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aspexTabs
3D Educational Software for Home and School
"We purchased a site license for Tabs for our middle school
and we LOVE it! Students and teachers alike have found it easy to use, intuitive
and accurate. Oh, it's really fun, too! Also, it fits in beautifully
with our computer curriculum as the 3D modelling component."
aspexTabs
is
an inspired software which meets a real need in the classroom, and it is great
fun for making paper models at home too! aspexTabs is suitable for pupils aged 6 - 14
years. |
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Nets of Castle to print and build.
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aspexTabs in school
aspexTabs is perfect for use by upper primary and secondary pupils.
The user interface is simple and has buttons for creating lots of primitive
shapes. Once a shape has been chosen it can be moved, scaled, rotated, resized,
coloured or mapped with an image and then grouped with other shapes to make a
more complex model.
A simple project might consist of two shapes, a cuboid and a wedge shape
joined together to make a farmhouse, and to make a paper model of it.
Another idea is to build a cuboid and a cylinder of similar dimensions, make
paper models and
then to compare their volumes practically by filling them with rice. The results
often surprise pupils!
A project like this takes the pupils through all the stages of the design
process from thinking about a problem to manufacturing an object to solve the
problem.
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Castle made from Irregular Prisms. |
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“…my pupils are making boxes for their projects at the
moment.
The work looks good, the software is
great…..”
P.M.
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Becta Evaluation:
aspexTabsMST
has developed from the original tabs software used in schools for many
years. The following extract is taken from an evaluation of the original
Tabs educational software carried out by Becta:
MST is short for Math Science and
Technology.
Curriculum Area: Maths. Design Technology. KS2/3/4 Adult
Tabs+ is a simple and effective package. It aims to fill the void
in the curriculum for modeling nets. You can make up large and complex
three-dimensional models by developing them from a series of
simple geometric shapes. These can be viewed from virtually any angle or
distance and the results either saved to disk or output to a printer as
a modeling net which can be folded and assembled into a real world
model. |
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Nets Nets are printed as line drawings and will
print over several pages if the image is too large. The software has a
terrific third-angle projection and wire-frame printout facility. However
the software is still in need of some development, shapes cannot be joined
together and printed as a single net and this is the main limiting factor.
There is as yet no facility for importing images or drawing upon the net
before printing.
Ed:The new tabsMST version uses images which can be mapped
onto individual faces of each shape. |
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Who is tabs for? The software is perfect for Design
Technology and Mathematics KS2,3 and 4. Progress is rapid once the pupil has
understood the relationship between the edit window and the view window.
There are only a few key words for a pupil to recognise and the program
makes few demands on reading. |
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Operation The user interface is comparitively
simple considering the level of sophistication. The front end of tabs+
displays function buttons for 8 primitive shapes. Once a shape has been
chosen it can be scaled, coloured and grouped with other shapes. it is
possible to go back and edit a shape at a later stage.
Complex net designs can be generated within a matter of minutes. As the
flat views are developed, one can be reassured of its overall form by a
clever model view window. A 3D rendered tumble option allows the user to
view the solid object as it rotates majestically about its axis.
The screen layout is uncluttered and with every button serving a
purpose. It does not in any way intimidate the younger user but still
retains its advanced capabilities.
Ed: There are now 14 different shapes and many of them have vraiants.
ie, The pyramid shape can be displayed as a triangular based pyramid, square
based pyramid, pentagon based pyramid ...... dodecagon based pyarmid,
all with the nets of the shapes so that they can be built into paper models. |
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Conclusion This software is addressing an important area for
teachers who wish to implement 3D net modelling into their curriculum. It is
inspired software which, as it stands , meets a real need in the classroom.
In addition, it is clear that there are further developments in hand which
would make it outstanding.
Ed: These further developments have resulted in the aspexTabs and
aspexTabsMST products which form the latest release of the tabs software.
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"…my pupils are making boxes for
their projects at the moment.
The work
looks good,
the software
is great."
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