[Blindmath] Experience SVGDraw01 by Dick Baldwin

[Richard Baldwin]

Several of you with access to a mechanical graphics embosser have already
experienced what it means to imagine a picture and then have it transferred
to paper where you can share it with others.

If you don't have access to an embosser, but you do have a sighted friend
with an inexpensive serrated tracing wheel, you cal also have that
experience. (Serrated tracing wheels can be purchased at most craft stores
and sewing stores for just a few dollars.)

Just use SVGDraw01 to draw the picture that you are imagining. Open the
output SVG file in Firefox, Chrome, or IE9 (IE8 won't work) and print the
file. Then ask your friend to perforate the lines in the drawing by placing
the drawing on something soft (like a block of Styrofoam packing material)
and tracing out the lines with the tracing wheel. Turn the paper over and
you will have an embossed version of your drawing (in reverse).

If you don't have one of those browsers, another good alternative for
printing is to download the free IVEO viewer from the ViewPlus website. Open
the SVG file in the IVEO viewer and print from there. You may need to set
your paper size by selecting Page Setup in the IVEO File menu.

Start out by drawing simple shapes such as lines, circles, ellipses,
rectangles, etc. Be bold. Make your shapes large so that you friend can
easily perforate them. For example, a small circle is difficult to
perforate.

Once you get the hang of it, draw a series of lines that represent a grid
pattern on one-half-inch centers. You can do this using lines, rectangles,
polylines, polygons, or paths, but for starters lines are probably the
easiest to understand.

Have your friend perforate your grid pattern and save it. Having it
available to use as a tactile reference later may make it easier for you to
imagine more complex shapes and how they relate to the coordinate system on
the paper. Remember that the 0,0 origin is at the upper-left corner,
positive X values are to the right, and positive Y values go down the page.

If your friend knows Braille, it might help to have that person manually
label the one-inch grid lines across the top and down the left side.

After you have succeeded in creating some simple shapes from the Draw menu
and have placed them where you want them on the page, advance your thinking
to the Mod menu and experiment with rotate, scale, translate, clip, etc.
Remember that if you combine those operations on a single shape, things can
get complicated.

Above all, have fun. And don't forget to thank your friend for helping to
bring your pictures to life by manually perforating them for you.

 Version 0.0.11 of SVGDraw01 is now posted at:
http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/SWT-SVG/SVGDraw01.zip and is available for
immediate download.

Dick Baldwin
baldwin at dickbaldwin.com

-- 
Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
http://www.DickBaldwin.com

Professor of Computer Information Technology
Austin Community College
(512) 223-4758
mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/