PascGalois JE Help: 3-D Viewers


PascGalois JE has two three-dimensional viewers for the two-dimensional automata. The first takes each level (or time-step) of the automaton and stacks them into a "pyramid". The second is invoked when you are viewing a density plot, it will graph the density plot as a three-dimensional bar chart.

If you invoke either of the 3-D Viewers a new window will appear displaying the current automaton using the current color scheme.

The level grapher is pictured below.

The toolbar at the top of the window has options to copy the image to the clipboard, copy the color correspondence to the clipboard, save the image and save the color correspondence respectively. The last option is to export the image as a POV-Ray file.

The Export to POV-Ray option will save the automaton as a set of files that can be read and rendered by POV-Ray. POV-Ray is a freeware ray tracer which is available on all major platforms. In Windows, there is a very nice and easy to use user interface. Most Linux implementations have a command line version that is included in the distribution. For details on the options of the POV-Ray exporter see the POV-Ray Exporter page.

The tool button in the upper right hand corner is the refresh button that will apply all of the changes to the automaton and regraph the image. There is a automatic update check box to the left of this. Normally, when a change is made you need to hit the refresh button for the changes to take place. If you are working with a reasonable number of levels the updates are fairly fast. Selecting the automatic update option will update the image after any change is made.

The toolbar down the right hand side of the window are the color correspondence tools, which are.

The color correspondence list has the same right-click popup menu as in the 1-D and 2-D Image tabs and double-clicking the color will bring up the color selection box.

The options at the bottom control the objects that are graphed and the camera interface. The objects are the solids that are graphed at each of the automaton cells. You can select between any of the five Platonic solids or a sphere. Note that if you are graphing a substantial number of levels the interface may become a bit sluggish, in which case you may not want to use the sphere option since this is most computationally expensive object in the list. There is also a slider that allows you to change the size of the object. Note that the default size of the cube is just big enough to fit exactly in the space of the cell. The default size of the sphere is also the largest sphere that can fit inside the box for a cell. The other solids were made slightly smaller than the maximum that could fit in the box for a cell.

There are two independent camera interfaces, the spherical camera and the Yaw-Pitch-Roll camera. The spherical camera is the easier of the two to use but if you want to navigate inside the automaton you will find the Yaw-Pitch-Roll camera more versatile. The spherical camera always points toward the center of the automaton and sits on a sphere around that center. A click and drag of the mouse will change the camera position on the viewing sphere and a click and drag while the Control (Ctrl) key is down will move the camera closer to the center or further away from the canter. If you are primarily looking at the automaton from the outside then this camera interface is probably the one you will find most convenient.

The Yaw-Pitch-Roll camera is a little more difficult to use but it has the advantage of being able to position itself anywhere and point anywhere. So if you are moving around inside the automaton this interface will be more useful. Yaw is left and right angular rotation of the camera at the current camera position, Pitch is up and down angular rotation of the camera at the current camera position, and Roll is an angular rotation about the viewing axis. These rotations do not change the camera position they simply change the viewing vector (and the up vector). In this interface a click and drag will change the pitch and the yaw, and a click and drag with the Shift key down will change the roll. A click and drag with the Control (Ctrl) key down will move the camera along the viewing vector (forward and backward) and a click and drag with the Alt key down will move the camera in the plane perpendicular to the viewing vector.

There are also options to reset the camera position and to adjust the mouse sensitivity.


The density grapher is pictured below.

As with the level grapher, the toolbar at the top of the window has options to copy the image to the clipboard, copy the color correspondence to the clipboard, save the image and save the color correspondence respectively. Similarly, the color scheme options on the right are a subset of those from the level grapher but their function is identical, as are the camera and options at the bottom of the window.

The only other options are the object type and the maximum height of the bar chart. The object that is used as the bar can either be a rectangular solid (Box) or a cylinder. The maximum height is the height of the bars that represent the highest probability in the graph.


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