2.0 and make possible the creation of highly complex animation sequences. The .CTL control files are simple text files in which each line is a command for CAD-3D 2.0. The files can be created and edited by any ASCII text editor, such as MicroEMACS, 1ST Word (in ASCII mode), or any of the commercially available word processing programs. Alternatively, there is a very handy public domain desk accessory called WORD400.ACC which can be used from within CAD-3D 2.0. You can find WORD400.ACC in DL4 of SIG*ATARI16. Whichever editor you use, be sure and set it up so that it does not output left margins. The general format of the command lines are: CCCC <parameter 1>,<parameter 2>, ... <parameter n> Where CCCC is a 4-character command string and <parameter> is an optional alphanumeric and/or numeric parameter as specified in the command summary below. Note: The four-character command is not case-sensitive; loop and LOOP will work exactly alike. Comments may be entered with a ';' character as the first character in the line, like so: ;Comment line Parameters are separated by a single comma. Do not use spaces in parameters. Miscellaneous notes. The 3D axis system in CAD-3D may be confusing at first, since it is oriented slightly differently than other programs. The X axis runs from left to right in the CAD-3D universe, with the leftmost value in the universe -45.00. The rightmost value is 45.00. The Y axis runs from front to back with the same limits. The Z axis runs from bottom to top with the same limits. Think of the X/Y plane as being a table or other flat surface parallel with the ground, and the Z axis as the - 1 - altitude. When referring to the values within the universe (which run from -45.00 to 45.00 in all three axes), this accessory expects to have them in an integer form. This is a simple operation -- a value of 30.76 is entered as 3076. Just drop the decimal point. Similarly, a value of -19.00 is entered as -1900. You will find that it helps to think of the universe as being a cube 9000 units on a side, ranging from -4500 to 4500. Object names are used to refer to the objects within the 3D universe. These names are up to eight characters in length, and are case-sensitive. For example, CUBE is not the same object as cube or Cube or CUbe. This can come in handy when referring to several similar objects. - 2 - COMMANDS -------- BASIC OPERATIONS ---------------- COLR name,color Recolors the specified object to the specified color. Example: COLR block,15 recolors "block" to color 15. Color must range from 1-15. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- KILL name Deletes the named object. KILL froon will delete the object "froon", if present. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- DUPL name,copyname Makes an exact duplicate of an object, in the same location. If there is an object named THING, the command DUPL THING,THING2 will make a copy called THING2. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- VIEW OPERATIONS --------------- ZOOM value Sets the camera zoom. Range from 0-999. Example: ZOOM 100 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- PSPC value Sets the perspective from 0-999. Example: PSPC 999 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- CAM1 hrot,vrot,bank Sets the camera to a specific orientation. All values range from -180 to 180. Example: CAM1 0,-40,180 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- VMOD mode - 3 - Set view mode of super view. Range 0-4 as shown below. Example: VMOD 2 sets solid mode. modes: 0: Wire 1: Hidden 2: Solid 3: Outlined 4: Use camera ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- DFMD mode Set draft mode (0) or final mode (1). Example: DFMD 1 sets final (z-buffer). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- SSEP sep Sets stereo separation. "sep" ranges from 1-100%. Example: SSEP 100 sets maximum stereo separation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- STEF effect Sets the stereo effect to in (0), centered (1) or out (2). Example: STEF 0 sets stereo effect to in. Cannot be altered during an animation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- STSW switch Switches stereo off (0) or on (1). Example: STSW 1 turns on stereo. Cannot be altered during an animation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- EDGE mode Sets to edges only (0) or all lines (1). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- C1MV hdelta,vdelta,bdelta Moves the camera "delta" degrees on each axis. Each delta can range from -180 to 180. Example: C1MV 3,-6,20 adds 3 to hrot, -6 to vrot, and 20 to the bank angle. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- - 4 - ---- CHGZ value Changes the zoom factor by the specified value. CHGZ -10 subtracts ten from the zoom factor; CHGZ 100 adds 100 to it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- CHGP value Changes the perspective factor by the specified value. CHGP -147 subtracts 147 from the perspective factor; CHGP 456 adds 456 to it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- SUPR Generates a super view in the super view buffer. Does not show the image. This is basically for generating an image that you want to move to the background buffer with the VUBG command. