GINO graphics - Case Studies

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Quality Software, Bramois, Switzerland

GINO helps find your way home

GPS/utility is a software product for any user of a "Garmin" GPS in the mountains. It works on 1:25000 charts covering all of Switzerland and there are 246 charts in total each composed of 7000 x 4800 pixels. Once a chart or set of charts have been read in, it is then easy to define a route by clicking the mouse and adding waypoints which are then easily transferred to the GPS. On return, the waypoint data can be transferred back to the PC and the route can then be projected as a 2D graph showing Altitute vs. Distance or Altitute vs. Time. Newer developments to the application include a data export option to Google Earth.

Route and Waypoints added to map

National Institute of Ecomonic and Social Research, UK

Modelling the World Economy

NiGEM is a software forecasting and simulation tool developed by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. It is an estimated, theoretically coherent forward-looking model, designed as a tool for both practical forecasting and for academically defendable policy analysis of the world economy. It covers all OECD countries, including models for Mexico, South Korea, China, Russia, Hong-Kong, Taiwan, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. Group models for Latin America, Africa, East Asia and Developing Europe and OPEC are also available.
The model is used internally by NIESR for the Institute's quarterly forecast, and externally, it is used by a group of 50 model subscribers, mainly in the policy community, including the ECB, the central banks of the UK, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal and Sweden, and a number of finance ministries as well as the ESRI in Japan.
Recent policy analysis included an evaluation of the impact of US proposals for a Chinese revaluation. The modelling of the Chinese economy suggests that it is very responsive to shocks, and a revaluation would lead to rapid deflation. The real exchange rate would therefore return to where it had been previously. Hence it was suggested that realignment was a solution to the overheating of the Chinese economy, but that it would not help improve the US current account except in the short run.

NIESR has been using GINO since 1993, with GINOGRAF used to produce the graphics output and GINOMENU being used for the NiGEM user-interface. In previous versions, data was edited manually via standard text-editors. Now with the use of the RTF editor built into GINOMENU, the data can be edited while running the model and the modified graphical output can be viewed immediately.
"GINO's output flexibility and the integration between its graphics and user-interface modules saves the usual mixed-language programming problems and ensures updates to the program can be implemented with ease and on-time" says Dr. Ian Hurst, Chief Technical Architect of NiGEM.

QSCad, Masterbill, England

GINOSURF adds a New Dimension

Measuring Earthworks volumes from drawings will never be the same again now that Construction Industry Software House, Masterbill, have incorporated the Delphi version of GINOSURF into the latest releases of their CAD Measurement package QSCad. QSCad is designed to enable Quantity Surveyors and Estimators to cut the time they spend measuring by making use of the much more readily available electronic drawings without the need for a CAD system or the CAD skills to operate it. Whilst the basic QSCad system copes with superficial areas, lengths and numeric items, it is the Siteworks module which produces the biggest gains in time and accuracy by enabling the user to plot and interpolate both existing and proposed site levels together with the proposed construction depths to calculate the volumes of cut and fill. GINOSURF has been used for all the interpolation of levels and depths which enable accurate cut and fill volumes to be calculated. The speed of GINOSURF's interpolation routines has meant that thousands of calculations can be done in seconds rather than hours or even days with traditional manual measurement methods. Although the Siteworks module carries out thousands of calculations it is often hard to gain an appreciation of the site and this is where GINOSURF's functionality has been used to provide graphical representations of the site including contour maps, sections and a 3D surface model. It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but in this case it's worth a thousand calculations and enables the user to easily visualise the site they are working on and more importantly spot any errors or 'rogue' entries in seconds. "The ability to visualise the site provides the users with a great deal of reassurance that the system has interpreted the data correctly" explained Paul Watkins, Masterbill Sales & Marketing Director "which ensures that the system can deliver the time savings promised."

Cut and Fill Volume calculation using GINOSURF

GraphOpus

GraphOpus, USA

Graphically Visualizing a Play or Drama

GraphOpus, GO, is an interactive Windows program developed using GINOMENU Studio that facilitates studying and visualizing a drama by creating, from a sequence of user-defined events, a graph of dramatic intensity. GO helps the user:

Identify rising action, a climax, and resolution.
Analyze a drama quantitatively.
Discuss a play with authority.
Learn and understand a play in an organized way.
Enjoy a drama more by knowing it better!

