MODULESTUDIO

In future versions of ModuleStudio the graphical editors are going to grow further. This will make the management of connections between the editors more difficult. Some ways to handle this challenge are, for example, aspect models and complex transactions in the editors. Because it is not possible to visualise dependencies between the different layers, the overall Model becomes more difficult to comprehend and less convenient to use as its size increases.

The GEF3D project rovides an interesting approach to solve problems like this. It pushes modeling with GEF-based editors into 3D space. The functionality is essentially driven by causing a 2D editor drawn on a 2D plane to be positioned within 3D space. Among other things, this allows the view perspective of the model, the "camera," to move freely within the 3D space and therefore allows one to „explore“ a model.

All common operations in the editors are adapted to the 3D environment by extensions of the base GEF classes. When necessary there are also additional functions. For example objects can be rotated in the 3D space.

The illustrations show what the presentation of multiple editors can look like. Connections between the editors can also be visualised. Since the view of the 3D scene itself can be changed anytime, work across individual editors can be significantly more flexible.

In the future these powerful capabilities could open a wide variety of use cases for ModuleStudio. We will keep watching the GEF3D project, and will certainly consider it in the planning for future enhancements.

The header image as well as the two other photos in this article come from the GEF3D wiki. There are some videos at YouTube available which provide additional examples.