Research and Development for the Interoperable Mechanical 3D CAI Courseware Design Tool

This paper presents a novel way to develop a software tool for the mechanical 3D animation CAI courseware design in terms of the characteristics and the dedicated requirement of the mechanical major courses teaching. It applies the HOOPS components developed by USA HOOPS Ltd. and using the component as a kernel graphic display engine. The three main components of the software tool are discussed in the paper on how to develop with the COM (Component Object Model) technology, i.e., the independent 3D graphic display component, a 3D courseware design process manager which is used to record and replay the design 3D animation scheme, and the last one, a math library which encapsulates the common math calculation equations about matrix elements and vector elements. A prototype system for the mechanical 3D animation CAI courseware design has been developed that is capable of the interoperable feature and its feasible and effective has been verified by some practical cases.