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- Geomview(1) Geomview(1)
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- NAME
- Geomview - interactive geometry viewer
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- SYNOPSIS
- geomview [ -b r g b ] [-c commandfile] [-wins #windows ] [-nopanels]
- [-wpos xmin ymin xsize ysize] [-wpos -]
- [-wpos xsize,ysize[@xmin,ymin]] [-e external-module-name]
- [-M[cg][sp] pipename]
- [-start external-module-name [arg ...] --]
- [-run external-module-path [arg ...] --] [ file ... ]
-
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- DESCRIPTION
- Geomview is an interactive geometry viewer written at the
- Geometry Center. It displays the objects in the files
- given on the command line and allows the user to view and
- manipulate them interactively.
-
- The present version (1.4) of geomview runs on Silicon
- Graphics Irises and NeXT workstations. We are very inter-
- ested in hearing about any problems you may have using it;
- see below for information on how to contact us.
-
- In addition to providing interacive control over a world
- of objects via the mouse and keyboard, geomview has an
- interpreted language of commands for controlling almost
- every aspect of its display. It can execute files con-
- taining statements in this language, and it can communi-
- cate with other programs using the language. See
- geomview(5), e.g. the file man/cat5/geomview.5 in the
- geomview distribution, for more details of the language.
-
-
- TUTORIAL
- This manual page serves only as a (very) terse reference
- manual for geomview. For a gentler introduction to the
- program and the format of the data files it can read, see
- the documents "overview" and "oogltour" in the "doc"
- directory of the geomview distribution. There is a also
- tutorial for how to write external modules in the
- "src/bin/example" directory (available only in the source
- distribution).
-
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- OPTIONS
- -b Set the window background color to the given r g b
- values.
-
- -c Interpret the commands in commandfile, which may be
- ``-'' for standard input. The command language is
- described in geomview(5). Commands may be supplied
- literally, as in ``-c "(ui-panel main off)"'';
- since they include parentheses, they must be
- quoted.
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- -wins Causes geomview to initially display #windows cam-
- era windows.
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- -wpos Specifies the initial location and size of the
- first camera window. With ``-'', you are prompted
- for window placement.
-
- -M objectname
- Display (possibly dynamically changing) geometry
- (or commands) sent via ``togeomview [-c] objectname
- [file]'' or ``geomstuff objectname file ...''. The
- data appears as a geomview object named objectname.
-
- Actually listens to the named pipe
- ``/tmp/geomview/objectname''; you can achieve the
- same effect with the shell commands:
- mkdir /tmp/geomview;
- mknod /tmp/geomview/objectname p
- (assuming the directory and named pipe don't
- already exist), then executing the geomview com-
- mand:
- (geometry objectname < /tmp/geomview/objectname)
- Note: on the NeXT, -M listens on a UNIX-domain
- socket rather than a named pipe.
-
- -M[cg][sp] pipename
- The -M option accepts modifiers: a 'g' suffix
- expects geometry data (the default), while 'c' suf-
- fix expects gcl commands. A 'p' implies the con-
- nection should use a named pipe (the default on the
- Iris), while 's' implies using a UNIX-domain socket
- (default on the NeXT). So -Mcs fred selects read-
- ing commands from the UNIX-domain socket named
- /tmp/geomview/fred.
-
- -nopanels
- Start up displaying no panels, only graphics win-
- dows. Panels may be invoked later as usual with
- the "Px" keyboard shortcuts or "(ui-panel ...)"
- command.
-
- -e modulename
- Start an external module; modulename is the name
- associated with the module, appearing in the main
- panel's Applications browser, as defined by the
- emodule-define command (see geomview(5) for
- details).
-
- -start modulename arguments ... --
- Like -e but allows you to pass arguments to the
- external module. "--" signals the end of the argu-
- ment list; the "--" may be omitted if it would be
- the last argument on the geomview command line.
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- -run shell-command arguments ...
- Like -start but takes the pathname of executable of
- the external module instead of the module's name.
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- GEOMETRY FILE FORMATS
- The format of the files read by geomview is described in
- oogl(5); type "man 5 oogl", or see the file
- man/cat5/oogl.5 in the geomview distribution, for details.
-
- Note to users of MinneView (the precursor to geomview):
- geomview can read MinneView files, but MinneView cannot
- read all geomview files.
-
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- STARTUP FILES
- Immediately upon starting up geomview reads and executes
- the commands in the system-wide .geomview file in the
- "data" subdirectory of the geomview directory. Then, if
- there is a file named .geomview in the current directory,
- it executes the commands in that file. If no in the
- user's home directory, and executes it if found. The
- startup file of an individual user overrides the sys-
- temwide defaults, since later commands take precedence
- over earlier ones.
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- EXTERNAL MODULES
- Geomview has the ability to interact via its command lan-
- guage with other programs, called "external modules".
- Many such modules have been written and appear in the
- "Application" browser in the main geomview panel. To
- invoke a module you click the mouse on the module's entry
- in this browser. This starts the module and adds an addi-
- tion red entry to the browser which represents the running
- instance of that module. You can terminate the module by
- clicking on the red entry. Modules are documented sepa-
- rately from geomview. See the manual page for each module
- for details.
