RasMol 2.2 Molecular Graphics Package Available

Subject:	RasMol 2.2 Molecular Graphics Package Available
Date:	14 Oct 93 16:55:43 GMT

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. 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 Analysis 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 analysis 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 Analysis},
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
Received: from data.nas.nasa.gov by wilbur.nas.nasa.gov (5.67-NAS.6/NAS.3-sps)
id AA18957; Wed, 16 Mar 94 23:05:34 -0800
Received: from uu4.psi.com by data.nas.nasa.gov (5.67-NAS.6/NAS.3-mx)
id AA11582; Wed, 16 Mar 94 23:05:31 -0800
Received: from TomSawyer.com by uu4.psi.com (5.65b/4.0.071791-PSI/PSINet) via UUCP;
id AA13210 for ; Thu, 17 Mar 94 02:04:55 -0500
Received: by TomSawyer.com (NX5.67d/NeXT-2.0)
id AA06838; Wed, 16 Mar 94 23:03:10 -0800
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
for ; Tue, 18 Apr 1995 13:09:04 -0700
Received: from vivid.autometric.com by relay4.UU.NET with SMTP
id QQymaq25310; Tue, 18 Apr 1995 16:09:01 -0400
Received: by vivid.autometric.com (5.67a/920502.SGI)
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:
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 analysts to explore
complex relationships (such as the interaction among space assets,
terrestrial sites, and time-critical events). Since interactive 3D
control of the analysis process is always maintained by the user,
efficient analysis of many diverse and complex problems can be made as
the need arises.

The Omni(tm) software system supports graphic data analysis 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 analysis 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 analyze 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 analysis 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 analysis 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 analysis. 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
analytical 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 Analyst tel 1-719-637-8332 *
* Autometric, Inc. fax 1-719-637-8535 *
* 1330 Inverness Drive, Suite 350 *
* Colorado Springs, Colorado 80910 *
***************************************************************************

From: Bob Fletcher
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
analysts, 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

--

Looking for an H-912 (container).