                       !Stellate 
       makes uniform polyhedra from stellation diagrams

    Fortran Friends, PO Box 64, Didcot, OX11 0TH.

If this is the first time you have used !Stellate, you may
find it helpful to look at the more detailed instruction
text files in Docs.Tutorials, and in
Docs.Reference.Intro for more explanations.
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Getting Started:

Double click on the !Stellate filer icon to load it on the
icon bar.

Click MENU over the iconbar icon to see the menu where
you can choose:
  Info        to see the version and registration
                information;
  Help         to see this file;
  -------------
  Wenninger    } 3 ways of making a polyhedron.
  Name         } The one with the  by it can be seen
  Own solid    } at any time by simply clicking SELECT
                    over the icon bar icon;  
  --------------
  Description  show text describing the polyhedron, only
                 saved to the Draw file if ticked here.
  Colours      to change the colours of items (not faces)
                 in the 3D view display; save the changes
                 from the Colours window if file is not locked.
  Sizes        to change the thicknesses of the lines plotted in the
                 graphics windows and the size of the 3D view window
  Save Choices to save the choices to file (grey if file is locked);
  Load Choices to reload the choices from file;
  Limits      to see how much storage remains for new 
                 polyhedron definitions;
  -------------
  Quit         to stop the program and remove it from the 
                   desktop.

Turn on the Acorn interactive help application !Help 
(in Apps) for continuous help over windows and menus.

You can select polyhedra in 3 ways by:

1) the Wenninger Number as defined in the book:
   Polyhedron Models by M. J. Wenninger CUP

2) its Name (listed alphabetically). 
     This is the standard default.

3) defining your Own Solid. This is harder; 
     see later and Docs.Tutorials.Tutorial3.

Click SELECT over the icon on the icon bar to open the
Stored Solid window. The number in () in the window
title is the number of polyhedra in your stored list,
Resources.StellaList.
  
Click on a name in that window to open the Parameters
window showing the radius of the solid, the polyhedral parts
from which it is made (called components in !Stellate)
and their radii. The centres of the components coincide. 

The Radius of the solid is measured from the centre to
its vertices; the In-radius of a component is measured to
the centre of its face. See Draw file:
Docs.Tutorials.ExParams for more explanations.

Click:
 User-Select to make your own new stellation 
    (see details in Docs.Tutorials.Tutorial2 and 3).
Alternatively you could have clicked:
 Plot Solid  to show the solid immediately, 
 Auto-Select to show first the stellation diagram(s) with
               the stored faces; then click Plot Solid,
 Change      to change the components which go to make up
               the solid; this opens the Own Choice window.

Now select a face from the stellation diagram(s) of the 
component(s). You need select only one visible part of the 
plane, the others are inserted for you by symmetry.
 
Closing the solid, stellation diagram or parameters
windows with ADJUST re-opens the previous window in 
the sequence. 
--------------------------------------------------

Keys used (a !Stellate window must have input focus) :
  
- The cursor keys: , , , , Page Up and Page Down 
   rotate the 3D view of the polyhedron. Use <Ctrl> with
   the key to rotate the model continuously.

- The > and < keys make the images smaller and bigger

- F1 shows this !Help

- F3 saves a file

- Print should print the window with input focus

If the keys do nothing, click in the 3D view window, and 
try again.
--------------------------------------------------

Click MENU over the 3D window to:

  Change the type of display (see next section).
  Change the rotation step size.
  Create the dual (only for some solids).
     This is a toggle; click to make the dual, click
     again to return to the original polyhedron. Slide the
     cursor over the arrow to change its name before
     making the dual. If you are making a new dual you will
     have to select its faces from a stellation diagram.
  Full Sort enforces detailed sorting before plotting;
     this is useful for contorted non-convex solids but it
     takes longer and occasionally fails.
     This also is a toggle.
  Reflect the solid from left to right creating the
     mirror image (See Docs.Reference.Glossary
     under enantiomorph). This also is a toggle.
  Tools toggles the tools pane off/on. The tools pane
     (shown to the left of the main window) offers
     short-cuts to the functions of the 3D menu
     (use on-line help if you do not understand the icons)
  Save the solid as 
     - a draw file
     - a PolyData file for PolyDraw or PolyNet
         (See Products file on distribution disc;
         PolyDraw version 3.05 and PolyNet version 1.09 
         or later are needed for complicated polyhedra)
     - instructions for !Stellate to make the object again.
  Print the 3-D view using !Printers.
--------------------------------------------------

Display types (selected from the top line of the menu, 
       see examples in Docs.Tutorials.Pictures.Page6 or
       your paper manual)
  Wire has transparent faces with the lines at the front
    coloured black and the ones at the back coloured green;
  R/G stereo plots the outlines twice in red and in green
    rotated in a way to make the solid appear in three
    dimensions when viewed through the red/green glasses;

      the next six possibilities are colouring schemes
      which can be shaded or unshaded ...

