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Text File | 1992-10-13 | 18KB | 372 lines

&a10L WORM (Beta Version 0.05a) 10/13/92 Copyright 1992 Robert Flores The Computer Graphics Group PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: Worm is basically a visual Connect-the-Dots utility. You use your mouse for coordinate placement and press keys for commands. It will display spheres and connecting lines. VIVID output has been added (primarily because I use that program a lot and it was easy to do). This program REQUIRES a mouse and a VGA card (It does not check for either). It has been tested with VIVID 2.0 and POV 1.0 and seems to produce some nice results. MAIN COMMANDS: <cr,sp> SPHERE. Add a new sphere at mouse coordinates with the current radius by pressing the SPACE bar or ENTER. <1> FRONT VIEW. Change display to Front View (X,Y plane). <2> SIDE VIEW. Change display to Side View (Z,Y plane). <3> TOP VIEW. Change display to Top View (X,Z plane). <4> PREVIEW. Display a perspective view of spheres and connectors. <A> ARC. Create an arc of spheres. The program can either use last sphere as starting point or accept new point. Move to center point and press a key or right mouse button. A circle will appear showing radius circle. Move to end point and press a key or left mouse button. Input direction (clock-wise/counter- clockwise). Enter ending sphere radius (ENTER only if it is the same as the starting radius). <^A> ARC. Create a free form arc of spheres. The program can either use last sphere as starting point or accept new point. Move to end point and press a key or right mouse button. Input number of spheres (default=20). Enter ending sphere radius (ENTER only if is the same as the starting radius). Move to first control point and press a key or left mouse button. Next move to second control point and press a key or right mouse button. The program displays a curve path and prompts user to abort, redo, or accept path. Enter choice. NOTE: The basic idea for this was a formula for a cubic parametric curve I found. The control points act like magnets, pulling the (originally straight) line away from the opposite end point. By moving the location of the two control points, you can adjust the shape of the curve. <C/P> CENTER. Pan view screen. Enter x,y,z coordinates to placed at the center of screen. This is PAN now and is left in for those accustomed to pressing C. <D> DEFAULTS. Change program defaults, such as: <D>ecimals Number of decimal places (1-3) <E>dit Snap Maximum x,y,or z distance from mouse cursor can be from sphere in Edit select <M>ouse Snap Increment of x,y and z coordinates <E> EDIT. Toggle Edit mode. See Edit Commands below. <F> FILE. Load in or Save to disk a file. The following choices are available: <A>ppend Append in a WORM file after the last sphere. <C>lear Clear out any data. <L>oad Load in previously saved WORM file. NOTE: This clears out any current data in memory. <S>ave Save a WORM and/or CTDS file. <Q>uit Exit File section <V>ivid Formatter Create a VIVID compatible file. The y and z coordinates are swapped. Studio can be merged from an external file. A generic surface is written for each worm. With the exception of the first worm, these are set up as non-executed remarks. These can then be edited with any editor. <L> LINE. Create a straight line of spheres. The program can either use last sphere as starting point or accept new point. Move to end point and press a key or left mouse button. Enter ending radius (ENTER only if it is the same as the starting radius). <M> MOVE. Shift ALL spheres. Enter x,y,z offsets. <N> NEW WORM. Start a new worm. Normally, each new sphere is coded to be linked to the previous sphere. Pressing N will code the sphere to be the first in a new worm. PAN. Pan view screen. Enter x,y,z coordinates to placed at the center of screen. Same as CENTER. <Q> QUIT. Quit. You will be prompted if you would like to save your work. "Worm-compatible" means that the file can be loaded into this program. "CTDS-compatible" means that the file is ready for Connect the Dots program. <R> RADIUS. Change current default radius. <S> SPIRAL. Create a spiral. The radius is defined in the current view (xy,zy,or xz) and the length is in the third axis. The program can either use last sphere as starting point or accept new point. Move to center point and press a key or right mouse button. A circle will appear showing radius circle. Move to ending spiral radius point and press a key or left mouse button. Input direction (clock-wise/counter-clockwise). Enter ending sphere radius (ENTER only if it is the same as the starting radius). Enter length (negative lengths spiral in the negative direction). UNDO Undo last action. <V> VIEW SIZE. Change View extents. Sizes currently are: -50 to 50 -25 to 25 -15 to 15 -10 to 10 -75 to 75 -100 to 100 -150 to 150 -200 to 200 Extents are in all three directions. These are off- sets from center points. EDIT COMMANDS: <1 2 3> Change display to View 1, 2, or 3. This works the same as in Main Menu. BOX. Box in a group of spheres for movement, copying or deletion. Move to lower-left corner and press a key or left mouse button. Then move to upper-right corner and press a key or right mouse button. The following choices are available: <1/2/3> Change viewpoint <C>opy Copy selected spheres <D>elete Delete selected spheres <M>ove Move selected spheres <H>orz Flip Flip selected spheres horizontally an Pan display <Q>uit Exit Box Edit mode <R>adius Change radius of selected spheres <S>cale Scale selected area and radius <T>urn Rotate selected spheres ndo Undo last action <V>ert Flip Flip selected spheres vertically <D> DELETE. Move cursor to desired sphere and press D. Sphere is deleted. <^D>DEL LAST. Delete last sphere. If the last addition was an arc the group of spheres are removed. Note: A group is deleted with this command only if there was no other editing since the ARC command. INSERT. Insert a new sphere after sphere at cursor. Move to sphere and press I. Move to new position and press a key or left mouse button. The new sphere will inserted in line in the worm. <M> MOVE. Move sphere at cursor to new x,y coordinate. Move to sphere and press M. Move to new position and press a key or left mouse button. The select sphere will be move to new place. This does not alter position in worm sequence. <N> NEW. Make sphere the start of a worm. Move to sphere and press N. <R> RADIUS. Change sphere radius. Move to selected radius and press R. Enter new radius. <W> WORM Edit a whole worm. Move to a sphere in desired worm and press W. The following choices are available: <1/2/3> Change viewpoint <C>opy Copy selected spheres <D>elete Delete selected spheres <M>ove Move selected spheres <H>orz Flip Flip selected spheres horizontally an Pan display <Q>uit Exit Box Edit mode <R>adius Change radius of selected spheres <S>cale Scale selected area and radius <T>urn Rotate selected spheres ndo Undo last action <V>ert Flip Flip selected spheres vertically <esc> EXIT Leave EDIT mode and return to MAIN menu. Cursor coordinates will be those of the last sphere. HISTORY: 0.1e 02/20/92 First release after playing with it for a while. Only xy plane available 0.2a 03/04/92 Added additional planes. 3-D editing now possible. Added rotation and flip Added spirals. Added perspective view. You can actually get an idea what the thing will look like. Added VIVID file output Changed user interface. 0.3a 03/15/92 Added scaling. Modified VIVID file output to merge with a STUDIO file and have a generic surface definition for each worm. Also, added option to not connect spheres. Expanded view display options. Renamed SHIFT to MOVE Added UNDO LAST EDIT. 0.4a 08/31/92 Fixed coordinate display in Edit mode Added Append in File mode to read in worm files without clearing data in memory. Added ability to select whole worm in Edit mode. Added ability to change views in Edit mode. Added ability to create a straight line of spheres in addition to default use as endpoints. 0.4b 09/01/92 Fixed bugs in deletion and Edit-worm functions. 0.5a 10/13/92 Added cubic parametric curves (free form). Expanded maximum number of spheres to 5000. Changed Undo to a more true undo. Made mouse interface somewhat (repeat: somewhat) better. Added some file error checking. WISH LIST: A better mouse interface - less key action. A high priority with many people. Incremental spacing of spheres in arcs, lines and spirals with increasing or decreasing radii. Better arc editing. And while I at it, why not bezier patches, TIN (Trianglar Irregular Network) creation and 3-d modelling?*** More error checking - file, quantities, etc. WORM FILE FORMAT: The first line contains number of spheres Each of the remaining file lines contains the following: X-coord, Y-coord, Z-coord, Radius, Status Status indicates whether the sphere is the start of a new worm or connected to sphere preceeding it. (0=new worm;1=connect to last sphere). LIMITATIONS AND SUCH: Maximum number of spheres is currently 5000. Coordinate ranges are from -32,767 to 32,767. The display is generated sequentially (first to last) and thus does NOT hide lines. The top layers of spheres are those last in line. Please remember this. Otherwise, it could be confusing (such as side views of spirals). Center of rotation (TURN within Edit mode) is midpoint between high and low coordinates in each direction of selected spheres. The program does not currently have much error checking. So, please don't get mad if the program bombs. Hey, this is a beta version and you probably have no intention of financially supporting its development, anyway. The program was written in BASIC and is bound by the limits imposed by the language and my own minimal programming ability. This became even more apparent with the addition of the free form curve. I would have like to have had a rubber banding effect on the path as each control point was position. Unfortunately, the overhead involved bogged down the program with unacceptable display results. CLOSING THOUGHTS: Thanks to Adam Shiffman, Robert Wiber and Truman Brown for their suggestions, pointers and encouragement. Thanks to Steven Coy for creating Vivid, which originally prompted the idea for Worm. Special thanks to Mike Miller, whose use of Worm in the creation of some of his masterpieces has completely blown me away. And special thanks to my wife, Kaylene, who has not pulled the plug on my machine JUST YET. Bugs and mistakes are expected. Relax, enjoy, and save often. Suggestions are greatly appreciated. They might even be used. Donations are also greatly appreciated. They definitely WILL be used. Robert Flores The Computer Graphics Group PO Box 4022 San Marcos, CA 92069 P.S. I occasionally come up for air at these BBS's: Diamond Bar BBS (714) 861-1549 The Graphics Alternative (510) 524-2780 Leo Graphics (310) 212-7179 The Twilight Zone (619) 480-2435 You Can Call Me Ray (708) 358-5611 Compuserve COMART 71051,3543