DeltaCad is a reasonably priced and easy-to-use CAD program. It features a built in programming or 'macro' language based on the familiar BASIC language.
DeltaCad is emerging as the program of choice for sundial designers. It is available from Midnight Software. The price is $39.95, and there is a 45 day demo available.
NASS members and others will be providing programs here for producing various types of sundials with DeltaCad macros.
John Carmichael has made available a helpful MSWord document Sundial Design using DeltaCAD which he presented at a recent NASS conference.
Carl Sabanski has put together a group of pages Computer aided dialling (CAD), These are instructions for DeltaCad as well as instructions for the sundial generating program, ZW2000 and how to integrate the two.
More programs for DeltaCad and other languages can be found at Illustrating Shadows.
These programs are intended for those who want to make their own sundials as well as for those who wish to explore the possibilities of writing their own programs. With this in mind, all the program source code includes extensive remarks as well as various procedures and functions which form a library which can be copied and used in your own programs.
All the programs below can be downloaded in a single zip file: programs.zip.
The pages you are now reading which describe the NASS programs in the above zip can be downloaded in another zip: document.zip. The document is in HTML format. It is recommended that you unzip each of the files into separate folders under your main DeltaCad folder.
To run the programs, open DeltaCad and click:
| Options | Macro | Run |
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New to sundials design? Here are some tips before you start.
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Please, the programs are the intellectual property of the respective authors. You may modify them for your own use, but do not alter the original header.
Some Basic Dials
Horizontal "Garden Variety" sundials by Ron Anthony
In this series of dials, each program adds a feature to the previous one. Those wishing to learn to program sundials in DeltaCad should start with Horizontal #1 and continue with each program in sequence. Each program includes remarks explaining the code and it's new features.
- Horizontal #1
A simple horizontal dial indicating local solar time. No input. The basic code for a horizontal dial.
- Horizontal #2
Extends #1 by having a dialog with the user to get the latitude of the dial.
- Horizontal #3
Extends #2 by asking the user for the longitude and timezone of the dial. The new information is used to factor in the "correction for longitude". In addition, user data is validated for correctness, and a help page is added.
- Horizontal #4
Extends #3 by drawing a rectangular border around the dial. This addresses several problems in drawing and placement of lines. Also introduced but not visible is the concept of making factors related to size based on each other. For example, the size and shape of the rectangle can be set and the length of the hour lines must change automatically.
- Horizontal #5
Extends #4 by adding the lines and curves of declination. Changes the formula for hour lines to that provided by Fer de Vries. Accommodates dials in the southern hemisphere.
- Horizontal #6
Extends #5 by adding provision for gnomon width.
- Horizontal #7
Extends #6 to make all variable settings controllable by the user; consolidate validation routines; consolidate help routines; allow for half and quarter hours.
Analemmatic "Walk in" sundials by Fer de Vries
Use your body as the gnomon. This dial is popular with children. The output includes a text file of X,Y coordinates for layout.
- Analemmatic #1
A simple analemmatic dial indicating solar time.
- Analemmatic #2
Extends #1 with a provision for the time zone correction.
- Analemmatic #3
Extends #2 to include day-circles in a separate layer.
A Bit More Advanced
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New! Az-nomograph by Fer de Vries
This macro draws a nomograph showing relationships between the current date, the azimuth of the Sun, and civil time. When edited within DeltaCad and properly scaled, the nomograph may be used as the dial face for an azimuth cylinder sundial. For more information, read the file NotesOnAz-nomograph.pdf or see the March, 2007 NASS Compendium.
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More! Az-nomograph-Plus-Bab-It by Fer de Vries
Fer has written an expanded version of his macro Az-Nomograph.bas. The new macro, Az-nomograph-Plus-Bab-It.bas, draws "normal" (solar, zonal, or civil), Babylonian, and Italian hour lines for full hours, half hours and quarter hours (placed into different layers -- nine layers altogether) for any location in the North or South Temperate Zones.
The Babylonian and Italian hour lines are turned off as the macro ends, but it is a simple process to display any desired layers. The macro output may be customized and scaled to serve as a dial face for an azimuth cylinder sundial.
Questions and comments about these nomographs can be addressed to Mac Oglesby
Here ia a sample pdf of a cylindrical "hours until sunset" dial face created from the expanded macro.
- Madjet by Fred Sawyer.
A universal analemmatic sundial, using a vertical gnomon placed on the central date scale, with time read by the intersection of the shadow with the appropriate latitude ellipse. "I chose the name because the design reminds me of the papyrus boat that the Egyptian god Ra uses to ferry the sun disk across the sky each day; his boat is called a Madjet".
- SCADD by Steve Lelievre is a program for calculating a category of Standard Time horizontal sundials, either azimuth or polar style, using 15 minute intervals. Finite thickness gnomons are catered for. The plots are drawn in several layers, to aid later manual editing and additions. The EoT calculations are fixed to the year 2002. [Link to SCADD]
New! Folding Box Sundials. by Valentin Hristov
1 A Portable Folding Box Polar Gnomonless Sundial with corrections for the longitude and the Equation of Time and suitable for any latitude (N or S)
Features:
- When used, it is a rectangular box.
- The shadows of two of the edges indicate the civil and daylight
savings time.
- Two latitude angles support the box so that the two edges used as
gnomons are in N-S celestial direction.
- The main rectangle may face different local celestial directions.
a) South - local time from 6 to 18 (main position).
b) East - 0 to 12.
c) West - 12 to 24.
- When folded, it is a flat rectangle smaller than 10 x 4 cm if printed
"landscape" on A4, or 13 x 5.5 cm enlarged by copying on A3.
2 A Portable Folding Box Polar Gnomonless Sundial with Arbitrary
Orientation - suitable for any latitude (N or S).
New Options:
- declination of the plane of the box
- inclination of the plane of the box
- rotation in the plane of the box
- number of lines per hour
- to include or not the EOT correction
- to include or not the longitude correction
3 A Box Dial which uses the sun's altitude to indicate the time (civil, DST, local).
4 A classic Polar Nodus Box Dial. The morning and the afternoon are separated. Two boxes have to be printed for the two periods - 21Dec-21Jun and 21Jun-21Dec.
The Sundial Primer (by Carl Sabanski)
Hosts a Collection of DeltaCad sundial macros
Miscellaneous (These are included in the main downloads above.)
- Duration
An application that computes the duration of sunlight on any flat surface, anywhere on earth, at any orientation of inclination and declination. The output is a colorful graph.
Options for time systems: Standard time, Local apparent time, Local mean time and Time zonal, apparent.
- Eot Graph
Generate an Equation chart for any year from -3000 to 4000 using the Gregorian Calendar.
- The NASS Logo
We would like to expand this selection of programs. If you have written programs or procedures that you think would add to those presented here, please email them to Fer de Vries.
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DeltaCad