Routines (by topic) > 3D Visualization

3D Visualization

3D Transformations & Scene Setup

CONVERT_COORD - Transforms coordinates to and from the coordinate systems supported by IDL.(Direct Graphics)

COORD2TO3 - Returns 3D data coordinates given normalized screen coordinates.

CROSSP - Sets up 3D transformations.

CV_COORD - Converts 2D and 3D coordinates between coordinate systems.

IDLgrLight - Represents a source of illumination for three-dimensional graphic objects.

IDLgrModel - Represents a graphical item or group of items that can be transformed (rotated, scaled, and/or translated).

IDLgrScene - Represents the entire scene to be drawn and serves as a container of IDLgrView or IDLgrViewgroup objects.

IDLgrView - Represents a rectangular area in which graphics objects are drawn.

IDLgrViewgroup - Represents a simple container object, very similar to the IDLgrScene object, but can contain objects without a Draw method in addition to IDLgrView objects.

IDLgrWindow - Represents an on-screen area on a display device that serves as a graphics destination.

SCALE3 - Sets up axis ranges and viewing angles for 3D plots.

SCALE3D - Scales 3D unit cube into the viewing area. (Direct Graphics)

SET_SHADING - Sets the light source shading parameters. (Direct Graphics)

SURFR - Sets up 3D transformations by duplicating rotation, translation, and scaling of SURFACE. (Direct Graphics)

T3D - Performs various 3D transformations. (Direct Graphics)

VERT_T3D - Transforms a 3D array by a 4x4 transformation matrix.

VOXEL_PROJ - Generates volume visualizations using voxel technique. (Direct Graphics)

Polygonal Mesh Routines

COMPUTE_MESH_NORMALS - Computes normal vectors for a set of polygons described by the input array.

IDLgrPolygon - Represents one or more polygons that share a given set of vertices and rendering attributes.

MESH_CLIP - Clips a polygonal mesh to an arbitrary plane in space and returns a polygonal mesh of the remaining portion.

MESH_DECIMATE - Reduces the density of geometry while preserving as much of the original data as possible.

MESH_ISSOLID - Computes various mesh properties and enables IDL to determine if a mesh encloses space (is a solid).

MESH_MERGE - Merges two polygonal meshes.

MESH_NUMTRIANGLES - Computes the number of triangles in a polygonal mesh.

MESH_OBJ - Generates a polygon mesh for various simple objects.

MESH_SMOOTH - Performs spatial smoothing on a polygon mesh.

MESH_SURFACEAREA - Computes various mesh properties to determine the mesh surface area, including integration of other properties interpolated on the surface of the mesh.

MESH_VALIDATE - Checks for NaN values in vertices, removes unused vertices, and combines close vertices.

MESH_VOLUME - Computes the volume that the mesh encloses.

POLYSHADE - Creates a shaded surface representation from a set of polygons. (Direct Graphics)

Surfaces and Contours

CONTOUR - Draws a two-dimensional contour plot for a 2D array of data.

CONTOUR Procedure - Draws a contour plot. (Direct Graphics)

ICONTOUR - Creates an iTool and associated user interface (UI) configured to display and manipulate contour data. (iTools)

IDLgrContour - Draws a contour plot from data stored in a rectangular array or from a set of unstructured points.

IDLgrSurface - Represents a shaded or vector representation of a mesh grid.

IMAGE_STATISTICS - Overlays an image with a contour plot.

ISURFACE - Creates an iTool and associated user interface (UI) configured to display and manipulate surface data. (iTools)

MIN_CURVE_SURF - Interpolates points with a minimum curvature surface or a thin-plate-spline surface. Useful with CONTOUR.

POLAR_CONTOUR - Draws a contour plot from data in polar coordinates. (Direct Graphics)

SHADE_SURF - Creates a shaded-surface representation of gridded data. (Direct Graphics)

SHADE_SURF_IRR - Creates a shaded-surface representation of an irregularly gridded dataset. (Direct Graphics)

SHOW3 - Displays array as image, surface plot, and contour plot simultaneously. (Direct Graphics)

SURFACE- Draws a three-dimensional surface for a 2D array of data.

SURFACE Procedure - Plots an array as a surface. (Direct Graphics)

Tetrahedral Mesh Routines

IDLgrTessellator - Decomposes a polygon description into a set of triangles to convert complex and/or concave polygons into a convex form suitable for drawing with the IDLgrPolygon object.

TETRA_CLIP - Clips a tetrahedral mesh to an arbitrary plane in space and returns a tetrahedral mesh of the remaining portion.

TETRA_SURFACE - Extracts a polygonal mesh as the exterior surface of a tetrahedral mesh.

TETRA_VOLUME - Computes properties of tetrahedral mesh array.

Vector Field Visualization

FLOW3 - Draws lines representing a 3D flow/velocity field.

INTERPOL - Performs linear interpolation on vectors.

IVECTOR - Creates an iTool and associated user interface (UI) configured to display and manipulate vector data. (iTools)

PARTICLE_TRACE - Traces the path of a massless particle through a vector field.

STREAMLINE - Draws a streamline plot.

STREAMLINE Procedure = Generates the visualization graphics from a path. (Direct Graphics)

VECTOR - Draws a plot of either vectors or wind barbs.

VECTOR_FIELD - Places colored, oriented vectors of specified length at each vertex in an input vertex array.

VERT_T3D - Draws a velocity (flow) field with streamlines.

Volume Visualization

EXTRACT_SLICE - Returns 2D planar slice extracted from volume.

IDLgrVolume - Represents a mapping from a 3D array of data to a 3D array of voxel colors, which, when drawn, are projected to two dimensions.

IDLgrVRML - Saves the contents of an Object Graphics hierarchy into a VRML 2.0 format file.

INTERVAL_VOLUME - Generates a tetrahedral mesh from volumetric data.

ISOSURFACE - Returns topologically consistent triangles by using oriented tetrahedral decomposition.

IVOLUME - Creates an iTool and associated user interface (UI) configured to display and manipulate volume data. (iTools)

PROJECT_VOL - Returns a translucent rendering of a volume projected onto a plane.

QGRID3 - Interpolates the dependent variable values to points in a regularly sampled volume.

QHULL - Constructs convex hulls, Delaunay triangulations, and Voronoi diagrams.

RECON3 - Reconstructs a 3D representation of an object from 2D images.

SEARCH3D - Finds “objects” or regions of similar data values within a volume.

SHADE_VOLUME - Contours a volume to create a list of vertices and polygons that can be displayed using POLYSHADE. (Direct Graphics)

SLICER3 - Interactive volume visualization tool. (Direct Graphics)

VOXEL_PROJ - Generates volume visualizations using voxel technique. (Direct Graphics)

XOBJVIEW - Displays object viewer widget.

XOBJVIEW_ROTATE - Programmatically rotate the object currently displayed in XOBJVIEW.

XOBJVIEW_WRITE_IMAGE - Write the object currently displayed in XOBJVIEW to an image file.

XVOLUME - Utility for viewing and interactively manipulating volumes and isosurfaces.