Topic: 'cal

[Big G]

Ive always had a problem with the transparent calculator in cad and wondering if im the only one....

Code: [Select]

Command: l
LINE Specify first point:
Specify next point or [Undo]: 'cal
>>>> Expression: 500-200
Error:
Numeric overflow
>>>> Expression: *Cancel*

Resuming LINE command.
it always works on the second try...but the first try 99% of the time gets a numeric overflow...does anyone else get this error?...
perhaps i should ask, does anyone else even use this function?

[CADaver]

Ive always had a problem with the transparent calculator in cad and wondering if im the only one....

Code: [Select]

Command: l
LINE Specify first point:
Specify next point or [Undo]: 'cal
>>>> Expression: 500-200
Error:
Numeric overflow
>>>> Expression: *Cancel*

Resuming LINE command.
it always works on the second try...but the first try 99% of the time gets a numeric overflow...does anyone else get this error?...
perhaps i should ask, does anyone else even use this function?

What are you trying to do?  seems to work for me, but the syntax seems a bit meaningless.

[Big G]

nothing in particular this time, but generally when im trying to use the transp. cal. i always seem to get the error message, just upgraded to c3d 09 and curious as to why im getting the same message as before.....

i ususally use it for drawing pipe lengths from engineers RL's, so draw a line between 2 RL's say of 49.124 and 46.247 (for instance)

Code: [Select]

Command: l
LINE Specify first point:
Specify next point or [Undo]:  <Ortho on> 'cal
>>>> Expression: 49.124-46.247
Error:
Numeric overflow
>>>> Expression: 49.124-46.247


Resuming LINE command.

Specify next point or [Undo]: 2.877

Specify next point or [Undo]:
et voila second time it gives me the answer to the difference between the 2 RL's.....

not really that much of a hassle, just curious if anyone else was getting this and found out what it was.

[CADaver]

May be a load issue.  The app isn't loaded until your first attempt and it can't be loaded transparently.  Try executing a cal function at the command line non-transparently.

[Big G]

strange that.....

seems to load fine from the cmd line each time.....but transparently it has a problem

Code: [Select]

Command: l
LINE Specify first point:
Specify next point or [Undo]: 'cal
>>>> Expression: 500-300
Error:
Numeric overflow
>>>> Expression: 500-300


Resuming LINE command.

Specify next point or [Undo]: 200

Specify next point or [Undo]:
Command: cal
>> Expression: 500-300
200

[CADaver]

strange that.....

seems to load fine from the cmd line each time.....but transparently it has a problem

Code: [Select]

Command: l
LINE Specify first point:
Specify next point or [Undo]: 'cal
>>>> Expression: 500-300
Error:
Numeric overflow
>>>> Expression: 500-300


Resuming LINE command.

Specify next point or [Undo]: 200

Specify next point or [Undo]:
Command: cal
>> Expression: 500-300
200

It never has loaded transparently and was so stated in the R14 documentation.

[Kerry]

Have you tried adding something like this to your ACAD.mnl or to one of the auto-loaded files. ... just to make sure it is preloaded ..

(if (not (member "geomcal.arx"(arx)))(arxload "GEOMCAL") )

[Hedgehog]

Tested it in MEP 2009 & it works transparently 1st time all the time... I never have used it tho'.

[TimSpangler]

i always use a space between the numbers ie

500 - 200

Maybe???

[Mark]

Ive always had a problem with the transparent calculator in cad and wondering if im the only one....

You're not alone, I've had this problem with both C3D '08 & '09.

[mjfarrell]

Ive always had a problem with the transparent calculator in cad and wondering if im the only one....

the thing flat our wont do high order integers, and has been broken for years

Command:
Command: 'cal
>> Expression: 25*189045
4726125

Command:
CAL >> Expression: 45/483729282820
Error:
Integer numbers must be between 2147483647 and -2147483648

it always works on the second try...but the first try 99% of the time gets a numeric overflow...does anyone else get this error?...
perhaps i should ask, does anyone else even use this function?

[CADaver]

Ive always had a problem with the transparent calculator in cad and wondering if im the only one....

the thing flat our wont do high order integers, and has been broken for years

Its an issue with intergers in a digital environment, has been so since we started using binary computing.

[Bob Wahr]

I'm guessing something with C3D is interfering based on the response you've gotten.  I use the command occasionally and have never had it do that to me.

[CADaver]

I've always used a function similar to the one Kerry posted to make sure the GEOMCAL is always loaded and have no issues with transparent cal functions.

[mjfarrell]

Ive always had a problem with the transparent calculator in cad and wondering if im the only one....

the thing flat our wont do high order integers, and has been broken for years

Its an issue with intergers in a digital environment, has been so since we started using binary computing.

Funny that you apologize for autodesk's failing here; yet one can enter the SAME values in the windows calculator and it will return a valid answer. So it's really an issue with autodesk's programming and not integers, and or binary functionality as you are suggesting.

[Big G]

good mix of responses there to the question....nice to know im not the only one with the 'numeric overflow'
Is the geomcal.arx the internal cal command or the toolbar calculator...

[CADaver]

Ive always had a problem with the transparent calculator in cad and wondering if im the only one....

the thing flat our wont do high order integers, and has been broken for years

Its an issue with intergers in a digital environment, has been so since we started using binary computing.

Funny that you apologize for autodesk's failing here; yet one can enter the SAME values in the windows calculator and it will return a valid answer. So it's really an issue with autodesk's programming and not integers, and or binary functionality as you are suggesting.

Apologize for Autodesk???  The integer issue has been around in binary computing forever.  It was covered in my very first Fortran class in 1970.  It is limited by the amount of integer data stored in a byte because integers are processed by computers in a "fixed size approach".  Floating point calculations (on real numbers) use a "variable size approach".  The reason for the difference is speed, the fixed approach is massively faster than the variable approach.  It is an issue with every programming language, has been since tubes.

So knowing its a simple interger issue, the solution to this "major" problem is just add a .0 to one of the numbers and its no longer an integer.  That's what the windows calculator does automatically.

Microstation, until V8, used interger based graphics and it forced a fixed design plane because of the max integer computable.

[mjfarrell]

So how do you explain that the very same numbers can be computed using the Windows calculator, that autodesk 'cal chokes on?

[CADaver]

So how do you explain that the very same numbers can be computed using the Windows calculator, that autodesk 'cal chokes on?

The calculator is an application that forces all numbers to real. (divide 5 by 3, if the answer is not 1 then the numbers are real numbers, not integers)