Program:

Guide:

Introduction:

This pages goes over the basic usage of the shape visualization application. The different sections of this page will go over the different features shown on the figure below.

1. Mode

The "Mode" dropdown allows you to switch between different geometry modes: Three of which correspond to tetrahedrons (A3, B3, C3), and one to cubes.

2. Input

Allows you to select how you want to input character sequences into the program:

  • Normal: After you input the sequence, you can display it by either pressing the button, or by pressing enter.
  • Manual: Best suited for fast prototyping when inputting characters manually instead of coy pasting from somewhere else. The sequence will be automatically updated as more characters are added to the sequence input (there is no need to press Enter or the submit button). This mode is slower and performs worse when copying a long sequence from somewhere else: the normal mode is better suited for that.
  • Batch: Best for inspecting large number of sequences. After selecting this mode, press on the "Input" button that appears right next to the dropdown to open a multi-line text input. Paste your sequences into this field, with each sequence being on its own line. Then navigate between the sequences using the "Next" and "Previous" buttons.

    • 3. Sequence submission

    How your sequence is submitted depends on which mode you have selected. On the "Normal" mode, you will have to press Enter or to display your sequence. In "Manual" and "Batch" modes the sequence will be automatically shown.

    You also have the option to animate your sequences by pressing the "animate button". This will slowly build your sequence shape by shape. Once you press this button another input will appear that will allow you to modify how fast the animation is.

    You may also want to differentiate between different sections of your structure. You can define different regions of your shape to be drawn in a different color. Input a '|' character between the sections you want to distinguish.

    4. Sequence input

    This is the input field where you will input the characters that build up your sequence. In the "Normal" and "Manual" modes, you can edit this field directly. In the "Batch" mode, this field will be showing the current sequence from your multi-line text input, and you won't be able to edit this field directly.

    5. Alternative input buttons

    Instead of editing the text of your sequence directly, you can also add new characters to your sequence by pressing the buttons corresponding to each character. Notice the color of these buttons: they correspond to the colors of the vertices of the shape upon which the shape will be reflected on for the given transformation.

    Press the button to start a new color region. This will simply add a new '|' character to the end of your sequence.

    6. Visualization options

    The program provides you with different ways of visualizing your shapes:

    Path visualization

    The "Path" option specifies how to display the path that connects the centers of your shapes.

  • "Uniform": This option will draw all the paths in the same color.
  • "No Path": Hides the path so that it is not visible.
  • "Reflections": Each element of the path has a color corresponding to the reflection that was applied to the corresponding shape.
  • "Regions": The path is colored according to the regions you have defined with the '|' characters in your sequence input.

    • Shapes visualization

    The "Shapes" option specifies how to display the shapes that make up your sequence

  • "Uniform": This option will draw all the paths in the same color.
  • "No Shapes": Hides all the shapes.
  • "Wireframe": Only shows the edges and vertices of the shape and hides the mesh. This can make it easier to see the paths inside the shape.
  • "Regions": The shapes are colored according to the regions you have defined with the '|' characters in your sequence input.