MathArt Presents

(R)

for

Mathematical Braille Typesetting in 3-D CAD

Documentation of previous phases of this work can be found at: http://emsh.calarts.edu/~mathart/Annotated_HyperPara.html "Braille-Annotated Tactile Models In-The-Round of Three-Dimensional Mathematical Figures" and http://emsh.calarts.edu/~mathart/Tactile_Math/DotsCAD.html "Braille Typesetting in 3-D Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing".

The present document describes a prototype system for formatting and applying 3-D Braille text to free-form surfaces in a 3-D CAD system.

There is a plugin for Alias|Wavefront Maya called: Kern_DotsPlus.mel, written in the Maya Embedded Language (MEL). This plugin is installed onto a user's machine in a location accessible to a functioning copy of Alias|Wavefront Maya also installed and licensed on the same user's machine.

Installing DotsPlus(R) 3D

The DotsPlus(R) 3D CD-ROM includes the following:

INSTALL                  -- Installation instructions for DotsPlus 3D
			    for Maya
README                   -- Release notes for DotsPlus 3D for Maya
bin.[platform]/DOTSstrtogrp  -- Executable program file
                         -- translates characters into
                            DotsPlus Glyph geometry group name
bin.[platform]/DP_draw_Sqrt  -- Executable program file
                         -- Generates raised geometry for a Square-root
			    symbol enclosing a bounding box
bin.[platform]/DP_draw_bar   -- Executable program file

[platform] is one of: Darwin, Linux, Irix or Win98

doc/DotsNew.html (this)  -- General user's document for DotsPlus 3D
doc/DOTSstrtogrp_1.html  -- Usage document for the DOTSstrtogrp utility
doc/DP_draw_bar_1.html   -- Usage document for the DP_draw_bar utility
doc/DP_draw_Sqrt_1.html  -- Usage document for the DP_draw_Sqrt utility
doc/DotsPlusLogo.jpg 
doc/spdlogo.gif 
doc/3D_Logo.jpg 

icons/Integral.xpm       -- Icon images for the Maya User Interface
icons/Integral_32.xpm
icons/Over.xpm
icons/Sqrt.xpm

scenes/DP6std.mb         -- Maya Binary DotsPlus Standard 6 Glyph geometry
scenes/DP6sym.mb         -- Maya Binary DotsPlus Symbol 6 Glyph geometry
scenes/DP8std.mb         -- Maya Binary DotsPlus Standard 8 Glyph geometry
scenes/DP8sym.mb         -- Maya Binary DotsPlus Symbol 8 Glyph geometry

scripts/Kern_DotsPlus.mel        -- Maya 3-D Text Kerning User Interface

DotsPlus (R) User Interface MEL Script

~$USER/Library/Preferences/AliasWavefront/maya/3.5/scripts
or
/Library/"Application Support"/AliasWavefront/maya/3.5/scripts

With system Administrator's priviledges, create a folder, "DotsPlus" under /Library/"Application Support"/AliasWavefront/maya/3.5/scripts

Copy (drag) scripts/Kern_DotsPlus.mel from the CD-ROM to /Library/"Application Support"/AliasWavefront/maya/3.5/scripts/DotsPlus

This will make DotsPlus 3D available to all users who use Maya on the system.

To install for a single user, create a folder, "DotsPlus" under Library/Preferences/AliasWavefront/maya/3.5/scripts in your home directory. Copy (drag) scripts/Kern_DotsPlus.mel from the CD-ROM to Library/Preferences/AliasWavefront/maya/3.5/scripts/DotsPlus under your home directory. This will make DotsPlus available to a single user.

The Maya plugin script, scripts/Kern_DotsPlus.mel uses the following:

scenes/DP6std.mb
scenes/DP6sym.mb
scenes/DP8std.mb
scenes/DP8sym.mb

bin/DOTSstrtogrp
bin/DP_draw_Sqrt
bin/DP_draw_bar

DotsPlus MayaBinary Scene Files

The Maya scene files should be placed in a location accessible to the installation of Maya licensed for the system on which DotsPlus 3D will be used. A location for a typical user would be:

Documents/maya/projects
under the user's home directory.

