User Reviews

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4.9
out of 10 votes
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5 stars

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"Stella is my favourite way to play with polyhedra!"

dyningar March 20, 2009 / Version: Great Stella 4.4

2009-03-20 02:10:33 | By dyningar

Pros

It does most of what I want a polyhedron tool to do (and a whole lot of other things that I haven't got round to playing with yet). It makes it easy to create polyhedra that I'd never seen or heard of - makes math dreams into virtual reality!

Cons

Sometimes Stella crashes on me when I'm asking it to do really wierd things. I can usually find a workaround, though. Sometimes I think it might be nice to have even more control over some details -- well, Rob always reads next-version email tips.

Summary

Even if your love is for making real polyhedra you can hold and turn in your hands, this is a great tool to use on your way there. It lets you see the shapes you've been thinking of, turn them, cut them, stellate them -- whatever! -- and then it can print your nets for you.
Starting to use any math program can be a little wierd -- polyhedra aren't very much like words, so no polyhedra program can ever use your regular word-processing set of menues. Still, after a little while I was in there and playing. At first I thought Stella's manual skipped too many details, but Rob who wrote the program is a great believer in finding things out for yourself -- sort of Crocodile Dundee attitude, you're a resourceful loner in the great Australian Outback and you can make it if you try -- but I've come to accept his way of handling the manual. He gives you enough tips to get you going in the direction you want to go, and you can fiddle with his menues until you find how to do what you'd like to do. Stella is small and fast -- you can open several instances simultaneously, so you can have one with your "serious" window and a few others to fool around in finding out which submenu does what.

4 stars

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"Excellent"

Spatzz June 27, 2007 / Version: Great Stella 4.2

2007-06-27 05:14:47 | By Spatzz

Pros

Développement libre et simple

5 stars

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"awesome, very functional"

nmahynski March 20, 2006 / Version: Great Stella 3.5

2006-03-20 14:45:20 | By nmahynski

Pros

excellent interface and very functionable (awesome geo specs too)

Read reply (1)

5 stars

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"Great Stella is an invaluable tool for those who are interested in polyhedra."

spiderquark February 16, 2006 / Version: Great Stella 3.2

2006-02-16 04:49:34 | By spiderquark

Pros

The built-in set of models is fantastically thorough, plus you can make new polyhedra yourself using a wide variety of on-screen tools. This program is well worth the $75 for the fully functioning version.

5 stars

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"It is a wonderful tool to help SEE space"

April 12, 2004 / Version: Great Stella 2.0

2004-04-12 15:15:56

5 stars

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"Beautiful program"

April 09, 2003 / Version: Great Stella 2.0

2003-04-09 11:40:09

5 stars

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"good"

February 13, 2003 / Version: Great Stella 2.0

2003-02-13 17:10:09

5 stars

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"Great for students/enthusiasts of mathematics"

February 13, 2003 / Version: Great Stella 2.0

2003-02-13 03:20:09

Summary

This is great for visualizing isometry groups of polyhedra and their relationship with their duals. You can easily see things like the rotations in the selected group and its orbits of faces and vertices (via the dual polyhedron). What's more, you're not limited to doing this on the computer screen as the facility for printing nets helps you to make your own physical models, and it's always so helpful to be able to hold one and turn it around in your hands. Every mathematician (especially group theorists), student or professional, will find this program very entertaining, and from an educational point of view, useful as well. It is well designed, easy to use, and together with the web site, the principles are very well explained.

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Full Specifications

What's new in version 5.4
Changes in version 5.4 Each built-in polyhedron now has a link to my paper model online (where applicable). Improved nets and colouring for compound of 10 tetrahedra in the library Added Coxeter symmetry notation Ability to cut one edge in a net, not just a whole edge type Lots of bug fixes and minor improvements

General
Publisher	Robert Webb
Publisher web site	http://www.software3d.com
Release Date	May 12, 2014
Date Added	May 21, 2014
Version	5.4

Category
Category	Educational Software
Subcategory	Math Software

Operating Systems
Operating Systems	Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista/7
Additional Requirements	None

Download Information
File Size	3.22MB
File Name	GreatStellaDemoInst.exe

Popularity
Total Downloads	20,606
Downloads Last Week	1

Pricing
License Model	Free to try
Limitations	Some features disabled
Price	$45

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Full Specifications

What's new in version 5.4

General

Category

Operating Systems

Download Information

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