This is a discussion on [l/m 6/2/1998] comp.graphics.vis FAQ (1/4) c.g.v.FAQ - Graphics ; #Disabled Archive-name: comp.viz.faq "Feed me." -- Audrey, the Plant in "The Little Shop of Horrors." Contents ======== Intro ----- What is visualization? ---------------------- Systems ------- Public domain datasets ---------------------- Issue/problems -------------- Netiquette ---------- References ---------- ================================ The FAQ is dedicated ...
[l/m 6/2/1998] comp.graphics.vis FAQ (1/4) c.g.v.FAQ #Disabled
Archive-name: comp.viz.faq
"Feed me." -- Audrey, the Plant in "The Little Shop of Horrors."
Contents
========
Intro
-----
What is visualization?
----------------------
Systems
-------
Public domain datasets
----------------------
Issue/problems
--------------
Netiquette
----------
References
----------
================================
The FAQ is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Harold "Doc" Edgerton (MIT).
I recommend visiting his hallway at MIT, too.
Intro
-----
The quality of this FAQ is directly proportional to the information
mailed by participants (that's you) to the maintainer (me, Amelia).
You don't like it? Blame the rest of the posters and readers.
I don't have 100% time to maintain this. We are starting from scratch.
If an address or phone is out of date? Blame the group. I'm just a dumb
computer posting as I am told.
[It's getting better, people are emailing contributions!]
The structure of this FAQ is currently a twice monthly post, with two
weekly outriggers pointing to the Long (this) version. We will see how well
this works (empirical science). The header, the body, etc. have all been
specially designed and tested. In time, mitosis will occur on this file
and it will get spread over the course of a month.
You should not have to see this file all the time. Don't bother saving it
unless you have a flakey net connection. Grab the most recent revision
off the net. The Subject: line is designed to fit within the 24-char limit
of most Killfile systems. Learn about Killfiles. If you have something
against FAQ files, the regular expression /.*FAQ$/ will Kill All My Children
and me. Learn how to use news and how news works before complaining.
This post is like a lighthouse or a fog horn. Learn how to use it.
What is visualization?
======================
"Visualization is the use of computer-generated media based
on data in the service of human insight/learning."
****ytic graphics
--Carol Hunter, LLNL
Visualization:
The use of computer imagery to gain
insight into complex phenomena.
The purpose of visualization is insight, not virtual realities or pictures.
--Eugene N. Miya, President, Bay Area ACM/SIGGRAPH,
Usenet post, November 1987, responding to the release
of the Report. "I like the Livermore perspective."
The Maintainer gets a chance to pontificate here: [You can, too. Just ask.]
I learned from Jack Estes (UCSB) that observation has three recursive
phases and corresponding mathematical models:
Detection
Identification
Measurement and ****ysis (this latter being the recursion).
Any good system will support these (reducibly). Researchers need the latter.
Artistes only use the first (Calder was an exception, but then he trained
as an aerodynamicist 8^). We don't teach observation very well in schools
these days. We assume you have picked it up via osmosis or are naturally
gifted. It requires training and some talent. It's especially bad in
computer science depts. because of the emphasis in theory.
It is Miya's assertation that ultimately visualization will converge
of technologies like those used in cartography (>2000 years old),
surveying, photogrammetry (aerial or terrestial), certain parts of ergonomics,
etc. Why? Because they are quantitative. They use stereo in some instances
(far more important than most people realize). USGS tours are available.
Maps have better information content than any image pervading our society.
The signal to noise ratio is greater (density). Better than photos,
better than movies (ask yourself if you can always figure out the ending 8^).
I defy the presentation of an other consistent image with better
characteristics than a map. Maps have excellent characteristics like
an easily measurable geometry, legends, symbolization (but like all imagery
they have limitations). Consider all this the next time you look at your AAA
maps when you go on vacation.
What kinds of quantitative, numeric support are needed? Every basic science
measurement:
enumeration (counting, math got started because of counting), distances,
areas, volumes, angles (planar and solid), extrema,
parametric and non-parametric statistics (means, median, modes,
deviations, ANOVA), histograms, intervals and error bounds, derivatives,
partials, integrals, etc.
ONLY the trained researcher (maybe you) will make the critical insights
needed for scientific discovery. Not your programmer,
not your Renaissance Team.
We are not talking EdVis or PresentationVis, we are talking
HackerVis/NerdVis/DeepDownAndDirtyViz. We can't do it for you.
You the researcher have the eyes. Only you can make the discovery:
to see differences where your artist, your programmer, your cognition expert
can't, and to see similarity where the average man can't.
Miya's Suggestion: Never view an image or film, too fast. You should control
the rate at which you observe. Use tools if you have to: hand lenses, filters,
etc. If you are forced to view something too fast, jump up and say:
"Wait, just one damn minute!"
Bob Sharp (Emeritus, Caltech Div. of Geog. and Planetary Sciences) presents
an Austin Post photo in one book and asserts that this single photo (of Denali)
is adequate for a 1 hour lecture on glaciology. That's quite a claim (an
impressive photo). Artificial data images have yet to assert that kind of
information density (it's not clear they should, but these are opinions).
This should be considered an implicit challenge for visualizations to get
that important for discovery. Sometimes, some fields pour days, weeks, and
months trying to understand (interpret) an image.
Miya's Gross Generalization: Scientists like grided graph paper (and tabular
papers) like many artists (painters) like starting with a blank canvas
(exceptions always locatable).
Frames of reference are needed badly. Include everything a good map has:
1) A Scale, 2) a legend (both geometric and any symbology like color or
glyps or icons, whatever). Beware of perspective. $Billion$ are spent
yearly to remove perspective from photographic imagery.
Miya's Guess: the biologists will figure this all out before the physicists,
chemists, and others. Others should attempt to prove this wrong.
Good luck guys. 8^)
Other inspirations: Muybridge and Edgerton.
Add your own.
Muybridge did his basic research at Stanford and Penn State.
His work went on to become the motion picture industry, ergonomics,
system ****ysis (time motion studies). Edgerton is best known
for his work on the strobe, super-fast and time lapse photography,
and side-scanning sonar.
Hints on Design from Don Norman -- used with permission
("Turn Signals are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles")
A challenge to the designers of the world:
Make signs unnecessary.
Think of the Four-Questions test and generalize to systems.
Norman originally wrote this test for kitchen appliances, but it generalizes
well to scientific computer systems
Ouestion one: Where would we store it?
[Consider disk space as well as foot print.]
Ouestion two: Where would we use it?
[Left to you.]
Ouestion three: Where would we plug it in?
[Consider more ways that power.]
Ouestion four: How much work would it be to clean?
[A question of maintenance.]
Generalize additional important questions:
Robert Lucky notes the qualities of pictures in Silicon Dreams (pp. 292):
describing spatial relationships
showing the structure of data
allowing pattern matching approaches to problem solving
getting attention
describing and identifying people
invoking esthetic appreciation
A number of unique properties can be attributed to aerial photography:
1) it captures and freezes an instant in time;
2) it can be studied at length and in detail by persons from a wide variety
of backgrounds and disciplines;
3) it constitutes a precise geometric record which can be
measured, scaled, quantified;
4) it becomes a record of the earth's surface --
a catalog of things, activities, and relationships;
5) it is duplicable and manipulable --
can be enlarged, enhanced, and reproduced; and
6) it can provide near-synoptic coverage of large areas.
"Eyeball to Eyeball"
[story of the Cuban missile crisis from a man who was there]
Page 14.
Dino Brugioni, former CIA ****yst
He was eager to learn more about the photo-interpretation process.
"Where do you get photo interpreters? How much do you pay them?
How do you train them? Are they satisified with their work?"
--Pres. John Kennedy
He indicated he would like to visit the Center and observe the high technology
of interpretation at work.
Page 58
Eyeball to Eyeball
Dino Brugioni
Photo interpreters can recognize, identify, and accurately describe
in detail natural and cultural features on photography not apparent to
unsophisticated or untrained eyes. Their writing style, however, is often
crytpic, terse, and military-oriented. Of necessity, this type of reporting
has to be reworked and collated for presentation to policymakers.
Page 282
Eyeball to Eyeball
Dino Brugioni
This boils down largely to "geometry." See specific note below.
The problems:
Hidden object elimination (obscured features)
Optical illusions (leading to false interpretations, e.g. Necker cubes)
Inadvertant data corruption
Parallax and perspective in 3-D and higher D.
Performance
Science differs from art in that we have to validate our simulations and
theory. Right now, support for this validation is especially lacking.
Empirical/experimental techniques make simulation validation difficult,
in the works of Eduard Imhof speaking about maps:
Chap. 16 page 359.
7. On art in cartography
The means of cartographical expression are subject to the same experiences
and visual aesthetic rules as every other type of graphic product. *Art*
however, is the highest level attainable in graphical work. Thus, a good map
cannot lack an artistic touch.
There has already been much debate and writing on the question of whether
cartography has anything to do with art and if so, how much. We must try to
remain in the clear on this topic and avoid exaggeration and cliche. Certainly
it is not a function of cartography to create art in the higher sense of the
word: the cartographer has scarcely the opportunity of doing so.
Art presupposed the widest ranging freedom of form and structure, whereas
cartographers are confined to the smallest details by topographical survey,
statistical figures, by standardization of symbolism and color, and by what
is essentially a non-artistic purpose. On the other hand, however, the
following facts are clearly established; we demand of it a balanced
expression which emphasizes the significant and subdues the insignificant;
amd we demand a well balance, harmonious interplay of all elements contained.
It is in accordance with practical experience, however, which the author has
personally observed over many decades, that in cartographic affairs, as in
all graphic work, the greatest clarity, the greatest power of expression,
balance and simplicity are concurrent with beauty. To create beauty, a
purely technical, practical arrangement of things is not sufficient.
Beauty is, to a large extent, irrational.
Artistic talent, aesthetic sensitivity, sense of proportion, of harmony,
of form and color, and of graphical interplay are indispensible to
the creation of a beautiful map and thus to a clear expressive map.
Philip Davis and Reuben Hersh
The Mathematical Experience
"The Degradation of the Geometric Consciousness"
It has often been remarked over the past century and a half that
there has been a steady and progressive degradation of the geometric and
kinesthetic elements of mathematical instruction and research. During
this period, the formal, the symbolic, the verbal, and the ****ytic
elements have prospered greatly.
What are some of the reasons for this decline? A number of
explanations come to mind:
1. The tremendous impact of Descartes' _La Geomtetrie_, wherein geometry
was reduced to algebra.
2. The impact in the late nineteenth century of Felix Klein's program of
unifying geometries by group theory.
3. The collapse, in the early nineteenth century, of the view derived
largely from limited sense experience that the geometry of Euclid has _a
priori_ truth for the universe, that it is _the_ model for physical space.
4. The incompleteness of the logical structure of classical Euclidean
geometry as discovered in the nineteenth century and as corrected by
Hilbert and others.
5. The limitations of two or three physical dimensions which form the
natural backdrop for visual geometry.
6. The discovery of non-Euclidean geometries. This is related to the
limitations of the visual ground field over which visual geometry is
built, as opposed to the great generality which is possible when
geometry is algebraized and abstracted (non-Euclidean geometries,
complex geometries, finite geometries, linear algebra, metric spaces, etc.)
7. The limitations of the eye in its perception of mathematical "truths"
(continuous, nondifferentiable functions; optical illusions; suggestive,
but misleading special cases).
Systems
=======
StereoGraphics Corporation
2171 East San Francisco Blvd.
San Rafael, CA 94901
ph: (415) 459 4500
fax: (415) 459 3020
NCAR
----
National Center for Atmospheric Research
One of the original graphics packages.
Platforms:
Sun, RS6000, SGI, VAX, Cray Y-MP, DecStations, and more.
Availability:
Contact:
Graphics Information
NCAR Scientific Computing Division
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, CO 80307-3000
(303) 497-1201
scdinfo@ncar.ucar.edu
Cost: .edu
$750 Unlimited users
.gov
$750 1 user
$1500 5 user
$3000 25 user
.com users multiply .gov * 2.0
MOVIE.BYU
---------
See also Cquel.byu
CQUEL.BYU (pronounced "sequel") is a brand new modelling and
visualization package for the UNIX workstation. Some of it's features
include: animation, raytracing, scientific visualization, interactive
modelling and editing, quadric primitives, Bezier and NURBS surfaces,
constructive solid geometry, texture mapping, graphical user
interface, and free-form deformation to name a few.
Platforms: SUN, DEC, HP, SGI, IBM RS6000, others,
Availability:
Cquel.byu
30-day trial period w/o obligation
Contact:
Engineering Computer Graphics Laboratory
Brigham Young University
368 Clyde Building
Provo, UT 84602
PHONE: 801-378-2812
E-Mail: cquel@byu.edu
Cost:
$20 for 30-day trial period w/o obligation
$1,500 for a license (exec. code, etc.)
PLOT3D
------
Platforms:
Availability:
Contact:
Cost:
apE III
---
Platforms:
Availability:
Contact:
TaraVisual Corporation
929 Harrison Avenue
Columbus, OH 43215
Tel. (614) 291-2912 and 1-800-458-8731
Fax (614) 291-2867
Cost:
$895 (plus tax); runtime version with a site-license for a single user
(at a time), no limit on the number of machines in a cluster.
$895 includes support/maintenance and upgrades.
Source code more. Additional user licenses $360.
AVS
---
See also:
comp.graphics.avs
Platforms: CONVEX, CRAY, DEC, HP, IBM, SGI, SUN, Windows NT
Availability: AVS5 and AVS/Express available on all the above:
for all UNIX workstations, and for Windows NT
Contact:
Advanced Visual Systems Inc.
300 Fifth Ave.
Waltham, MA 02154
(617)-890-4300 Telephone
(617)-890-8287 Fax
info@avs.com Email
http://www.avs.com Web Site home page
Advanced Visual Systems Inc. for: CRAY, DEC, HP, IBM, SGI, SUN, Windows
NT
Advanced Visual Systems Inc. or CRAY for CRAY
CONVEX for CONVEX
Advanced Visual Systems Inc. or IBM for IBM
See also: comp.graphics.avs
FTP Site: for modules, data sets, other info:
avs.ncsc.org (128.109.178.23)
Cost:
SGI IRIS Explorer
-------------
IRIS Explorer is developed and maintained by NAG and is now available
for SGI/HP/DEC Alpha/IBM/Sun unix boxes and Intel/Alpha NT boxes.
Current latest release is 3.5
IRIS Explorer is an application creation system developed by Silicon
Graphics that provides visualisation and ****ysis functionality for
computational scientists, engineers and other scientists. The IRIS
Explorer GUI allows users to build custom applications without having
to write any, or a minimal amount of, traditional code. Also, existing
code can be easily integrated into the IRIS Explorer environment.
Platforms: SGI, Cray, SPARC, DEC, IBM, HP.
The SPARC ports have been done by DuPont Pixel and by Numerical
Algorithms Group (NAG) Ltd; NAG are also porting IRIS Explorer to
IBM RS/6000, HP 9000 series 700 and DEC Alpha.
Availability: Available now on SGI, Cray and SPARC. Other versions
to be announced soon.
Contact: IRIS Explorer Center for details of availability and
distribution information, and for user support and other technical
enquiries:
IRIS Explorer Center (Europe)
PO Box 50
OXFORD
OX2 8JU
UK
Tel : +44 (0)865 516377
Fax : +44 (0)865 516388
e-mail : helpdesk@iec.co.uk
IRIS Explorer Center (North America)
1400 Opus Place, Suite 200
Downers Grove, IL 60515-5702
USA
Tel : +1 708 971 2367
Fax : +1 708 971 2706
e-mail : infodesk@nag.com
More information: The IRIS Explorer Center runs a Gopher server,
containing technical information and advice, technical
papers and User Group details:
Name = IRIS Explorer Center Bulletin Board
Type = 1
Path = 1/visual/IE/iecbb
Host = nags2.nag.co.uk [192.156.217.7]
Port = 70
This service is also available via World Wide Web:
http://www.nag.co.uk/Welcome_IEC.html
The explorer ftp site is ftp.epcc.ed.ac.uk which is housed at
Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre. The administrator is Gordon Cameron.
This archive is mirrored in the USA by swedishchef.lerc.nasa.gov,
administered by Jeff Hanson.
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.explorer, comp.sys.sgi.graphics
comp.graphics.apps.iris-explorer
Visual3
-------
Visual3 is a visualization system that provides a programmer level
interface instead of a canned application. Brief description and
availability is below.
Visual3 runs on Stellar, DEC stations, IBM RS/6000, HP and SGI.
(From the manual):
VISUAL3 is an interactive graphics environment for the visualization of
three-dimensional, structured and/or unstructured data. This
volumetric data may be steady or time varying.
VISUAL3 deals with three different types of surfaces. The first
category is `domain' surfaces. These are surfaces which are defined
by the application program which initializes VISUAL3, and they
typically correspond to the surfaces which bound the computational
domain. A subset of this first class, are `mapped domain' surfaces,
for which there is a mapping from points on the surface to an
$(x',y')$ coordinate system, which allows plotting of surface
quantities in a 2D setting.
The second category is `dynamic' surfaces. These are surfaces whose
orientation and position, relative to the computational domain, can be
changed interactively by the user. Although there are several types of
dynamic surface, only one dynamic surface can exist at one time. Also,
a dynamic surface cannot be activated when a mapped domain surface is
being plotted in the 2D window.
The third category is `static' surfaces. These are surfaces which
at one time were `dynamic', but then were `frozen' and transferred
into a database, along with the domain surfaces. These static
surfaces are then treated in almost the same way as the unmapped
domain surfaces.
NOTE:
Any `static' surface in a `grid unsteady' application deforms with
the grid movement. The surface is associated with the cells and
not physical space. Therefore, for planar cuts, the data is
not clipped to the 2D window size when the surface was saved.
Author: Bob Haimes email: haimes@orville.mit.edu
MIT 37-467 FAX: (617) 253-0823
77 Mass Ave Tel: (617) 253-7518
Cambridge, Ma 02139
FIELDVIEW
---------
An interactive program designed to assist an engineer in
investigating fluid dynamics data sets.
Platforms: SGI, IBM, HP, SUN, X-terminals
Availability: Currently available on all of the above
platforms. Educational programs and volume
discounts are available.
Contact:
Intelligent Light
P.O. Box 65
Fair Lawn, NJ 07410
(201)794-7550
Steve Kramer (kramer@ilight.com)
Vis5D
------
Vis5D is a system for interactive visualization of 5-D gridded data sets
such as those made by numeric weather and ocean models. One can make
isosurfaces, contour line slices, colored slices, wind vector slices, wind
trajectories, volume renderings etc. of data in a 3-D grid and then rotate
and animate the image in realtime. There are also features for text
annotation and video production.
Vis5D runs on Silicon Graphics, IBM, HP, DEC, SUN workstations,
and on PC's running Linux.
You can get Vis5D, including complete source code, from:
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~billh/vis5d.html
For both VisAD and Vis5D you can contact:
Bill Hibbard (whibbard@macc.wisc.edu)
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin - Madison
1225 W. Dayton St.
Madison, WI 53706
VisAD
------
VisAD is a Java class library for interactive and collaborative
visualization and ****ysis of numerical data. It combines:
* The use of pure Java for platform independence and to support
data sharing and real-time collaboration among geographically
distributed users. Support for distributed computing is
integrated at the lowest levels of the system.