Create a new folder "DotsPlus" under Documents/maya/projects in you home directory.

To install DotsPlus 3D for a single user, in the user's home directory. Copy (drag) the folder "scenes" from the DotsPlus 3D CD-ROM to Documents/maya/projects/DotsPlus

Edit the Kern_DotsPlus.mel script in the location where it was installed. (Either
~$USER/Library/Preferences/AliasWavefront/maya/3.5/scripts/Kern_DotsPlus.mel
or
/Library/"Application Support"/AliasWavefront/maya/3.5/scripts/Kern_DotsPlus.mel Using 'TextEdit' for example.)

Change the value of the line:

global string $DP_scenedir = "[old value...]/scenes";

to reflect the location where the DotsPlus MayaBinary Scene Files were installed (above).

[Platform]-Executable Binary Program Files

~$USER/bin
/usr/local/bin

Copy (drag) bin.[platform]/DOTSstrtogrp bin.[platform]/DP_draw_Sqrt and bin.[platform]/DP_draw_bar from the CD-ROM and place them under either ~/bin or /usr/local/bin.

Edit the Kern_DotsPlus.mel script in the location where it was installed.
(Either
~$USER/Library/Preferences/AliasWavefront/maya/3.5/scripts/Kern_DotsPlus.mel
or
/Library/"Application Support"/AliasWavefront/maya/3.5/scripts/Kern_DotsPlus.mel
Using 'TextEdit' for example.)

Change the value of the line:

global string $DP_bindir = "[old value...]/bin";

to reflect the full path to the location where the [Platform]-Executable Binary Program Files were installed (above).

User Interface Icon files

Typical locations are:

~$USER/Library/Application\ Support/AliasWavefront/maya/3.5/icons
~$USER/Library/Preferences/AliasWavefront/maya/icons

Copy (drag) the icons folder from the DotsPlus (R) CD-ROM to ~$USER/Library/Application\ Support/AliasWavefront/maya/3.5
or
~$USER/Library/Preferences/AliasWavefront/maya

Edit the Kern_DotsPlus.mel script in the location where it was installed. (Either
~$USER/Library/Preferences/AliasWavefront/maya/3.5/scripts/Kern_DotsPlus.mel
or
/Library/"Application Support"/AliasWavefront/maya/3.5/scripts/Kern_DotsPlus.mel Using 'TextEdit' for example.)

Change the value of the line:

global string $DP_icondir = "[old value...]/icons";

to reflect the location where the User Interface Icon files were installed (above).

Using DotsPlus(R) 3D

Choosing File->Source Script->MAYA_INSTALL_DIR/scenes/Kern_DotsPlus.mel will insert a menu PlugIns into the user's Maya main window menu bar, containing a MenuItem Create Braille Text. This script also imports four Maya Binary scene files, containing three dimensional glyph geometry for four type faces: DotsPlus (Regular 6), DotsPlus Expert (8) and Symbols fonts for both Regular (6) and Expert (8). The script creates geometry group nodes named DP6std, DP8std, DP6sym and DP8sym in the Maya Outliner.

Selecting PlugIns->Create Braille Text will cause to be created a user interface window titled "Create DotsPlus Text". Contained in this window are a pulldown menu, containing choices (DP6std, DP8std, DP6sym and DP8sym) for the active font and a TextField for creating a line of 3-D Braill text geometry from a line of ASCII text typed in from a keyboard.

Implemented in the glyph geometry scene files is a naming convention for organizing and storing the fonts in the Maya Directed Acyclical (Scene) Graph (DAG). Since many scene graph implementations (e.g., Open Inventor, http://oss.sgi.com/projects/inventor/, Maya) impose restrictions on node and group naming, there is a mapping between the ASCII character set and the geometry group names stored in the geometry scene files. This mapping is contained in the supplied Unix executable, DOTSstrtogrp.

Typing a line of text into the Create DotsPlus Text UI window textField, and typing <return> will cause the corresponding piece of 3-D font glyph geometry for each ASCII character to be duplicated and aligned left-to-right starting at the origin of the scene space.

There are also included in this package a set of tools for "warping" generated lines of 3-D text onto free-form surfaces in Maya.