Hi Michael,
Dave did not have any Delphi experience before he joined in, but as Delphi is an object oriented language, it was very easy for him to pick up and he was enhancing the program within just two weeks.
The whole of the project at the moment, is 2D with an inference of a third dimension by use of the crossing tiles. However to move forward, the whole concept must be able to represent a knot in 3D in order to be able to make the next move which is to map the forces involved when the knot goes into load. Only when we reach that point will we be able to study the workings of a knot - how it holds, how its shares the load, where its stress and strain points are.
We had just reached the point in moving from 'tile' representation to the edge vector notation you have proposed with a drawing algorithm to connect selected edge vectors, and from this point it is a relatively small step to move from four square faces to twelve cube faces and creating the all important Avoidance function where two or more cord segments share the same cube.
The Avoidance function become critical when thickness variation is added in so as to force the knot to take up its dressed and set 3D structure. At that point we will have to allow forces within the expanding knot to move face vector points in response to those forces. Then we lill need some 3d graphics to allow us to 'fly' inside the knot to visualise the structure the knot takes up when working.
Sure you don't fancy adding Delphi to your skills list??
Derek
