I have used Fer de Vries remarkable program "Zonwvlak" for a variety of designs. It is available from various sources such as NASS. It is excellent for trying out all sorts of options to come up with the best design. I recently completed a large (80 X 90 cm) vertical declining sundial which incorporated hour lines, limiting declination lines and an analemma noon mark. Zonwvlak gave me not only the graphical images and plot files I could print out using "PRINTGL" and "Word Perfect" but all the co-ordinates so I could manually plot on the large wooden work surface. The finished product, a Christmas gift, is beautiful ;-)
The user interface and hot buttons with Zonwvlak are not intuitive and it assumes a reasonable knowledge of DOS and sundial design. The instructions in the "read.me" files, available in three languages, are sufficient if you follow them PRECISELY and are prepared to experiment with the parameters. The same advice applies for the associated shareware program, "PRINTGL". I've had excellent results using both a laser printer and a primative 9 pin, but you are stuck with using a DOS command string that does not tolerate vague instructions. Precision and patience will prevail. I have also used the "Shadows" program by Francois Blateyron and available to download at http://www.fc-net.fr/frb/cadrans.html. It has an excellent user interface using Windows 95. It is currently an unfinished beta test version which shows promise but is unfinished. It can produce a graphic design with standard features for common sundial types but it is very limited on the options available. It gives you the picture only, no numbers for manual plotting. It allows for longitude corrections but only referenced to zero longitude. This works for France but not for my longitude of of 115 degrees, although the corrections are simple. The ideal program would combined the best features of each, the gnomics of "Zonwvlak" and the interface of "Shadows". To my knowledge such a progrit does not yet exist. The challenge is still out there. --- Roger Bailey Walking Shadow Designs On Fri, 13 Dec 1996 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > i am loking for a very good "or the best" sundial calculation program > (for calculation, edition amd printing sundials). > If somebody has informations about that please let me know! > Thank you everybody. > Henri GOAS. > > -------- >
