Lathe v0.9b

by Steve Sprang

<sprang@andrew.cmu.edu>

http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/sprang/newtonsoft.html



September 15, 1997





Introduction

============



Lathe is a simple 3D modeler for Newton OS devices. A template, specified in

2D, is "lathed" to create a 3D wireframe model.





Non-MP2K users

==============



Lathe was developed on an MP2K and the performance on that device ranges from

great to acceptable (depending on the model complexity). Unfortunately, I don't

have direct access to an older Newton but a friend who tested it for me

indicated that it was somewhat slow on an MP120. For MP120 and MP130 users, your

best bet is to keep your models as simple as possible.





Usage

=====



3D-View

-------

The 3D-view is the main area of interest in Lathe. This is where the model

is displayed. If you tap your stylus within this view and drag it around you

can rotate the model in real-time. On Newton devices which support grayscale, 

model segments which are further away will be drawn with successively lighter

shades of gray.



Template-View

-------------

This view shows the 2D template that is revolved to generate the 3D wireframe. 

The template is revolved about the top edge of the view.



Tools-View

----------

The currently selected tool determines how your stylus will interact with the

points displayed in the Template-View.



The first tool is the "move" tool. This simply allows you to tap on a point

in the template and drag it to a new location.



The second tool is the "add" tool. This tool allows you to add more points

to the template. A new point is added by tapping on a line segment between

two existing points, or tapping near one of the endpoints.



The third tool is the "remove" tool. This allows you to remove points in

the template by tapping on them.



Note: Each modification to the template forces a regeneration of the model.

If your model is sufficiently complex, or your Newton is rather slow, this

may cause a large delay. In the future, I'll probably provide an option to

turn off auto-updating.



Detail Slider

-------------

The detail slider allows you to specify how many times you want the template

to be repeated within the 3D model. The more times the template is repeated

the better it will look, but the longer it will take to draw and rotate.



Arrange Popup

-------------

The arrange popup-button allows you to automatically organize the points in

the template in specific ways. The currently available options are: Cone,

Cylinder, Sphere, Torus, and Glass.



Selecting one of these options will rearrange the points to generate the 

corresponding 3D object.



Note: All of these options (except Glass) preserve the number of points in

the template.



Undo

----

All actions that change the template points: Move, Add, Remove, and Arrange,

can be undone by tapping the standard Newton "Undo" package.





License and Distribution

========================



Lathe is freeware, although I'd really appreciate hearing from you if you have

good things to say about it. Oh, and if you're feeling really generous, I won't

turn away monetary donations. ;)



Please feel free to distribute Lathe in any way that you can. I only ask that

you don't make money off of it.





Contacting the Author

=====================



Send all your questions/comments/bugs to:



email:	<sprang@andrew.cmu.edu> OR <ssprang@cs.cmu.edu>

		

U.S. Mail:  Steve Sprang

            141 State Route 603

            Shiloh, OH 44878

			

URL: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/sprang