Using Devolve
In this section, I will explain how to use Devolve
Camera Control
Once the app is selected, the camera controls are easy:
Zooming (Scroll)
You can zoom by scrolling the mouse-wheel
Rotating (Right Hold)
You can rotate the model by right-clicking, holding the click and moving the mouse.
Panning (Center Hold)
You can pan the view by middle-clicking the mouse, holding the click and moving the mouse.
Change View
Clicking the "Change View" will toggle between four different views/camera positions:
- Frontal
- Diagonal
- Side-view
- Top-view
Building Models
We can build models by adding and removing blocks from the core.
Adding Blocks (Left Click)
When hovering over a block, it will flash lime, which means a block can be added.
A block can be added by left-clicking on the surface on which to add the block.
Side Compatibility
Not all sides are compatible with addition; only 'up', 'down', 'left' and 'right'.
'Front' and 'back' don't have any mounting points
Remove Blocks (Right Click)
When hovering over a block, it will flash lime, which means a block can be removed (besides the core).
A block can be removed by right-clicking on them.
Deleting A Parent
If you delete a block to which other blocks are attached as children, the whole branch will be removed
Brushes
We have two different types of blocks we can build robots with: Bricks and Hinges, both can have a Normal orientation, or can be Rotated by 90 degrees.
Left-clicking on the control buttons on the bottom of the screen will either toggle Normal to Rotated (left button) or Brick to Hinge (right button).
These four options are colour coded, reflected by the colour of the button on the left:
- Brick, Normal: Orange
- Brick, Rotated: Light blue
- Hinge, Normal: Purple
- Hinge, Rotated: Turquoise
Saving YAML
Once we have created a desirable model, we can save it by clicking "Save Yaml".
This will open a prompt, select the desired output directory, write the name of the output file in the text field.
Complete the operation, clicking the "Save" button, the new YAML file can now be found under the correct directory and name.
Save Name
Using both [NAME] and [NAME].yaml as file names in the text field will produce a file called path/to/file/[NAME].yaml
eg. cross or cross.yaml -> path/to/file/cross.yaml
Clearning
Clicking the "Clear Canvas" button will remove the entire model and produce a clean canvas with only a Core at the centre (identical to when the app is initially opened).
Loading YAML
Given a set of YAML files, we can open them into Devolve using the "Load YAML" button. This will open a prompt, similar to saving, double-clicking on the desired file will load it into the canvas.
Other Files
By default, "Load YAML" will only show files ending with .yaml as well as directories.
Devolve vs Revolve
Here we see a comparison of a loaded model seen from the side, and the same model loaded in Revolve.
Devolve vs PNG Generator
Here we see a comparison of a loaded model seen from the top, with the equivalent revolve-generated PNG.
As can be noted from this example, the PNG is lacking essential detail (a hinge) in explaining the shape of the model, exemplifying the need for this program.
Editing YAMLs
Editing existing YAML files is just as easy as combining the previous steps:
load a YAML file, make the required changes to a YAML file, and then save it.
Saving it in the same directory with the same name will raise a prompt for overwriting an existing file, which the user can accept or decline.