-
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- INSTALLING AN EXTERNAL MODULE
- Geomview looks for external modules in a special directory
- for modules. In the geomview distribution tree this is
- the "bin/sgi" subdirectory. A module consists of two
- files: the executable program, and a "module init file",
- which is a whose name is ".geomview-" followed by the mod-
- ule name. The module init file tells geomview how to run
- that program. Be sure to always keep these two files
- together; geomview needs both of them in order to run the
- module. To install a new module, simply put the module's
- executable file and its init file in your geomview's mod-
- ule directory. The next time you run geomview, it will
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- know about that module.
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- Geomview can actually looks for modules in a list of
- directories; by default only the "bin/sgi" directory is on
- this list. See the set-emodule-path command in
- geomview(5) for details.
-
- There is a tutorial for how to write external modules in
- the "src/bin/example" directory.
-
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- EXTERNAL MODULE INIT FILES
- An external module init file is the file that tells
- geomview how to run that module. Its name must be
- ".geomview-" followed by the name of the module, e.g.
- ".geomview-foo". It should contain geomview commands;
- typically it will contain a single emodule-define command
- which enters the module into geomview's application
- browser:
-
- (emodule-define "Foo" "foo")
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- The first string is the name that appears in the browser.
- The second string is the command to invoke the module. It
- may contain arguments; in fact it can be an arbitrary
- shell command.
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- KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
- Many geomview operations are available from the keyboard.
- Hitting the "?" button on the main panel, or typing "?"
- with the cursor in any window, causes geomview to print a
- message on standard output listing all the keyboard short-
- cuts.
-
- Keyboard commands apply while cursor is in any graphics window and most
- control panels. Most commands allow one of the following selection prefixes
- (if none is provided the command applies to the current object):
- g world geom g# #'th geom g* All geoms
- c current camera c# #'th camera c* All cameras
- Many allow a numeric prefix: if none they toggle or reset current value.
- Appearance:
- Draw: Shading: Other:
- af Faces 0as Constant av eVert normals: always face viewer
- ae Edges 1as Flat #aw Line Width (pixels)
- an Normals 2as Smooth #ac edges Closer than faces(try 5-100)
- ab Bounding Boxes aV draw Vectors ax remove object's Appearance
- Color: aT allow transparency
- Cf Ce Cn Cb CB face/edge/normal/bbox/backgnd
- Motions: Viewing:
- r rotate [ Leftmouse=X-Y plane, 0vp Orthographic view
- t translate Middle=Z axis, 1vp Perspective view
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- z zoom Shift=slow motion, vd Draw other views' cameras
- f fly in r/t modes. ] #vv field of View
- s scale [Left=turn, Middle=speed ] #vn near clip distance
- #vf far clip distance
- w/W recenter/all v+ add new camera
- h/H halt/halt all vx cursor on/off
- @ select center of motion (e.g. g3@) vb backfacing poly cull on/off
- show Panel: Pm Pa Pl Po main/appearance/lighting/obscure
- Pt Pc PC Pf tools/cameras/Commands/file-browser
- Ps P- saving/read commands from tty
- Lights: ls le Show lights / Edit Lights
- Metric: me mh mo ms Euclidean Hyperbolic OutsideHyp Spherical
- Other:
- #N normalization: 0N none, 1N each, 2N all < load geometry/command file
- dd delete current object >/Ps save state to file
- TV NTSC mode toggle p/(rightmouse doubleclick) pick as current target object
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- Renderman:
- RR send RIB output to <fileprefix>NNN.rib (default fileprefix == "geom")
- RC Emulate lines using cylinders (default)
- RP Emulate lines using polygons
- Ra choose ASCII RIB format (default)
- Rb choose BINARY RIB format
- RD Toggle display type (.tiff file or onscreen window)
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- NOTES
- The "geomview" command is actually a shell script that
- sets various environment variables which tell geomview
- about your local setup, and then invokes the geomview exe-
- cutable program "gvx". Do not run "gvx" by itself; always
- invoke geomview with the "geomview" shell script.
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- SEE ALSO
- oogl(5) - OOGL geometric file formats and conventions
- geomview(5) - geomview command language reference
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- FILES
- data/.geomview - default initialization file in geomview
- command language
- data/geom - sample data files
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- AUTHORS
- Stuart Levy Tamara Munzner Mark Phillips
- slevy@geom.umn.edu munzner@geom.umn.edu mbp@geom.umn.edu
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- Celeste Fowler Nathaniel Thurston
- fowler@geom.umn.edu njt@geom.umn.edu
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- The National Science and Technology Research Center for
- Computation and Visualization of Geometric Structures
- (The Geometry Center)
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- University of Minnesota
- 1300 South Second Street
- Minneapolis, MN 55454 USA
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- software@geom.umn.edu
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- BUGS
- Sometimes core dumps on bad input files.
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- Zoom and scale have no inertia.
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- Constrained motion (to X or Y axis) no longer works.
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- Spherical mode doesn't work on VGXes.
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- If you find a bug, please let us know about it by sending
- email to software@geom.umn.edu, or by contacting us at the
- address above.
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