Aspex Shapes and Nets

3D Shapes and Nets Modeling Copyright aspexsoftware All rights reserved. Neither the whole or part of the information contained in this manual may be adapted or reproduced without written approval from aspexsoftware. The products in this manual are subject to continuous development and improvement and all information of a technical nature and particulars of the products and their use, including the information and particulars in this manual, are given by aspexsoftware in good faith. However this information is provided on the understanding that aspexsoftware cannot accept any responsibility for any loss or damage arising from the use of any information or particulars in this manual. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. USA/Canada www.knowledgetree.ca shapes@knowledgetree.ca UK/R.o.W www.aspexsoftware.com Shapes@aspexsoftware.com 1

Contents Welcome 4 Introduction 5 Select and activity 5 Main screen 5 Colouring shapes 6 Selecting and moving shapes 6 Colouring / Texturing a single face 7 Texturing shapes 8 Rotating / Stretching / Scaling 8 Manually Automatically Entering an angle Entering a stretch / Scale factor Nets 9 Placing Printing Placing shapes 10 Camera views 11 3rd Angle projection 11 Axis 13 Adding textures 15 Adding models 15 Activities 16 Shape investigation Shapes investigation (basic) Tessellation Platonic solids Street Scene Packaging User packaging Tutorial 17 Fish (tessellation) 17 Gird s (Packaging) 20 2

Quick Start Manual The Quick Start Manual provides a basic overview of Shapes and Nets and contains information to enable the new user to draw simple 3D shapes on the screen and to display their Nets. The program also uses 2D shapes. Expanded and updated versions of the Shapes and Nets manual will from time to time be made available in pdf format for download from: www.aspexsoftware.com www.knowledgetree.ca 3

Welcome to Shapes and Nets Shapes and Nets aims to help Mathematics students. Identify different classes of 2D and 3D shape along with associated terminology. Manipulate 2D and 3D shapes by translating, rotating, stretching and scaling, and learn the correct terminology for these transforms. Learn the relationship between a 3D shape and its net, noticing changes in the net as the shape is stretched, scaled, coloured and textured. See how nets work for real by printing them out and physically building the 3D shapes. Investigate tessellation by building tessellating patterns of 2D shapes, both regular and irregular. Investigate platonic solids by building dice with various numbers of sides. Shapes and Nets aims to help Design and Technology students. Design and build product packaging by considering different box shapes, designing logos, and printing out a net to build. Build packaging based on the pre-designed product packages included with the software. Become familiarised with third angle projections for different shapes and models. Design a street scene from pre-made parts, and print and build it as a class project. Consider efficiency by thinking of different configurations of nets on a page. 4

Introduction Select an Activity When Shapes and Nets is loaded, you will be asked to select an activity. To get started with Shapes and Nets, choose the first option, Shape Investigation (Basic). The main screen then appears. Shapes and Nets Main Screen Edit Window Shape Libraries List Palette Shapes List To return to the first window to select a new activity at any time, go to the File menu, and select New. 5

Placing Shapes The Shapes List on the left hand side of the screen shows all currently available shapes. Drag a shape into the main window to place it. You may change to a new list of shapes by clicking an item in the Shape Libraries List, located in the top left of the screen. Selecting / Moving Shapes Click on the shape that was placed to select it. To move the shape around, click on the main body of the shape and drag. Colouring Shapes The Palette is located on the right of the screen. Select a shape and then click a colour in the Palette to colour that shape. 6

Texturing Shapes Shapes and Nets can apply bitmap images (textures) to the surfaces of shapes. Click the Palette List popup menu displayed above the Palette. The first option in the list, Colours is the default colour palette. Select other options to load in texture palettes. Palette List Load a new palette by selecting it in the list, for example Surfaces 1. Select a shape in the Edit Window, and texture it by clicking one of the textures in the Palette. Choose a texture Colouring or Texturing a single face Most 3D shapes in Shapes and Nets comprise more than one surface, for example a cube has 6 faces. To apply a colour or texture to just one face, click the colour or texture in the Palette. Then, keeping the mouse button pressed, drag it on to the face in the Edit Window. 7

Manual Rotating, Stretching and Scaling Shapes may be rotated, stretched and scaled manually by dragging the grab handles as described below. Shapes may also be transformed automatically, please see pages 12 14 Rotate Click the Rotate icon shown above to enter rotate mode. Select a shape in the Edit Window, and drag one of the green Rotate Handles to rotate the shape. Axis Selector Rotate Handle To choose a different axis of rotation when rotating a 3D shape, click one of the orange Axis Selector handles. Stretch and Scale Click either the Stretch or Scale icon shown above to enter stretch/scale mode. Select a shape in the edit window, and drag one of the blue Stretch handles to stretch the shape. Scale Handle Stretch Handle Drag one of the red Scale handles to scale the shape. NB. stretching some shapes is prohibited, because shapes must remain in the same class. For example, a square cannot be stretched because stretching it would make it into a rectangle. For the same reason, some shapes may be stretched in one dimension only and not in others. 8

