A Course In Programming And Computer Graphics Using Visual C++

Abstract

This paper describes a course in computer graphics for seniors and graduate students in mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University at Buffalo. The course involves 3D graphics theory but also focuses on programming for computer graphics. It is taught in a PC Windows environment with Microsoft’s Visual C++. The paper provides a brief history of the course and its relationship to our other computer aided design offerings. We discuss our strategy for introducing students to programming with VC++ including initial object-oriented exercises without graphics and then programming approaches for basic 2D graphics operations in windows. This is followed by an implementation of 3D graphics programming using an object-oriented format and, lastly, our approach to introducing OpenGL for the PC.

For many years, we have taught a computer graphics course for seniors and graduate students in mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University at Buffalo. This course is one in our series of courses in computer aided design and computer graphics. Other courses in the series include a mechanical design course using AutoCad and ProEngineer for design (recently made a requirement for BSME students), a second ProEngineer course considering finite elements, mechanisms and manufacturing, and a virtual reality graphics programming course based on workstation programming and including World Tool Kit. The course we are discussing here is normally a prerequisite for the virtual reality course. Our computer graphics coursework originated in the days of Fortran programming and Tektronix “green screen” computer terminals well before the popularity of CAD packages. This introductory course to computer graphics programming has evolved through various

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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