IAEA0916 PLOT3D.

1. NAME OR DESIGNATION OF PROGRAM:  PLOT3D.
(Versions 1 to 5).

3. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM OR FUNCTION

PLOT3D is a general purpose, interactive program, designed to draw three dimensional graphs, histograms, maps and stereo 3D plots, in single or multicolour, from arrays of points (x,y,z) under various options such as clipping, smoothening, shading, etc. using a built-in 3D interpolation function, and after arbitrary rotations about the three coordinate axes.

4. METHOD OF SOLUTION

For plotting a two variables dependent function, z(x,y) the program reads its z values in form of a matrix, z(i,j), in which the indices i and j specify the values of x and y,  respectively, either by direct proportionality or through array variables, X(i) and Y(j). Thereafter, the program normalizes the data coordinates, transforms them to effect the orientation of the figure, and then draws axonometric projection using single floating  horizon method for hidden lines elimination. In addition, a built-in 3D interpolation function allows numerous intermediate points to be  generated and immediately plotted and thus helps in drawing 3D histograms or smoothening the plotted surface, and in shading. The program has two modes of hidden lines removal, both based on single  floating horizon method. There exist five versions of this program as listed in item 7.

5. RESTRICTIONS ON THE COMPLEXITY OF THE PROBLEM

The size of z data matrix cannot exceed 115 x 115. The number of interpolations cannot  exceed 1001 x 1001. In versions 4 and 5, the number of colours cannot exceed 16. In layout diagrams, the items cannot be anything but orthorhombic in shape.

6. TYPICAL RUNNING TIME

For drawing a 3D graph of sample data of 15x9 matrix size, with smoothening and shading, the time taken by different versions of the Norsk Data-560 computer system were as follows:
           ND monitor  Graphics System         CPU time  I/O time
           ----------  ---------------         --------  --------
Version-2: ND-500      Tektronix-4663 plotter   18 sec     6 sec
Version-2: ND-500      Tektronix-4012 terminal  18 sec     3 sec
Version-3: ND-500      Tektronix-4012 terminal  19 sec     3 sec
Version-4: ND-500      Tektronix-4109 terminal  35 sec     3 sec
Version-1: ND-100      Tektronik-4012 terminal (Total time= 1 min)

7. UNUSUAL FEATURES OF THE PROGRAM

Version-1: draws axonometric 3D graphs, while simultaneously
           generating intermediate (x,y,z) points for filling,
smoothening, etc., on a monochrome graphics terminal or a            pen plotter.
Version-2: is a slight improvement on version-1.
Version-3: has several additional features useful for drawing 3D
           maps, stereo 3D graphs, and perspective 3D layout
           diagrams.
Version-4: displays multicolour contour plots and 3D graphs having
           colour coded heights. The colour legend can be
           interactively and easily selected. Hard copy is obtaind
           by dumping the screen contents on to a colour graphics
           printer.
Version-5: is a fusion of version 3 and 4 in which all the graphics
           call statements exist in form of comment lines "CA" and
           "CB". It requires conditional compilation for selection
           of either version.

8. RELATED AND AUXILIARY PROGRAMS

Versions 1 to 3 are based on PLOT-10 TCS, and version 4 on PLOT10 IGL (option 24, level 5.2) graphics package.

10. REFERENCES

- I. Carlbom and J. Paciorek,
  Planar Geometric Projections and Viewing Transformations,
  Computing Surveys, Vol. 10, No. 4, December 1978.
- W.M. Newman and R.F. Sproull,
  Principles of interactive Computer Graphics,
  2nd edition, Mcgraw-Hill International Book Co.

- Balhans Jayaswal:
  PLOT-3D : A Multipurpose, Interactive Program for Plotting Three
  Dimensional Graphs.
  BARC-1274  (1985)

11. MACHINE REQUIREMENTS

In 16 bits ND-100 computer system, the core storage requirements for version 1 and 2 are
For version-1: Program size = 32 Kbytes, Data size = 54 Kbytes
For version-2: Program size = 32 Kbytes, Data size = 61 Kbytes

13. OPERATING SYSTEM UNDER WHICH PROGRAM IS EXECUTED

Sintran-III
(version J) of Norsk Data 560 computer system.

14. OTHER PROGRAMMING OR OPERATING INFORMATION OR RESTRICTIONS:

15. NAME AND ESTABLISHMENT OF AUTHORS

         Balhans Jayaswal
         Reactor Services Division, CIRUS
         Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay
         Bombay - 400 085, India

File name	File description	Records
IAEA0916_01.001	INFORMATION FILE	98
IAEA0916_01.002	PLOT3D VER.1 SOURCE FOR NORSK DATA 560	1408
IAEA0916_01.003	PLOT3D VER.2 SOURCE FOR NORSK DATA 560	1420
IAEA0916_01.004	PLOT3D VER.1 SOURCE FOR VAX COMPUTER	2166
IAEA0916_01.005	PLOT3D VER.2 SOURCE FOR VAX COMPUTER	2288
IAEA0916_01.006	INPUT DATA FOR CASE 1	27
IAEA0916_01.007	RUN DATA FILE FOR CASE 1	55
IAEA0916_01.008	INPUT DATA FOR CASE 2	13
IAEA0916_01.009	RUN DATA FILE FOR CASE 2	72
IAEA0916_01.010	INPUT DATA FOR CASE 3	26
IAEA0916_01.011	RUN DATA FILE FOR CASE 3	53