  Single has all faces the same colour, usually white, so
    that shading is effective in 16-colour modes;
  Plane makes all the faces in one plane of a component
    the same colour
  #Sides makes all polygons with the same number of sides
    the same colour
  Component makes all faces of one component the same
    colour
  Compound (not yet implemented in !Stellate) 
  User is initially the same as Component but the
    colour of any face can be changed individually
    (see Changing Colours below)
  Front/Back shows faces facing away from the centre in
    a different colour from those facing towards it.

   The last two display menu items allow you to:
   - add Perspective, slide the cursor to the right 
       to change the perspective distance. This is a toggle.
   - change the position of the Light for the shading.
        
---------------------------------------------------

Changing colours.

 This is only possible if you have the Acorn ColourPicker
module installed. (See ReadMe on how to obtain the module.)

Changing face colours.
 Click ADJUST over a face in the 3D view to change its
colour.

 The action depends on which display type is chosen. Most
types change all the faces of that colour. To keep these
colours for future use, click MENU over the icon on the 
iconbar, choose Colours and click over the Save icon
in the Colours window. The Save icon will be grey
if the resources.colours file is locked.

 To change just one face use display type User. To keep 
that colour scheme click MENU over the 3D window, select 
Save and PolyData to store the new colour in the 
data file for PolyDraw.

 Select the colour None to see inside the solid.

Changing other colours.
 To change other colours, such as that for lines in a 
wire diagram, choose Colours from the icon-bar menu.
Click SELECT over any of the coloured boxes to open the
ColourPicker window and change that colour. None is
not allowed for these colours. If you want to keep them,
click on the Save icon. The Save icon will be grey
if the resources.colours file is locked.

---------------------------------------------------

Making your own polyhedron: 
   (see details in Docs.Tutorials.Tutorial3)

 Choose Own Solid from the icon bar menu
to open the Own Solid window, with menus of the
face types (on the left) and number of faces in the
polyhedron on the right.

 Click on a face type icon and a number of faces to
form the selection for the first component. Only certain
combinations are allowed, the others will be greyed out
and your choice listed at the lower left.

 Select up to four components then click OK. 
(Click on Delete to remove the last component or part of
a component).

 !Stellate will then search its data file of predefined
solids to find any that match your selection. If it finds
any a Choose window opens listing all the ones found
letting you to choose the one you want or to define
your own by selecting Some Other.

Enter a name for your new solid and the radii of
its components in the Parameters window.
(see Draw file Docs.picture.ExParams for an explanation
of this window)

The In-radius is to the centre of the face.
The Ex-radius is to the vertices of the face.

Just enter one and press <RETURN>; the other will
be calculated from the size of the face given to the left.
The components of a uniform polyhedron all have the same
ex-radius and if this is what you will want, enter the
value in the Polyhedron Radius box and press <RETURN>.
The component radii will be filled in by the computer.

Click User-Select to continue to the selection of faces
in the stellation diagrams.

After you have made the solid, you can save all the
instructions (from the save menu) into a file. Just drop
the file onto the icon on the iconbar to read it back
into !Stellate.

---------------------------------------------------

Further information:

This is stored in the directory Docs 
including an explanation of all files needed, 
definitions of file formats and instructions on 
how to add your own new polyhedra.
Look in Docs.Readme to see what they are.
Look in Docs.Tutorials for more help.
Look in Docs.TryThese.Activities for suggestions on
amusing things to try with !Stellate.

---------------------------------------------------

Fault Reports:

If you find an error, please copy the file
Docs.FaultRep to another one, named for example
EReport, and use an editor to complete the form to
tell us what you were doing when the error happened.
Send the report to us at the address below, preferably
with an example data file. The more details you can give
us the more likely it is that we shall be able to
reproduce your problem and correct the fault.

Fortran Friends, P.O.Box 64, Didcot, Oxon, OX11 0TH
or e-mail to: fortran@argonet.co.uk
