Herd Software Development
DaVinci Graphics Library
DaVinci Documentation

Answers to frequently asked questions

How can I suppress the display of the progress bar?

How can I suppress the display of TIFF warnings?

What exactly is required to redistribute the DLLs with my product?

How can I suppress the display of the progress bar?

When calling import/export functions, simply add IPF_NOWAIT to existing flag values.

How can I suppress the display of TIFF warnings?

Many types of TIFF files are "variants" on the industry standard TIFF format and may not precisely match TIFF image specifications. Very often, tags are missing from the image which are required for full conformity with the TIFF spec. But as you probably know, that doesn't mean the image is "bogus". Information in the missing tags may be reconstructable from other information contained within the file.

By default, DaVinci displays corresponding warnings when importing files with missing tag data. You can suppress this warning on import by adding IPF_NOWARNINGS to existing flag values.

What exactly is required to redistribute the DLLs with my product?

When you register your copy of DaVinci, you must specify your company name and/or the company name of the customer for whom you are developing. Once the copyright holder for the end product has a valid license, you can include DaVinci DLLs with any software developed by or for that copyright holder which makes use of DaVinci functions.

There is one exception. If you wish to develop a software tool (specifically a DLL, OCX or similar product designed to allow others to develop their own software) and this tool is based on, or requires, DaVinci, and you want to allow your users to distribute DaVinci components with their software, then you will need to contact our marketing team for special-case licensing terms.

What can I do about incompatible files?

Firstly, are you sure that the file truly is incompatible, and not simply a corrupt file? Are other programs designed for this file type able to read the format correctly?
Secondly, are you working with a whole file? DaVinci is not designed to work in streaming applications or other situations where only a part of an image file may be passed to it at any given time. It needs access to the whole file in order to do its job.
Finally, are you sure DaVinci really is incompatible with this file type? It might be a new variant of a popular format, in which case we may already have released a maintenance update to handle that file type. Check this ftp link every few weeks or months to get the latest updates to DaVinci.
ftp://herdsoft.com/davinci.zip.
If you still believe the file is incompatible, you might have encountered a "special case" which Davinci does not yet know how to handle. We'd like to know about these, and we'll do our best to support most special-case file types with maintenance updates to the DLLs. However,we'll need a copy of the "problem" file to work from. In most cases, we can have a maintenance update ready within just a few days.
Please send a copy of any supported file which you think might be incompatible with DaVinci to info2013@herdsoft.com accompanied by a note containing any errors you encountered or information which may speed up the implementation of maintenance releases. Note that support for nonstandard file types is limited solely to the file formats and methods/procedures which were already supported by DaVinci at the 3.0 version level. Support of new file formats is strictly at the discretion of the publisher, and we reserve the right to decline support for any new or obscure filetypes.