The GO user, GOer, defines each event by specifying a range of lines within a scene and act. The GOer enters a synopsis of each event and assigns a weight that indicates her rating of the event's dramatic intensity. The result is a graph of the dramatic intensity and a user-written synopsis of the entire drama. The origins of GO began in 1949 when Thomas M. Lahey learns the idea of graphing a play from Father Albert Durant, OSA, teacher of senior English at St. Rita High School, Chicago, IL. "One assignment was to graph Macbeth. As each student read Macbeth, we noted act, scene, from- and to- line numbers, a synopsis of the event, and assigned a weight to each event. After completing the series of events that defined Macbeth, we each created a graph using a ruler, pen, and ink. The graph's x-axis was the accumulation of the line numbers that define the sequence of events; the y-axis was the accumulation of the weights assigned to each event. From this graph, it was possible to visualize the play and identify the climax and anti-climaxes." GraphOpus can be used by anyone wishing to study a drama, including teachers, students, directors or cast-members. Plays that have already been 'graphed' include Macbeth, The Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night.

Lotus Engineering, England

The Application of GINO graphics in the design of automotive camshafts

A large number of alternative valve train mechanisms have been developed over the years to operate the poppet valves of the internal combustion engine. An alternative approach to motion definition is being investigated using the visual and flexible availability of GINO and GINOMENU. The availability of Bezier curves within Gino coupled with an increase in the use of multiple spline based approaches to cam profile design within the automotive industry provides a potential solution.

Concept Valve Application

Pilatus PC-12

Pilatus Aircraft Ltd, Switzerland

Roll Your Own GINOGRAF ActiveX Control

Pilatus Aircraft, Switzerland are creating ActiveX Controls using Visual Basic and GINO. A basic x-y graph control is created and then some properties are set to load data into the control and to affect its appearance. Passing data arrays from Visual Basic to GINO have been accomplished along with setting Enumarators to match GINOGRAF's pre-defined contstants.

Max-Planck-Institute of Colloids & Interfaces, Germany

Using GINO to visualize the hydrophilicity of surfaces

Have you ever observed the different drop shapes of water on a surface? Some surfaces completely repel water while other surfaces are completely wetted. Have a look at some plants on your next walk! The hydrophilicity of a surface can be quantified by the measurement of the contact angle of a small water droplet at the surface. The shape of a droplet is governed by the balance of gravity and surface tension. Surface tension tries to minimize the surface area, while gravity tends to spread out the drop. The most precise determination of the contact angle is the fit of the drop contour to the Young Laplace differential equation.The programming task has been solved with GINO firstly by capturing a video image using a frame grabber, then contourtracing the image: A greyscale image can be regarded as matrix of a size 640x480 pixels. Each element of the matrix refers to the corresponding grey value between 0-255 so the contour shape can be efficiently traced using one of the Ginosurf contouring algorithms.
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Oscillating Bubble

Model of moulded plastic component produced using GINO

Plastics & Computer, Italy

GINO OpenGL Interface applied to C.A.E. Programs - Plastics and Computer

Plastics and Computer, Milan, Italy use the 3D capabilities of GINO which have significantly enhanced the creation and display of their complex models. Using high-performance OpenGL cards, a complex 3D model takes well under 1 second to display using GINO.

WS Atkins Noise & Vibration, England

NoiseMap 2000 - a leading environmental noise calculation package

When 'Noisemap' was re-written in 1997, the additional functionality of GINO meant it was easy to provide more advanced features. A fast raster display routine allows users to have area bitmaps on screen for data-entry or displaying results. Contour plotting with GINOSURF means a small amount of code can produce colour results output (a "noise map") very rapidly. The common GINO co-ordinate system means that resizing the main view automatically updates all these different viewing methods at once. GINO's precise control of printer properties (via Windows) enables exact-scale printing to occur easily and independently of the size or resolution of the output device selected. This process was an enormous headache under DOS.

When designing the 3D-viewing module for NoiseMap, the OpenGL functionality in GINO was used which took months off the development schedule, as it meant using simple GINO calls in the program, rather than learning the complexities of the OpenGL language. Additional features, such as mouse positioning, led to a very user-friendly design being used successfully by many of our clients.

GINOSURF contour map with GINO overlay