|
As the graduate students working on the Pseira cemetery have realized, a good CAD model is a better record of finds than a paper drawing. In a paper drawing, the only way to express important distinctions between different materials or phases is with lines of different colors or thicknesses, texture patterns, or added notes. Often, however, lines may overlap; color distinctions and differing line thicknesses may not be clear. When such ambiguity creeps into the drawing, the information content also becomes ambiguous.
In a CAD model distinctions are not simply visual; they are made explicit in the layering system and therefore in the data that comprise the model. Stones from different materials or phases are placed on different layers; so even if a given drawing from a CAD model is unclear or ambiguous, the model itself will maintain the distinctions originally made at the time of the excavation, and those distinctions can always be made explicit to a user of the model. So the information, once recorded, should never be lost.
For other Newsletter articles concerning the use of electronic media in the humanities, consult the Subject index.
Turn to related article: New CAD Work on Pseira Cemetery
Next Article: Thank you!
Table of Contents for the November, 1994 issue of the CSA Newsletter
(Vol. 7, no. 3)
Table of Contents for all CSA Newsletter issues on the Web