Re: SUBMISSION: Geomview 1.4.1: Free 3D viewer for NeXTStep

["Ivan Vesely" <vesely at heartlab.rri.uwo.ca>]

In comp.sys.next.announce article <2e3lao$1bj at digifix.digifix.com> you wrote:
> The staff of the Geometry Center announce the release of version 1.4.1
> of Geomview, an interactive geometry viewing program.  This version of
> Geomview runs on Silicon Graphics IRIS workstations, NeXT
> workstations, and 486 PCs running NeXTStep 3.x.  The distribution
> includes source code and compiled binaries for these architectures.
> 

> Geomview is available via anonymous ftp on the Internet from host
> geom.umn.edu (IP address 128.101.25.35).  It's in the subdirectory
> `pub/software/geomview'.  Get the file README in that directory for
> details.  The main distribution files are:
> 

>   geomview-sgi.tar.Z:	Compiled binaries for SGI workstations.
>   geomview-next.tar:	Compiled binaries for NeXTStep 3.x systems.
>   geomview-src.tar.Z:	Source code.
> 

> We recommend that you get one of the compiled binary distributions
> unless you specifically want to look at the source code.
> 

> This release contains many bug fixes and several new features and
> external modules.  Another addition is a comprehensive user's manual.
> We are working on a version of Geomview for generic X windows; it
> should become available within the next few months.
> 

> Geomview has been developed in the research environment of the
> Geometry Center where there is an emphasis on visualization of
> mathematical concepts.  It can be used as a standalone viewer for
> static objects or as a display engine for other programs which produce
> dynamically changing geometry.  Geomview was described in the
> ``Computers and Mathematics'' column of the October 1993 issue of the
> Notices of the American Mathematical Society.  A brief overview of its
> capabilities is appended to the bottom of this message.
> 

> The Geometry Center is an NSF-funded research center based at the
> University of Minnesota.  Its mission is to support, develop, and
> promote the computation and visualization of geometric structures.
> The Geometry Center's official name is the "National Science and
> Technology Research Center for Computation and Visualization of
> Geometry Structures".
> 

> We are very interested in getting feedback from people who use
> Geomview, so please let us hear from you!  Send correspondence via
> email to software@geom.umn.edu, or via regular mail to
> 

> Software Development Group
> Geometry Center
> 1300 South 2nd Street, Suite 500
> Minneapolis, MN  55454
> USA
> 

> Thank you!
> 

> The Geometry Center Software Development Group
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 

> Overview of Geomview
> ********************
> 

> Geomview's main purpose is to display objects whose geometry is given,
> allowing interactive control over details such as point of view, speed
> of movement, appearance of surfaces and lines, and so on.  Geomview can
> handle any number of objects and allows both separate and collective
> control over them.  

> 

> The simplest way to use Geomview is as a standalone viewer to see
> and manipulate objects.  It can display objects described in a variety
> of file formats.  It comes with a wide variety of example objects, and
> you can create your own objects.
> 

> You can also use Geomview to handle the display of data coming from
> another program that is running simultaneously.  As the other program
> changes the data, the Geomview image reflects the changes.  Programs
> that generate objects and use Geomview to display them are called
> *external modules*.  External modules can control almost all
> aspects of Geomview.  The idea here is that many aspects of the display
> and interaction parts of geometry software are independent of the
> geometric content and can be collected together in a single piece of
> software that can be used in a wide variety of situations.  The author
> of the external module can then concentrate on implementing the desired
> algorithms and leave the display aspects to Geomview.  Geomview comes
> with a collection of sample external modules, and this manual describes
> how to write your own.
> 

> Geomview represents the current state of an ongoing effort at the
> Geometry Center to provide interactive geometry software that is
> particularly appropriate for mathematics research and education.  In
> particular, Geomview can display things in hyperbolic and spherical
> space as well as Euclidean space.
> 

> Geomview allows multiple independently controllable objects and
> cameras.  It provides interactive control for motion, appearances
> (including lighting, shading, and materials), picking on an object,
> edge or vertex level, snapshots in SGI image file or Renderman RIB
> format, and adding or deleting objects is provided through direct
> mouse manipulation, control panels, and keyboard shortcuts.
> 

> Geomview supports the following simple data types: polyhedra with
> shared vertices (.off), quadrilaterals, rectangular meshes, vectors,
> and Bezier surface patches of arbitrary degree including rational
> patches. Object hierarchies can be constructed with lists of objects
> and instances of object(s) transformed by one or many 4x4 matrices.
> Arbitrary portions of changing hierarchies may be transmitted by
> creating named references.
> 

> Geomview can display Mathematica graphics output.

looks interesting

--
Ivan Vesely, Electrical Engineering and Medical Biophysics
University of Western Ontario,     vesely at heartlab.rri.uwo.ca

We are Microsoft.  Unix is irrelevant.  Openness is futile.  You will be  
assimilated.....