Design & Visualization

Design software focuses on the digital creation or re-creation of a thing or idea. Types of design range from print media, web site, computational, 3-dimensional, structural, simulation, and more. Simulation and modeling software is closely related and sometimes integrated with design software.

Visualization software includes applications that help visualize concepts, ideas, or scenarios. This includes diagramming, geographical visualization, molecular and structure visualization, graphical data representations, and some animation.

Also included in this category are applications used in presentations. This includes not only Powerpoint and powerpoint style presentations, but live polling software, presentation capture software, and web presentations as well. As well, applications used to create, edit, convert, or touch up digital images. Software ranges from photo editing, photo cataloging, graphic design, and diagramming. Finally there are applications used to edit web pages including code editors, What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) editors, and Content Management (CMS) systems that organize and manage web pages on a server.

GIMP

October 30, 2014 by Andy Voelker
Categories: Design & VisualizationMultimedia

GIMP logo

Availability: Free Download
Comparable: Photoshop

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a raster graphics editor used for image retouching and editing, free-form drawing, re-sizing, cropping, photo-montages, converting between different image formats, and more specialized tasks.  GIMP is commonly seen as a free competitor to Adobe Photoshop, part of the Adobe Creative Suite.  It carries much of the same functionality, but open source software is subject to less stability, less support, and erratic development cycles.  That being said GIMP is one of the most famous and popular open source replacements, and has been consistently in development for 18 years.

GIMP is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux.  GIMP is also available on the Chrome App store and can be used within the Chrome browser to edit files from Dropbox and Google Drive.

Tags: graphicsphoto

Google Drawing

February 26, 2015 by Andy Voelker
Categories: Design & VisualizationMultimediaProductivity & Utility

Availability: Faculty/Staff
Part of: Google Apps
Comparable: GIMP, OpenOffice

Google Drawing is a basic cloud-based paint/drawing application that can be accessed directly through any web browser.  Drawing is useful for making basic sketches, diagrams, and performing basic image editing.  Drawings are automatically saved to Google’s servers (Google Drive), and a revision history is automatically kept so past edits may be viewed (although this only works for adjacent revisions, and there is currently no way to find and isolate changes in long documents). Documents can be tagged and archived for organizational purposes.

Drawing also gives users the ability to share the document.  Typically when a normal document is shared the recipient accesses a copy from one point in time.  With a Google Drawing the document is shared in real-time, so recipients can always access the most recent version of the document.  Sheet owners can also grant permissions for the recipient to comment on the document, edit, or revision.  This introduces real-time collaboration, where multiple users can be editing the same document simultaneously, see each others’ edits, and even chat with each other in a sidebar.

Tags: cloud

Google Earth

December 19, 2013 by clas-web
Categories: Analysis & ModelingDesign & Visualization

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Availability: Labs | Free Download
Comparable:  ESRI Arc GIS

Google Earth is a virtual globe, geographical program created by Google. The program uses digital elevation model (DEM) data collected by a NASA space shuttle to create the 3D map.  With Google Earth, viewers can view satellite imagery of large portions of the globe.  Users can also explore ocean topography, and switch to street view which enables someone to explore roads as if they were in a car.  New features of Google Earth allow a user to explore regions of the moon, Mars, and constellations in the sky.  New features are being added and existing features enhanced frequently.

Google Earth is available for free download here.  A Professional version with enhanced geo-coding, map-making, and GIS features is available as well.

Tags: trm