Nets Click on the Nets icon shown above to go to the Nets Window. The Nets window contains nets of all shapes that were placed in the Edit Window, laid out on pages. Rotate Handle Scale Handle Nets may be moved by dragging. They may be scaled and rotated by dragging their grab handles. Nets may not be deleted or duplicated. In order to do this, you must delete or copy the shapes in the Edit Window. Printing Nets To print the Nets, go to the Nets Window, and then click Print in the File Menu. Select Pages Select the required Image DPI in the menu. 288dpi is high enough for most purposes. Enter your name in the Name field. This name appears on the printout, useful when using a network printer. If there is more than one page, you may select which page to print. Grey indicates a selected page, white indicates unselected. When you are ready, click Print. To return to the Edit Window at any time, click the Edit Window icon. 9

Printing the Shapes To print the shapes, click the Output Window icon shown above. The Output Window is a print preview window, allowing you to position the shapes on the page as required. Drag the shapes around as a whole, and scale them using the white scale handles. To print the Shapes, click Print in the File Menu. Select Pages Select the required Image DPI in the menu. 288dpi provides a good quality print, 144DPI is a lesser quality but faster to print. Enter your name into the Name field. This name appears on the printout, useful when using a network printer. If there is more than one page, you may select which page to print. Grey indicates a selected page, white indicates unselected. When you are ready, click Print. To return to the Edit Window at any time, click the Edit Window icon. 10

Camera Angles Some of the activities available in the initial menu allow you to move 2D and/ or 3D shapes around in a 2D plane. The ability to move shapes in all three dimensions is barred for simplicity as it is not necessary for the construction of basic models. In activities that use only 3D shapes, icons on the toolbar change the position of the Edit Window camera to any of four preset angles: front view, top view, left view and isometric view. Thus shapes may be moved freely in all three dimensions. The activities that support camera angles are Packaging, Dice, Mobile Phones and Street Scene. To change the camera angle, click one of these four icons: NB. in the Street Scene, it is recommended that you use the top view to place models so that all models sit correctly at the same ground level. Third Angle Projection The activities listed above also allow you to print a third angle projection. Press the Third Angle Projection icon shown above, and position the projection on the page as required. Click Print in the File Menu. 11

Automatic Translating, Rotating, Scaling and Stretching Four types of transform may be applied to shapes; Translation, Rotation, Scale and Stretch. These transforms are animated, allowing the student to see clearly how each transform works. Translate Click the translate icon shown above. A list of translations appears. Select a shape, and click Up, Down, Left or Right. The selected shape translates by 2 grid units in the chosen direction. The status bar describes the translation, with important words highlighted: Entering a vector To translate by any vector, scroll down the list of translations, and select Enter Vector.... The Translate window appears. Select a shape, enter a vector, and click Apply. To translate and dismiss the window, click OK. 12

Rotate Click the Rotate icon, shown above. A list of rotations appears. Select a shape, and click on a rotation. The selected shape rotates by the chosen angle and the status bar describes the rotation, with important words highlighted: Selecting an axis 3D shapes can rotate around any one of three axes. To choose an axis, select the shape and click on an orange grab handle, located at the centre of each face of the bounding box. The currently selected axis is indicated by the white axis line and curly arrows. Click to select the axis. Entering an angle To rotate by a specific angle, scroll down the list of rotations, and select Enter Angle.... The Rotate window appears. Select a shape, enter an angle, and click Apply. To rotate and dismiss the window, click OK. 13

Stretch and Scale To stretch a shape in just one dimension, use Stretch. To scale by the same ratio in all three dimensions use Scale. Click either the Stretch or the Scale icon, shown above. A list of ratios appears. Select a shape, and click on a ratio. The selected shape stretches / scales by the chosen ratio. Selecting an dimension in which to stretch 3D shapes can stretch in any of three dimensions, and 2D shapes stretch in either of two. To choose a dimension, select the shape and click on a blue grab handle at the centre of each face of the bounding box. The currently selected dimension is indicated by a white arrow. Click to select the dimension. NB stretching of some shapes is prohibited in order that shapes remain in the same class. For example, a square cannot be stretched because stretching causes it to become a rectangle. For the same reason, some shapes may be stretched in one dimension but not in the others. Entering a stretch / scale factor To stretch / scale by a specific factor, scroll down the list, and select Enter Stretch... or Enter Scale. A window appears allowing a factor to be entered. Select a shape, enter a factor, and click Apply. To stretch / scale and dismiss the window, click OK. 14

