Handicap Users
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I am currently helping to teach a 3D design course at a university. All the projects that the students do are made with their hands. This semester we just happened to have a quadriplegic student enrolled in this class. I am curious to know if anyone knows of handicap students using Sketchup to produce 3-dimensional design. This student has never used Sketchup before but is rapidly accelerating in his capabilities. Our goal is have this student design projects in Sketchup and then either out put them to a CNC router or 3-dimensional printer. We are also planning on building a "David" laser scanner for the student to manipulate existing objects in 3D space. I would like to begin a dialog with someone about the capabilities of Sketchup for handicap persons. Any ideas or thoughts are greatly appreciated.
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The only advice i can offer is to check out this plugin: http://www.cadspan.com/tools/ i hear it can be very good for cleaning up SU models for 3d printing.
It sounds like a really exciting project for all involved, though. Hopefully you'll get people chiming in with some more specific advice.
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I think it all depends on if this guy can handle a mouse. because that is the main input device. if he can handle that device, he can handle SketchUp, I would guess.
(small side story: I taught the 15 year old autistic cousin of a former boss of mine in SketchUp. he was very interested and asked a lot of questions (usually he is extremely quiet). and he really loves it, cause it gives him something to express himself, something that others understand and appreciate).
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The guy is able to use a mouse with handicap settings. He has been building simple objects in Sketchup to learn the tools. Thanks for the input everyone.
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I had a 3 year experience as computer graphic teacher from 1998 to 2001 with a mixed classroom of people with various handicaps. At that time we made a lot of webdesign and some 3d with Bryce 3D.
Each man or woman has its own difficulties, there is not a general rule, but:
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I noticed that some tethraplegic students could work better with a trackball.
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In some cases we altered the mouse so that they could grasp it better; it is quite easy and cheap. If your man can not press well the mouse buttons, you can glue over them a small table-tennis (ping pong) ball. You also need a couple of rubber rings to put between the balls and the mouse buttons.
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A programable keyboboard for gamers, like the Belkin Nostromo, may work well beacuse you can split some functions over two hands: move the pointer with one hand and control the mouse buttons and wheel with the other.
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In the worst cases, we also used the Dragon Naturally Speaking software as help to input voice commands.
Sorry for my bad English, I hope I didn't use rough or rude terms.
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