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ESCHER.DOC
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1987-07-13
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Escher Cubes
A drawing program that will give you a whole new perspective.
by James Luczak
Escher Cubes is a complete isometric drawing system. What are isometric
drawings? Well, if you've ever seen drawings by M.C. Escher, then you've seen
examples of isometric drawing. Basically, it's a way of creating optical
illusions.
Escher Cubes doesn't use lines to draw with; instead, it uses cubes. You read
it right, cubes! The easiest way to picture this drawing system is to think of
each cube as a three-dimensional segment of a line. Drawings you create with
Escher Cubes will be, to say the least, out of the ordinary. Anyone can use
Escher Cubes. You don't have to know anything about drawing to have fun with
the system.
Features.
For your creative "tools," Escher Cubes gives you sixteen cube colors and
sixteen background colors to choose from. There are thirty-six fill patterns
and twelve cube sizes for use, with an "Erase" mode available.
The program works in medium (color) and high (monochrome) resolution.
Drawings created in medium resolution are automatically adjusted when displayed
on a high-resolution system, and vice versa. Your works are automatically
recorded as you draw and can be saved to disk. The picture data can be entered
from a keyboard. Saved drawings can be used in either medium or high
resolution, and you can load and display multiple drawings.
Escher Cubes has a full-featured file maintenance system, plus a drawing
editor. It also allows saved data or displayed drawings to be sent to a
printer.
Creating drawings.
After the title page displays, the drawing screen will appear. Press the left
mouse button anywhere in the drawing area, and a cube will appear. You can
place as many cubes as you wish, anywhere you wish.
The control bar.
Cube direction:
The "control bar" is located across the top of your screen. It occupies the
area where the word OUTPUT usually appears. On the left-hand side of the
control bar are six arrows. These control the drawing direction. Clicking the
left mouse button on one of these arrows will cause a cube to be drawn in the
direction of the arrow, offset from the most recently drawn cube.
Describing the directions precisely is a bit tricky--after all, Escher Cubes
is designed to create optical illusions. We'll use the face of a clock as an
analogy. Twelve o'clock will be straight up--indicated by the up arrow.
Straight down--the down arrow--will be six o'clock. The left arrow will draw
at an angle like that from the center of the imaginary dial to a point halfway
between the seven and eight. Its counterpart, the right arrow yields an angle
like the one from our dial's center to a point halfway between the one and two.
The greater-than symbols (>>) will have your cubes headed toward the point
halfway between the four and five. Finally, the less-than signs (<<) put down
cubes angling toward the halfway mark between the ten and eleven.
(up arrow)
|
(<<) | (right arrow)
\ | /
\|/
/|\
/ | \
(left arrow) | (>>)
|
(down arrow)
Figure 1.
It's much easier to see than to describe. Look at Figure 1 above, then
experiment with the directions a bit while on-screen. You'll soon get the hang
of it.
Cube Controls:
Next to the direction arrows, there are a number of controls that affect the
way the cube is displayed.
The COL control changes the color of the cube. Pressing the left mouse button
on the control causes the BASIC color numbers to change in ascending order.
The right button causes the colors to change in descending order.
The BKG control changes the background color. Pressing the left mouse button
on this control causes the background color numbers to change in ascending
order; the right button, in descending order.
The FILL control changes the cube fill pattern. Pressing the left mouse
button on it causes the fill pattern numbers to change in ascending order. The
right button changes the pattern numbers in descending order.
Pressing the left mouse button on the ERASE control toggles the "erase" mode
on and off.
Pressing the left mouse button on the CLEAR control will clear the screen.
Pressing the left mouse button on the SIZE control increases the cube size.
The right button decreases size.
The CHECK MARK control switches to the "file control" mode. Pressing the left
mouse button here will switch operations to file control.
Above the control bar are the current cursor position and cube position
indicators. If you click the right mouse button in the drawing area, the
"Current Pos" indicator will display the location of the mouse pointer. The
"Cube Pos" indicator will display the location of the last drawn cube. The
Current Pos and Cube Pos indicators are only updated when the right mouse
button is pressed in the drawing area. If you move the mouse pointer over the
Current Pos indicator and press the left button, a cube will be drawn at the
current cursor position. Pressing the left mouse button over the Cube Pos
indicator will draw a cube at the cube position location. The position
indicators are a handy way of storing the exact location of a cube, or of
finding the exact X- or Y-position where a new cube will be drawn.
To the right of the Cube Pos indicator is the "Current Recorder Count." The
recorder has a maximum capacity of 5000.
User notes.
To put Escher Cubes all together, here are some tips on using the program's
various features.
Erase Mode:
This will take a little getting used to. Cubes are properly erased, but you
may find that you're erasing parts of the picture you don't want erased. See
"Edit picture data" under File control mode below for another way of erasing
parts of a picture.
Position indicators:
As you use the system, you'll soon find it isn't easy to place a new cube
exactly over an old one. The position indicators can be used to store the
exact location of a cube that you may want to come back to. You can then put a
new cube in its place by pressing the left mouse button over the Cube Pos
indicator.
File control mode:
To exit the program or to enter the file control mode, press the left mouse
button on the CHECK MARK at the extreme right of the control bar. There are
ten items on the file control menu. Each item can be accessed by clicking the
mouse on the corresponding field.
Reset recorder -- This erases the picture from memory and restores the
recorder count to 0. The recorder has a maximum count of 5000.
Playback recorder -- Plays back the contents of the recorder on the drawing
display screen.
Load picture file -- Loads a previously saved picture file into the recorder.
If there's a picture (or other files) already in the recorder, the new file
will be appended to the end of the recorded data. This feature allows multiple
files to be loaded and displayed.
Save picture file -- Saves the entire contents of the recorder to a disk
file.
Delete picture file -- Deletes a specified picture file.
Enter picture data -- Allows you to enter picture data from the keyboard. If
there is a picture, or other files, already in the recorder, the keyboard
entries are appended to the end of the recorded data. Along the top of the
screen are three lines that define the picture data information. The function
will also enter data listed to a printer. You can duplicate picture segments,
too, by entering new X,Y-coordinates and copying the data you want to
replicate.
Edit picture data -- Allows you to edit any picture data currently in the
recorder. To do so, follow the prompts at the bottom of the screen. Along the
top of the screen are three lines defining picture data information. Here
again, you can reposition portions of a picture by changing the
X,Y-coordinates. Also, the NUL (-2) is a handy way to eliminate unwanted
sections of a picture. To remove data ite