User Created Textures Users can draw their own textures in any painting package capable of saving in a bitmap format such as JPEG or PNG. These bitmap images may be imported into Shapes and Nets, and used to texture your shapes. For example, you might want to design a Dog Food label to put on the can in the Packaging activity. To import your texture into Shapes and Nets, first save it to the hard disc in the painting package. Then in Shapes and Nets, double-click a texture in an existing palette. An Open dialog appears, allowing you to select your bitmap image. Click Open, and Shapes and Nets will load the image. Adding Textures Permanently Textures loaded as above will only remain in the palette until the program is closed. You may add permanent textures to Shapes and Nets by placing them in the User Textures directory located within the application folder. You may find this facility particularly useful in the User Packaging activity, which provides a library of many different package shapes ready to be textured. User Created Models Users of the software packages aspextabs or aspextabsmst can create their own models for use within Shapes and Nets. Models saved from aspextabs can be placed inside the folder. Shapes and Nets Data\99User Packaging\05Simple Shapes and will then load into Shapes and Nets. Note that Shapes and Nets caches images of models in directories named TB_Thumbs, so it is necessary to delete the directory Shapes and Nets Data\99User Packaging\TB_Thumbs when you update the models in this directory. 15

Activities comprising Shapes and Nets Aspex Shapes and Nets Shape Investigation (Basic) This activity allows you to investigate simple 3D shapes and their nets, like Cubes, Cylinders and Cones. There are two other libraries, Funny Faces in which you make faces, and Road Signs in which you make road signs. Shape Investigation This activity contains libraries of shapes clearly divided into classes, some 2D, some 3D. Patchwork (Tessellation) This activity contains libraries of tessellating polygons, regular and irregular. They are placed in the Edit Window and lock together into a tessellating pattern. Sometimes you need to rotate a shape to fit it into the pattern. Shapes are then textured with the patchwork images make a patchwork quilt. Dice (Platonic Solids) This activity contains each of the five platonic solids, with numbers designed to fit on their faces. You can make a dice, 4,6,8,12, or 20-sided. Once finished, you can print out the net and actually build the dice. Mobile Phones This activity contains a blank cuboid to which you apply different mobile phone covers, print the nets and build them. Street Scene This activity contains 3D textured models of buildings and vehicles which can be put together to make a simple street scene. All the nets can be automatically placed and printed. This activity is suitable for a class project. Packaging This activity contains blank shapes for packaging, for example Can, Box, each with ready made textures. The textures are dragged on to each surface of the shape and the final model is printed as a net and built, or printed as a 3rd angle projection. User Packaging This activity contains packaging shapes of many types. You can place your own labelling images in the User Textures directory, for example a label for a tin, and use them to texture the shapes. Each net fills an A4 page. 16

Tutorial: Tessellating Fish This tutorial will show you how to make a tessellating pattern from the fish shapes provided in Shapes and Nets. 1. Load Shapes and Nets, selecting Patchwork (Tessellation) in the menu. 2. When the main screen appears, select Fish in the Shape Libraries List located in the top left of the screen. Four different coloured fish appear in the Shapes List. 4. Drag the Blue Fish into the Edit Window. 5. You may wish to zoom out clicking the Zoom icon once. 17

6. Drag the Green Fish into the Edit Window. Aspex Shapes and Nets 7. Click on the placed Green Fish to select it. Click the Rotate icon, and choose 1/4 turn from the Rotations List to rotate the Fish by 90 degrees Click here 8. Drag the two Fish to position them as shown, interlocking the tails. 9. In a similar manner, place the Orange Fish and the Red Fish, rotating by 1/2 turn and 3/4 turn respectively. 18

10. To repeat the pattern, select all the fish, by dragging a selection rectangle, or by clicking Select All in the Edit Menu, and then use Copy and Paste, in the Edit Menu, to duplicate all four fish. 11. Keeping the four duplicated fish selected, drag them to a new position interlocking them with the original four fish. 12. Save your drawing using Save As in the File Menu, or print it, by clicking the Output Window icon, and using Print in the File Menu. 19

Tutorial: Gird s Custard Aspex Shapes and Nets This tutorial will show you how to design a product box and print out the nets. 1. Load Shapes and Nets, and select Packaging in the menu. 2. When the main screen appears, select Custard in the Shape Libraries List located in the top left of the screen. 3. Drag the Gird s Custard box from the Shapes List into the Edit Window 4. Drag the texture Gird s Custard - Front to the front face of the Cuboid 5. Drag the texture Gird s Custard - Side to the side face, and the top texture to the top face. 20

Tutorial: Gird s Custard.. Cont d 6. Select the Cuboid and click the Rotate Icon Aspex Shapes and Nets 7. Click the orange square handle on the top face of the bounding cube. This selects the vertical axis of the shape Click here to select the vertical axis. 8. Click 1/2 Turn to rotate the Cuboid 180 degrees about the selected axis. Click here to rotate the shape 21

Tutorial: Gird s Custard cont d Aspex Shapes and Nets 9. With the back and right side faces now exposed, drag the textures Gird s Custard - Back and Gird s Custard - Side to those faces. 10. Select the vertical axis again, and click 1/2 Turn to rotate the Cuboid round to front facing. 11. Select the horizontal axis, and click 1/2 Turn to rotate the Cuboid upside down. 12. With the bottom face exposed, drag the texture Gird s Custard - Bottom to that face. 13. The shape is now fully textured. View the net by clicking the Net Window icon. 14. Print the net by selecting Print in the File menu. 22