JovoToys
    - How to Work With -
    Jovo Click 'N Construct
    This page has all the tools that students and teachers need to explore this site, and to come up with good projects for use with JOVO Click 'N Construct toys. If you know of any other free or easy-to-use software or products that can make poly-exploration fun, e-mail me and I will add it to the page if I can. Remember it doesn't need to be math-oriented.

    How to Build with JOVO

    General Assembly Suggestions

    If you are new to JOVO and want a quick tutorial on how to work with the pieces to assemble a polyhedron, click here.

    If you want to know more about the Jovo Key, click here.

    Software Tools for Exploring Polygons / Polyhedra

    VRML Viewer

    VRML stands for Virtual Reality Modeling Language. It allows me to share 3D models in a format that lets you spin it around and look at it from all angles. Click on nearly any model in my site, and the 3D rotatable version will pop up. However, you will need to have a VRML Viewer installed on your machine for this to work. Your best choice is probably the FREE browser plug-in called Cortona, available from Parallel Graphics - http://www.parallelgraphics.com/products/cortona/.

    Once it is installed, you can explore any VRML worlds you want (here or elsewhere on the Internet). For polyhedra, make sure you click on the "Study" button if you want to spin it around.

    2D Tiling

    If you want to play around with some flat projects, here is a quick way to do it. The Tyler web page - http://www.superliminal.com/geometry/tyler/Tyler.htm allows you to just click new polygons onto the screen in any arrangement. You can quickly explore, adding and removing shapes however you like. Once you have something you like, use Alt+PrintScreen to copy it, and paste it into Microsoft Paint for coloring. You can then color it any way you like. For example, I used Tyler to make some grid paper - Triangular, Square and Hexagonal (or you can make them any size using these: Tri, Squ and Hex). Once you have your design, build it with your JOVO Click 'N Construct pieces.

    Image Editing

    All the images you see on this site were edited using Microsoft Paint (standard on most Windows computers), and IrfanView available for free from here - http://www.irfanview.com. If you want to create a printout for a project you want to share, these two utilities can do a lot to make it look nice. Make a great design and share it with your class, or send it to me so I can put it on the site to share with others.

    Polyhedral Development using Great Stella

    Although this is NOT a free tool, my website would look nothing like it does now without this great piece of software. If you or your school can afford it, this is an amazing tool for exploring the three dimensional world of polyhedra. There have been few models that I have imagined that I had a hard time realizing using this tool. Learn all about it, try the free demo, and I'm sure you'll be hooked. Here is where you can get it: http://www.software3d.com/Stella.html If you can build it with JOVO, I can probably build it with Stella as well.

    Questions or Comments

    If you have any questions about this site, or about Jovo Click 'N Construct toys, please feel free to e-mail me. I will respond as soon as I can.
    Alex@JovoToys.com


    Jump straight to Pictures of Models, Mathematical Models, Creative Models or Lesson Planning,
    Go back to the Jovo Toys Main Page
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    Link to this page as http://www.JovoToys.com/JovoHelp.html
    Alexander's Polyhedra, (c) 1998-2005, Alex Doskey