Electronic course Curves and Surfaces in CAGD

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Electronic course Curves and Surfaces in CAGD

• Michal Polan
• Fakulta matematiky, fyziky a informatiky UK

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Contents

• Introduction
• The course
• Technology behind
• Future work

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Introduction

• The aim of the project was to create a quality
  online textbook about curves and surfaces
  in geometric modelling
• Doc. RNDr. Valent Zatko, PhD - Poznámky k
  prednákam CAGD - krivky a plochy
• Blended learning project

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The course

• The course familiarises the reader with the
  problems of CAGD using visuals thereby
  offering them clear instructional materials
  for the teaching
• The course content comes directly from the
  notes of Doc. Valent Zatko
• online at http//www.cagd.sk

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The course

• 60 sub-pages
• number of pictures and animations
• Curves (Bezier curves, B-spline curves, Rational
  Bezier curves, NURBS)
• Surfaces (Bezier surfaces tensor intersection,
  Bi-cubic B-spline surfaces and mesh
  interpolation,Bezier triangles,Coons patches)

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The Course
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Technology behind

• necessary to decide between various technologies
• Editorial system
• Published content
• Mathematical formulae
• Images and animations

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Editorial system

• inherent editorial system that permits simple and
  quick online text editing of the site by the
  author
• allows substantial possibilities also for future
  enlargement of the project and also additional
  functionalities and modules
• alternative solution Open Source editorial
  systems and e-learning applications, static pages

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Published content

• HTML using CSS
• XHTML would have been more suitable for the
  project.
• Alternative solutions XHTML, XML

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Mathematical formulae

• MATHML language based on XML
• MATHML
• future enlargement and W3C recommendation
• Alternative solutions Pictures, HTML

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Images and animations

• SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), which creates an
  ideal platform for publishing geometric images
  and animations on the internet
• based on XML and therefore there is no need for
  any special program to create images.
• Alternatives Images, Java Applets, Flash

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Images and animations
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Future work

• Technological and functional changes
• Transition of the project to XHTML and website
  optimalisation for the Mozilla browser
• Adding standard elements characteristic to
  elearning applications (registration,
  discussions, communication, tests,...)
• Simplifying published information and creating
  the framework for easy creation of interactive
  images

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Future work

• System changes
• Dividing users into three groups
• Author responsible for content of teaching
  materials
• Lecturer responsible for leading the course and
  selection of suitable teaching texts
• Reader target group
• Separation of the course itself for which the
  lecturer is responsible from teaching materials
  created by another author
• Support for effective sharing of teaching texts

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Thank you for your attention