Varkon / News: Recent posts

After a long time of discussion it now seems that GTK is the way to go in order to make the Varkon sources platform independant. Here are some of the reasons:

- GTK is LGPL, so is Varkon
- GTK is C so is Varkon
- GTK is X-inspired, so is Varkon
- GTK is a professional product, so is Varkon

A new branch to the SVN source tree will be added within short and mark the beginning of the development of Varkon 2.0 with all X11/WIN32 code replaced with GTK. Please contact us if you are willing to help, we badly need experienced GTK programmers.

Today Varkon version 1.19D was released as a prebuilt binary package for linux. A source code package is also available for download.

See: http://varkon.sourceforge.net/man_1.19D/relnotes/rn_1.19D.htm
for details.

Two bugs related to trimming of arcs in 3D are now corrected. Please use SVN# 118 or later versions of the sources from the SVN repositiory if you have problems with trimming or using trimmed circular arcs.

The english ini-file included in the current version of Varkon specifies the use of text fonts that are not available on all target systems. To cope with this the english ini-file has been changed to use only standard X11 text fonts.

The new ini-file is available from the SVN repository in SVN #115.

You can use the 9 buttons in the lower part of the menu window to select the current method to use for positional input during interactive work. This usually works fine but if you do it during a MACRO call and switch from on/end/int/cent to any other method the system craches.

This bug is now fixed and the new sources uploaded to the SVN repository, svn#108.

The released version of Varkon 1.19C can sometimes select the wrong entity in an OpenGL window when you pick it with the mouse. This bug is fixed in the sources uploaded to the svn repository today, svn#99.

Varkon version 1.19C is now available for download as a prebuilt binary for Linux and in source code for Linux, MacOSX and FreeBSD. For more information, see Download Varkon.

Today the first step of the release of Varkon 1.19C was taken as the full documentation for 1.19C was uploaded to the Varkon homepage:

http://varkon.sourceforge.net/

Check the Varkon homepage and select "More about Varkon" and then "Varkon documentation" or go directly to:

http://varkon.sourceforge.net/man_1.19C/index.htm

The doc's for 1.19C include a new Tutorial, a new section for Application developers, a new section for System administrators, Release notes, MBS manual and a new manual for Interactive users.

Varkon 1.19C will include a new (beta version) TIFF output. The new TIFF creator takes the current contents of a OpenGL Window and writes it as a gray scale 300 DPI TIFF image of the same size as the window to a file on disc. The TIFF deriver is contributed by Armin Faltl. Thanks Armin.

If you want to try now, download svn#87 from the SVN repository.

Varkon 1.19C will soon be available for download as a package with sources and prebuilt binary for Linux.

Varkon 1.19C will be based on one of the latest versions available in the SVN repository including
the new set of HTML documentation and help files.

We've now added a patch tracker to encourage patch submissions. All trackers have been updated to eliminate anonymous logins. This is to prevent users (me) from accidentally submitting anonymous tracker items, and to help us contact users to resolve tracker issues.

A short tutorial that describes how to
start the system, create two points and
a line, make some changes and save/exit
is included in svn#52 of the sources.

In the "Select mode" dialog (the first
you see when you start Varkon) try "Learn
more about Varkon".

svn#52 also includes a number of other changes
to the documentation, mostly related to the interactive help system.

The svn version 44 of the sources include a completely new concept for projects and jobs. The old PID-files are removed. Any directory can now be used as the working directory. Many new dialogs are added including a completely new file selector. The system works in EXPLICIT (drafting) or GENERIC (parametric) mode. A new concept for the help system is also implemented. Try F1, <CTRL>a or help in any situation.... read more

We've enabled the wiki feature. It's just been activated and that's it. We haven't made any attempt to oragnize anything. If you want to work on it, be our guest. We actively monitor it, so we should be able to keep things under control ;-).

SVN version #33 of the sources include a new list window with horizontal and vertical scrollbars.
This is the first time scrollbars are used in the
Varkon GUI. If/when they turn out to work well
they will also be used in other parts of the GUI.

Please try and let us know what you think about
the functionality and visual appearence of the
new scrollbars.

The Varkon development team

Drawing dimensions (Linear-LDIM, Circular-CDIM, Radius-RDIM and Angular-ADIM) have previousley only been available in DRAWING modules (2D) but are now (from SVN version #30) available also in GEOMETRY modules (3D).

A drawing dimension is a planar object but will now automatically orient itself into the XY-plane of the currently active coordinate system. This means that you can create dimensions in any direction in a 3D model.... read more

Since the release of Varkon 1.19B several bugs have been corrected. Detailed information is available through the SourceForge bug tracking system. Select the "Tracker" tab from the Varkon project page and look for closed issues in the bug section.

To get the latest version of the system, with bugs fixed, download the latest sources from the SVN repository and build the system on your computer. Try the "Code" tab on the Varkon project page for more information.... read more

Varkon 1.19B is now released on SourceForge.

For release notes, see:

http://www.tech.oru.se/cad/varkon/relnotes.htm

You can download a prebuilt binary for Linux or
the full Unix sources from the Varkon project
website on SourceForge, or...

...you can download the sources from the SVN
repository.

The Varkon development team
Department of Technology
Örebro University
Sweden

The Varkon development team at the University of Örebro in Sweden have descided to move the Varkon Website to SourceForge.

Within the weeks to come you will be able to see more and more information about Varkon here and you will also be able to download distributions, post bug report and other messages. Finally, we plan to set up a source code repository using CVS or SVN later this year.

Until further notice however the official Varkon website is still:... read more