bead shape/color

I found out that you can't change the shape of a bead under the color picker without picking the color again. I wanted to use the same color, but wanted a different shape bead (cylinder, not Czech). The program makes the change only after you click on a color. Is this good or bad?

The graph will never rotate, only the rope will do that. The graph will remain static and will eventually furnish the stringing table. You can tweak the pattern (and thus the graph) on the rope and it will change the graph. That makes the final stringing table come out right.

Christmas is coming

I have Christmas on my mind tonight as I played with the bead designer. I really like seeing where the beads will fall into place as the ropes turns. In my mind's eye I can't picture how the design will turn in a flat graph. Ken you are a Genesis.
What is on the horizon for us to test with this program in the future?

Many Changes

I've been looking at the demo program on two different browsers while Ken makes changes and I say yes or no to what it looks like. I think all of you will see quite a bit different in both the look and functionality. What's your overall impression of where things are now?

Feeback Needed

** this is the important part:
1.- Please look at the rope and tell me if you think the edges look reasonable as compared to a real bead crocheted rope. How reasonable do you think it looks when you change the shape of the beads used?

Then other things are:
2.- How's the speed of the "twirl" of the rope now?
3.- Does it bother you that the Graph beads are all the same shape no matter what shape the beads are on the rope?
4.- Do you like the "blank" feature making everything revert back to a neutral Gray rather than Black or White? (Judith's choice)

Note: everything is still all Flat Graphics as the neat things like shading are not that important to the functionality of this Demo - later for the nice to haves. Although feel free to bring up what you might consider to be nice to have.

Help... Ken has asked me to pick 100 beads, arrange them in rows of 20 so he can pick off the colors for the color chart block. Any ideas of how to do that and what to pick?

Bead Shape Commentary

The soft gray background is good. It's a nice neutral to see the beads against.

The rope bead shapes look good, too.

Something I just noticed. If you go to the rope beads to change a bead's color, it updates the graph simultaneously. But if you change a bead's color on the graph, the corresponding bead doesn't change color on the rope until you twirl the rope.

I'm with you on the graph beads not needing to look real. I think people are savy enough to deal with the graphs being more cartoon-like. And you're aiming to have more realistic beads on the rope.

Input Needed

Ken's made some changes that I like and some I thought might work.

He changed the spacing in the rope beads until I was satisfied that the patterns laid out like you would see in a real rope. A diamond & spiral were the tests patterns.

What do you think of the gray background? Is it easier to see the bead shapes? Also have added outlines to the graph beads.

NOTE: "rope beads" refers to the beads in the twirly rope. "Graph beads" refers to the beads in the graph.

We played with the rope bead shapes on each of the 3 selectable beads and think we've got a good representation of the cylinder and Japanese beads. Ken's working on making the Czech look more rounded. Look and tell us what you think. Do they sorta look like what the shape of the actual beads look like? Next thing will be to do different sizes on the rope beads.

I made a decision that I'd like all of you to comment on.... I said that the graph beads did not have to look like the actual beads.... that a graph is a graph and all 3 of the graphs could look the same. Do you agree or not?

Anyone using Explorer - Is the rope "twirl" fast enough for you? It's a lot faster in Firefox.

I'm off to a bead retreat for the weekend - hope to have a lot of good feedback from all of you when I get back and rounded Czech beads from Ken.

Twirling Rope Aligns Diamonds

You're right about the rows not lining up properly when you first draw your diamonds. I found, though, that the first click of the button to "twirl" the rope put everything where it belongs.

Pretty Beads

Ken and I were working on the spaces between the graph beads and the shapes this morning ..... For some reason Explorer keept giving me beads that had "feet" on the bottom, or they looked like "Tombstones".

You will now see a note to the left, next to the "(**) under the titles, that gives the version changes we're on.

After we hung up, I noticed that the display rope dosen't quite have the right "row to row" bead placement. While a diamond on the graph looks like a diamond, it doesn't on the rope. But, the "twirl" speed on the rope is a lot better.

Still working on functionality, with side trips into making the beads pretty. What do the rest of you think? Remember that you can post directly to this blog.