Slide 1

Visualization of scientific data - Domain-specific applications

Mike Walterman,

Manager of Graphics Programming,

Scientific Computing and Visualization Group,

Boston University

Slide 2

Introduction

• Objective of the presentation- Present methods for finding and/or creating domain specific visualization applications for LINUX

• Main topics

- What is a domain specific application - Types of software - Sources for applications - Applications supported at BU - Web resources for finding applications - Conclusions

Slide 3

What is a domain specific application?

• One person’s domain is another’s supporting technology

• My criteria

- Interface speaks the language for a specific group (e.g. astronomy, MRI, ...)

- Operation of tool fits into domain work-flow

- Has desired functionality, or is adaptable by means understood by target community

Slide 4

Types of software• Toolkits

- Programming oriented- Provide greatest flexibility

- Provide basis for other software types

• Authoring and Modeling- Build applications via simple models (e.g. flow graph)- Create visual objects via “intuitive” interfaces- Domain specific applications can be obtained as shareware/freeware

• Domain Specific- Works out of the box- Targeted at specific community

Slide 5

Sources for Visualization Software• Universities

- University of Illinois- University of Minnesota- University of Utah

• Government Labs - Argonne - Los Alamos - National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)• Commercial - Kitware - AVS - Flometrics• Military - Naval Research Laboratory

- U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories

Slide 6

What we support/have on LINUX at BU

• Toolkits - OpenGL - Inventor - OpenGL Performer - VTK - IDL - MatLab

• Authoring Systems - Maya - AVS - OpenDX

• Domain Specific - Gaussian 98 - Quanta

Slide 7

Toolkits - OpenGL, OpenInventor, Performer

• OpenGL- Low level de facto standard graphics API. Basic rendering technology for other packages.

- Vendor: Many (esp. if you want HW acceleration) - www.opengl.org

• OpenInventor - An object-oriented, cross-platform 3D graphics API for C++ and

Java developers. - Heavily scene graph based.

- Vendor: Template Graphics - www.tgs.com

• Performer - A programming interface for creating real-time visual simulation and

other performance-oriented 3D graphics applications.

- Vendor: Silicon Graphics - www.sgi.com

Slide 8

VTK, IDL - Toolkits• VTK (Visualization ToolKit)

- Set of C++ classes

- Interfaces to tcl, Java, and Python

- Extensible through Object oriented means

- Data flow model

- Programer’s Environment

- Vendor: Kitware - www.kitware.com

• IDL (Interactive Data Language)

- interpretative, allows interactive use

- command-line driven, language with Fortran-like feel

- extensible via user defined functions

- Scientists Tool

- Vendor: Research Systems/Kodak - www.rsinc.com

Slide 9

Authoring Systems - Maya, AVS, OpenDX

• Maya- General modeling tool for digital content- BU artists are primary users- Vendor: Alias | wavefront - www.aliaswavefront.com

• AVS - Data flow graph modeling system for building SciVis Applications - Applied in traditional and non-traditional scientific areas - Vendor: Advanced Visual Systems - www.avs.com

• OpenDX- Data flow graph modeling system for building SciVis Applications

- Free- Experimenting with this tool internally - Vendor: IBM’s Data Visualization Explorer - www.opendx.org

Slide 10

Domain Specific ApplicationsQuanta, Gaussian 98, Ideas

• Quanta- A molecular graphics analysis program. Modeling, Simulation, Visualization.

- Used by BU Biomedical Engineering - Vendor: Accelrys - www.accelrys.com/quanta

• Gaussian98 - Molecular modeling system, performs computation based on laws of

quantum mechanics. - Used by BU Chemistry

- Vendor: Gaussian, Inc. - www.gaussian.com

• Ideas- CAD/CAM/CAE - product design.

- Used by BU Biomedical Engineering - Vendor: Electronic Data Systems - www.eds.com/products/plm/ideas

Slide 11

Sources on the Web• NASA Ames Data Analysis Group

- Good page listing sources of SciVis apps and examples

- www.nas.nasa.gov/Groups/VisTech

• Student Page at Silesian University of Technology in Poland

- A fair number of LINUX based Chemistry Packages

- http://zeus.polsl.gliwice.pl/~nikodem//linux4chemistry.html

• University of Minnesota Super Computing Institute

- Good catalog of the more popular packages.

- http://www.msi.umn.edu/user_support/scivis/scivis-list.html

Slide 12

Sources on the Web continued• OpenGL based visualization tools

www.opengl.org/users/apps_hardware/applications/linux_apps.html

• SourceForge’s Scientific Plotting and Visualization packages for Linux.

scilinux.sourceforge.net/graphvis.html

• Debian’s list of SciVIs Tools

packages.debian.org/unstable/science

Slide 13

Conclusion - Development Options

• Develop “from scratch” using programming toolkits

• Author a system

• Buy/Obtain an end user solution

Slide 14

IDL Example

• Creates a 3D Plot of a surface stored in a data file

; File: xsurface.pro; Author: Erik Brisson

c = fltarr(60,60)openr, 3, 'dat/ex_surf_60x60.dat'readf, 3, cxsurface, c

end

Slide 15

Conclusions