How to use ACAD

  1. ACAD -- A Computer Aided Design tool for making VRML worlds
    1. The best feature of ACAD is that it is easy to operate
    2. Acad is available for many platforms ... Linux for exmple
    3. Acad is missing some features ... no animation for example
  2. How to start ACAD
    1. Click on Network Neighborhood, -> Entire Network -> lrc-class -> Math_CS -> rappleto -> Acad
    2. Double click on ac3d.exe
    3. The error box "no preferences file ..." is ok.  Click OK
  3. Acad shows 4 windows.
    1. Upper left window is the XY window (front view)
    2. Lower left window is the XZ window (top view)
    3. Upper right window is the YZ window (side view)
    4. Lower right window is the "perspective window"
      1. Shows a rotating view
      2. In this window, the left button rotates and the right button zooms
      3. No editing can be done in the perspective window
  4. Adding objects is easy
    1. Click type of object to add
    2. Place in any of the three editing windows
  5. Editing objects is easy
    1. Click a rotate/size/move button
    2. Select the object with the left button
    3. Move the mouse, releasing the button when the desired effect is achieved
    4. Generally, you will need multiple edits in multiple windows to get the desired effect
  6. Advanced editing is also easy
    1. Textures can be set by ...
      1. Select the object
      2. Select the menu choices Object -> Texture -> Load Texture
      3. Choose a texture (many can be found in c:\windows\*.bmp
    2. Colors can be set by selecting the object, and then hitting a color (found in the lower left of the screen).
    3. Surfaces should normally be either ployline (just a wire frame) or poly (a whole object).
    4. A "Smooth" surface is one with realistic shading and a "flat" surface has the same brightness across the surface.
    5. A "1S" surface is invisible from the back, a "2s" surface is always visible.
    6. Perferation can be created by selecting from the menus "Surface -> Make Holes"
      1. The default is 50% holes
      2. You can repeat to get very holey.