* A general mathematical data model that can be adapted to
virtually any numerical data, that supports data sharing
among different users, different data sources and different
scientific disciplines, and that provides transparent access
to data independent of storage format and location (i.e.,
memory, disk or remote).
* A general display model that supports interactive 3-D, data
fusion, multiple data views, direct manipulation,
collaboration, and virtual reality.
* Data ****ysis and computation integrated with visualization
to support computational steering and other complex
interaction modes.
* Support for two distinct communities: developers who create
domain-specific systems based on VisAD, and users of those
domain-specific systems. VisAD is designed to support a wide
variety of user interfaces, ranging from simple data browser
applets to complex applications that allow groups of
scientists to collaboratively develop data ****ysis algorithms.
* Developer extensibility in as many ways as possible.
VisAD requires Java 3D and Java 1.2.
You can get VisAD, including complete source code, from:
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~billh/visad.html
For both VisAD and Vis5D you can contact:
Bill Hibbard (whibbard@macc.wisc.edu)
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin - Madison
1225 W. Dayton St.
Madison, WI 53706
IBM Data Explorer
-----------------
See also:
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/dx/
comp.graphics.apps.data-explorer
Currently available on: IBM Risc System 6000,
SGI, HP, Sun (SunOS 4 and Solaris),
DEC, Data General
IBM POWER Visualization Server (32 i860, 40 MHz)
Contact:
Keith Sams (Midwest/West US)
1503 LBJ Frwy Dallas TX 75234, 214-406-7296,
ksams@vnet.ibm.com
Other support exists:
ibmdx@watson.ibm.com
To order (Product# 5765-210), call:
1-800-IBM-CALL : Commercial customers
1-800-333-6705 : Federal customers
Repository: Contributed modules, macros, data sets and other information
DX repository -
ftp info.tc.cornell.edu (cd /pub/vis/Data.Explorer)
http://www.tc.cornell.edu/DX
Gopher -
telnet info.tc.cornell.edu (login as user info)
Cost: $5900 node locked license
Cost: $7400 concurrent use license
Cost: $9400 symmetric multiprocessing version (SMP), Product # 5765-420
- A free trial version is available (contact any of the above reps)
- Discounts are available as follows:
IBM Higher Education Software Consortium
Single user educational discount
GSA contract GS00K92AGS5541, Option YR 1
Volume discounts
A longer description is at the tail end of this FAQ.
IBM 3D Interaction Accelerator
------------------------------
IBM Corporation
Beth Sulander
Dept. 32DA/P976, 522 South Road
Poughkeepsie, New York 12601-5400
USA
Phone: +1 (914) 433-2645
Fax: +1 (914) 433-9901
Internet: 3daccelerator@vnet.ibm.com
<http://www.research.ibm.com/3dix>
IBM 3D Interaction Accelerator is a workstation-based interactive software
product that enables real-time visualization and inspection of very large
and highly complex mechanical and architectural CAD models.
Khoros 2
--------
See also: comp.soft-sys.khoros
http://www.khoral.com/
Platforms: Sun (SunOS 4.1.3), Sun (Solaris 2.3), SGI (Irix 5.3),
DEC (OSF1/3.0), PC/486/P5 (Linux), Cray (UNICOS 8.0.3)
Availability: Available now on all platforms.
Contact: Khoral Research, Inc.
6001 Indian School Rd. NE
Suite 200
Albuquerque, NM 87110
tel: (505) 837-6500
fax: (505) 881-3842
email: info@khoral.com
There is a new version of Khoros - 2.2, released July 1997.
Khoros Pro 2.2 with source code and binaries for selected architectures
on CD-ROM - it costs $549. It is available from KRI.
Licenses must be purchased for distribution of Khoros based products.
Advanced Khoros, the rapidly changing R&D version of Khoros technology
is available as source code only via ftp as a limited access product.
Please see the Advanced Khoros 2.2 Release notes and README at
www.khoral.com.
Spyglass Dicer
------------------
Spyglass Transform
------------------
Spyglass Slicer (was VoxelBox)
------------------------------
Spyglass Plot
-------------
3D volumetric data ****ysis package
2D data ****ysis package
A 3D Volume renderer for Windows.
column data ****ysis tool
Platforms: Mac, SGI, Sun, DEC, HP, IBM
Platform: Windows 3.x on a PC(386 or higher) with at least
an 8 bit video card(SVGA is fine)
Contact:
The Visual Data ****ysis tools were purchased by Brand Fortner,
one of the Spyglass co-founders.
His new company, Fortner Research, has continued the developement of these
tools while Spyglass has focused on WWW technologies. To get the new
contact number, please contact fortner research at http://www.fortner.com
There contact info is listed there as follows:
Fortner Research, LLC
100 Carpenter Dr.
Sterling, VA 20164
Our Phone Numbers:
(703) 478-0181 Support
(800) 252-6479 Sales
(703) 689-9593 Fax
Email Addresses:
Sales: sales@fortner.com
General Information: info@fortner.com
Web Questions: webmaster@fortner.com
Data Visualizer
---------------
Platforms: SGI, SUN, IBM RS6000, HP
# DEC is no longer supported.
Availability:
Available on all the above platforms from Wavefront
Technologies. Educational programs and site licenses are
available.
Contacts:
Mike Wilson (mike@wti.com)
Wavefront Technologies, Inc.
530 East Montecito Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93103
805-962-8117
FAX: 805-963-0410
Wavefront Europe
Guldenspoorstraat 21-23
B-9000 Gent, Belgium
32-91-25-45-55
FAX: 32-91-23-44-56
Wavefront Technologies Japan
17F Shinjuku-sumitomo Bldg
2-6-1 Nishi-shinjuku, Shunjuku-Ku
Tokyo 168 Japan
81-3-3342-7330
FAX 81-3-3342-7353
National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) Tool Suite
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Platforms: Unix Workstations (DEC, IBM, SGI, Sun)
Apple MacIntosh
Cray supercomputers
Availability: Now available. Source code in the public domain.
FTP from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu.
Contact: National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Computing Applications Building
605 E. Springfield Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820
Cost: Free (zero dollars).
The suite includes tools for 2D image and 3D scene ****ysis and visualization.
The code is actively maintained and updated.
WiT (changed spelling!)
---
In a nutshell it's a package of the same genre as AVS,Explorer,etc.
It seems more a image processing system than a generic SciVi system (IMHO)
Major elements are:
- a visual programming language, which automatically exploits the inherent
parallelism
- a code generator which converts the graph to a standalone program
Iconified libraries present a rich set of point, filter, io, transform,
morphological, segmentation, and measurement operations.
A flow library allows graphs to employ broadcast, merge,
synchronization, conditional, and sequencing control strategies.
WiT delivers an object-oriented, distributed, visual programming
environment which allows users to rapidly design solutions to their
imaging problems. Users can consolidate both software and hardware
developments within a complete CAD-like workspace by adding their
own operators (C functions), objects (data structures), and servers
(specialized hardware).
WiT 5.0 will be available towards the beginning of the last quarter '94
and will include support for multi-dimensional image processing,
3D volume slicing and viewing, and 3D ROI entry.
WiT runs on Sun SPARCs (SunOS 4.X, Solaris 2.3),
Linux, and Windows 3.1/NT. It also supports Datacube MV-200 and Digicolor
hardware, allowing you to run your graphs in real-time (available from
Datacube under the product name WiTFlow)
For a free WiT demo disk, call, FAX, or e-mail (poon@ee.ubc.ca)
us stating your complete name, address, voice, FAX, e-mail info.
and desired platform.
There's an FTP'able demo for SPARCs under
sunsite.unc.edu /pub/sun-info/catalyst/logical-vision
Pricing:
WiT for Sparc, one yr. free upgrades, 30 days
technical support....................$5000 US
Entry level pricing now at $1000 US, with upgrade to the full system
for $4000 US more.
WiT for Windows 3.1/NT: starts at US $1800.00. They recommend the Watcom C
10.0 32-bit compiler to support code development.
Academic institutions: discounts available
Contact:
Logical Vision Ltd.
Suite 108-3700 Gilmore Way
Burnaby, B.C., CANADA
V5G 4M1
Tel: 604-435-2587
Fax: 604-435-8840
e-mail: Terry Arden <poon@ee.ubc.ca>
SciAn
-----
SciAn is primarily intended to do 3-D visualizations of data in an
interactive environment with the ability to generate animations using
frame-accurate video recording devices. A user manual, on-line help, and
technical notes will help you use the program.
Cost : 0 (Free), source code provided via ftp.
Platforms : SGI 4D machines and IBM RS/6000 with the GL card + Z-buffer
Where to find it:
ftp.scri.fsu.edu [144.174.128.34] : /pub/SciAn
A mirror is monu1.cc.monash.edu.au [130.194.1.101] : /pub/SciAn
If you can find more info (we've a VERY overloaded Inet link :-( ) ....
VERTIGO
-------
They have an Educational Institution Program. The package is used in
the industrial design, architectural, scientific visualization,
educational, broadcast, imaging and post production fields.
They'll [quoting from a letter sent to me -- nfotis ] "donate fully
configured Vertigo 3D Graphics Software worth over $29,000USD per
package to qualified educational institutions for licencing on any
number of Silicon Graphics Personal IRIS or POWER Series Workstations.
If you use an IRIS Indigo station, we will also licence our Vertigo
Revolution Software (worth $12,000USD).
If you are interested in participating in this program please send a
letter by mail or fax (604/684-2108) on your institution's letterhead
briefly outlining your potential uses for Vertigo together with the
following information: 1. UNIX version 2. Model and number of SGI
systems 3. Peripheral devices 4. Third Party Software.
Participants will be asked to contribute $750USD per institution to cover
costs of the manual, administration, and shipping.
We recommend that Vertigo users subscribe to our technical support
services. For an annual fee you will receive: technical assistance
on our support hotline, bug fixes, software upgrades and manual updates.
For educational institution we will waive the $750 administration fee
if support is purchased.
The annual support fee is $2,500 plus the following cost for additional
machines:
Number of machines: 2-20 20+
Additional cost per machine: $700 $600 "
[ There's also a 5-day training program - nfotis]
Contact:
Vertigo Technology INC
Suite 1010
1030 West Georgia St.
VANCOUVER, BC
CANADA, V6E 2Y3
Phone: 604/684-2113
Fax: 604/684-2108
SCRY
----
[ From the README : ]
Scry is a distributed image handling system that pro-
vides image transport and compression on local and wide area
networks, image viewing on workstations, recording on video
equipment, and storage on disk. The system can be distri-
buted among workstations, between supercomputers and works-
tations, and between supercomputers, workstations and video
animation controllers. The system is most commonly used to
produce video based movie displays of images resulting from
visualization of time dependent data, complex 3D data sets,
and image processing operations. Both the clients and
servers run on a variety of systems that provide UNIX-like C
run-time environments, and 4BSD sockets.
The source is available for anonymous ftp:
csam.lbl.gov [128.3.254.6] : pub/scry.tar.Z
Contact:
Bill Johnston, (wejohnston@lbl.gov, ...ucbvax!csam.lbl.gov!johnston)
or
David Robertson (dwrobertson@lbl.gov, ...ucbvax!csam.lbl.gov!davidr)
Imaging Technologies Group
MS 50B/2239
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
1 Cyclotron Road
Berkeley, CA 94720
SVLIB / FVS
-----------
SVLIB is an X-Windows widget set based on the OSF (Open Software
Foundation) Motif widget set. SVLIB widgets are macro-widgets
comprising lower level Motif widgets such as buttons, scrollbars,
menus, and drawing areas. It is designed to address the reusability
of 2D visualization routines and each widget in the library is an
encapsulation of a specific visualization technique such as colormap
manipulation, image display, and contour plotting. It is targetted
to run on UNIX workstations supporting OSF/Motif. Currently, only
color monitors are supported. Since SVLIB is a collection of widgets
developed in the same spirit as the OSF/Motif user interface widget
set, it integrates seamlessly with the Motif widgets. Programmers
using SVLIB widgets see the same interface and design as other
Motif widgets.
FVS is a visualization software for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
simulations. FVS is designed to accept data generated from these
simulations and apply various visualization techniques to present these
data graphically.
FVS accepts three-dimensional multi-block data recorded in NCSA HDF format.
iti.gov.sg [192.122.132.130] : /pub/svlib (Scientific Visualization)
/pu/fvs; These directories contain demo binaries for Sun4/SGI
Cost : US$200 for academic and US$300 for non-academic institutions.
(For each of the above items). You're getting the source for the licence.
Contact
-------
Miss Quek Lee Hian
Member of Technical Staff
Information Technology Institute
National Computer Board
NCB Building
71, Sicence Park Drive
Singapore 0511
Republic of Singapore
Tel : (65)7720435
Fax : (65)7795966
Email : leehian@iti.gov.sg
---------------------------------------------------------
GVLware Distribution:
Bob - An interactive volume renderer for the SGI
Raz - A disk based movie player for the SGI
Icol - Motif color editor
---------------------------------------------------------
The Army High Performance Computing Research Center (AHPCRC) has been
developing a set of tools to work with large time dependent 2D and 3D
data sets. In the Graphics and Visualization Lab (GVL) we are using
these tools along side standard packages, such as SGI Explorer and the
Utah Raster Toolkit, to render 3D volumes and create digital movies.
A couple of the more general purpose programs have been bundled into a
package called "GVLware".
GVLware, currently consisting of Bob, Raz and Icol, is now available
via ftp. The most interesting program is probably Bob, an interactive
volume renderer for the SGI. Raz streams raster images from disk to
an SGI screen, enabling movies larger than memory to be played. Icol
is a color map editor that works with Bob and Raz. Source and
pre-built binaries for IRIX 4.0.5 are included.
To acquire GVLware, anonymous ftp to:
machine - ftp.arc.umn.edu
file - /pub/gvl.tar.Z
To use GVLware:
mkdir gvl ; cd gvl
zcat gvl.tar.Z | tar xvf -
more README
Some Bob features:
Motif interface, SGI GL rendering
Renders 64 cubed data set in 0.1 to 1.0 seconds on a VGX
Alpha Compositing and Maximum Value rendering, in perspective
(only Maximum Value rendering on Personal Iris)
Data must be a "Brick of Bytes", on a regularly spaced grid
Animation, subvolumes, subsampling, stereo
Some Raz features:
Motif interface, SGI GL rendering
Loads files to a raw disk partition, then streams to screen
(requires an empty disk partition to be set aside)
Script interface available for movie sequences
Can stream from memory, like NCSA XImage
Some Icol features:
Motif interface
Easy to create interpolated color maps between key points
RGB, HSV and YUV color spaces, multiple file formats
Communicates changes automatically to Bob and Raz
Has been tested on SGI, Sun, DEC and Cray systems
BTW: Bob == Brick of Bytes
Icol == Interpolated Color
Raz == ? (just a name)
Please send any comments to
gvlware@ahpcrc.umn.edu
This software collection is supported by the Army Research Office
contract number DAALO3-89-C-0038 with the University of Minnesota Army
High Performance Computing Research Center.
IDL
---
An environment for scientific computing and visualization.
Based on an array oriented language, IDL includes 2D and 3D
graphics, matrix manupulation, signal and image processing,
basic statistics, gridding, mapping, and a widget based system
for building GUI for IDL applications (Open Look, Motif, or
MS-Windows).
Environments: DEC (VMS and Ultrix), HP, IBM RS6000, SGI, Sun,
Microsoft Windows. (Mac version in progress)
Cost: $1500 to $3750, Educational and quantity discounts
available.
See also: comp.lang.idl-pvwave
Contact: Research Systems Inc.
777 29th Street, Suite 302
Boulder, CO 80303
Phone: 303-786-9900
FAX: 303-786-9909
E-mail: info@rsinc.com
Demo available via FTP. Call or E-mail for details.
IAP
---
Imaging Applications Platform is a commercial package for medical and
scientific visualization. It does volume rendering, binary surface
rendering, multiplanar reformating, image manipulation, cine sequencing,
intermixes geometry and text with images and provides measurement and
coordinate transform abilities.
It can provide hardcopy on most medical film printers, image database
functionality and interconnection to most medical (CT/MRI/etc) scanners.
It is client/server based and provides an object oriented interface. It
runs on most high performance workstations and takes full advantage of
parallelism where it is available. It is robust, efficient and
will be submitted for FDA approval for use in medical applications.
Cost: in the $5K range
Available from:
ISG Technologies
6509 Airport Road
Mississauga, Ontario,
Canada, L4V-1S7
(416) 672-2100
Flow ****ysis Software Toolkit (FAST)
-------------------------------------
OVERVIEW
FAST is currently under development by members of the
Numerical Aerodynamics Simulation (NAS) Division at NASA Ames
Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000. It is a
software environment for ****yzing 3D data. FAST consists of a
collection of separate programs (modules) that run
simultaneously and allow the user to examine the results of
numerical simulations by loading data files, performing
calculations on the data, visualizing the results of these
calculations, and constructing scenes of 3D graphical objects
that may be animated and recorded.
The approach used in FAST is to create an environment of
compatable, minimally overlapping modules, each with its own
purpose and functionality, but with the ability to share its
data with the other modules. All of the modules in the FAST
environment have a consistent, easy-to-use, highly interactive
user interface (using the Panel Library developed at Ames).
FAST is flexible and extensible: the environment can be custom
configured and new modules can be developed and added to it.
Note that FAST is not a visual programming environment, it is
a multi-processed visualization and animation tool.
EXISTING MODULES
The following modules are available in this version of FAST:
HUB Central ipc and shared memory manager starts modules.
VIEWER Viewing process for the FAST environment.
FILE IO Loads grid, solution, function.
ARCGRAPH Draws ARCGraph graphics metafiles.
CALCULATOR CFD Calculator computes scalar and vector fields.
SURFER Draws surfaces of a structured grid.
SURFERU Draws surfaces of an unstructured grid.
TRACER Computes partical traces through the structured
or unstructured vector field.
ISOLEV Draws xyz cutting plane and contour surfaces for a
structured grid.
ISOLEVU Draws xyz cutting plane and contour surfaces for a
unstructured grid.
TOPOLOGY Extracts critical points in vector field.
SHOTET Draws selected tetrahedra of an unstructured grid.
PLOTTER Plots xy graphs of scalar functions.
TITLER Text title editor for adding titles to graphics.
AUDIO Produces sound from scalar data.
IMAGER Draws raster files (image format).
HOW TO GET FAST
GENERAL USERS
Contact COSMIC
phone (706) 542-3265
fax (706) 542-4807
email service@cossack.cosmic.uga.edu
COST:
User Guide...................... $72
Source code:
For commercial customers........ $2000
For educational institutions.... $ 200
For FAST commercial Beta sites.. $ 500
For NASA sites.................. $ 0
NASA sites: Place orders through your NASA contract monitor (for a
contractor) or through your local Technology Utilization Office (for
NASA employees). COSMIC does not charge for programs and documentation
used exclusively in support of a NASA project.
FAST and derivative products may not be distributed internationally.*
Institutions receiving FAST at the educational price must agree not to
distribute the program beyond their site. This restriction does not
apply if users pay the commercial price for the code.
You can get information from the NASA via the World Wide Web:
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/FAST/fast.html
NUMERICAL AERODYNAMIC SIMULATION (NAS) SYSTEM USERS
See nasinfo or send email to fast@nas.nasa.gov
FAST USER GROUP
To join the FAST user group and receive tips and important
announcements about FAST, send your email address to:
fast-users-request@nas.nasa.gov
SUPPORT
Email questions, comments and suggestions to: fast@nas.nasa.gov
______________________________________________________________________________
*A waiver may be granted for US institutions or US companies performing work
outside the US on a US Gov't contract. Send written request to NASA HQTRS
(Attn: Ray Rose, Technology Transfer Control, Office of Aeronautics)
from your Gov't Contract Officer Representative and from the Program Manager
or the Technical Monitors of the Gov't project.
