3D-Filmstrip 8.0

3D-Filmstrip 8.0 is a utility to produce striking, high quality visualizations of mathematical objects and processes. It runs under version 9 or later of the MacOS. Under MacOS X, it runs in the Classic layer, but a Carbonized version that will run native under OS X is nearly ready, and 3D-Filmstrip has built-in algorithms for displaying mathematical objects of many different types or "categories" (plane curves, space curves, surfaces, conformal maps, polyhedra, ordinary and partial differential equations) and also for displaying various animations associated with these categories.

But 3D-Filmstrip provides content as well as viewing and animation tools. Each category has a "Gallery" of of a large collection of pre-programmed objects, and also easy to use methods for entering new User Defined objects from the category. The Gallery items are selected from a menu, while user defined objects are created without any programming by entering algebraic formulas in a dialog box.

While the program started out as a research tool, written by mathematicians for other mathematicians, it has gradually morphed into a program that should also be of interest to anyone with an interest in mathematics and who enjoys experimenting with and visually exploring and learning about new mathematical concepts. The way to think of 3D-Filmstrip is as an Interactive Museum of Mathematical Exploration, the various Categories being different galleries of the museum.

3D-Filmstrip differs from programs such as Mathematica, Maple, and Matlab, that provide excellent visualization back-ends for viewing objects, but require a user to first program the object and its visualization. 3D-Filmstrip emphasizes ease of use and does not even require the user to have a pre-existing knowledge of the mathematical definition of an object in order to see it.