1. Overview

Crafter is an interactive program for creating geometric models of spacecraft. Given a palette of spacecraft pieces (truss, parabolic dish, cylinder, etc.), the user builds a hierarchical, geometric structure. Each part is attached to the structure with a specified transformation, consisting of a scale, a rotation and a translation.

As an external module for Geomview, Crafter uses Geomview to display the spacecraft model at all times, allowing the user to view it from any angle. Changes made to the model take effect in the Geomview window immediately.

Crafter's learning curve is orders of magnitude smaller than full blown CAD packages. Crafter is also scriptable in Tcl, making it easy to integrate with other programs.