PV-WAVE
-------
The PV-WAVE family of products uses powerful visual and numerical ****ysis
techniques to reduce large, complex data sets into easily interpreted visual
plots and displays; for faster more effective decision making.
PV-WAVE (Workstation ****ysis and Visualization Environment) is the industry
leading 4GL for Visual Data ****ysis (VDA). PV-WAVE integrates powerful
plotting and charting, volume visualization, signal and image processing,
advanced numerical and statistical ****ysis, flexible data input and output,
and much more, all in an efficient and integrated software system. PV-WAVE
makes it easy to find key trends and relationships in your data by allowing
you to distill raw data into meaningful information quickly.
Products: PV-WAVE Advantage - PV-WAVE Command Language with additional
commands to access the IMSL C/Math and C/Stat libraries
directly
PV-WAVE Command Language - the basic 4GL for VDA
PV-WAVE Point & Click - PV-WAVE functionality accessed via a
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
Modules: NOTE: All modules are compatible with PV-WAVE Advantage and
PV-WAVE Command Language.
PV-WAVE:GTGRID - gridding capabilities beyond the basic products
PV-WAVE:Maple - ability to interact with a Maple (symbolic
mathematics) session
PV-WAVEatabase Connection - read data directly from Sybase or
Oracle databases
Environments: Sun (SunOS and Solaris), HP700, SGI, IBM RS6000,
DEC (OpenVMS VAX, OpenVMS AXP, OSF/1 AXP and ULTRIX),
Windows NT (Intel, Mips, DEC AlphaPC), Windows v3.1
See also: comp.lang.idl-pvwave
Contact: Visual Numerics, Inc.
6230 Lookout Road
Boulder, CO 80301
(303) 530-9000 (phone)
(303) 530-9329 (FAX)
EnSight
-------
EnSight is in use world-wide by engineers requiring a
full-featured postprocessing system for the visualization of
results from CFD, structural ****ysis, combustion modeling,
injection molding, electromagnetics, and more. EnSight
interfaces with all major commercial ****ysis packages.
EnSight is a distributed postprocessor: a server handles I/O
and compute intensive activities and a client handles all
user-interface interaction and graphic rendering using the
native graphics hardware on the workstation. The tasks can
reside on either the same workstation or two separate
systems.
CEI provides a unique licensing policy for EnSight. Only
the server portion is licensed - customers are free to copy
the client to any compatible platform they own. The needs
of multiple users can therefore be met with a single
license.
Platforms: Server: SGI, HP, DEC Alpha, IBM, Sun, Cray, Convex
Client: SGI, HP, IBM, Sun
Contact:
Tom Palmer
Computational Engineering International, Inc.
P.O. Box 14306
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
(919) 481-4301
(919) 481-4306 (fax)
ensight@ceintl.com -or- palmer@ceintl.com
Detailed information about EnSight and CEI is available
via the World Wide Web:
http://www.ceintl.com
A two-seat, perpetual commercial (academic) license is $9500 ($1140),
including the first year of support and maintenance.
Fully functional copies of EnSight are available for evaluation purposes.
======
Public domain data sets
-----------------------
aerial stereo image pair are available by anonymous ftp:
ftp.tu-graz.ac.at pub/images/
Issue/problems
--------------
How to get more quantitative systems?
Employment:
Job postings (resumes or offerings) are encouraged, BUT please use your
news software appropriately. The best way to post is cross post
comp.graphics.visualization,misc.jobs.offered (or resumes). (No spaces between
newsgroups. Then fill the Followup-To: field with "poster."
Please read the misc.jobs.offered (or resumes) FAQ (posted twice monthly) for
stylistic considerations BEFORE POSTING.
Netiquette
----------
We assume you have read news.announce.newusers and that you understand
network informalities. This group is not moderated, and this is one
experiment in self-moderation (education).
If you have questions, ask you system administrator. If you are the system
administrator, use MAIL, and ask your net neighbors.
Do not post TESTS here. Special testing groups exist to acknowledge your
posts. Test in misc.test, or in your locale: e.g., ba.test, ca.test, na.test,
etc.
Some people believe the charter should be posted. The name of the group
should sufficiently convey the purpose of this group.
Flame wars: 1) Flame using mail. Failing that 2) Cut down on the number
of groups in your Newsgroups: line. 3) Use Followup-To: a line with
fewer newsgroups. Make certain you read all posts before responding, the net
is asynchronous enough as it is: the History of Dumb posts includes such
titles as
"What time is it?" "The Space Shuttle blew up!" and "California just had an
earthquake." See your local broadcast news.
Attribution: (Those lines frequently beginning with ">") MINIMIZE.
Especially: don't post "Me, too" posts after 100 lines of attribution.
Remove especially long sigatures at the bottoms of posts.
Use email. Show that you are intelligent and net savvy in your postings.
Edit carefully.
DO NOT BOTHER TO ASK FOR PROPRIETARY or pre-release of scientific data.
Many organizations and individuals involved in scientific research are
given a lien (90 day, 1 year, several years). This is sometimes akin
to asking for trade secrets. Don't bother.
Posting ads: Rules do not specifically prevent posting advertising so long
as it is done is good taste. The specific prohibitions come from specific
hosts such as those from the original Internet: machines funded by
US Government monies. These machines are not to be used for personal gain
or profit. Specific criminal problems won't be elaborated here for space.
If in doubt, ask someone first.
General graphics references can be found in comp.graphics.
This is the place to ask more general questions like graphics formats.
There, an FAQ will soon exist. An electronic references
server daemon is also under work as well.
Hardware specific questions like IBM PC or SGI or SUN, etc. specific questions
are probably best answered in groups specific oriented to those machines.
Because this group is unmoderated, it is open to posts which call for
pyramid schemes, calls to send postcards to sick children, and other posts.
1) Ignore those.
2) Flame the poster via email.
3) Use the Followup-To: line redirecting out of the group (net.akido)
after one cross-post in the group.
That is the price of free speech as ruled in the United States.
The general feeling is that c.g.v. should be more oriented to that
mystical thing called visualization.
References
==========
Other useful newsgroups
-----------------------
comp.sys.sun
comp.graphics.avs
comp.sys.sgi
comp.infosystems.gis
comp.graphics
sci.image.processing
Books
-----
Convert to refer:
E. Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Cleveland, William: "The Elements of Graphing Data" Wadsworth Advanced
Books and Software.
Tukey, John: "Exploratory Data ****ysis"
Addision Weseley, pub.
"Graphics and Graphic Information Processing" - Translated by William J.
Berg and Paul Scott,
Walter De Gruyter, Publisher.
%A Edward Huff
%T How to Lie with Statistics
%A Mark Monmonier
%T How to Lie with Maps
%I Univ. of Chicago Press
%C Chicago
%D 1991
%X Ch. 2 Elements of the Map
Ch. 3 Map Generalizations: Little White Lies and Lots of Them
Ch. 4 Blunders that Mislead
Ch. 5 Maps that Advertise
Ch. 6 Development Maps (or, How to Seduce the Town Board)
Ch. 7 Maps for Political Propaganda
Ch. 8 Maps, Defense, and Disinformation: Fool Thine Enemy
Ch. 9 Data Maps: Making Nonsense of the Census
Ch. 10: Color: Attraction and Distraction
%A Thomas D. Davies
%Z R. Adm. USN, (ret.)
%T New Evidence Places Peary at the Pole
%J National Geographic
%V 117
%N 1
%D January 1990
%P 44-61
%K photogrammetry, surveying, angles, protractor, trigonometry
%X Full report: $15 to Navigation Foundation, Box 1126, Rockville, MD 20850.
See also the page before the index of this issue entitled, "Sun angle anyone?"
See also the June 1996 issue of Newsweek on Beauty.
Has some photogrammetric ****ysis.
Jacques Bertin's "The Semiology of Graphics" ?
- it's what Tufte should have been (although it predates both books).
@book{Earnshaw:92,
editor = {Earnshaw, R.A. and Wiseman, N.},
title = {An Introductory Guide to Scientific Visualization},
publisher = {Springer-Verlag},
year = 1992,
month = {September},
note = {ISBN 3-540-54664-2, ISBN 0-387-54664-2}
note = {Out of print and may never reprint. --steve}
}
@book{Brodlie:92,
editor = {Brodlie, K.W. and Carpenter, L.A. and
Earnshaw, R.A. and Gallop, J.R. and
Hubbold, R.J. and Mumford, A.M. and
Osland, C.D. and Quarendon, P.},
title = {Scientific Visualization ---
Techniques and Applications},
publisher = {Springer-Verlag},
year = 1992,
month = {January},
note = {ISBN 3-540-54565-4, ISBN 0-387-54565-4}
}
Better than average papers
@INPROCEEDINGS{Insel90a,
AUTHOR = "Alfred Inselberg and Bernard Dimsdale",
TITLE = "Parallel Coordinates: A Tool for Visualizing
Multi-dimensional Geometry",
BOOKTITLE = "Proceedings of the First IEEE Conference on
Visualization, San Francisco, 23-26 October 1990",
EDITOR = "Arie Kaufman",
PUBLISHER = "IEEE Computer Society Press",
PAGES = "361-377",
YEAR = 1990}
Papers not checked for quality but suggested
--------------------------------------------
@ARTICLE{Dick91a,
AUTHOR = "Robert R. Dickinson",
Title = "Interactive ****ysis of the Topology of 4d Vector Fields",
JOURNAL = "IBM Journal of Research and Development",
MONTH = Jan,
VOLUME = 35,
NUMBER = 1,
PAGES = "59-66",
YEAR = 1991
ANNOTE = "tracing
curves through the direction fields of the major and minor
eigenvectors of 2nd order tensor fields. His application was also
stress and strain, and the method appeared quite effective."
}
@INPROCEEDINGS{Delm92,
AUTHOR = "Thierry Delmarcelle and Lambertus Hesselink",
TITLE = "Visualization of Second Order Tensor Fields and Matrix Data",
BOOKTITLE = "Visualization'92",
ORGANIZATION = "IEEE Computer Society",
YEAR = 1992,
MONTH = Oct,
PAGES = "316--323"
}
Nicolas Capaldi, "The art of deception", Prometheus Books, 1987
Journals
--------
IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications
ACM Transactions on Graphics
The Journal of Visualization and Computer Animation
published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, ISSN 1049-8907
Scientific Programming: A Wiley-Interscience Publication
Subscription:
In the US:
Scientific Programming: A Wiley-Interscience Publication
John Wiley and Sons
Periodicals Division
P.O. Box 7247-8491
Philadelphia, PA 19170-8491
Outside the US:
Scientific Programming: A Wiley-Interscience Publication
John Wiley and Sons
Journals Administration Dept.
Baffins Lane, Chichester
Sussex PO19 1UD
England
Magazines
---------
Pixel
Conferences & workshops (see also the proceedings from years passed):
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Visualization '9x - Annual visualization conference
SIGGRAPH - Annual ACM graphics conference
Eurographics '9x - Annual European graphics conference of the
Eurographics association
"less than annual" Conferences
------------------------------
Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics
Volume Visualization Workshop
Usenix Graphics Workshop
Contributions
=============
Mail it to me (amelia). I prefer concise text which can just be concatenated
into this file. No long winded speeches please. I'm just a computer.
"Take me I'm yours....."
======TAG LINE=====
From: Nick (Nikolaos) C Fotis <nfotis@theseas.ntua.gr>
Hello, here's the latest version of my SciVi and Mol. Vis. stuff
(minus + and # signs). Basically, I got your latest updates and I
incorporated them here:
17. Scientific visualization stuff
----------------------------------
a. NCSA Data Slice (xds): Bundled with the X11 distribution from MIT,
in the contrib directory. Available at ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu [141.142.20.50]
(either as a source or binaries for various platforms).
This site has *lot* of Visualization tools. You're advised to look at it.
b. Khoros 2: available via anonymous ftp at ftp.khoral.com
Khoros is a complete data exploration and software development environment
that reduces your time in solving complex problems, allows free sharing of
ideas and information, and promotes portability. Khoros 2 contains
programming services and software development tools that support all
aspects of developing new X Window applications. For those who need end
user solutions to scientific problems, Khoros 2 may be used as it stands,
providing a rich set of programs for information processing, data
exploration, and data visualization. All information processing and
visualization programs in Khoros 2 are available via the visual
programming language. The visual programming language is a graphically
expressed, event driven visual language which provides a visual
programming environment within the Khoros 2 system.
See comp.soft-sys.khoros on Usenet for more info, or
http://www.khoral.com/
c. MacPhase : ****ysis & Visualization Application for the Macintosh.
Operates on 1D and 2D data arrays. Import/Export several different file
formats. Several different plotting options such as gray scale,
color raster, 3D Wire frame, 3D surface, contour, vector, line, and
combinations. FFTs, filtering, and other math functions, color look up
editor, array calculator, etc. Shareware, available via anonymous ftp from
sumex-aim.stanford.edu in the info-mac/app directory.
For other information contact Doug Norton (e-mail: 74017.461@@compuserve.com)
d. IRIS Explorer is an application creation system developed by Silicon
Graphics that provides visualisation and ****ysis functionality for
computational scientists, engineers and other scientists. The Explorer
GUI allows users to build custom applications without having to write
any, or a minimal amount of, traditonal code. Also, existing code can
be easily integrated into the Explorer environment. Explorer currently
is available on SGI and Cray machines, but will become available on
other platforms in time. [ Bundled with every new SGI machine, as far as
I know]
See comp.graphics.explorer for discussion of the package.
e. apE. Back in the 'old good days', you could get apE for nearly free.
Now has gone commercial and the following vendor supplies it:
TaraVisual Corporation
929 Harrison Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43215
Tel: 1-800-458-8731 and (614) 291-2912
Fax: (614) 291-2867
Cost:
$895 (plus tax); runtime version with a site-license for a single user
(at a time), no limit on the number of machines in a cluster.
$895 includes support/maintenance and upgrades.
Source code more. Additional user licenses $360.
The name of the package has become apE III (TM).
Khoros is very similar to apE in philosophy, as are AVS and Explorer.
f. AVS
See also:
comp.graphics.avs
Platforms: CONVEX, CRAY, DEC, Evans & Sutherland, HP, IBM, Kubota,
Set Technologies, SGI, Stardent, SUN, Wavetracer
Availability: AVS3 available on all the above:
AVS4 currently available on SGI, SUN
AVS4 will be available on: HP, IBM, Kubota, SGI, Stardent, SUN
6/1/92
Contact:
Advanced Visual Systems Inc. for: CRAY, HP, IBM, SGI,
Stardent, SUN
CONVEX for CONVEX
Advanced Visual Systems Inc. or CRAY for CRAY
DEC for DEC
Evans & Sutherland for Evans & Sutherland
Advanced Visual Systems Inc. or IBM for IBM
Kubota Pacfic Inc. for Kubota
Set Technologies for Set Technologies
Wavetracer for Wavetracer
i. Wavefront products.
j. PLOT3D and FAST from NASA Ames. These packages are distributed from
COSMIC at least (for FAST ask Pat Elson <pelson@nas.nasa.gov> for
distribution information). In general, these codes are for US
citizens only :-(
k. XGRAPH : On the contrib tape of X11R5. It specialty is display of up
to 64 data sets (2D).
==========================================================================
18. Molecular visualization stuff
---------------------------------
[ Based on a list from cristy@dupont.com < Cristy > , which asked for
systems for displaying Molecular Dynamics, MD for short ]
# this address is possibly bad.
a. Flex is a public domain package written by Michael Pique, at The Scripps
Research Institute, La Jolla, CA. Flex is stored as a compressed,
tar'ed archive (about 3.4MB) at perutz.scripps.edu [137.131.152.27], in
pub/flex. It displays molecular models and MD trajectories.
b. MacMolecule (for Macintosh). I searched with Archie, and the most
promising place is sumex-aim.stanford.edu (info-mac/app, and
info-mac/art/qt for a demo)
c. If you are running on an SGI, try MD-DISPLAY, from Terry
Lybrand (lybrand@milton.u.washington.edu).
# this address is possibly bad.
d. Duncan McRee <dem@scripps.edu> has something called XtalView. It is a
crystallography package that does visualize molecules and much more.
It uses the XView toolkit.
e. landman@hal.physics.wayne.edu:
I am writing my own visualization code right now. I look at MD output
(a specific format, easy to alter for the subroutine) on PC's. My
program has hooks into GKS. If your friend has access to Phigs for X
(PEX) and fortran bindings, I would be happy to share my evolving code
(free of charge). Right now it can display supercells of up to 65
atoms (easy to change), and up to 100 time steps, drawing nearest
neighbor bonds between 2 defining nn radii. It works acceptably fast
on a 10Mhz 286.
f. icsg0001@caesar.cs.montana.edu:
I did a project on Molecular Visualization for my Master's Thesis, using
UNIX/X11/Motif which generates a simple point and space-filling model.
g. KGNGRAF by IBM.
h. ditolla@itnsg1.cineca.it:
I'm working on molecular dynamic too. A friend of mine and I have
developed a program to display an MD run dynamically on Silicon
Graphics. We are working to improve it, but it doesn't work under X,
we are using the graphi. lib. of the Silicon Gr. because they are much
faster then X. When we'll end it we'll post on the news info about
where to get it with ftp. (Will be free software).
+i. XBall V3.0: written by David Nedde [daven@maxine.wpi.edu].
+ XBall has been placed on export.lcs.mit.edu (18.24.0.12) as
+ xball3.0.tar.Z for anonymous FTP, and has been posted on
+ comp.sources.x as Volume 20, issues 1-5.
j. XMol: an X Window System program that uses OSF/Motif for the
display and ****ysis of molecular model data. Data from several
common file formats can be read and written; current formats include:
Alchemy, CHEMLAB-II, Gaussian, MOLSIM, MOPAC, PDB, and MSCI's XYZ
format (which has been designed for simplicity in translating to
and from other formats). XMol also allows for conversion between
several of these formats.
Xmol is available as ftp.msc.eduub/xmol/xmol.tar
k. INSIGHT II from BIOSYM Technologies Inc.
l. SCARECROW. The program has been published in J. Molecular Graphics 10
(1992) 33. The program can ****yze and display CHARMM, DISCOVER, YASP
and MUMOD trajectories. The program package contains also software for
the generation of probe surfaces, proton affinity
surfaces and molecular orbitals from an extended Huckel program.
It works on Silicon Graphics machines.
Contact Leif Laaksonen <Leif.Laaksonen@csc.fi or laaksone@csc.fi>
MacInPlot
Features: stereo, ribbon diagrams, imports PDB, exports MacMolecule
rhino.bocklabs.wisc.edu by anonymous ftp.
(I think the pub/MAC-IN-PLOT dir)
Stephan Spencer
sspencer@rhino.bocklabs.wisc.edu
University of Wisconsin
Institute for Molecular Virology
[ I would also suggest looking at least in SGI's Applications Directory.
It contains many more packages - nfotis ]
==========================================================================
Article 9 of comp.graphics.explorer:
From: tohanson@gonzo.lerc.nasa.gov (Jeff Hanson)
Subject: FAQ for Explorer, slightly dated
Here is the currect FAQ for Explorer. Note that it is slightly dated
since it does not reflect the existance of this news group. I'm sure
Gordon will soon generate a new FAQ and post it here.
oOo Explorer Frequently Asked Question List oOo
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Version 0.2
Last Altered 12th April 1992 - G.C.
