Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What's the deal with the two windows?

EDDIE is a graphical editor with two panes, the author's perspective and the user's perspective. The editor is on the left and is used to build the diagram on the right. The diagram is on the right and is the perspective of the user.

What objects are there?

EDDIE has several primitive plain and physics objects. Primitive objects are under the Shapes menu, while physics objects are under the Physics menu.

How do I make objects?

The way to create an object is to select the corresponding button in its drop-down menu. Physical objects are accessed through the drop-down menu labeled Physics, while plain objects are under the Shapes menu.

Here's a video demonstration of how to create objects:

How do I edit objects?

You can translate most objects by left-clicking and dragging in the editor pane. You can resize most objects by left-clicking the object and dragging on the corner of the object. You can rotate lines and springs by left-clicking the object and dragging the rotation knob above the object. You can delete objects by selecting the object and clicking the delete/backspace button on your keyboard.

Here's a video demonstration of how to edit objects:

How do I make the user's diagram interactive?

The way to add interactivity is to display the possible drag points for the diagram using the Interaction button toggle. Then, you can toggle drag points in the editor pane by left-clicking on them. Orange drag points are present, while black drag points are not.

Here's a video demonstration of how to add interactivity to an object:

How do I change a drag point's meaning?

EDDIE makes an educated guess about what the drag point should mean in the diagram -- if this meaning is incorrect, you can change the meaning by right-clicking on the drag point in the editor pane.

After right-clicking, several preview meanings are demonstrated in an overlay -- you can change between previews using the left and right arrows, accept the current preview using the Accept button, and cancel editing by closing the overlay or clicking the Close button.

Here's a video demonstration of how to change an interaction meaning by the preview interface:

How do I make objects connected in the diagram?

EDDIE detects related objects using alignment points, which have the same location as drag points. When two alignment points overlap, EDDIE groups together the parent objects. You can display the alignment points in the editor pane using the Alignment button toggle.

For convenience, alignment points can be clicked to move objects such that the alignment points are at the same position. The yellow alignment point is the currently selected alignment point, and its parent object will translate as soon as another alignment point is clicked.

Here's a video demonstration of how to align two shapes:

How do I make the spring move objects/How do springs work?

EDDIE's springs work using alignment points as well. One end of the spring is fixed and one end obeys physical spring mechanics. You can see if the spring is moving an object (and see the motion of the spring) by toggling the physics simulation, by clicking the Play/Pause toggle button.

Here's a video demonstration of how to attach an object to a spring:

How do I make multiple objects attach to a spring?

If an aligned group of objects is attached to the end of a spring, all objects obey the spring's motion.

Here's a video demonstration of how to attach multiple objects to a spring:

Is there a way to make a point be fixed i.e. not move?

No, but that's a great idea!

Everything is broken! How do I fix it?

If EDDIE gets hard to use due to bugs, you can restart the editor by refreshing the page.