Universal Molecule 3D Demo

John C. Bowers, Ileana Streinu

Note:

This demo requires the Java version of OpenGL, JOGL, which is now maintained at jogamp.com. In order to run, JOGL requires that the applet be given privileges to access sytem resources, since it runs on the graphics card. You will be prompted to both install JOGL in your java installation, and to grant the applet priviliges. In order for the applet to run, you must grant all of these privileges. If you do not want to do this, you can still run a version of the applet without the 3D visualization. That applet is available here.

Using the demo:

The demo has a split pane with three windows. The tree editor on the left allows you to edit the tree by adding nodes and arcs. You can change edit modes from nodes to arcs by clicking on the "Nodes" or "Arcs" button. Once you have a tree defined, the "flaps" edit mode allows you to rotate leaf nodes around their parents while maintaining arc length. The "››" button generates a doubling cycle for the tree in the polygon editor on the right.

The polygon editor in the middle allows you to drag the corner points of the doubling cycle to turn it into a Lang polygon. Red dotted lines between corner vertices represent vertices whose distance is less than their corresponding distance in the tree, thus violating the definition of a Lang polygon. Once all of these constraints are removed, you will see only the green polygon.

Note: In the current version it is possible to invert the ordering of the polygon nodes such that the walk of the tree corresponds to a clockwise, rather than counter-clockwise walk of the polygon. In this case the vertex labels will fall inside the polygon rather than outside it and the output is undefined, since our implementation assumes that the walk of the inner face is counter-clockwise. Future updates will address this limitation.

Once you have a polygon defined, drag the sweep slider above the the polygon editor to view the sweeping process as it generates the crease pattern. You can continue to edit the vertices of the polygon and see the crease pattern update live. If, however, you modify the tree, you will need to click on the "››" button to generate a new doubling cycle for the tree.

The rightmost window is the 3D visualization. You can click+drag the mouse in this window to change the viewing angle.

The Demo

Please note: it takes some time to load the required libraries.

Requires Java 1.6. Safari versions before 5.1.3 have issues loading the Applet. Please use Google Chrome or Firefox if you don't have Safari 5.1.3.

Sorry, no Java support detected.

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