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- RECORDER OPERATIONS ------------------- RCON path,filename,mode Turns on the recording mode. "path" is the drive/path specification, "filename" is the filename to use for the animation, and mode is 0 for Sequential, 1 for Cybermate mono, or 2 for Cybermate stereo. Example: RCON c:\,anitest,1 starts a mono Cybermate animation on drive c: in the root directory (be sure to include the '\' character) called "anitest". If you're going to a folder, use RCON b:\folder\,froon,1. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- RCRD Records a frame of animation. RCON must have been successfully executed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- RCOF Turns off recording, closing the animation file. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- GROUP OPERATIONS - 5 - ---------------- SGRP group Selects group 0-3, corresponding to A-D. Example: SGRP 2 selects group C. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- HOME Homes the current group. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- SCAL percent Scales the current group from 50-200 percent. Example: SCAL 157 scales the group to 157%. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- RCTR type Sets the rotational center to universe (0), group (1) or arbitrary (2). Example: RCTR 0 sets universe mode. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- ARBC x,y,z Sets the arbitrary rotation center to the X,Y,Z coords. Values range from -4500 to 4500, the integer equivalents of -45.00 to 45.00. 0,0,0 is the universe center. Example: ARBC 1000,2000,-2345 sets the arbitrary center to X=10.00, Y=20.00 Z=-23.45. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- GROT deltaz,deltax,deltay Rotates the current group around the rotational center by the specified degree increment on the specified axis. Degree values range from -180 to 180. For best results, use this command one axis at a time. Example: GROT 45,0,0 rotates the group 45 degrees around the Z axis. Remember -- CAD-3D's axis system is aligned such that the X axis runs from left to right, the Y axis runs from front to back and the Z axis runs from bottom to top. Therefore, the GROT command can be thought of as: GROT toprot,rightrot,frontrot because the rotation is seen from the window indicated. The GROT 45,0,0 command will rotate the group 45 degrees clockwise as seen in the top window. GROT -45,0,0 will return it to its previous orientation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- - 6 - AXSC xscale,yscale,zscale Scales each axis independently. "xscale" is the X axis scale percentage, "yscale" is the Y axis scale percentage, and "zscale" is the Z axis scale percentage. All percentage values run from 50 to 200 -- a value of 100 leaves that axis unchanged. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- XLAT deltax,deltay,deltaz Translate the group the specified distance, in integer floating-point equivalents, up to 10.00 units. To translate a group of objects 5 units in the X axis, 5.67 units in the Y axis and -8.89 units in the Z axis, use the command: XLAT 500,567,-889. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- SLCT name,switch Select/deselect an object in the current group. "name" is the name of the object, switch is 0 (deselect) or 1(select). SLCT cube,1 will select the object "cube". ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- CGRP Clears the current object group (deselects all objects). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- GALL Selects all objects in the current group. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- BUFFER OPERATIONS ----------------- BGND switch Turns the background on (1) or off (0). Background buffer must have been reserved at start-up time to use. Example: BGND 0 turns off the background. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- CLBG Clears the background. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- - 7 - ---- VUBG Moves the current view to the background buffer ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- LOOP COMMANDS ------------- LOOP count Starts a loop that will execute "count" times. Loop starts with LOOP command, ends with **** command (see below). Example: LOOP 40 C1MV 9,0,0 RCRD **** Is a loop that will move the camera 9 degrees horizontally 40 times, each time recording a frame. This will record a complete circle around the scene. You can have nested loops, up to 10 levels. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- **** This command specifies the end of a loop. Be sure to have one of these for each loop, or your batch file will probably fail with an error message. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Have fun with this accessory, and watch for new animation control files on CompuServe's Antic On-Line in the CYBER CONNECTION section. If you come up with an interesting animation, why not archive the .3D2 file, control file and background image, if any, and upload them to SIG*Atari and your local BBS's for others to enjoy? -Tom Hudson/The Catalog NOTE: PD3DCTL.ACC may only be distributed in the public domain for free. It may not be resold. - 8 -