GearTrain: Converting WinForms Gear Design Software to WPF A Major Qualifying Project Submitted to the Faculty of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree in Bachelor of Science in Computer Science By Alan Curiel Kyle Smith Advised by Professor David C. Brown (CS) Professor Pradeep Radhakrishnan (ME) May 6, 2021 This report represents the work of WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review. For more information about the projects program at WPI, see http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Projects i Copyright Information The work presented here is copyrighted by Alan Curiel, Kyle Smith, Professor David C. Brown, and Professor Pradeep Radhakrishnan. ii Abstract The goal of this project is to convert gear design software made in a previous MQP from the outdated Windows Forms graphics framework to the newer WPF frame- work, and improve it. Through many user studies, we were able to determine how users responded to the software to see what changes should be made. Users rec- ommended that a 3D representation of the gear train design be added, so that was included in the system. After many iterative refinement steps through the User Interface and program flow, our users generally agree that our new program, titled GearTrain, is a significant improvement over the previous system. GearTrain teaches Mechanical Engineering students about gear concepts and simplifies the designing of gear trains. iii Acknowledgements First and foremost, we would like to thank Professor David C. Brown and Professor Pradeep Radhakrishnan for providing guidance throughout this project. We would also like to thank Garrett Holman and Oluchukwu Okafor for their work on the original gear design program that this project is based on. Additionally, we would like to thank Elaine Perpetua for her work designing the many logos considered for the software, as well as the final one. Finally, we would like to thank all the students in the Mechanical Engineering department who participated in our user studies and helped us improve our program. iv Authorship 1. Introduction . Smith 2. Research Statement and Goals . .Smith 3. Literature Review . Smith 4. Methodology 4.1 A Term . Smith 4.2 B Term . Curiel 4.3 C Term . Curiel 4.4 D Term . Curiel 5. User Interface Design . Curiel 6. System Design . .Smith 7. Data Analysis . Curiel, Smith 8. Evaluation . Curiel, Smith 9. Conclusion . Smith CONTENTS 1 Contents List of Figures 4 List of Tables 6 1 Introduction 7 2 Research Statement and Goals 11 3 Literature Review 14 3.1 Computer Systems . 14 3.2 System Design . 16 3.2.1 UI Design and Evaluation . 17 3.2.2 Display of Gears in 3D . 20 3.3 Gear Concepts . 21 4 Methodology 23 4.1 A Term . 23 4.1.1 Gear Knowledge . 23 4.1.2 Planning . 24 4.1.3 Framework . 24 4.1.4 Study of the Old System . 25 4.2 B Term . 26 4.2.1 User Interface Mock-ups . 26 4.2.2 Importing Code from the Old System . 27 4.2.3 New Code and Interface . 28 4.3 C Term . 29 4.3.1 Application Features . 29 4.3.2 UI Revisions . 31 4.3.3 User Study . 32 4.4 D Term . 33 4.4.1 Writing . 33 4.4.2 Study . 33 4.4.3 Showcasing . 34 CONTENTS 2 5 User Interface Design 36 5.1 Main Menu . 36 5.1.1 File Drop-down . 37 5.1.2 Options Drop-down . 38 5.2 Top Bar . 39 5.3 Left Bar . 40 5.3.1 Start Screen . 40 5.3.2 Gear Sets Screen . 41 5.3.3 Edit Gear Set Screen . 41 5.4 3D View . 44 5.5 Other Interfaces . 45 5.5.1 Edit Shaft Window . 45 5.5.2 Gear Analysis . 46 6 System Design 47 6.1 Design Pattern . 47 6.1.1 Model . 49 6.2 Windows . 54 6.3 SolidWorks Macro . 57 6.4 Project File Structure . 57 6.5 Application Flow . 59 7 Data Analysis 61 7.1 Study of the Old System . 61 7.1.1 User Demographics for A20 Study . 62 7.1.2 Previous Experience . 64 7.1.3 User Feedback . 65 7.2 GearTrain Study . 69 7.2.1 C21 Study . 69 7.2.1.1 User Demographics for C21 Study . 70 7.2.1.2 Previous Experience . 72 7.2.1.3 User Feedback . 74 7.2.2 D21 Study . 78 7.2.2.1 User Demographics for D21 Study . 78 7.2.2.2 Previous Experience . 78 7.2.2.3 User Feedback . 81 CONTENTS 3 8 Evaluation 85 8.1 Study of the Old System (A20) . 85 8.1.1 User Demographics . 85 8.1.2 Previous Experience . 85 8.2 User Feedback . 86 8.3 GearTrain Study (C21 and D21) . 87 8.3.1 Previous Experience . 88 8.3.2 User Feedback . 89 8.3.3 Recommended Changes to the System . 91 9 Conclusion 94 9.1 Project Evaluation . 94 9.1.1 Heuristic Evaluation . 95 9.2 Project Experience . 97 9.2.1 Applied Skills . 97 9.2.2 Acquired Skills . 98 9.3 Future Work . 99 9.3.1 Unfinished Features . 100 9.3.2 New Features . 102 References 104 Appendices 107 A User Study Survey 107 A.1 Existing System . 107 A.1.1 Survey Questions . 107 A.1.2 Open Response Question Results . 108 A.2 New System (GearTrain) . 114 A.2.1 C21 Study . 114 A.2.1.1 Survey Questions . 114 A.2.1.2 Open Response Question Results . 115 A.2.2 D21 Study . 122 A.2.2.1 Open Response Question Results . 122 B User Study Tutorial Documents 136 B.1 A20 Study . 136 B.2 C21 and D21 study . 142 LIST OF FIGURES 4 List of Figures 1 Previous MQP gear design software. .8 2 Interface when the application is first opened (start screen). 37.