Magic Designer Overview

This computer program is an exact emulation of a toy which was sold years ago called Magic Designer . It also once had the name Hoot Nanny. It is made out of metal and comes with circular paper and colored pens.

Here is a description of this toy and how it is used: Original Instructions in PDF

This program uses trigonometry to figure out how to draw these designs. Without getting too technical this is how it works:

To draw a design, the paper is rotated a full circle. The position of the pen moves around due to the motion of the gears. The program takes many samples and asks, where is the pen at this point? Because the number of pixels is not infinite a finite number of samples is all that is needed to get the maximum possible accurate drawing. The length of the two arms is known and the position of the pegs (which are those pins standing on the gears) is calculated relative to a common center. Then, one of the possible two points where the circles made by those two arms swinging around their pegs (imagine that the arms were not connected to one another) intersect, is where the pen is located at that moment. This becomes a colored pixel.

I am not Spirograph. I do so much more. And I am rare and special.

The following is snapshot of the official 2019 version of the computer program.

GitHub to see source code, README BUILDME USEME

Will give you the file for your system. Remember to bypass Windows warnings.

Install on Linux:

Extract Source to a folder.

cd folder

sudo ./mdinstall.sh

Arch Linux AUR version

Windows Version

My PAD for Windows version

Now an Android Version:

Missing picture

The following is snapshot of the 2009 computer program. Pieces of it and how it is used are on the HELP PAGES.

Download from Source Forge

--> ** Touch Friendly 2013 Browser Version of Magic Designer **<--

Works with 8 inch Android Tablet with browsers: Firefox, Browser, Dolphin, Maxthon. Works with PC browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 8 (and I assume higher). Please contact Andrew Katz with any feedback about where things work or do not work, such as smart phones and anything Apple.