Its an android app that helps you learn subjects that require a lot of visualization, like Engineering Graphics. We figured that students will have an easier time learning such subjects if they had a tool to easily visualize the answers. In the app you have the choice of using the textbook which you can download here or on its own by creating your own solids in-app. We've used Augmented Reality (AR) because we felt it was a fun and efficient way to visualize complex 3D solids on our phones.
Being engineering students ourselves had to learn graphics the old way, using pencil and paper. We found that most students found it difficult to actually visualize what they were drawing without any aids, terms like front-view and top-view meant all the same to them, and as questions got progressively tougher with more shapes and perspectives we began struggling ourselves. The app is our solution to this problem.
Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies. It supports various platforms like Android, iOS, Windows etc. For all scripting purposes within the app we have used C#. We chose unity as our platform because its easy to build Android apps on it, and it has the Vuforia SDK built-in.
Vuforia is an augmented reality software development kit for mobile devices that enables the creation of augmented reality applications. It uses computer vision technology to recognize and track planar images and simple 3D objects, such as boxes, in real time. We have used the Vuforia Augmented Reality SDK for all our AR and image detection purposes.
Google SketchUp, is a 3D modeling computer program for a wide range of drawing applications such as architectural, interior design, landscape architecture, civil and mechanical engineering, film and video game design. We have used Sketchup for designing 3D models needed for the answers in the Textbook mode of the app.
LibreCAD is a free computer-aided design application for 2D design. We used LibreCAD to develop the answers for all the questions in the textbook.
The textbook which you can get here contains an assortment of typical graphics questions of varied difficulty from different portions like lines, solids, sections, development of surfaces, intersection of solids, isomorphic views, perspective views etc. We recommend you make a physical copy of the textbook. To use it all you need to do is select textbook mode on the app and point your phone camera to one of the questions in the textbook, the 3D model of the answer should now appear on the screen.
The Sandbox mode lets you create your own 3D models to answer any question not present in the textbook. You can create your own custom model from a variety of basic shapes like cubes, cuboids, spheres, pyramids, cylinders, cones etc. To use it all you need to do is select sandbox mode in the custom page and then add all your required shapes and specify the required dimensions (for best results keep dimensions between 2 and 10). Then you can press the done button to view you selections in 3D. Here you can move and rotate the shapes by clicking on them. The gravity button brings all the shapes to the ground plane. The buttons at the bottom automatically moves the camera to get the front view and top view of you custom 3D model.
The solids and sections mode lets the user choose a shape and a cutting plane. To use it all you need to do is select solids and sections mode in the custom page. Then you can choose the shape, its dimensions, the height and angle of the cutting plane (for best results keep dimensions between 2 and 10). You also have the choice of viewing the final shape in AR.
| Information | |
|---|---|
| App Link | ARGraphics.apk |
| Team Name | Radicals |
| Description | An interactive AR app to make learning Engineering Graphics easier. |
| License | MIT License |
| Country | India |
| Authors | Kuriakose Eldho Kurien Eapen |