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GINOSURF - The 3D/4D data display library for
Contouring, Surface Mapping & X-Sections
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Overview
GINOSURF is a multi-dimensional graphical display library providing a
variety of surface representations. Contour plots, perspective surfaces and
cross-sectional diagrams can all be generated to perform accurate visual
appraisal of your multi-dimensional data. This impressive and high performance
surface mapping can all be created with a minimum of programming effort.
Data sources include 3D or 4D, random or gridded datasets which are
interpolated onto a gridded or triangulated network with full programmable
interpolation control. Pre-triangulated data can also be input from FE
triangulated datasets and DXF Polyface surface metafiles. Control routines
provide full colour control, scaling, direction of viewing, character and
annotation control, projection of contour slices, area fill of specified data
regions, axis control and full hidden surface facilities.
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Highlights:
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Triangular Interpolation
GINOSURF can interpolate from functions, random data or gridded data, but as
well as interpolating onto a rectangular grid as most other packages do,
GINOSURF can interpolate onto a triangular network.
A triangulation network may be generated from random (or gridded but treated as
random) data from which contour maps, 3D surfaces and cross-sections may be
drawn. Contouring through a triangulated network allows more precise tracing of
a particular height value because the 'route' of the contour is evaluated by
interpolating between the three nodes of each triangle which means only the
'local' values will affect the contouring. Interpolating onto a rectangular
grid involves a larger number of surrounding points and can influence the
tracing adversely. The triangulation network has the disadvantage of greater
complexity, but has the advantage of offering irregular boundaries, faults,
excluded regions and many additional control routines. |
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Contour Maps
GINOSURF contour maps give you full control over all aspects of the map, either
by accepting the default settings or customizing via additional parameters and
routine calls. Contour maps can be displayed over the complete contour range of
the data or just the contour levels you want to display on the map. You can
choose a whole range of annotation settings for the axes or contours themselves
and of course you can add colour fill between the contours to enhance the
presentation quality. |
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Contours overlayed on Image
A coloured contour map can easily be overlayed onto an existing image map
giving accurate colour information directly relating to the image data. The
image can be any one of the popular image formats including BMP, JPEG, WMF, PNG
etc. |
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3D Projected Contours
In addition to displaying contour maps as 2D drawings, they may also be
projected onto a 3D axis system with or without an accompanying surface. They
can be colour filled or line-drawn and the line-drawn variety can be optionally
background filled beforehand if a transparency effect is not desired. |
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3D Filled Surfaces
3D surface maps can be shaded or filled to emphasize height related features.
The surface can be viewed from any eyepoint and control is given over frame
style, base style, annotation, height-base ratio, and display of surface line
styles.
Contoured Surfaces
Filled surfaces can also be drawn with contour data overlaid so that the colour
filling is controlled by the contour bands. |
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3D Wireframe Surfaces
Wireframe surfaces can be viewed and controlled in the same way as filled
surfaces but can be used to give more a more accurate represention of the data
being displayed. Wire-frame surfaces can be drawn with different coloured
section lines that vary according to height. |
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3D Shaded Surfaces
Lighting and Shading can be applied to any type of surface map using the OpenGL
facilities of GINO. Flat, Gouraud or Phong shading can be set together with up
to 8 light sources including spot lights, directional lights or ambient lights.
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Textured Overlays
Texture mapping can be applied to any filled surface allowing the draping of
any size pixel map up to 1024 x 1024 pixels. The texture can be applied in
overlay mode, modulate mode or blend mode, either replacing or merging with the
surface colours respectively. |
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Faults and Breaklines
One or more vertical fault lines can be added to an existing 3D network. A
fault line (or curve) is a vertical discontinuity in the surface, but to allow
triangulation of the fault, it is displaced by a small amount from the
vertical.
Break lines may be used to add surface details such as contours, ridges or
buildings whether or not the heights of such features are known. The line
segments are guaranteed to exist as edges of triangles in the new network and
therefore where constant heights are supplied, contours will not cross the
breakline.
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Cut and Fill Surface Display
Projected building site boundaries and slopes may be added to surveyed surface
data to calculate and display cut-and-fill areas and volumes for the
project. The site data is formed into an additional sub-surface from which
the intersection with the true surface data is calculated. Separate areas and
volumes both above and below the intersection are supplied along with the
ability to display the site in-situ with the original surface. |
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Animation
Animation sequences can be both displayed and exported using facilities within
GINOSURF. Utilising OpenGL display lists via the GINO segment facilities,
smooth rotated views of shaded surfaces can be displayed as part of an
application under Windows or .NET. Alternatively, sequences of metafiles can be
exported to construct animation applets using all the power of GINOSURF. |
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Cross-Sections
Two points on the base of a contour map or 3D surface can easily be used to
draw a simple cross-section. The cross section can be wire-frame or
colour-filled as per a contour map and the usual facilities of frame type, axes
style, labels and annotation can all be controlled.
A polyline cross section is composed of contiguous sections specified through a
series of line segments along the base of a contour map or 3D surface. |
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3D Cross-Sections
Straight line and Polyline cross sections can be displayed on a set of 3D axes
either with or without their corresponding surface. |
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Additional Features
- Export maps to DXF, WMF, CGM, BMP, JPG, PNG and Postsript formats
- Print to any Windows printer or plotter
- Import DXF polymesh into vertex and triangle arrays
- Combine any number and any type of map on a single page
- Full screen cursor or mouse interaction for data and point enquiry
- Define custom line styles and colors and save for use on other maps
- Add Text anywhere on the map using TrueType fonts
- Include superscripts, subscripts and Greek or other characters in text
- Easily clip boundaries or posted points to contour map limits
- Display and print subsets of completed maps, complete with subset axes
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