| PrisNo6 2003-12-28, 11:29 pm |
| I am a beginning VRML coder who was written an initial version for a
generic 3D data plotting application. My specific use (which is
reflected in the world's sample data) is tri-axial plotting of
astronomical objects.
I would appreciate it if more experienced users would try the world
and provide any suggestions. Features include:
1) Built-in handling for two sets of axes.
2) Scalable axes and datasets.
3) Auto-scaled viewpoints to circumnavigate the outside of the world,
view x-y, y-z and z-x slices, and origin views.
4) Built-in handling for five sets of data. A machine limited number
of data groups can be plotted, but only five are pre-programmed with
toggle on-off buttons.
5) Customizable plot prototype objects, including a directional vector
object and a plus-minus uncertainty bar plot point. The sample world
provides prototype objects for astronomny, but other application
specific objects can be particularized from two root prototypes.
6) A VRML menu-controller panel with -
a) on/off toggle menu items with item color changing on select.
b) option groups with selected item highlighting.
If I use this data plotting widget as a communication tool, I would
like to get some feel for what combinations of browsers and viewer
plugins that my world will work with. The development tools were MS
IE 6.0 and Cortona Viewer 4.0.
The sample astro plotting world (with fictitious object data) is at:
http://members.csolutions.net/fishe...Astro/World.wrl
The entire world files come to around 270K (principally due to heavy
development commenting) - a factor if you are using a modem
connection.
When the world loads, it defaults to an "Initial viewpoint" on the
viewpoint list. A programmed VRML viewpoint "Control panel" unhides
the world configuration panel and takes the viewer to the control
panel. Other scaled viewpoints for circumnavigating the world are
also provided.
I am interested in knowing:
1) Your browser VRML viewer combination.
2) Whether the world loaded.
3) Any apparent runtime defects or control-flow ambiguities.
4) Suggestions for improvement.
5) Your load time.
6) Your connection type (e.g. broadband, DSL, 56K modem)
7) Your machine speed (Mhz) and type.
8) The region you connected from - e.g. "USA northeast", "UK",
"Europe", etc.
9) Alternatives that do the same thing?
(In acknowledgement that there are better pre-existing commercial
alternatives, I did this as a beginning VRML learning project, before
proceding to Java3D or OpenGL. It seemed for the MS Windows-Excel
environment for 3D data plotting, there was Euler, SPSS with its
"export VRML" option, and a few commercial Excel plugins. For
astronomy tri-axial plotting, there is Partview freeview. I wanted to
learn VRML and have a tool that I could customize to my liking.)
A zipped copy of the world can be obtained from:
http://members.csolutions.net/fishe...SampleAstro.zip
(130K)
Comments can be posted here or sent to me by direct email at removing
"MAPSON" from the address):
fisherkaMAPSON@csolutions.net
Thanks again for all the questions the group answered over the last
month during my VRML learning curve.
Regards - Kurt
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