!!!!! Please Redistribute this Article !!!!!!
+ Introduction +
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This document contains answers to some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
asked of the Explorer Modular Visualisation Environment (MVE).
The latest update of this can always be obtained by FTP from :
UK Site : ftp.epcc.ed.ac.uk (129.215.56.29)
( US Mirror : swedishchef.lerc.nasa.gov (139.88.54.33) )
If you wish to be part of the Explorer mailing list, comment on this
FAQ, add/alter/CORRECT any questions, or have any suggestions, please
email:
explorer-request@castle.ed.ac.uk, or
gordonc@epcc.ed.ac.uk
Where relevant and possible, the sources of information are listed after
the answers - many of the questions stem from those on the mailing
list. Direct quotes are indented.
N.B. The compilers of this FAQ are independent of SGI (developers of
Explorer) - this also means that any inaccuracies are most probably our
own faults ! Thanks to the XUG and the X FAQ for ideas.
- Gordon Cameron (Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre)
gordonc@epcc.ed.ac.uk
- Chris Thornborrow, Matthew White (EPCC)
Key :
~~~~~
+ : New since last update
* : Changed since last update
@ : Bug question (+ fix)
+ Topics +
~~~~~~~~~~
A) TOPIC: GENERAL INFORMATION
A.1) What is Explorer ?
A.2) What platforms will Explorer run on/what are the requirements ?
A.3) How can I get Explorer ?
A.4) Modules, Maps & Ports - What are they ?
A.5) What is the Map Editor/Librarian ?
A.6) What Data Formats can Explorer handle ?
A.7) What is the Data Scribe ?
A.8) What is the Module Builder ?
A.9) What are the MCW and MDW ?
A.10) What is an MVE ?
A.11) What other MVEs are there ?
A.12) Is there any overlap between ImageVision and Explorer ?
-
B) TOPIC: RUNNING EXPLORER
B.1) Why does Explorer crash immediately ? +
B.2) Can I run Explorer on one machine and display on another ?
B.3) Can I run modules on different machines ?
B.4) How can I start Explorer with a prefined map ?
B.5) Can I run Explorer in batch mode (i.e. without the GUI) ?
B.6) Will Explorer work with very large data sets ?
B.7) When does a module fire ?
B.8) Why does Explorer run slowly on my system ?
B.9) How can I customize the look of Explorer ?
-
C) TOPIC: USING EXPLORER with the MAP EDITOR
C.1) Why does Explorer ignore all my input ? @
C.2) Why can't I start a GenerateColormap module ?
C.3) How can I stretch the librarian scrolling list ?
C.4) How can I slice into an iso-surface ?
C.5) How can I render translucent solids ?
C.6) Why can I not get LatFunction to work ? +@
-
D) TOPIC: USING THE DATASCRIBE
D.1) Why does the help file not reflect the actual widget ? @
-
E) TOPIC: USING THE MODULE BUILDER
-
F) TOPIC: PROGRAMMING MODULES
F.1) How can I wake Explorer on events ?
F.2) What has happened to the routine cxInputPortStateGet ? @
-
G) TOPIC: MODULES AVAILABLE/WANTED
G.1) Where can I get PD modules ? +
-
H) TOPIC: FURTHER INFORMATION
H.1) Where can I obtain documentation (e.g. Module Writers' Guide) ? *
H.2) Is there a mailing list/FTP site ? *
H.3) Is there a relevant newsgroup ?
H.4) Why are the electronic PostScript files incomplete ? *
-
I) TOPIC: MISCELLANEOUS
I.1) How can I add/correct or comment on Q&As on the FAQ ?
I.2) Where can I find a list of bugs ? +
-
+ Full Q&As +
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
======================================================================
A) TOPIC: GENERAL INFORMATION
======================================================================
A.1) What is Explorer ?
IRIS Explorer is an application creation system and user
environment that provides visualisation and ****ysis
functionality for computational scientists, engineers, and
other investigators. It is especially useful for those whose
needs are not met by commercial software packages. Also, IRIS
Explorer's Graphical User Interface (GUI) allows users to build
custom applications without having to write a single line of
code.
[from IRIS EXPLORER - Technical Report(SGI)]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A.2) What platforms will Explorer run on/what are the requirements ?
Explorer is included at no cost with each Silicon Graphics
workstation. Explorer can be ordered for existing workstations at a
nominal media charge. It is also available from Cray Research for Cray
Research computers, and it is hinted that the package will be ported
soon(#:-} to other platforms.
On SGI platforms, requirements are that the machine have a 24 bit plane
(or virtual 24 bit plane) frame buffer i.e. All except Personal Irises
with 8 bit planes. In addition, 16MB is the minimum memory requirement,
although 24 megs is recommended, especially when the data sets to be
visualised are particularly large.
In particular, you must be running version 4.0.1 of the OS, or higher.
[Leo Blume(SGI) and Release Notes for Explorer]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A.3) How can I get Explorer ?
Contact your local SGI supplier for details of what Explorer is available
on, and how to obtain it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A.4) Modules, Maps & Ports - What are they ?
A MODULE is a single software tool for performing a particular task.
Explorer is shipped along with a wide range of modules to perform tasks
such as data input, rendering, image processing and manipulation. Each
module has associated input and output PORTS which control the flow of
data in and out of the module.
Modules are connected together to form pipelines which perform specific
higher level tasks. The collection of such modules and the links between
them are referred to as Explorer MAPS. The function of the map is implicitly
defined by the functions of the modules and their interconnectivity.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A.5) What is the Map Editor/Librarian ?
The Map Editor and Librarian are the two main windows that are used
when you use Explorer.
The MAP EDITOR is a graphical tool for assembling the maps by picking
modules and joining them together in an intuitive manner. The editor
will only allow the connection of input/output port pairs of the same
data type, so Explorer is a `strongly typed system'. The map editor is
effectively the interactive prototyping environment of Explorer.
The LIBRARIAN is the tool which allows you to browse through existing
modules and maps, to choose those which you wish to use with the map
editor.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A.6) What Data Formats can Explorer handle ?
Explorer works on 5 main types of data :
Parameter : Scalar values such as integers and doubles.
Lattice : A Generalized multi-dimensional array.
Pyramid : Combines lattices with connectivity information in
a hierarchical structure.
Geometry: A general, hierarchical, geometric description.
Unknown : An uninterpreted stream of bytes
The first four types will be consistent between modules perhaps
executing on different machine architectures, whereas the last unknown
type does not have this feature (unless the user adds XDR-like data
conversion him/herself).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A.7) What is the Data Scribe ?
The DataScribe is a graphical utility to allow the user to build
templates which can convert data between formats - this is typically
used to convert a customized user data file into a lattice(say) and
vice versa.
These data conversion templates, when completed, constitute modules in
Explorer which can be used in the same fashion as any other module.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A.8) What is the Module Builder ?
The Module Builder is a graphical utility to aid in the creation of
Explorer modules, by helping you define which data types the module has
on its input and output ports, which widgets correspond to which
parameters, and how the module will look when placed in the Map
Editor.
The Module Builder can also automatically generate one of the extra
layers of wrapping around the core function, namely the Module Data
Wrapper (MDW).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A.9) What are the MCW and MDW ?
The innermost layer of an Explorer module is the computational
algorithm which provides the base functionality. This is surrounded
first by the Module Data Wrapper (MDW) - which can be generated
automatically by the Module Builder - and this performs the conversion
of data from Explorer format at ports to the algorithm's internal
format, and vice versa.
The outermost layer is the Module Control Wrapper (MCW) which is the layer
responsible for communicating the module's input and output (Explorer)
data with other modules, and maintaining data consistency (a la XDR).
This layer also handles comms with the local controller and the firing
mechanism.
The MCW is necessary whereas the MDW may be bypassed by the programmer
if desired, allowing direct access to data at the ports.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A.10) What is an MVE ?
A Modular Visualisation Environment (MVE) is a package for data
visualisation consisting of a user interface allowing linking of
modules in a pipeline. Explorer is an example of an MVE.
[ Chris Thornborrow, EPCC ]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A.11) What other MVEs are there ?
Other MVEs include :
AVS - now marketed by AVS (see comp.graphics.avs)
apE - originally developed by Ohio Supercomputer Centre
Khoros - developed by Khoral Research, Inc.
(see http://www.khoral.com/)
It would probably be more correct to define Khoros as a MAB (Module
Application Builder) , as it is not aimed solely at visualisation.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A.12) Is there any overlap between ImageVision and Explorer
ImageVision is an object oriented image processing library that
currently has about 70 image processing functions. The architecture of
ImageVision is designed to handle virtually any size and data typed
image. The ImageVision library runs on all SGI machines and on a Cray.
The image processing modules of Explorer were developed using ImageVision,
and these modules in Explorer map directly to single ImageVision objects.
[Nancy Cam - SGI]
======================================================================
B) TOPIC: RUNNING EXPLORER
======================================================================
B.1) Why does Explorer crash immediately ?
The main reasons that Explorer will crash on startup (on an SGI machine)
are :
a) Wrong OS
b) Incorrect installation
a) Explorer on an SGI requires IRIX v4.0.1 or later.
b)
If you use the "-r" option on "inst" when installing Explorer,
the X11 resource default files do not get installed correctly.
Similarly, if you NFS mount /usr/explorer from a file server,
these default resource files are not installed on your
machine. If you must install Explorer somewhere other than
/usr/explorer, first create /usr/explorer as a symbolic link to
a directory somewhere else, then install Explorer. If you have
installed Explorer with "inst -r" or if you NFS mount it from
another machine, you can set up the necessary symbolic links
for the X11 app-default files and the shared libraries by using
the command (as root):
inst -f /usr/explorer/lib/inst/explorer
This will establish symbolic links in /usr/lib for those files
that must be present on every machine that runs Explorer. This
is explained in section 2.3.1 of the Release Notes. (from SGI)
[SGI]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
B.2) Can I run Explorer on one machine and display on another ?
Explorer itself can run on one machine and display on ANY other machine
running an X server. However, the modules Render and DisplayImg will
only display/function on machines with GL hardware.
The Module Builder and Datascribe can run and display on any X terminal.
Since Explorer/Module Builder/DataScribe are X Motif applications, to
get these to run externally and display on your local workstation
running an X server, set your display variable on the external machine
before executing the program in the usual fashion. e.g.
a) On Local Machine :
xhost +<remote_machine_name>
b) On Remote Machine :
setenv DISPLAY <local_machine_name>:0.0
explorer
----------------------------------------------------------------------
B.2) Can I run modules on different machines ?
Modules within an Explorer map can execute on different machines,
provided that those machines have the execution environment of Explorer
ported to them. For example, in a network of 5 SGI w/stations, each of
the 5 modules of an Explorer map can be running on a different
workstation. This is achieved by pulling up a librarian for each of
the machines on which you wish to execute modules. The librarian for
these machines will show which modules are available, and these can be
placed in a map in the same manner in which local modules are placed.
Everything will `look' the same, except that the remote modules will
fire and execute on the remote machines - this could be referred to as
a form of coarse grain parallelism.
At present, the execution environment is ported to SGI and Cray platforms,
so modules can only execute on these machine types.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
B.3) How can I start Explorer with a prefined map ?
To run explorer with a predefined map, type :
explorer -map <mapname>
,and the map will appear in the Map Editor when it starts up.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
B.4) Can I run Explorer in batch mode (i.e. without the GUI) ?
Version 1.0 does not have a non-GUI capability. There are
designs being kicked around, but we believe that a totally
non-GUI solution is not the full answer, since the "answer"
produced by an Explorer map may in fact be an image that you
want to view. On the other hand, some Explorer maps may only
filter data, produce geometry into a file and not incorporate
viewing at all. This "batch mode" would be useful for very
long animation runs, for example.
Khoros also lets single modules run "standalone". We don't
see this as a requirement for Explorer, except that it could
make module debugging simpler -- one of our short-term goals.
Being able to debug a module without all of Explorer hanging
around would be really nice, especially as debugging tools take
more and more resources from the machine.
[ Bob Brown - SGI ]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
B.5) Will Explorer work with very large data sets ?
The easiest option if you have very large modules is to purchase more
memory, but this only extends so far.
Large data sets:
This is a general weakness of data flow systems. We have a few
ideas for helping out, but it becomes very complicated when you
want to preserve a conceptually simple programming model. Can
we offer an alternative execution model (that is, how things
really compute and share data) yet maintain a simple
programming model (that is, how the user states what is
wanted).
[ Bob Brown - SGI ]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
B.6) When does a module fire ?
Module inputs can be optional or required, and if the former then the module
can happily fire without any input on that port. If the port is required,
then a module won't fire until it has data on that port.
When new data arrives at a required port, then the module fires.
Question:
We reckon that it would be `nice to have' a template matching
type operation at the input of each module, so that intelligent
decisions can be made as to WHEN to fire a module. e.g. don't
fire a module when ANY of its inputs change, but be able to
choose how a module will fire and how many of its inputs are
REQUIRED before a successful fire - this sort of thing would be
useful in animations involving multiple file reads.
[ Gordon Cameron - EPCC ]
The reply :
We spent a lot of effort on this in the design phases, and came
up with an overly powerful scheme that would be practically
unusable, so it did not appear in V1.0. The degree of
flexibility that can be offered seems too great, particularly
when youconsider the possibility of being able to
programmatically add and delete ports.
Of course, using cxInputDataChanged judiciously will let you
essentially write your own inner firing rules. However, this
may break future versions of the firing algorithm. Also, if
you have a non-MDW module and never issue a cxInputDataGet call
on a port with new data, cxInputDataChanged will always report
that there is new data on the port. You must use
cxInputDataGet to change the port data state from "new" to
"old".
[ Bob Brown - SGI ]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
B.7) Why does Explorer run slowly on my system ?
[ Jack Gallant - Caltech ]
The overhead of X windows and Motif is not insignificant. Two
factors can really slow down Explorer: insufficient memory and
NFS mounting /usr/explorer. The first one we can help out
with, but the second one is out of our hands for the most part
(having local copies of the shared libraries can help,
though).
[ Bob Brown - SGI ]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
B.8) How can I customize the look of Explorer ?
Explorer, and the Data Scribe and Module Builder are all X/Motif
applications, and have several resources which can be altered so that the
tools' appearance can be customised. Look at the explorer directory
[/usr/explorer]/lib/X11/app-defaults to see what's what. (The directory
enclosed in square brackets is the home of Explorer on your system).
======================================================================
C) TOPIC: USING EXPLORER with the MAP EDITOR
======================================================================
C.1) Why does Explorer ignore all my input ?
A possibility is that you have closed the main Explorer window, and an
error has been generated - if you have closed the small gui window,
then the error diagnostic will not appear on the screen, and the entire
interface will appear to hang. However, opening the gui window again
will rectify matters.
[ Leo Blume - SGI ]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
C.2) Why can't I start a GenerateColormap module ?
If you have applications running that have allocated colormap cells, then
the number of cells available to GenerateColormap is reduced, so that only
one (or perhaps no) GenerateColormap will be able to execute.
One way round this is to reconfigure the X server, and this is
described in Appendix B of the User Guide (also supplied electronically
with the release) - what you end up doing is in effect choosing a
different visual.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
C.3) How can I stretch the librarian scrolling list ?
You can't #:-} , at least not in Explorer 1.0
[ Roy Hashimoto - SGI ]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
C.4) How can I slice into an iso-surface ?
Full Question :
I've tried orthoslice, it will move the slice plane into the
data but the full iso-surface is still there, the outside is
not cut away.
[ Gus Williams ]
Answers:
The slices generated by Orthoslice won't cut away the
isosurface. Orthoslice and IsosurfaceLat generate completely
independent geometry that is composited in the renderer. It
might be nice, though, to have this capability in the future.
For the present, you can use SampleCrop to do that or just
adjust the transparency on the isosurface so that you can see
through it to the cutting plane.
[ Leo Blume - SGI ]
...you can use CropLattice to crop the
lattice before taking the isosurfaces. I'm not sure how it
could be done any other way with the standard module set.
[ Robert Skinner - SGI ]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
C.5) How can I render translucent solids ?
You can pass your data through the module VolumetoGeom and then on to
the Render module. VolumetoGeom makes use of a technique known as
"splatting" to visualise volumes like this - a good reference is :
Hierarchical Splatting: A Progressive Refinement Algorithm for
Volume Rendering by David Laur and Pat Hanrahan.
...and this paper appeared at SIGGRAPH '91.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
C.6) Why can I not get LatFunction to work ?
Explorer has a known bug in LatFunction...The following is a long
answer, and will be condensed in time.
Problem a) - Why can I never get LatFunction to work?
The problem is that if LatFunction's "Program File" typein does
not refer to an existing file, then the module's interpreter
gets confused and will never work correctly on any program file
thereafter. Unfortunately, the empty string (the default when
LatFunction is brought up from the librarian) is such an
invalid name and will confuse the module.
Thus, the symptom you will see is that the user instantiates a
LatFunction module, types in a file name, and gets errors. e.g.
float f[2,3,];
Second_Out := First_In;
yields the error message :
[Unbound symbol: First_In]
This identifies problem a) - when you instantiate LatFunction,
it tries to read file "" and fails.
Solution a)
All you have to do is instantiate a LatFunction module
with the Program File name in place. You can do this by
duplicating the brain-dead LatFunction -- the new
LatFunction<2> will work as expected (delete the old module
after duplicating a new one). You can also save the
LatFunction module with typed-in name in a map and load that
map.
Also, LatFunction-based modules (see the MWG, chapter 4) are
less prone to this problem for two reasons. This makes them
easier to work with than plain LatFunction. The first reason is
that LatFunction-based modules typically have a filename
specified, so these will work even when dragged from the
librarian. The second :reason is that they typically have
required port data, so they will not fire when instantiated,
thus giving you time to type the right filename.
==========================================================
Problem b) - Why does LatFunction give me the "[Unbound
symbol:...]" error message and refuse to work ?
This is the same as problem a). The "[Unbound symbol: ...]"
message is LatFunction's way of saying that it is confused.
Solution b)
As solution for Problem a).
==========================================================
Problem c) - Why does LatFunction sometimes give an error
"[Unbound symbol:...]" on some line after I edit my
file, but then not give the error the next time I read
in the file?
This is related to problems 1 and 2. In this case the parsed program
is referenced incorrectly and the interpreter exhibits the same type
of confusion as before. However, this error is recoverable by
reparsing the Shape program file (type <CR> in the "Program File"
typein).
Solution c)
Reparse the Shape program file (type <CR> in the "Program File"
typein).
[SGI]
======================================================================
D) TOPIC: USING THE DATASCRIBE
======================================================================
D.1) Why does the help file not reflect the actual widget ?
In some cases, the DataScribe can get confused with consistency between
..doc and .help files, but there is a workaround. The following Q&A from
the list illustrates a specific example.
Original Question :
I created a module using the data scribe which had a file
browser widget. When I edited the .help file produced the
following lines were present ..
pbmascii -- Text
<Describe the purpose of the widget here>
Note that the widget is described as text, not file browser. Is
this deliberate - I can see how it would be as the file browser
widget is really an elaborate text widget ?
[ Chris Thornborrow - EPCC ]
Solution :
This looks like a bug. dot-help files are derived from dot-doc
files. When you do a "Save" from the datascribe, it appears to
not rewrite the doc file (even if you changed a widget type,
say, from Text to File Browser) but it does regenerate the help
file from the doc file.
