VADCFLL-L Archives

First Lego League in Virginia and DC

VADCFLL-L@LISTSERV.JMU.EDU

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Stuart & Lori Roll <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Stuart & Lori Roll <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 8 Nov 2008 23:30:38 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (100 lines)
A better approach than using screen shots is the following:

1. Open the program you want to print in the NXT-G software.
2. Select print using File->Print or Ctl-P.
3. In the dialog box that pops up, choose RTF file.
4. In the next box, pick where to put it.
5. Use your favorite word processor to open up the RTF file.
6. You can select the graphic image and copy or resize it as you please.

I generally have them copy the graphics from all the different documents 
produced into a single document in landscape format.  Then they can arrange 
them and resize them so more than one program can appear on the same page. 
This is especially useful if you use MyBlocks as they can put the related 
MyBlocks together with the main program.  Also you can show all your 
programs in only a couple of printed pages.

Sometimes you end up with a program with a really long line of blocks.  This 
is hard for the programmers to read on the screen.  It also results in a 
really wide image capture.  Resizing a really long image to fit on the page 
makes the blocks too small.  The solution to both issues is to have them 
break their program up into meaningful groups of blocks and then space them 
vertically within the same program.  They do this by "drawing" the execution 
beam downward, left, downward and right again.  The following "drawing" 
should help you see what I mean.

If your program looks like this:

Start---B1--B2--B3--B4--B5--B6--B7--B8--B9--B10--B11--B12--B13--B14--B15

Change it to something like this:

Start---B1--B2--B3--B4--+
                                           |
       +----------------------+
        |
       +--B5--B6--B7--B8--B9--B10--B11--+
                                                                      |
       +----------------------------------------+
        |
       +--B12--B13--B14--B15

Also have the kids use the comment tool in the NXT-G software to annotate 
your programs. It helps the programmers keep track of what's going on and 
also lets the judges "read" it very quickly.

Hope this helps.

Stuart


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Blanpied" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 11:33 PM
Subject: Re: [VADCFLL-L] printing programs and charging the battery


> >Hi,
>>I have two last minute questions.  Charging the battery:  Is it bad to 
>>overcharge it?  As in, should you only charge it for four hours? Is it bad 
>>to plug it in and charge it overnight?
>>
>>Printing the programs:  When we try to print the programs, it tried to 
>>compress everything down to one page, so it is very small.  Is there 
>>anything one could do about that?
>>
>>Thanks!
>>Sonya in Hbg
>
> Sonya,
>
> For printing a long program, I've taken screen-shots of each section, then 
> used a graphics program (Powerpoint, Word, Photoshop, or whatever you 
> have) to arrange them sensibly on a page. This is akin to inserting line 
> breaks into a long sentence rather than reduce the font size so that it 
> will fit within the width of the paper.
>
> On the PC you can use PrintScreen, I believe, to grab images. On the Mac, 
> I type command-control-shift-4 then drag the cross-hairs cursor to mark 
> the rectangle of interest.
>
> Regards,
> Mike
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE YOUR SETTINGS, please visit 
> https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave 
> the list".
>
> If you want to join the VADCFLL-ADMIN-L mailing list - to which FLL 
> administrative announcements will be distributed - visit 
> https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html and select "Join or 
> leave the list".
> 

______________________________________________________________
To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE YOUR SETTINGS, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".

If you want to join the VADCFLL-ADMIN-L mailing list - to which FLL administrative announcements will be distributed - visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".

ATOM RSS1 RSS2