NAME
App::GUI::Cellgraph - draw pattern by cellular automaton
SYNOPSIS
start the program (cellgraph)
push buttons and see patterns change
choose "Save" in Image menu (or Ctrl+S) to store image in a PNG / JPEG / SVG file (choose image size in menu beforehand)
DESCRIPTION
An Harmonograph is an apparatus with several connected pendula, creating together spiraling pictures :
This is a row of cellular automata as escribed in Steve Wolframs book "A new kind of schience"
enhancements:
third pendulum can rotate
pendula can oscillate at none integer frequencies
changeable amplitude and damping
changeable dot density and dot size
3 types of color changes with changeable speed and polynomial dynamics
Mechanics
GUI
The general layout of the program has three parts, which flow from the position of the drawing board.
In the left upper corner is the drawing board - showing the result of the Harmonograph.
The whole right half of the window contains the settings, which guide the drawing operation. These are divided into two tabs - roughly devided in form and decoration.
The lower left side contains buttons which are a few commands, but most are in the main menu.
Please mind the tool tips - short help texts which appear if the mouse stands still over a button or slider. Also helpful are messages in the status bar at the bottom: on left regarding images and right about settings. When holting the Alt key you can see which Alt + letter combinations trigger which button.
Rule
The content of the first tab are the settings that define the properties of the 4 pendula (X, Y, Z and R), which determine the shape of the drawing. X moves the pen left - right (on the x axis), Y moves up - down, Z does a circling movement, R is a rotation ( around Z's axis). Each pendulum has the same three rows of controls.
The first row contains from left to ritght an on/off switch. After that follows the pendulum's amplitude and damping. Amplitudes define the size of the drawing and damping just means: the drawings will spiral toward the center with time (line length).
The second row lets you dial in the speed (frequency). For instance 2 means that the pendulum swings back and fourt twice as fast. The second combo control adds decimals for more complex drawings.
The third row has switches to invert (1/x) frequency or direction and can also change the starting position. 2 = 180 degree offset, 4 = 90 degree (both can be combined). The last slider adds an additional fine tuned offset between 0 and 90 degree.
Start
The second tab on the right side has knobs that set the properties of the pen. First how many rotations will be drawn. Secondly the distance between dots. Greater distances, together with color changes, help to clearify muddled up drawings. The third selector sets the dot size in pixel.
Menu
The upmost menu bar has only three very simple menus. Please not that each menu shows which key combination triggers the same command and while hovering over an menu item you see a short help text the left status bar field.
The first menu is for loading and storing setting files with arbitrary names. Also a sub menu allows a quick load of the recently used files. The first entry lets you reset the whole program to the starting state and the last is just to exit (safely with saving the configs).
The second menu has only two commands for drawing an complete image and saving it in an arbitrary named PNG, JPG or SVG file (the file ending decides). The submenu above onle set the preferred format, which is the format of serial images and the first wild card in dialog. Above that is another submenu for setting the image size.
The third menu has some dialogs with documentation and additional information.
AUTHOR
Herbert Breunung (lichtkind@cpan.org)
COPYRIGHT
Copyright(c) 2022 by Herbert Breunung
All rights reserved. This program is free software and can be used and distributed under the GPL 3 licence.