I tried your example and that is what happened. My guess is
that you had previously saved when "pbmascii" was really a Text
widget, then you changed it to a browser and saved again.
Remove your dot-doc file and do a Save again from datascribe.
That should fix things up. Or, if you've already edited the
doc file, bring up the module builder on your module and select
"Update Document" under the "Build" menu.
[ Bob Brown - SGI ]
======================================================================
E) TOPIC: USING THE MODULE BUILDER
======================================================================
======================================================================
F) TOPIC: PROGRAMMING MODULES
======================================================================
E.1) How can I wake Explorer on events ?
I would like wake-up Explorer on the following event:
one descriptor is ready for reading/writing
[ F. Lapique ]
This has to be done using X directly. The following details how :
In Version 1.0 Explorer the only way to do this is through X
windows. Make your module an X module (in the Build
Options... window in the module builder) and then you can use
the XtAddInput mechanism to register a callback procedure with
the scheduler. The Xt manual describes how to use XtAddInput;
it is relatively simple and straightforward. We don't have
code examples, but if you have trouble, let me know and I'll
write one up. Another user has reported success at doing
this.
Be aware that execution highlighting will not occur when your
callback is called. This is because the module isn't "really"
firing. In fact, you should not call cxOutputDataSet() or
cxOutputDataFlush() from the callback. Instead, if you want to
send data downstream, use cxFireASAP() from the XtAddInput()
callback to schedule the firing of your computation routine,
and maintain some state that lets that routine know what's
what.
The next version generalizes this mechanism by adding a
cxAddInput routine that works the same way, but doesn't
(necessarily) use X windows. (We haven't announced a release
schedule for the next version).
[ Bob Brown - SGI ]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E.2) What has happened to the routine cxInputPortStateGet ?
There is no such routine, and it shouldn't appear in the documentation.
To emulate the stated effect, do :
cxInputConnectsGet() // To tell if port is connected
cxInputDataGet() // returns 0 for no data
cxInputDataChanged() // to find if data there is new or old
[ Dave Foulser - SGI ]
======================================================================
G) TOPIC: MODULES AVAILABLE/WANTED
======================================================================
G.1) Where can I get PD modules ?
There are a few modules available by anon. FTP, including one
to enable/disable geometry information. Many more modules should
appear very soon.
See the FAQ header for FTP addresses etc...
======================================================================
H) TOPIC: FURTHER INFORMATION
======================================================================
H.1) Where can I obtain documentation ?
Compressed electronic copies of Postscript documents are supplied with
the release of Explorer. Only certain chapters and an Appendix appear
in the directory [/usr/explorer]/doc/userguide, though. You can obtain
the complete User Guide, Module Writer's Guide and Module Definitions
guide by getting in touch with SGI, who can supply bound copies.
The electronic source for the Module Writer's guide is now
available by anon. FTP !! (see header for addresses)
The contact number I have for info on SGI is (415) 960-1980.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
H.2) Is there a mailing list/FTP site ?
At present there is an Explorer mailing list for discussion on all aspects
of the package. The list was started in March of '92, and has around 250
subscribers (not including feeds) - several of the developers of Explorer
are subscribed, so the list provides a good forum for discussion which may
change the shape of future versions.
To join the list, or to get further details, send some mail to :
explorer-request@castle.ed.ac.uk
There is also an FTP site which contains archives of postings to the
explorer mailing list, as well as many other things including a User
List and an up to date FAQ(this!), and it is hoped that this site will
develop into a store for PD modules in time. There are a few modules
here just now, but many more are expected soon.
The site can be contacted as :
ftp.epcc.ed.ac.uk (129.215.56.29)
, and supports anonymous FTP. The explorer directory is /pub/explorer.
In addition, Jeff Hanson has kindly mirrored this site in the US as :
swedishchef.lerc.nasa.gov (139.88.54.33))
----------------------------------------------------------------------
H.3) Is there a relevant newsgroup ?
At present (31st March 1992) there is no newsgroup specifically for
the discussion of Explorer-related issues, although this may well
change in the near future.
However, the groups comp.sys.sgi and comp.graphics.visualization are
certainly useful, and often relevant #:-}
----------------------------------------------------------------------
H.4) Why are the electronic PostScript files incomplete ?
The SGI Explorer is supplied with a directory /doc, which contains
the userguide in PostScript form. This is missing Chapter 1 and the
first Appendix. The explanation SGI give is as follows :
Chapter 1 is the "Getting Started" guide that comes with the
Explorer CD or tape. The missing appendix contains the module
manual pages, which are accessible via the Unix "man" command.
The release notes are on-line and can be viewed by using the
"grelnotes" command.
The Module Writer's Guide is not in the software distribution
in this release because of differing production schedules for
the software and documentation. It may be included in future
releases. (from SGI)
The Module Writers' Guide is now available by FTP in electronic
version.
======================================================================
I) TOPIC: MISCELLANEOUS
======================================================================
I.1) How can I add/correct or comment on Q&As on the FAQ ?
Mail explorer-request@castle.ed.ac.uk . Simple !
I.2) Where can I find a list of bugs ?
A few bugs are listed in this FAQ. Others can be found by looking
at the file in the /pub/explorer/bugs directory at the FTP site.
Article 1990 of comp.graphics.visualization:
From: software@riemann.geom.umn.edu (Geometry Center Software Development Group)
Subject: Geomview is available --- 3D object viewer
The Geometry Center announces release 1.1 of geomview, a program for
looking at and interactively manipulating 3D objects. The current
version runs on Silicon Graphics IRIS workstations. It is available
via anonymous ftp at geom.umn.edu (128.101.25.31) in the "pub/geomview"
subdirectory. "geomview-bin.tar.Z" contains pre-compiled binaries,
documentation, and data and takes up 3 MB of disk space. The source
distribution is "geomview.tar.Z" and takes up 21 MB of disk space. To
unpack, type "uncompress < [geomview|geomview-bin].tar.Z | tar xvopf -".
Please send all correspondence regarding this software via email to
"software@geom.umn.edu".
Geomview represents the current state of an ongoing effort at the
Geometry Center to provide interactive 3D graphics software which is
particularly appropriate for displaying the kinds of objects and doing
the kinds of operations of interest in mathematics research and
education. While geomview was developed as a tool for research
mathematicians, it is a general-purpose graphics system which could be
useful in many domains. It can be used to examine a static object or
as a dynamic display for a running program. An extensive command
language allows programmers to easily extend the functionality of the
basic viewer by writing external modules. Currently hyperbolic
visualization capabilities are built-in, while four-dimensional
visualization is handled through external modules.
Geomview allows multiple independently controllable objects and
cameras. Interactive control for motion, appearances (including
lighting, shading, and materials), picking on an object, edge or
vertex level, and adding or deleting objects is provided through
direct mouse manipulation, control panels, and keyboard shortcuts.
External programs can drive desired aspects of the viewer (such as
continually loading changing geometry or controlling the motion of
certain objects) while allowing interactive control of everything
else.
Geomview supports the following simple data types: polyhedra with
shared vertices (.off), quadrilaterals, rectangular meshes, vectors,
and Bezier surface patches of arbitrary degree including rational
patches. Object hierarchies can be constructed with lists of objects
and instances of object(s) transformed by one or many 4x4 matrices.
Arbitrary portions of changing hierarchies may be transmitted by
creating named references.
The Geometry Center is an NSF-funded independent research group based
at the University of Minnesota. The three-fold mission of the Center
is to support and promote mathematics and computer science research;
software, animation, and tool dvelopment and production; education and
communication of mathematics at all levels. The Geometry Center's
offical name is the "National Science and Technology Research Center
for Computation and Visualization of Geometry Structures".
The Geometry Center
University of Minnesota
1300 S. 2nd St.
Minneapolis, MN 55454 USA
Article 1995 of comp.graphics.visualization:
From: vachha@cisa.cis.uab.edu (Rustom (Yuppy) Vachha)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.visualization
Subject: References on representing N Dim data
References in represnting N-dimensional data in 2 or 3 D.
Chambers, J. M., Cleveland, W. S., Kleiner, B., and Tukey, P. A. (1983).
Graphical Methods for Data ****ysis. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Press.
Wang, P. (1978). Symposium on Graphical Representation of Multivariate
Data. New York: Academic Press.
While these references are very old, they will provide you with a nice
introduction to static multivariate graphics. If you are interested in
dynamic multivariate graphics, I would look at:
Cleveland, W. S., and McGill, M. E. (1988). Dynamic Graphics for Statistics.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Press.
Edwin A. Abbott, "Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions", Signet, New York,
1884 (reprint). Also from Dover Books.
H.F. Baker, "Higher Geometry; being Illustrations of the Utility of the
Consideration of Higher Space, especially of 4 and 5 Dimensions" (Principles
of Geometry; Vol.4), Ungar, 1963.
Dionijs Burger, "Bolland", Veen, Utrecht, 1983. In Dutch, but there are
English translations as well, probably titled "Sphereland". I don't know who
published these.
Thomas F. Banchoff, "Beyond the Third Dimension, Geometry, Computer Graphic
and Higher Dimensions", Sci Amer. Library, 1990.
A.K. Dewdney, "Hypercubes", Scientific American, Vol. 254, Nr. 4 (april 1986),
pp. 8 - 13.
Steve Hollasch, "Four-Space Visualisation of 4D Objects", M. Sc. Thesis,
Arizona State Univ., 1991.
Rudy Rucker, "Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension", Dover Books,
1977.
Rudy Rucker, "The Fourth Dimension, and How to Get There", Penguin, UK,
1986. I don't know the American publisher.
Jeffrey R. Weeks, "The Shape of Space, How to Visualize Surfaces and
Three-Dimensional Manifolds", Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 1985.
Pielou, E.C.
The interpretation of ecological data: a primer on classification
and ordination
(Wiley,1984)
D. Asimov, ``The grand tour: a tool for viewing multidimensional data'',
SIAM Journal on Scientific and Statistical Computing, 6 (1985) 128-143.
C. Hurley and A. Buja, ``****yzing high-dimensional data with motion
graphics'', SIAM J. Sci. Stat. Comp., 11 (1990) 1193-1211.
See the 2-volume set Multidimensional Scaling by the authors
(I think) Shepard, Kruskal, and Nerlove.
Films:
"The Hypercube: Projections and Slicing", prod. Thomas F. Banchoff & Charles
Strauss, 1978.
"The Hypersphere: Foliation and Projections", prod. Thomas F. Banchoff,
Huseyin Kocak, David Laidlaw & David Margolis, 1986.
Computer programs:
Steve Hollasch, "ray4-1.00" & "wire4-1.00", ftp swedishchef.lerc.nasa.gov,
directory programs/hollasch-4d
ftp site: search archie for something called xgobi (probably at Purdue)
Also:
A Topological Picturebook by George K. Francis, published by Springer Verlag.
Article 2002 of comp.graphics.visualization:
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.visualization
From: johne@iti.gov.sg (Dr. John S. Eickemeyer)
Subject: Re: References on representing N Dim data
And of course, no reference list about representing multidimensional data
would be complete without Parallel Coordinates...If you need a general
method that can represent multivariate relationships in N dimensions, I
would recommend taking a good look at Parallel Coordinates. The papers by
Inselberg are the best place to start...
\bibitem[Cho87]{Cho87} T. Chomut (1987), {\bf Exploratory Data
****ysis Using Parallel Coordinates}, M. Sc. Thesis, UCLA Computer
Science Dept., IBM LA Sc. Cen. Rep. 1987-2811.
\bibitem[DW91]{DW91} A. Desai, L. C. Walters (1991), {\it Graphical
Presentations of Data Envelopment ****yses: Management Implications from
Parallel Axes Representations\/}, Decision Sciences Journal,
{\bf 22-2:} 335-353.
\bibitem[Eic91]{Eic91} J. S. Eickemeyer (1991), {\bf Visualizing \(p\)-Flats
in \(N\)-Space Using Parallel Coordinates}, PhD. Thesis, UCLA Computer
Science Dept.
\bibitem[GDCM90]{GDCM90} C. Gennings, K. S. Dawson, W. H. Carter, R. H.
Myers (1990), {\it Interpreting Plots of a Multidimensional Dose-Response
Surface in a Parallel Coordinate System\/}, Biometrics
{\bf 46:} 719-735.
\bibitem[ID87]{ID87} A. Inselberg, B. Dimsdale (1987), {\it
Parallel Coordinates For Visualizing Multi-Dimensional
Geometry\/}, in {\bf Proceedings of Computer Graphics International
'87} (T. L. Kunii, ed.), Springer-Verlag, Toyko.
\bibitem[ID90]{ID90} A. Inselberg, B. Dimsdale (1990), {\it
Parallel Coordinates: A Tool For Visualizing Multi-Dimensional
Geometry\/}, Proc. IEEE Conf. Visualization '90, 361-378.
\bibitem[IRC87]{IRC87} A. Inselberg, M. Reif \& T. Chomut (1987), {\it
Convexity Algorithms in Parallel Coordinates\/}, Journal of the ACM {\bf
34:} 765-801.
\bibitem[Ins85]{Ins85} A. Inselberg (1985), {\it The Plane with
Parallel Coordinates\/}, Special Issue on {\it Computational
Geometry\/}, The Visual Computer {\bf 1:} 69-91.
\bibitem[Weg90]{Weg90} E. Wegman (1990), {\bf Hyperdimensional Data
****ysis Using Parallel Coordinates}, J. Amer. Stat. Assoc. {\bf 85:}
664-675.
From: ilana@niwot.scd.ucar.EDU (Ilana Stern)
The best thing would be if you could just ask people to ftp it from the
rtfm.mit.edu site, because I would rather not be bothered by
people who want it. The document at csn.org is also a good resource.
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology,news.answers
Subject: Sources of Meteorological Data FAQ
Followup-To: sci.geo.meteorology
Reply-To: ilana@ncar.ucar.edu
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu
Summary: Weather and research data available via Internet, CD-ROM, and tape.
Supersedes: <1992Sep21.155426.25740@ncar.ucar.edu>
Archive-name: weather-data
Last-modified: 24 September 1992
Recent changes:
Addition of liasun3.epfl.ch ftp site
Addition of IP number to cumulus.met.ed.ac.uk site
--
**COMPLETELY NEW FORMAT**
Addition of Digital Chart of the World CD-ROM
New information on marlin.jcu.edu.au ftp site
Addition of delocn.udel.edu ftp site
New format information for DMSP SSM/I Ice Concentration Grids CD-ROM
Addition of WX-TALK to mailing list section
Cleanup of cdiac.esd.ornl.gov ftp site listing
This is a guide to various sources of meteorological, oceanographic,
and geophysical data. Some of these data types are intended for enjoyment
or hobbyist use; other data are more research-oriented. Much of the
research data is not free.
More information on geological/geographical data can be found in the
FAQ for sci.geo.geology, or see the file available via FTP from csn.org.
This guide is posted every two weeks; a copy can be obtained by
anonymous FTP to rtfm.mit.edu, from the file weather-data in
the directory /pub/usenet/news.answers. A copy is also maintained in
vmd.cso.uiuc.edu in the file SOURCES.DOC.
Corrections, additions, and comments should be sent to Ilana Stern at
ilana@ncar.ucar.edu. **If you plan to redistribute this file to a mailing
list, in another newsgroup, or in a newsletter, PLEASE CONTACT ME FIRST!**
########################################################################
C O N T E N T S
I. Data available over the Internet
II. CD-ROM source list
III. Research data on tape and other media
IV. Weather-related mailing lists
########################################################################
Subject: Data available over the Internet
C O N T E N T S
1. How to use anonymous FTP
2. How to use telnet
3. Index of FTP and Telnet sites by topic
A. Current weather images via FTP
B. Current weather data via telnet
C. Meteorological, oceanographic, and geophysical research data
D. Other satellite images
E. Map data
F. Other stuff
4. Alphabetical list of FTP and Telnet sites, with information
1. How to use anonymous FTP
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) allows transfer of files between two computers
which are on the Internet. To access the FTP areas listed here, at your
system prompt type "ftp" followed by the name or IP number (the number
in brackets next to the system name in the listing below) of the desired
system. For example, to access vmd.cso.uiuc.edu you'd type
ftp vmd.cso.uiuc.edu
or
ftp 128.174.5.98
Use "anonymous" as your login and your email address as the password (if
requested).
[Note: quotes ("like this") are used to set off names of directories and
files, or commands you'd type, and are not part of these names.]
Not all FTP systems accept the same commands, but here's a list of the
most useful:
ls list files in the current directory.
cd change directory, e.g. "cd wx" changes to the wx directory.
binary sets binary mode; USE THIS FOR RETRIEVING IMAGES!
ascii sets ascii mode (the default). Use for retrieving text.
get retrieves a file, e.g. "get readme" gets a file called readme.
bye exits FTP.
2. How to use telnet
Type "telnet" followed by the name or IP number (the number in brackets next
to the system name in the listing below) of the desired system. These
publicly accessible systems generally allow you to log in but put you in
a restricted shell, from which only a certain menu of commands is available.
3. Index of FTP and Telnet sites by topic
This index lists the names of FTP and Telnet sites of interest, with only
a brief blurb as to their contents. Section 4 gives more information about
each of these sites. Some sites appear more than once under different
subject headings.
A. Current weather images
ats.orst.edu GOES vis/IR images of North, Central America
aurelie.soest.hawaii.edu SST data from AVHRR on NOAA-11, NOAA-12
cumulus.met.ed.ac.uk Meteosat vis/IR images of Europe
liasun3.epfl.ch Meteosat vis/IR images of Europe
marlin.jcu.edu.au GMS-4 images of Australia, TOGA/COARE area
unidata.ucar.edu Surface maps (US, Europe, China), soundings
uriacc.uri.edu NOAA-11 images of the northeast US
vmd.cso.uiuc.edu GOES-7 vis/IR images, surface ****yses over US
B. Current weather data
ats.orst.edu Some US city and Oregon weather forecasts
hermes.merit.edu US weather forecasts, global reports
madlab.sprl.umich.edu 3000 US weather forecasts, global reports
ncardata.ucar.edu Colorado weather forecasts
C. Meteorological, oceanographic, and geophysical research data
cdiac.esd.ornl.gov Info on climate change topics
ncardata.ucar.edu Info on datasets available from NCAR
nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov Info on datasets available from NSSDC
storm.mmm.ucar.edu STORM-FEST data
pioneer.unm.edu Data and software from various CD-ROMs
D. Other satellite images
ames.arc.nasa.gov Various earth-from-space images
pioneer.unm.edu Various images taken from CD-ROMs
sanddunes.scd.ucar.edu AVHRR images of USA via telnet
snow.nohrsc.nws.gov Snow cover maps of US from GOES
sseop.jsc.nasa.gov Pictures taken from the space shuttle
E. Map data
csn.org Mapping software and datasets
hanauma.stanford.edu CIA World Bank database, 0.5 deg elev dataset
ncardata.ucar.edu Elevation data
pioneer.unm.edu World atlas, census data, others
spectrum.xerox.com Various USGS data
F. Other stuff
csn.org Information on other Internet resources
delocn.udel.edu Software for oceanographic computations
ncardata.ucar.edu Script to retrieve vmd.cso.uiuc.edu GIFs
pioneer.unm.edu Image display software
vmd.cso.uiuc.edu Documents on weather-related topics
4. Alphabetical list of FTP and Telnet sites, with information
This section provides expanded listings of the sites in the previous
section. Remember to set the transfer type to "binary" when retrieving
images!
ames.arc.nasa.gov (FTP)
Change directory to "SPACE/CDROM". Images from Magellan and Viking
missions, other stuff.
ats.orst.edu [128.193.120.19] (FTP)
GOES IR and VIS images over North and Central America, plus a "floater"
image which "could be anything." Also Oregon and US city forecasts.
aurelie.soest.hawaii.edu [128.171.151.121] (FTP)
Sea-Surface-Temperature data (near-real-time) in the directory
"pub/avhrr/images". AVHRR images within the radius of reception of the
university's HRPT station, approximately 5 S to 45 N and 125 W to 165 E.
