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phetsims / molecule-shapes

"Molecule Shapes" is an educational simulation in HTML5, by PhET Interactive Simulations.
http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/molecule-shapes
GNU General Public License v3.0
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User request XYZ axis #168

Open oliver-phet opened 5 years ago

oliver-phet commented 5 years ago

I would like to ask the PhET team if a new feature could be added to the Molecular Shapes simulation through an update. I propose the addition of an option to show the XYZ axis in the simulation so students and educators alike may have a better sense of spatial orientation while manipulating the rotation and shape of the molecules. A mockup image of the feature proposed is sent attached to this e-mail. Molecule Shapes Axis screenshot

kathy-phet commented 1 year ago

@arouinfar - I was just looking at status of Molecule Shapes for PhET-iO briefly, and reviewing the issues. Was this issue ever discussed and considered as an option? I can't exactly visualize what it would look like.

arouinfar commented 1 year ago

@kathy-phet, no this issue has never been discussed. The most likely reason is that Molecule Shapes has generally been treated as a low-hanging fruit project. It was quickly instrumented to serve a research partner's needs and then polished up for a general PhET-iO release. The PhET-iO release has been very start-and-stop.

Displaying the axes could be helpful to people as they try to visualize the molecules in 3D space, and this is a reasonable request. It's unclear if the user intends the axes to rotate with the molecule, or if the axes are static and independent of the molecule orientation. Static axes are likely easy to implement, but it could get confusing. Here's one example:

Aligned to Axes Random Orientation
image image

Displaying the axes is most useful if the molecule orientation is aligned to the axes, but the ideal alignment depends on the molecule geometry. I'm sure we could come up with something reasonable, but it would be a complex feature. It's worth considering for a future release, but it's beyond the scope of the current publication milestone. Marking as deferred.

kathy-phet commented 1 year ago

Thanks @arouinfar. I was chatting with @jonathanolson earlier today and asked him about the complexity here when checking in on MS.

To document JO said time to get a basic axis representation would be 2-4 hours, where axis would rotate if in the mode to rotate the whole molecule and the molecule would move if in the mode to move a particular piece of the molecule. The bigger question would be around the exact look/feel and design of control to turn display on/off.

Happy to defer it.

arouinfar commented 1 year ago

Thanks for the additional context @kathy-phet. Design, development, and QA time to add this feature would add up, and I think at this stage our time is likely better spent progressing other sims.