Visualization Workshop

David BockVisualization Research Programmer

National Center for Supercomputing Applications - NCSA University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Introduction to AVS

Wright State University

Agenda Introduction to AVS System design Getting started Break Overview tour of AVS The AVS Network Editor Building networks The AVS Geometry Viewer Importing data into AVS Break Work on your own: on-line demos, help, apps Wrap-up: questions, hand-outs

IntroductionWhat is AVS?

Application Visualization System Visual programming data visualization product. Provides

comprehensive suite of data visualization and analysis techniques that incorporates both traditional visualization tools such as 2D plots and graphs and image processing as well as advanced tools such as 3D interactive rendering and volume visualization.

Advanced Visual Systems, Inc. (http://www.avs.com) Initial development 1988 - Stardent Computer, Inc. Other product offerings include AVS/Express, OpenViz

IntroductionApplications

Medical Imaging Atmospheric Science GIS Mathematics Computational Fluid Dynamics Astrophysics Chemistry etc…

IntroductionPlatform Availability

UNIX Workstations Digital Equipment Corporation Hewlett Packard International Business Machines Silicon Graphics Sun Microsystems

AVS5 now supports the Linux Operating System

System DesignDesign Methodology

Modular architecture Categorizes 4 steps of visualization (Input, Filter, Map, Render) Breaks each category into small subtasks or modules

Visual programming Easy to use interface provides drag & drop construction Graphical connection of modules in data-flow environment

Networks Describes visual programming sessions Inter-connections of modules in data-flow environment Individual “applications” Share with colleagues

System DesignDesign Methodology

Multi-tiered user environment Application Users

want easy-to-use turnkey application to visualize their data Application Developers

create interactive, visual applications for users in their organizations or

for commercial distribution Application Programmers

develop custom techniques to extend module toolsuite

On-line documentation Detailed help facilities Extensive demo and application examples

System DesignAdvantages & Benefits

Scientist driven exploration Researcher is the visualization developer Can explore and experiment with different representations

Multiple visual representations Increases insight Multiple networks

Session sharing Saved networks can be shared among colleagues Sessions shared in addition to results

System DesignAdvantages & Benefits

Distributed For solutions to large-scale problems, AVS is designed to run in a

distributed environment AVS modules can execute and leverage remote machines Avoids need for data transfer AVS handles data format conversion issues

Extensible Custom module development Helpful software development tools - AVS Module Generator

International AVS Centre (IAC) (http://www.iavsc.org) Module repository (public-domain modules) User group, training materials

Getting StartedAVS execution environment

Directory structureLUI/ data/ include/ networks/

applications/ demo/ lib/ relnotes/

avs_library/ demosuite/ license/ runtime/

bin/ examples/ math/ test/

chem_lib/ filter/ unsupp_mods/

cpio inScape/

Useful variables setenv AVS_PATH/usr/avs/ set path = ($path $AVS_PATH/bin)

Executing AVS prompt% avs

Getting StartedAVS execution environment

Customization startup file Custom control over appearance, default directories, module libs Copy system startup file to home directory

cp $AVS_PATH/runtime/avsrc $HOME/.avsrc

Some example settingsNetworkWindow 960x960+290+30

DataDirectory $HOME/myData

NetworkDirectory $HOME/myNetworks

ModuleLibraries $AVS_PATH/avs_library/Volume \

$AVS_PATH/avs_library/UCD \

$AVS_PATH/unsupp_mods \

$HOME/myModules

Wrap up Questions, comments

Workshop hand-outs

Relevant web links http://www.avs.com - Advanced Visual Systems http://www.iavsc.org - International AVS Centre http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SCD/Vis/Software/AVS/AVSdocs.html