The processed images are available usually within 30 min. of NOAA-11 and
NOAA-12 passages. Data are compressed binary in netCDF format (get
documentation from unidata.ucar.edu FTP site) labelled by satellite name
(n11/n12) and time. More info available from hrpt@hokulea.soest.hawaii.edu.
cdiac.esd.ornl.gov [128.219.24.36] (FTP)
Contains data and information on general and technical aspects of
carbon dioxide, methane, and other trace gas emissions; the carbon cycle;
and other climate-change topics from CDIAC (the Carbon Dioxide Information
****ysis Center, address in section 3). The data for CDIAC's "Trends 91:
A Compendium of Data on Global Change" is also available here. (Contact
CDIAC at cdp@stc10.ctd.ornl.gov to obtain a copy of the book.)
csn.org [128.138.213.21] (FTP)
Change directory to "COGS". A large, frequently updated file containing
detailed information on FTP sites, Bitnet and Usenet discussion groups,
and data sources is located in the file "internet.resources.earth.sci".
This file contains more information on mapping, GIS, remote sensing, and
geology, subjects which are mostly outside the scope of this meteorology-
oriented FAQ. Mapping software and datasets are also available in this
directory. Contact bthoen@csn.org (Bill Thoen) for more information.
cumulus.met.ed.ac.uk [129.215.168.19] (FTP)
Change directory to "images". IR and visible images of Europe from
Meteosat, twice daily, in 1152 x 900 GIF format (size of Sun root window).
The subdirectory "gifs" has smaller 3x daily images of the Nordic areas,
the UK, and Europe.
delocn.udel.edu (FTP)
Change directory to "FORTRAN". Programs to do various oceanographic
computations. Inquiries and calls for help can be addressed to
walt@delocn.udel.edu.
hanauma.stanford.edu [36.51.0.16] (FTP)
The CIA World Bank database contains coastlines, rivers and political
boundaries. An 0.5 degree elevation dataset is also there. A program for
decoding the CIA data can be found as "mfil" on pi1.arc.umn.edu
[137.66.130.11] (Info from ken@msc.edu)
hermes.merit.edu [35.1.48.150] (Telnet)
Type um-weather at the "Which Host?" prompt and use menus.
(Connects to madlab.sprl.umich.edu)
liasun3.epfl.ch (FTP)
Change directory to "pub/weather". IR and visible images of Europe
from Meteosat, in GIF format. It appears that this site contains
the same images as cumulus.met.ed.ac.uk.
madlab.sprl.umich.edu 3000 [141.212.196.79] (Telnet)
Include the "3000" when connecting to the machine. This is a menu driven
system which has a large variety of information, including US and Canadian
weather forecasts, ski conditions, earthquake reports, severe weather
reports, and current weather conditions for some international cities.
marlin.jcu.edu.au [137.219.16.14] (FTP)
Change directory to "JCUMetSat". GMS-4 images updated regularly for
various Australian states, Australia as a whole, the globe, the TOGA/COARE
area, and events of interest such as cyclones. The images are in a format
designed for the package JCUMetSat on Amiga computers, but can be converted
to GIF format using the ALCHEMY software (shareware) available at this site.
(More information on the format and images can be obtained from Professor
C.J. Kikkert, eecjk@marlin.jcu.edu.au.)
ncardata.ucar.edu [128.117.8.111] (FTP)
Information on datasets available from NCAR (the National Center for
Atmospheric Research), and a few small datasets. If you would like to
order data after browsing this information, email to datahelp@ncar.ucar.edu.
Small datasets can be provided by FTP; we also write various kinds of tapes.
See the README file.
A shell archive containing scripts to retrieve GIFs from vmd.cso.uiuc.edu,
get_gifs, is located in the "weather" subdirectory. This subdirectory also
contains Colorado weather and ski reports.
A few special datasets are located in the FTP area, and are free. They
are described in the file "pricing". These include a 1 deg resolution
elevation dataset, a continental outline dataset, and a list of all WMO
stations with latitude, longitude, and elevation.
nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (FTP or Telnet)
Telnet: The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) On-Line Data and
Information Service (NODIS) is a menu-driven interactive system which provides
information on services and data supported by NSSDC. Login as NSSDC. Some
topics: Nimbus-7 GRID TOMS Data, Geophysical Models, Standards and
Technology Information System.
FTP: some information and actual data is also available via anonymous FTP.
pioneer.unm.edu [129.24.9.217] (FTP)
Change directory to "pub/info" and retrieve beginner-info, cd-list,
newcd-list, and cd-schedule to get started. This machine is part of the
Space and Planetary Image Facility (SPIF), sponsored by the Computer and
Information Resource Technology group at UNM; it currently has 3 CD readers
and expects to add more. You can use this machine to FTP data and software
from a variety of CD-ROMs, including both research data and images. There
is no charge for this service. Contact help@pioneer.unm.edu for more
information.
sanddunes.scd.ucar.edu (Telnet)
AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) images from 1989 through
7 Jan 1992 cover CO, WY, KS, NE, and NM, as well as parts of AZ, UT, OK,
and TX. Since 7 Jan 1992, coverage includes these plus CA, OR, NV, WA,
and MT, to 1000 km off Pacific coast. Total coverage of US for 1989-present
will be available soon. West coast data from 1980-1985 will be available
some time this year.
Images are 1024 lines x 1024 elements before 7 Jan 1992, 2560 lines x
1024 elements after. Images are 1 km resolution and 8-bit format.
Contact Tim Kelley by email kelley@sanddunes.scd.ucar.edu or telephone
303/497-1221 for login, password, and manual. Service is free to Internet
users and is funded by NASA.
snow.nohrsc.nws.gov [192.46.108.1] (FTP)
Change directory to "snow". Various snow-related images in GIF form.
US snow cover map updated weekly. JPEG of current AVHRR images. Contact
tim@snow.nohrsc.nws.gov (Tim Szeliga) for more info.
spectrum.xerox.com [192.70.225.78] (FTP)
Various USGS data in subdirectories under the directory "pub/map".
sseop.jsc.nasa.gov [146.154.11.34] (FTP)
Many pictures taken from the space shuttle. Files are in a 512x512
format as red, green, and blue bitmaps. Image files are binary format,
and have .DAT as an extension.
storm.mmm.ucar.edu [128.117.88.53] (FTP)
Hourly and 5-minute composite surface observations, and composite
rawinsonde soundings, from STORM-FEST, in the directories "/fest/hrly_sfc",
"fest/5min_sfc", and "/fest/sounding", respectively. There is one file per
day. The data are in ASCII. This data is a preliminary release.
This FTP system will eventually be replaced by a different data access
system, although the data will still be available via the new system.
(Info from Mark Bradford, bradfrd2@ncar.ucar.edu)
unidata.ucar.edu [128.117.140.3] (FTP)
Change directory to "images". Weather radar summary map GIFS, surface maps
for various places, a few soundings on skew-t log-p diagrams, GOES Hugo images
(in subdirectory "images/hugo"). Surface maps include Europe and China.
uriacc.uri.edu [131.128.1.1] (FTP)
Change directory to "davet.195". Images of the northeast US in GIF format
from the afternoon passes of NOAA-11. (Provided by Dave Tetreault,
DAVET@uriacc.uri.edu.)
vmd.cso.uiuc.edu [128.174.5.98] (FTP)
Change directory to "wx". GOES-7 visible and IR images over the US and
Mexico, and surface ****yses over the US, are available in GIF format. A
script to retrieve GIFs automatically is available from the ncardata.ucar.edu
FTP area.
Also available in this directory are many useful documents, including
SPOTFREQ.DOC and CHASE-TV.DOC, lists of ham radio frequencies and TV
stations which carry useful info for storm chasers, WX-PUBS.DOC, which is
a list of weather-related publications, WX-TALK.DOC, which gives information
on the WX-**** mailing lists, and many others.
########################################################################
Subject: CD-ROM source list
C O N T E N T S
1. Basic information
2. List of CD-ROMs by topic, with summaries
A. Weather data
B. Research data
C. Miscellaneous
1. Basic information
CD-ROMs tend to be relatively expensive, but can hold as much as 600 megabytes
of data. Prices are current as of October 1991; prices for some discs
are not known. Some discs are provided with driving software. Most of
the software is for IBM-PC or compatible systems, but some is available
for the Macintosh, and, increasingly, for Unix systems.
Some of these listings are not for CD-ROMs, but are for floppies or
tapes. These are listed here, rather than in the section on data available
on other media, because they have been prepared as a package. The
research data available on tape is generally copied from a computer
archive as requests come in.
Commercial sources are flagged as such. Inclusion of a commercial
source in this listing does not imply endorsement.
2. List of CD-ROMs by topic, with summaries
A. Weather data
Climate Change Data ($950, or 595 pounds sterling from UK source):
Monthly 5-degree surface temperature anomaly grids 1854-1990, pressure
grids 1873-1990. Monthly world temperature data at about 3500 stations and
precipitation data at about 6500 stations, for period of record (long).
Retrieval and mapping software included, available for various systems.
Contact: Dr. Phil Jones, Climatic Research Unit, University of East
Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ United Kingdom. Distributed in North America by
Chadwyck-Healey Inc.,1101 King St, Alexandria, VA 22314. 800/752-0515.
World Weather Disc ($295):
Monthly temp, precip, pressure, sunshine data for about 2000 world stations
for period of record. Daily weather data at hundreds of US stations. Data
for some stations on temp, precip, freeze, drought, soil moisture, wind,
storms. Frequency and movement of tropical cyclones.
Contact: Cliff Mass, Dept. of Atmos. Sci. (AK40), University of Washington,
Seattle, WA 98195. 206/685-0910.
National Climate Info System ($50):
Monthly temperature, precipitation, Palmer drought index data for 344
climate divisions of US. Data can be viewed in tabular or graphical format.
Contact: National Climatic Data Center, Federal Building, Asheville, NC
28801. 704/259-0682.
High Resolution Climatology ($199/variable): *COMMERCIAL* (Floppy disk)
Average monthly climatological values [don't have info as to which
variables] for every 1 square km of the conterminous US for the 30-year
period 1951-1980. The data are stored as a rectangular matrix for each
state. Digitized state and county political boundaries are included and
referenced to the climate data sets. The data are in raster form as ASCII
or 16-bit binary integers. This dataset is distributed on 5.25" or 3.5"
floppy disks.
Contact: ZedX, Inc., P.O. Box 404, Boalsburg, PA 16827-0404.
B. Research data
NMC gridpoint dataset ($150):
Twice daily grids for the Northern Hemisphere at a resolution of about
381 km.
Contact: National Center for Atmospheric Research, PO Box 3000, Boulder,
CO 80307. 303/497-1219, email datahelp@ncar.ucar.edu.
National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) discs:
Various discs available, including: ice and snow coverage, ocean sediment
drilling data, ionospheric vertical soundings ($100), solar variability
(sunspots, magnetic field data, flares, tree-ring data -- $100), geophysics
of North America (earthquake data, magnetic fields, topography, gravity,
geopolitical info -- $600), and more.
Contact: NGDC, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303. 303/497-6958.
Global Ocean Temperature and Salinity (2 discs, $80 each or $124/both)
Temperature and salinity in the world ocean for about 1900-1990, based
on all available XBTs, MBTs, BTs, etc.
Contact: National Oceanographic Data Center, NOAA/NESDIS E/OC21,
Washington, DC 20235. 202/673-5549.
GALE and ERICA datasets (2 discs, price not known):
GALE (Genesis of Atlantic Lows), 1/15/86-4/15/86: ship data, raobs,
aircraft, radar, etc off N Carolina coast. ERICA (Experiment on Rapidly
Intensifying Cyclones over the Atlantic), 12/1/88-2/26/89: rawinsondes,
aircraft, radar, buoys, satellite data, etc.
Contact: C. Kreitzberg, Dept. of Physics and Atmospheric Science,
Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104.
GEDEX (Greenhouse Effect Detection Experiment)(price not known):
Two discs containing surface, upper air, and/or satellite-derived
measurements of temperature, solar irradiance, clouds, greenhouse
gases, fluxes, albedo, aerosols, ozone, and water vapor, along with
Southern Oscillation Indices and Quasi-Biennial Oscillation statistics.
Many of the data sets provide global coverage. The spatial resolutions
vary from zonal to 2.5 degree grids. Some surface station data sets
span more than 100 years; most satellite-derived sets cover only the
past 12 years. Temporal coverage is monthly for most sets. An update
will be available by June 1992.
Contact: NCDS/Goddard Distributed Active Archive Center, Code 935,
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771. 301/286-3209, email
NCDSUSO@NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV.
A more complete description of these discs may be obtained from
the ncardata.ucar.edu FTP site, in the file "catalogs/nondss/gedex".
DMSP SSM/I Brightness Temperature Grids for the Polar Regions, volume 1-12,
9 July 1987 - 30 June 1990 (Price on request):
Each volume contains 3 months of daily brightness temperature grids.
Sensor is currently flying; one additional CD-ROM volume is produced
approximately every 8 weeks. Passive microwave brightness temperatures
(7 dual-polarized frequencies ranging from 19.3 to 85.5 GHz.), used
primarily to derive sea ice concentration; Northern and Southern
Hemispheres.
Data format: 16-bit raster images (2-byte integers), in "SSM/I grid
format".
Associated software: Extraction and ice concentration software, IMDISP
image display program for IBM PC, IMAGIC image display program for the
Macintosh II. Software distributed on diskettes.
Contact: World Data Center A for Glaciology [Snow and Ice], National Snow
and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, CIRES - Campus Box 449, Boulder,
CO 80309. 303/492-5171, FAX 303/492-2468, email hanson@kryos.colorado.edu
(Claire Hanson).
DMSP SSM/I Ice Concentration Grids for the Polar Regions, Volume 1,
9 July 1987 - 31 December 1989 (Price on request):
Contains sea ice concentration derived from SSM/I brightness
temperatures, using NASA Team algorithm and J. Comiso algorithm,
for Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Data format: 8-bit raster images (1-byte integers) in "HDF format"
(software available via anonymous ftp from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu). Grid files
have NASA PDS (Planetary Data System) header labels. Additional volumes
will be produced, for the entire time series.
Associated software: Source code used to derive ice concentration from
brightness temperatures. IMDISP image display software. Software distributed
on diskettes.
Contact: World Data Center A for Glaciology, information above.
Nimbus-7 SMMR Polar Radiances, Volumes 1-12, 25 October 1978 - 20 August
1987 (life of SMMR sensor) (Price on request):
Contains passive microwave brightness temperatures (5 dual-polarized
frequencies ranging from 6.6 to 37 GHz) and derived sea ice concentration
for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Data format: 2-byte integers, in single-frequency grids.
Associated software: IMDISP image display program (C code) for IBM PC;
landmask and latitude/longitude overlay (Fortran). Software distributed on
IBM PC diskettes.
Contact: World Data Center A for Glaciology, information above.
Eastern Arctic Ice, Ocean and Atmosphere Data, Volume 1, CEAREX-1 ($50):
Contains sea ice acceleration, deformation and stress; hydrography
(CTDs); meteorology; bathymetry; acoustics and ambient noise (sample
data) from Coordinated Eastern Arctic Experiment (CEAREX). Includes
meteorology from Marginal Ice Zone Experiment (MIZEX), 1983, 1984, 1987.
Experiment location: Arctic Ocean north of Svalbard; Fram Strait, September
1988 - May 1989. Amount of data: 460 mbytes.
Data format: ASCII files. Associated software: none. Additional volumes
are planned; content not yet determined.
Contact: World Data Center A for Glaciology, information above.
NWS/NOHRSC Snow cover data (1990 and 1991, $200 each):
Airborne snow water equivalent and satellite areal extent of snow cover
data for 1990 and 1991 are now available on CD-ROM for major portions of the
U.S. and southern Canada. The CD-ROMs include: (1) airborne snow water
equivalent data and the digitized flight line network, (2) calibrated AVHRR
and GOES satellite data used to map snow cover, (3) the classified snow cover
images (4) national and regional snow cover image products, and (5) ancillary
data sets including digital elevation data, digitized NWS basin boundaries,
and the alphanumeric results of the satellite snow cover mapping by basin and
by elevation zone.
Contact: CD-ROM Snow Cover Data, National Operational Hydrologic Remote
Sensing Center (NOHRSC), Office of Hydrology, National Weather Service,
6301 34th Avenue South: Room 112, Minneapolis, MN 55450-2985.
612/725-3258, FAX 612/725-3338, email tim@snow.nohrsc.nws.gov (Tim Szeliga)
C. Miscellaneous
NASA discs:
Various discs available, including: Voyager spacecraft images (12 discs,
under $20 each!), Viking images of Mars, Magellan Venus data, Halley's
comet data (25 discs), excerpts from astronomical catalogs, and more.
Contact: NSSDC (NASA Space Science Data Center), Code 933.4, NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771. 301/286-6695. They
also publish a free newsletter.
CD-ROM, INC: *COMMERCIAL*
Several hundred discs available, including: "GRIPS 2" high resolution
images of topography, Landsat, vegetation maps, plus software ($49),
"JEDI" 3 discs full of earth, space, and sea science data intended for
school use ($31), 13 business/economic discs, >50 literature and
entertainment discs, >40 health-related discs, many science discs.
Prices range from $29-$895. Free catalog available from them.
Contact: CD-ROM, Inc, 1667 Cole Blvd. Suite 400, Golden, CO 80401.
303/231-9373, FAX 303/231-9581.
Digital Chart of the World ($200):
The Digital Chart of the World (DCW) is a comprehensive 1:1,000,000-scale
vector basemap of the world containing cartographic, attribute, and
textual data. It is provided with software that permits the database to
be accessed, queried, and displayed on PC-class computers. The primary
source for the database is the U.S. Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) Operational
Navigation Chart (ONC) series.
There are 4 discs: (1)North America, (2)Europe/Northern Asia, (3)South
American/Africa/Antarctica, and (4)Southern Asia/Australia. The data are
organized into 17 thematic coverages, including political boundaries and
ocean coast lines, cities, transportation networks, drainage, land cover,
and elevation contours.
Contact: USGS Open File Section, Box 25286, Denver, CO 80225.
303/236-7476.
########################################################################
Subject: Research data on tape and other media
Carbon Dioxide Information ****ysis Center (CDIAC):
Research and distribution center for data related to carbon dioxide,
methane, and other trace gas emissions; the carbon cycle; and other
climate-change topics. You can access catalog information by FTP (see
section I). Datasets are available on various media including CD-ROM and
magnetic tape. They also publish a free newsletter.
Contact: CDIAC, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P. O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge,
TN 37831-6335. 615/574-0390, FAX 615/574-2232, email cdp@stc10.ctd.ornl.gov.
NASA Space Science Data Center (NSSDC):
Astronomical and atmospheric data. You can access catalog information by
FTP or telnet (see section I).
Contact: NSSDC, Code 933.4, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt,
MD 20771. 301/286-6695.
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR):
Over 400 datasets available to the research community on various media.
You can access catalog information by FTP (see section I).
Contact: NCAR Data Support Section, PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307.
303/497-1219, FAX 303/497-1137, email datahelp@ncar.ucar.edu.
(DISCLAIMER: NCAR is a non-profit government organization operated by
UCAR under a grant from the NSF. Our charges reflect the actual cost of
data retrieval and magnetic media. I receive no benefit from you ordering
data. Please, research-related inquiries only.)
National Climatic Data Center (NCDC): NCDC, Federal Building, Asheville,
NC 28801. 704/259-0682.
National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC): NGDC, 325 Broadway, Boulder,
CO 80303. 303/497-6958.
########################################################################
Subject: Weather-related mailing lists
1. CLIMLIST (moderated by John Arnfield)
CLIMLIST is a moderated electronic mail distribution list for climat-
ologists and those working in closely-related fields. It is used to
disseminate notices regarding conferences and workshops, data avail-
ability, calls for papers, positions available etc, as well as requests
for information. An updated directory of email addresses for the
subscribers to the list is distributed every month (usually on the 15th).
To subscribe, mail to whichever of these addresses works for you:
AJA+@OHSTMAIL.BITNET / aja+@osu.edu / johna@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
with the following information:
Your name (for directory listing), email address, institutional affiliation;
Indicate if your email address is shared, so your name will be in header
of messages.
If your 'climatological credentials' are not apparent from your
affiliation, please explain.
2. Weather-users (administered by scott@zorch.sf-bay.org)
This list is for discussions of weather servers; sharing of code to
automatically query weather servers; and announcements of availability
(or lack thereof) and changes to weather servers. Initially, Jeff Masters
(sdm@madlab.sprl.umich.edu) has agreed to send Weather Underground status
notices to this list.
To join or quit the list, email to weather-users-request@zorch.sf-bay.org;
the list mail address is weather-users@zorch.sf-bay.org.
3. WX-TALK and other WX-lists
WX-TALK, formerly STORM-L, is a mailing list for weather-related topics,
special event notifications, job announcements, and administrative
messages. This list, and other specialized weather-related lists, are
run from the vmd.cso.uiuc.edu (UIUCVMD) machine at Urbana-Champaign,
Illinois. WX-TALK is for discussions and questions; the others are intended
to distribute information on particular topics, but you should not
post mail to them.
To join the list, send a message consisting of the single line
SUB WX-TALK Your Name
to whichever of these addresses works for you:
LISTSERV@UIUCVMD / LISTSERV@UIUCVMD.BITNET / LISTSERV@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU
or uiucuxc!vmd!listserv from uucp.
Contributions should then go to WX-TALK@[working address]
For more information, and a list of the other WX-lists on vmd.cso.uiuc.edu,
use anonymous FTP to retrieve the file WX-TALK.DOC from vmd.cso.uiuc.edu
in the directory "wx".
4. Wxsat (administered by Richard B. Emerson)
Wxsat resends all NOAA/NESDIS bulletins on polar and geostationary weather
satellites as well as occasional material on Meteosat. Bulletins with
orbital predictions, spacecraft operation schedules, and related messages
are copied from NOAA.SAT on SCIENCEnet and forwarded to all addresses on
the list. The list is configured to accept and broadcast mail from
subscribers to the list at large. Wxsat does not store or distribute imagery
and is not primarily a "chat" list. Wxsat is oriented towards users with a
daily operational need for TBUS and related bulletins.
An archive of roughly 60 days' messages are available for retrieval via
email messages to wxsat-archive@ssg.com. Send the message "help" in the
text to the archive server for details on how to retrieve the current index
and other files.
Subscription requests go to wxsat-request@ssg.com. The service is free
to all Internet users but donations are accepted as this is a volunteer
operation.
########################################################################
From: dejesus@archimedes.chinalake.navy.mil (Francisco X DeJesus)
Subject: Re: comp.graphics.vis FAQ
I was just browsing through the c.g.v. FAQ and noticed that it has a list of
FTP sites with relevant contents to Vis. I don't know if you are already aware
of this, but we run a large FTP archive site here, dedicated exclusively to
3D objects, models, and related materials. Our biggest collection is of
objects in Wavefront .obj format, though we carry any and every other format
for which we receive models (incl. DXF, 3ds, NURBS, Inventor, etc etc). The
name of the site is "avalon.chinalake.navy.mil" (129.131.44.11) in case you
want to check it out and consider listing it on the FAQ.
Cheers,
--
Francisco X DeJesus ------------------- dejesus@archimedes.chinalake.navy.mil
Subject: Re: Evaluating a visualization
Date: 16 Sep 1993 17:00:30 GMT
Organization: University Hospital Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
Whether an image is useful or not depends both on its quality and on the
quality of other information which is already available to the observer.
It is very difficult to evaluate "technical" image quality from clinical cases
alone since the true anatomical situation is usually not known. Therefore,
phantoms such as simulated data or cadavers are used. Some papers about the
quality of 3D images in medicine are
cadaver studies
D. C. Hemmy and P. L. Tessier. CT of dry skulls with craniofacial deformities:
Accuracy of three-dimensional reconstruction. Radiology, 157(1):113-116, 1985.
A. Pommert, W.-J. H\"oltje, N. Holzknecht, U. Tiede, and K. H. H\"ohne.
Accuracy of images and measurements in 3D bone imaging. In H. U. Lemke, M. L.
Rhodes, C. C. Jaffe, and R. Felix, editors, Computer Assisted Radiology, Proc.
CAR '91, pages 209-215. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1991.
simulated data
M. Magnusson, R. Lenz, and P. E. Danielsson. Evaluation of methods for shaded
surface display of CT volumes. Comput. Med. Imaging Graph., 15(4):247-256,
1991.
A. Pommert, U. Tiede, G. Wiebecke, and K. H. H\"ohne. Surface shading in
tomographic volume visualization: A comparative study. In First Conference on
Visualization in Biomedical Computing, Proc. VBC '90, pages 19-26. IEEE
Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, CA, 1990.
U. Tiede, K. H. H\"ohne, M. Bomans, A. Pommert, M. Riemer, and G. Wiebecke.
Investigation of medical 3D-rendering algorithms. IEEE Comput. Graphics Appl.,
10(2):41-53, 1990.
A somewhat different aspect of image quality is whether an observer can draw
the right conclusions from the image. This aspect is covered e.g. in
M. W. Vannier, C. F. Hildebolt, J. L. Marsh, T. K. Pilgram, W. H. McAlister, G.
D. Shackelford, C. J. Offutt, and R. H. Knapp. Craniosynostosis: diagnostic
value of three-dimensional CT reconstruction. Radiology, 173:669-673, 1989.
M. W. Vannier, C. F. Hildebolt, L. A. Giluga, T. K. Pilgram, F. Mann, B. S.
Monsees, W. A. Murphy, W. G. Totty, and C. J. Offutt. Calcaneal and pelvic
fractures: Diagnostic evaluation by three-dimensional computed tomography
scans. J. Digit. Imag., 4(3):143-152, 1991.
Andreas Pommert, pommert@uke.uni-hamburg.de
Article 4206 of comp.graphics.visualization:
Path: cnn.nas.nasa.gov!ames!olivea!biosci!rasmol
From: rasmol@dcs.ed.ac.uk (RasMol Molecular Graphics)
Newsgroups: bionet.software,bionet.announce,bionet.biology.computational,sci.bio,sci.chem,comp.graphics.visualization
Subject: RasMol 2.2 Molecular Graphics Package Available
Summary: Announcing the second anonymous FTP release of the RasMol package.
Keywords: RasMol, RasWin, molecular graphics
Message-ID: <CEwCCv.Jwx@dcs.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 14 Oct 93 16:55:43 GMT
Sender: kristoff@net.bio.net
Followup-To: bionet.software
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Edinburgh
Lines: 66
Approved: bionews-moderator@net.bio.net
RasMol 2.2
Molecular Graphics Visualisation tool.
Roger Sayle
Biocomputing Research Unit
University of Edinburgh
October 1993
This posting is to announce the public release of RasMol 2.2 molecular
graphics visualisation program. This package has been developed in the
BRU over the last few years, and the latest version has a significant
number of improvements over RasMol 2.1. These enhancements include protein
ribbon diagrams, secondary structure assignment (based on Kabsch and
Sander's DSSP algorithm), better amino acid classification, DNA hydrogen
bonding, DNA backbone representations, stick representations of hydrogen
bonds and disulphide bridges (either between backbone or sidechains), the
ability to write out selected atoms to a PDB file, support for Alchemy
format files, colouring of hbonds by their type, compressed PostScript
output, extended atom expression syntax, increased scroll bar functionality,
and many more additions (and bug fixes) too numerous to mention. For a
complete list of modifications (and acknowledgements), refer to the
distribution ChangeLog.
RasMol is an X Window System tool intended for the visualisation of
proteins and nucleic acids. It reads Brookhaven Protein Databank (PDB)
files and interactively renders them in a variety of formats on either an
8bit or 24/32bit colour display. The complete source code and user
documentation for both the UNIX/X11 version and the IBM PC/MS Windows 3.1
version may be obtained by anonymous ftp from ftp.dcs.ed.ac.uk
[129.215.160.5] in the directory /pub/rasmol. The UNIX/X11 source code is
contained in the file RasMol2.tar.Z and the MS Windows source code and
executable in the file raswin.zip. Both of these files include a slightly
dated version of the PostScript user reference manual.
The program is intended for teaching and generating publication
quality images. The program has both a menu system and a full featured
command line interface. Different parts and representations of the
molecule may be coloured or displayed in a number of formats independently.
Currently supported formats include wireframe, ball and stick, backbone,
space filling spheres and protein ribbon models. The space filling spheres
may even be shadowed. The molecule may be manipulated using scroll bars,
the interactive command line or from a dials box if attached. The resulting
image may be saved at any point in PostScript, GIF, PPM, Sun rasterfile or
Microsoft BMP formats. For more details see the RasMol user reference.
It was claimed at a recent conference to be the fastest available
uniprocessor program for drawing shadowed spacefilled molecules. On a
SparcStation it can shadow a 10,000 atom protein in less than 10 seconds.
The current version of the program has been tested on sun3, sun4, sun386i,
hp9000, sequent, DEC alpha, IBM RS/6000 and SGI, DEC and E&S mips based
machines compiled under both gcc and the native compiler. The version for
Microsoft Windows requires version 7 of the Microsoft Optimizing C Compiler
and the Microsoft Software Development Kit (SDK).
The source code is public domain and freely distributable provided that
the original author is suitably acknowledged. Any comments, suggestions or
questions about the package may be directed to "rasmol@dcs.ed.ac.uk".
--
Roger Sayle JANET: ros@uk.ac.ed.dcs
Department of Computer Science UUCP: ..!mcsun!uknet!dcs!ros
University of Edinburgh ARPA: ros%dcs.ed.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, UK. Tel: (+44) 031 650 5163 (direct line)
Article 5166 of comp.graphics.visualization:
Path: cnn.nas.nasa.gov!ames!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!gatekeeper.us.oracle.com!barrnet.net!parc!gonzo.EuroPARC.Xerox.COM!chalmers
From: chalmers@gonzo.EuroPARC.Xerox.COM (Matthew Chalmers)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.visualization
Subject: Re: Visualization of text (looking for info or refrences)...
Date: 18 Apr 1994 16:21:09 GMT
Organization: Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
Lines: 36
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <2ouc1l$r59@news.parc.xerox.com>
References: <2orvdk$igr@sylvia.smith.edu> <2osm1d$fl3@uqcspe.cs.uq.oz.au>
NNTP-Posting-Host: gonzo.europarc.xerox.com
Keywords: aardvark document information visualisation
In article <2osm1d$fl3@uqcspe.cs.uq.oz.au>, andrewg@cs.uq.oz.au
(Andrew Goodchild) writes:
|> In <2orvdk$igr@sylvia.smith.edu> jgreco@smith.edu (Jay Greco) writes:
|>
|> ... snip ...
|> > Does anyone out there in netland have any articles on this?
|>
|> How about:
|>
|> @inproceedings{CC92,
|> author = {Chalmers, M. and Chitson, P.},
|> booktitle = {15th international SIGIR},
Hmm.. no, I'm not sure that the article by Paul and myself (nor
perhaps the one by Xia Lin?) really addresses the original question.
My stuff looks at the relationships of documents to each other,
and tries to apply visualisation and layout techniques to that end,
whereas he seemed to be looking for visualisation of structures
internal to one document. I'm not really up on Natural Language
Understanding, but I reckon that it'd be asking a lot of a system
to understand legal text that well. <insert standard legal joke
here>
You might be able to do something by using document subsections as if
they were full documents, but I've never tried it and haven't seen
anything much about it. You might get data that was a bit noisy, I
reckon, but that's only a guess..
Regards,
--Matthew
--
Matthew Chalmers
Rank Xerox EuroPARC, 61 Regent St., Cambridge, CB2 1AB, U.K.
Tel. [44] 223 341546 Fax [44] 223 341525
Article 5162 of comp.graphics.visualization:
Xref: cnn.nas.nasa.gov comp.graphics.visualization:5162 comp.graphics.animation:7416 comp.graphics:50336
Path: cnn.nas.nasa.gov!ames!agate!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!nigel.msen.com!zib-berlin.de!news.belwue.de!news.uni-freiburg.de!tonga.informatik.uni-freiburg.de!ruprecht
From: ruprecht@tonga.informatik.uni-freiburg.de (Nick Ruprecht)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.visualization,comp.graphics.animation,comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Grid conversion: unregular -> regular
Followup-To: comp.graphics.visualization,comp.graphics.animation,comp.graphics
Date: 18 Apr 1994 06:33:14 GMT
Organization: Rechenzentrum der Universitaet Freiburg, Germany
Lines: 101
Message-ID: <2ot9ja$poa@sun2.ruf.uni-freiburg.de>
References: <2o0qqh$6ic@menja.ifi.uio.no> <2o19hr$mmj@uuneo.neosoft.com> <2oduoc$ae5@garm.ifi.uio.no>
NNTP-Posting-Host: tonga.informatik.uni-freiburg.de
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
Roger Olafsen (rogero@ifi.uio.no) wrote:
: Both interpolation schemes and gridding would be of interest.
There's an endless list of literature on the subject of scattered data
interpolation. The following list should provide you with a few entry
points:
@InCollection{Alfeld89
, author = {P. Alfeld}
, title = {Scattered Data Interpolation in Three or More Variables}
, booktitle = {Mathematical Methods in CAGD}
, publisher = {Academic Press}
, year = {1989}
, editor = {T. Lyche and L.L. Schumaker}
, pages = {1-33}
}
@Article{Franke82
, author = {R. Franke}
, title = {Scattered Data Interpolation: Tests of Some Methods}
, journal = {Mathematics of Computation}
, year = 1982
, volume = 38
, number = 157
, pages = {181-200}
, month = jan
}
@InCollection{Franke91
, author = {R. Franke and G. Nielson}
, title = {Scattered Data Interpolation: A Tutorial and Survey}
, booktitle = {Geometric Modeling: Methods and Applications}
, publisher = Springer
, address = NY
, year = 1991
, editor = {H. Hagen and D. Roller}
, pages = {131-160}
}
@Article{Hardy90
, author = {R.L. Hardy}
, title = {Theory and Applications of the multiquadric-biharmonic
Method}
, journal = {Computers and Mathematics with Applications}
, year = 1990
, volume = 19
, pages = {163-208}
}
@InCollection{Nielson89
, author = {Gregory M. Nielson and Thomas A. Foley}
, title = {A Survey of Applications of an Affine Invariant Norm}
, booktitle = {Mathematical Methods in CAGD}
, publisher = AcaPress
, year = {1989}
, editor = {T. Lyche and L.L. Schumaker}
, pages = {445-467}
}
@Article{Nielson93b
, author = {G.M. Nielson}
, title = {Scattered Data Modeling}
, journal = {IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications}
, year = 1993
, volume = 13
, number = 1
, pages = {60-70}
}
@InCollection{Sibson81
, author = {R. Sibson}
, title = {A Brief Description of Natural Neighbour Interpolation}
, booktitle = {Interpreting Multivariate Data}
, publisher = {John Wiley \& Sons Ltd.}
, year = {1981}
, editor = {Vic Barnett}
, pages = {21-36}
, address = NY
, note = {Proceedings of the Conference Entitled ``Looking at
Multivariate Data'' held in the University of
Sheffield, U.K. from 24-27 March 1980}
}
@Book{Watson92
, author = {D.F. Watson}
, title = {Contouring: A Guide to the ****ysis and Display of
Spatial Data}
, publisher = Pergamon
, year = {1992}
}
--
Nick Ruprecht
The Computer Graphics Group - Dept. of Computer Science
University of Dortmund phone: +49-231-755 6134
D-44221 Dortmund, Germany fax: +49-231-755 6321
Article 5197 of comp.graphics.visualization:
From: merlin@neuro.usc.edu (merlin)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.visualization
Subject: Re: WANTED: Volume Rendering Bibliography
Booth-KS, Forsey-DR, Paeth. Hardware assistance for Z-buffer visible surface
algorithms. IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications. nn:31-39. November 1986.
Chen-LS & Sontag-MR. Representation, display, and manipulation of 3d digital
scenes and their medical applications. Computer Vision, Graphics & Image
Processing 48:190-216. 1989.
Cohen-D, Kaufman-A, Bakalash-R, Bergman-S. Real time discrete shading. The
Visual Computer 6:16-27. 1990.
Drebin-RA. Volume rendering. ACM Computer Graphics 22(4):65-74. 1988.
Farrell-EJ & Zappulla-RA. Three-dimensional data visualization and biomedical
applications. CRC Critical Reviews in Biomedical Engineering 16(4):323-363.
1989.
Frederick-C, Schwartz-EL. Brain peeling: viewing the inside of a laminar
three-dimensional solid. The Visual Computer 6:37-49. 1990.
Frieder-G, Gordon-D, Reynolds-RA. Back to front display of voxel based
objects. IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications nn:52-60. January 1985.
Fruhauf-M. Volume visualization on workstations: image quality and
efficiency of different techniques. Comput. & Graphics 15(1):101-107. 1991.
Fujimoto-A, Tanaka-T, Iwata-K. ARTS: Accelerated ray-tracing system. IEEE
Computer Graphics & Applications. nn:16-26. April 1986.
Galyean-TA & Hughes-JF. Sculpting: an interactive volumetric modeling
technique. ACM Computer Graphics 25(4):267-274. 1991.
Geist-D & Vannier-MW. PC-based 3-d reconstruction of medical images.
Comput. & Graphics 13(2):135-143. 1989.
Giertsen-C, Halvorsen-A, Flood-PR. Graph-directed modelling from serial
sections. The Visual Computer 6:284-290. 1990.
Hohne-KH, Bomans-M, Pommert-A, Riemer-M, Schiers-C, Tiede-U, Wiebecke-G.
3d visualization of tomographic volume data using the generalized voxel
model. The Visual Computer 6:28-36. 1990.
Kajiya-J & Von Herzen-BP. Ray tracing volume densities. ACM Siggraph
18(3)165-174. 1984.
Laur-D & Hanrahan-P. Hierarchical splatting: a progressive refinement
algorithm for volume rendering. ACM Computer Graphics 25(4):285-288. 1991.
Levoy-M. Efficient ray tracing of volume data. ACM Transactions on Graphics
9(3):245-261. 1990.
Levoy-M. Volume rendering by adaptive refinement. The Visual Computer
6:2-7. 1990.
Levoy-M. A hybrid ray tracer for rendering polygon and volume data. IEEE
Computer Graphics & Applications. nn:33-40. March 1990.
Levoy-M. Display of surfaces from volume data. IEEE Computer Graphics &
Applications nn:29-37. May 1988.
Lin-WC, Chen-SY & Chen-CT. A new surface interpolation technique for
reconstructing 3d objects from serial cross sections. Computer Vision,
Graphics, and Image Processing 48:124-143. 1989.
Lorenson-WE & Cline-HE. Marching cubes: a high resolution 3d surface
construction algorithm. ACM Computer Graphics 21(4):163-169. 1987.
Meagher-D. Geometric modeling using octree encoding. Computer Graphics and
Image Processing 19:129-147. 1982.
Meinzer-HP. Meetz-K. Scheppelmann-D, Engelmann-U, Barr-HJ. The
Heidelberg ray tracing model. IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications
nn:34-43. 1991.
Muller-H. Stark-M. Adaptive generation of surfaces in volume data. The
Visual Computer 9:182-199. 1993.
Ney-DR, Fishman-EK, Magid-D. Volumetric rendering of computed tomography
data: principles and techniques. IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications
nn:24-32. March 1990.
Ney-DR, Fishman-EK. Editing tools for 3d medical imaging. IEEE Computer
Graphics & Applications nn:63-71. November 1991.
Payne-BA & Toga-AW. Surface mapping brain function on 3d models. IEEE
Computer Graphics & Applications. 33-41. September 1990.
Ratib-O. Visualization and manipulation of medical images. Scientific
Visualization and Graphics Simulation. Thalmann-D ed. New York:
John Wiley & Sons. 1990.
Sabella-P. A rendering algorithm for visualizing 3d scalar fields.
ACM Computer Graphics 22(4):51-58. 1988.
Shinagawa-Y, Kunii-TL. Constructing a reeb graph automatically from cross
sections. IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications nn:44-51. November 1991.
Stewart-NF. Solid Modeling. Scientific Visualization and Graphics
Simulation. Thalmann-D ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 1990.
Stytz-MR, Frieder-G, Frieder-O. Three dimensional medical imaging: algorithms
and computer systems. ACM Computing Surveys 23(4):421-498. 1991.
Tiede-U, Hoehne-KH, Bomans-M, Pommert-A, Riemer-M, Wiebecke-G. Investigation
of medical 3-d rendering algorithms. IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications
nn:41-53. March 1990.
Udpa-JK, Odhner-D. Fast visualization, manipulation, and ****ysis of binary
volumetric objects. nn:53-62. November 1991.
Upson-C & Keeler-M. V-buffer: visible volume rendering. ACM Computer
Graphics 22(4):59-64. 1988.
Wallin-A. Constructing isosurfaces from CT data. IEEE Computer Graphics &
Applications. nn:28-33. November 1991.
Weber-RE. Ray tracing voxel data via biquadratic local syrface interpolation.
The Visual Computer 6:8-15. 1990.
Wilhelms-J. Visualizing sampled volume data. Scientific Visualization and
Graphics Simulation. Thalmann-D ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 1990.
Wilhelms-J & Van Gelder-A. A coherent projection approach for direct
volume rendering. ACM Computer Graphics 25(4):275-284. 1991.
Yagel-R, Cohen-D, Kaufman-A. Normal estimation in 3d discrete space. The
Visual Computer 8:278-291. 1992.
Yau-MM & Srihari-SN. A hierarchical data structure for multidimensional
@book{Gallagher:94,
editor = {Gallagher,R.S.},
title = {Computer Visualization ---
Graphics Techniques for Engineering and Scientif
ic ****ysis},
publisher = {CRC},
year = 1994,
month = {December},
note = {ISBN 0-8493-9050-8}
}
Tom Sawyer Software's Graph Layout Toolkit
------------------------------------------
Tom Sawyer's Graph Layout Toolkit is a family of portable
libraries. The Graph Layout Toolkit libraries' logical
representation of objects and connections allow end users to
more easily see underlying relationships within complicated data.
Graphics application programmers will appreciate that they do
not have to master graph layout algorithms if they use the
Graph Layout Toolkit's powerful services. The Graph Layout
Toolkit works in real-time, rarely requiring more than a few
seconds to produce quality output - even for large graphs with
several hundred nodes. With no graphics dependencies, you have
complete flexibility for multiplatform GUI development.
Three extensible C++ class libraries include ANSI C APIs
Graph Layout Toolkit family:
the Hierarchical,
Circular and Symmetric Layout Libraries.
Tom Sawyer also produces cross platform graph editing software
developed with Borland Object Windows for AppWare.
Platforms:
DOS, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows NT, OS/2 2.x,
Macintosh, Sun, HP 9000, SGI, IBM RS/6000 and NeXT.
Availability:
Now.
Contact:
Tom Sawyer Software phone: 510.848.0853
1824B Fourth Street fax: 510.848.0854
Berkeley, CA 94710 e-mail: info@TomSawyer.COM
Licensing
Prices start at $16,000. Royalty based pricing is also available.
A company site can license the libraries on a per platform, per product
usage basis. Maintenance is optional and is payable on an annual basis,
including technical support, updates, and upgrades.
We do price for the individual (corporate)
researcher by asking that they go on support for the product which is
20% of the full license price. We do ask that they justify why they
shouldn't license the whole package though. So it would be $3200
instead of the 16K base price.
From bmadden@tomsawyer.com Wed Mar 16 23:05:34 1994
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Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 23:03:10 -0800
From: bmadden@tomsawyer.com (Brendan P. Madden)
Message-Id: <9403170703.AA06838@TomSawyer.com>
Received: by NeXT.Mailer (1.100)
Received: by NeXT Mailer (1.100)
To: nas.nasa.gov!eugene@uu4.psi.com (Eugene N. Miya)
Subject: Re: Still hashing
Status: R
Hi Eugene,
I've tried to improve it below, I think a few of the changes will make
it more concise. Thanks for all of the effort, I think that I will
incorporate a few of them into our next data sheet run.
B.
Begin forwarded message:
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 94 23:58:56 -0800
From: uupsi4!nas.nasa.gov!eugene (Eugene N. Miya)
To: bmadden@tomsawyer.com
Subject: Still hashing
I still have a few problems with this.
I want to include it ASAP, but let me fill in some comments:
Tom Sawyer Software's Graph Layout Toolkit
------------------------------------------
| Tom Sawyer's Graph Layout Toolkit is a family of portable
| libraries. The Graph Layout Toolkit libraries' logical
| representation of objects and connections allow end users to
| more easily see underlying relationships within complicated
data.
I don't care for this last sentence. It's a general description of
almost every graphics system. But I want to say something of
significance.
Otherwise, I would just throw it out.
How about:
Tom Sawyer's Graph Layout Toolkit is a family of portable libraries
that produce a logical representation objects and connections.
>> My feeling here is that some people understand that there another
type of layout such as physical (geographical) layout and they should
be informed that we are just trying to present information logically
rather than based on other information such as area code, zip code,
etc.
| Graphics application programmers will appreciate that they do
| not have to master graph layout algorithms if they use the
| Graph Layout Toolkit's powerful services. The Graph Layout
| Toolkit works in real-time, rarely requiring more than a few
| seconds to produce quality output - even for large graphs with
| several hundred nodes. With no graphics dependencies, you have
| complete flexibility for multiplatform GUI development.
Problems: "appreciate," "real-time" are value judgments. I want to
develope
an appreciation over time after using it. I might not. I don't know.
Text editors work in real time, but nothing prepares most editors to
edit
40 MB data files I sometimes have. It takes a long time unless I edit
on
my Cray. GUI is a useful property to note.
How about:
Graphics application programmers do not have to master graph layout
algorithms if they use the Graph Layout Toolkit's services. The Graph
Layout Toolkit rarely requires more than a few seconds to produce
quality output - even for large graphs with several hundred nodes. With
no graphics dependencies, you have complete flexibility for
multiplatform GUI development.
| Three extensible C++ class libraries include ANSI C APIs
| Graph Layout Toolkit family:
| the Hierarchical,
| Circular and Symmetric Layout Libraries.
I wanted to edit this, but I left it incomplete.
| Tom Sawyer also produces cross platform graph editing software
| developed with Borland Object Windows for AppWare.
No problem.
| Platforms:
| DOS, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows NT, OS/2 2.x,
| Macintosh, Sun, HP 9000, SGI, IBM RS/6000 and NeXT.
Excellent.
| Availability:
| Now.
|
| Contact:
| Tom Sawyer Software phone: 510.848.0853
| 1824B Fourth Street fax: 510.848.0854
| Berkeley, CA 94710 e-mail: info@TomSawyer.COM
Both good.
| Licensing
|Prices start at $16,000. Royalty based pricing is also available.
|A company site can license the libraries on a per platform, per
product
|usage basis. Maintenance is optional and is payable on an annual
basis,
|including technical support, updates, and upgrades.
|
|We do price for the individual (corporate)
|researcher by asking that they go on support for the product which is
|20% of the full license price. We do ask that they justify why they
|shouldn't license the whole package though. So it would be $3200
|instead of the 16K base price.
I wsa asking discounts per se, but I am thinking I will place
$16K, but this will burn you
Then I thought I would put $3200-$16K.....
Help me here. Remember the KISS principle.
Why don't we just leave pricing information out? and if people contact
us we will send them pricing information along with the literature.
Besides, pricing can change often to reflect business realities.
How about:
Tom Sawyer provides a per platform/per product pricing schedule with
optional yearly maintainance, royalty agreements are also available if
your workgroup prefers.
Article 5159 of comp.graphics.visualization:
Path: cnn.nas.nasa.gov!ames!agate!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!munnari.oz.au!yarrina.connect.com.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!uqcspe.cs.uq.oz.au!cs.uq.oz.au!andrewg
From: andrewg@cs.uq.oz.au (Andrew Goodchild)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.visualization
Subject: Re: Visualization of text (looking for info or refrences)...
Date: 18 Apr 1994 00:59:25 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept, University of Queensland
Lines: 41
Message-ID: <2osm1d$fl3@uqcspe.cs.uq.oz.au>
References: <2orvdk$igr@sylvia.smith.edu>
Reply-To: andrewg@cs.uq.oz.au
NNTP-Posting-Host: thrip.cs.uq.oz.au
In <2orvdk$igr@sylvia.smith.edu> jgreco@smith.edu (Jay Greco) writes:
.... snip ...
> Does anyone out there in netland have any articles on this?
How about:
@inproceedings{CC92,
author = {Chalmers, M. and Chitson, P.},
booktitle = {15th international SIGIR},
key = {cc92},
pages = {330-337},
title = {Bead: Explorations in Information Visualization},
year = {1992}}
@inproceedings{L92,
author = {Lin, X.},
booktitle = {IEEE Visualization Conference},
key = {l92},
pages = {274-281},
title = {Visualization for the Document Space},
year = {1992}}
If anybody else has any others, I would be interested in hearing
about them.
Cheers,
Andrew.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
_-_|\ Andrew Goodchild | ph:+61 7 365 4194
/ B <--+ Department of Computer Science | fx:+61 7 365 1999
\_.-._/ | University of Queensland, St.Lucia | email:
v +--Brisbane, Queensland, 4072 AUSTRALIA | andrewg@cs.uq.oz.au
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
_-_|\ Andrew Goodchild | ph:+61 7 365 4194
/ B <--+ Department of Computer Science | fx:+61 7 365 1999
\_.-._/ | University of Queensland, St.Lucia | email:
From cgamble@vivid.autometric.com Tue Apr 18 13:09:05 1995
Received: from relay4.UU.NET (relay4.UU.NET [192.48.96.14])
by amelia.nas.nasa.gov (8.6.8.1/NAS.6.1) with ESMTP id NAA24996
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for @relay1.uu.net:eugene@amelia.nas.nasa.gov id AA14827; Tue, 18 Apr 1995 16:09:01 -0400
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 1995 16:09:01 -0400
From: cgamble@vivid.autometric.com (Chris Gamble)
Message-Id: <199504182009.AA14827@vivid.autometric.com>
To: eugene
Subject: Re: [l/m 3/23/1995] comp.graphics.vis FAQ (1/4) c.g.v.FAQ
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.visualization
In-Reply-To: <D72ww7.23H@cnn.nas.nasa.gov>
Organization: Autometric, Inc. Alexandria, VA
Status: RO
Eugene,
We have a product that I'd like to see added to your list of products in the
FAQ. Attached is the product description. I will also be in Cocoa Beach
next week if your interested in a live demo. Thanks for your consideration.
---------
Omni(tm), by Autometric, Inc. is the emerging standard for interactive 2D
and 3D simulation, modeling, and visualization. This tool provides the
means to visualize the results of complex simulations involving spatial
relationships between user-defined objects such as satellites,
aircraft, ground sensors, and missiles. Omni(tm) is the most mature and
cost effective Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) 2D/3D visualization
product of its kind available.
Omni(tm) provides the ability to look from anywhere to anywhere within
a one million kilometer radius around the center of the earth (and
beyond) at any simulated or real time. This enables ****ysts to explore
complex relationships (such as the interaction among space assets,
terrestrial sites, and time-critical events). Since interactive 3D
control of the ****ysis process is always maintained by the user,
efficient ****ysis of many diverse and complex problems can be made as
the need arises.
The Omni(tm) software system supports graphic data ****ysis and provides output
in many forms including pictures, 3D animated sequences, 2D graphs, and text
windows. It allows simultaneous viewing of the same scenario from several
perspectives. Omni(tm) data ****ysis routines are provided in an X/MOTIF user
interface based on a mouse-controlled, pull-down menu-driven command system
and a multiple, overlapping window environment. Omni(tm) also includes a
built-in record and play-back macro capability as well as the option to
assign "Hot Keys" to recorded macros for quick execution. Hardcopy output
of a selected window or the entire screen may be directed to any graphics
printer. Screen outputs may also be written to files suitable for
incorporation into slide shows and animated movies.
With Omni(tm), users can easily and interactively control what objects and
relationships they wish to ****yze and in what level of detail. An Omni(tm)
user can also display perspective views of a satellite model from any
location and display it complete with accurately scaled views of the earth,
other satellites, the moon, sun, and planets of our solar system against the
star background. Satellite positions are calculated by the SGP4 propagation
algorithm (including deep space perturbations) used by NORAD and U. S. Space
Command. Orbital parameters for actual satellites may be imported in the
standard "two-card" element set format. Notional satellites may be
user-defined via data entry windows.
Customizations to Omni(tm) can also be quickly made to meet different needs
using an internally developed programming environment. With Omni(tm),
Autometric, Inc. -- both a full-service COTS software house and
government contracting engineering services company -- can develop
specially tailored options, an Omni(tm) interface to existing code, and
coordinate output from other programs to Omni(tm) routines and displays.
The standardized, object-oriented programming environment used to
develop Omni(tm) allows implementing new ****ysis applications and
modifying existing ones with minimal expenditures of time and effort.
OMNI SOFTWARE DESCRIPTION:
The Omni(tm) Basic Configuration software package features:
* Ground-, air-, and space-based sensor, threat, and
communications volumes
* Constellation and satellite orbit builder
* Satellite orbital mechanics (SGP4/SDP4 propagator)
* User-defined moving objects (aircraft, ground vehicles,
ships, etc.)
* Missile trajectories (COMET propagator)
* Visibility ****ysis data and graphs
* Ground and sky traces and visibility lines
* GeoSphereTM Image of the Earth with overlaid geographic
and politicalboundaries
* Visible and infrared satellite signature simulation and modeling
* Embedded relational database
Optional features (purchased separately) include:
The IMAGERY/DTED DISPLAY option allows you to overlay the earth model
with a 3D terrain model created from multispectral satellite imagery
and Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED). This model can be used for
astrodynamic simulation and ****ysis. The Imagery/DTED Display option
allows for the display of Wings Mission Rehearsal terrain and imagery
data sets and DMA DTED data. All sensor detections can be optionally
"terrain masked" to consider the effects of local terrain on visibility
studies.
The REAL-TIME SOCKET INTERFACE option allows Omni(tm) to exchange
simulation object information with other programs where Omni(tm) becomes an
****ytical engine and graphics server process that interacts with other
client processes. This includes an Application Programmer's Interface
that hides the details of sockets from the users of the API. The
function-oriented interface allows for easy exchange of data and
control for external software.
Omni(tm) also includes AUTOBASE, an embedded relational database manager for
organizing large on-line data sets. User-definable parameters are entered
via data entry windows and stored in the embedded database. An ASCII
formatted import/export capability is provided for exchange of database
information between Omni(tm) and other programs.
Workstation prerequisites for the execution of Omni(tm) require systems that
support Open GL and X Windows. The Omni(tm) software has been optimized for
Silicon Graphics workstations running at least Version 4.X of the IRIX
operating system.
The purchase of an Omni(tm) software license includes on-line
documentation help, Hotline support, as well as software and
documentation upgrades for the software options purchased. Software
familiarization training (3 days) is also available for up to six
people per license (travel expenses extra).
***************************************************************************
* Christopher Gamble cgamble@cs.autometric.com *
* Senior Systems ****yst tel 1-719-637-8332 *
* Autometric, Inc. fax 1-719-637-8535 *
* 1330 Inverness Drive, Suite 350 *
* Colorado Springs, Colorado 80910 *
***************************************************************************
From: Bob Fletcher <fletcher@bohr.pha.jhu.edu>
Message-Id: <9608022255.AA00944@bohr.pha.jhu.edu>
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 96 15:54:33 -0400
The FAQ doesn't seem to mention vtk- the Visualization Toolkit.
The following is copied directly from the Summary section of the
vtk web page at
http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~martink/
http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~martink/vtkData/WhatIsVTK.html
I'll let you consider any copyright issues.
The authors also distribute a large number of data files as examples
on the CD included in the book, and on their web site.
And nice job with the FAQ!
Bob.
----Begin Direct quote-----
The Visualization ToolKit (vtk) is a software system for 3D Computer Graphics
and Visualization. Vtk includes a textbook published by Prentice-Hall ("The
Visualization Toolkit, An Object-Oriented Approach To 3D Graphics" ISBN
013199837-4), a C++ class library, and a Tcl implementation based on the class
library. Vtk has been implemented on nearly every Unix-based platform and PC's
(Windows NT and Windows95). The design and implementation of the library has
been strongly influenced by object-oriented principles.
The graphics model in vtk is at a higher level of abstraction than rendering
libraries like openGL or PEX. This means it is much easier to create useful
graphics and visualization applications. In vtk applications can be written
directly in C++ or in Tcl, a interpretive language developed by John
Ousterhout. In fact, using Tcl and Tk, a graphical user interface toolkit based
on Tcl, it is possible to build useful applications really, really fast.
Finally, the software is a true visualization system, it doesn't just let you
visualize geometry. Vtk supports a wide variety of visualization algorithms
including scalar, vector, and tensor visualization, and advanced modelling
techniques like implicit modelling, polygon reduction, and Delaunay
triangulation.
Our goal is to make the software easy enough for any computer literate person
to use. This includes students, academicians, software developers, data
****ysts, hobbyists, graphics and visualization users/researchers, engineers,
scientists, and researchers. And you have a choice: if you hate C++, then use
Tcl.
------------
--------------------------------------------------
Bob Fletcher
Johns Hopkins Univ. Physics (!)
Fletcher@dirac.pha.jhu.edu
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