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-------------------- INSTRUCTIONS FOR 3DPlot v1.0 ------------------ ------------ INTRODUCTION ------------ 3DPlot is copyright 1988 by Randy Finch 3DPlot may be freely distributed as long as the this documentation is distributed with the program. This program cannot be sold without the permission of Randy Finch. If you would like to help support further development of this program, please send your money, praises and suggestions to: Randy Finch 122 West Oak Hill Dr. Day: 205-386-2252 Florence, AL 35630 Evening: 205-767-3528 If you send $10 or more, I will register you to receive the next release of 3DPlot for free. If you send $30 or more, I will also send you the C source code to the program. Thanks for any support you can offer, including any bug reports and helpful hints about additional features. My BIX handle is rfinch. ----------------- ABOUT THE PROGRAM ----------------- 3DPlot allows the user to plot a 3D function of the type Z=F(X,Y). The user has control over rotation, scaling, position, screen resolution, colors, etc. The program is controlled through an input window and pull-down menus. The inputs are fairly easy to understand but I will present a brief explanation for each item below. PLEASE NOTE - The program does not have very extensive error checking, so it is possible to crash the program. I plan to add more error checking in a future release. Also, there are still a few debugging items in the code, so don't be alarmed if something unusual happens. I do believe that the program is useful and fun in its current state. ---------------- THE INPUT WINDOW ---------------- When the program is loaded (either through CLI or Workbench), the input window will appear. This window is on the Settings screen and contains many string gadgets for input from the user. These gadgets are divided in a logical manner using boxes (gold colored if the standard palette is used). EQUATIONS The top box is the EQUATIONS box. The equation for Z can be input in the 'Z=' gadget near the top. The function should be entered in a standard programming manner as follows: Z= 15.4*sin(x/y)-cos(x+y)+2.3e-2 The following operators are supported: + Addition - Subtraction * Multiplication / Division ^ Power and the following functions are supported: sin Sine cos Cosine tan Tangent exp Exponential sqrt Square root ln Natural log log Log base 10 asin Arcsine acos Arccosine atan Arctangent sinh Hyperbolic sine cosh Hyperbolic cosine tanh Hyperbolic tangent The standard hierarchy of operators prevails. Once the equation is entered, its syntax is checked. If there are any errors in the equation, and error message will appear after the words Error Message: above the gadget. Also, the 'Z=' gadget will be reactivated with the cursor in the location the error was detected. You can then proceed to correct the equation. Once a correct equation is entered, the Error Message will be Acceptable and the cursor will be activated in the next gadget in the list (in this case, the Z rotation). There are gadgets for additional equations but these are not implemented in this version. ROTATION The rotation can be set, in degrees, about each axis. The standard mathematics convention is used. If you are viewing along the positive Z axis towards the negative Z axis, then a positive rotation is counter-clockwise, negative is clockwise. This also holds true for the other axes. The final orientation of the plot is dependent on the order of axes rotations. You can select one of the axes letters to the left of the three gadgets by clicking the left mouse button on the letter and the order of rotation will be changed. There are six different orders, they will be cycled through as you continue to click. The rotations will be applied to the default orientation which is X- positive to the right, Y-positive upwards, and Z-positive perpendicular to the screen, pointed towards the user. NOTE - There is a known bug in these gadgets that causes the gadgets to sometimes not push the contents to the undo buffer. Also, if you click in a gadget and then not press return, a wrong angle may result. ORIGIN This is simply the X and Y screen coordinates for the origin of the plot. SIZING Proj Plane is the position along the default Z-axis where the projection plane is located. View Dist is the distance of the viewer from the projection plane. In this version, the distance only affects perspective, not the size of the plot. Scale can be used to resize. Proj Plane and View Dist are in plotting units, not pixels. Scale is the number of screen pixels per plotting unit. This value can be used to control the size of the plot. This value will have to be changed when the screen resolution is changed in order to maintain a constant plot size. LINE SPACING The 3D plot will consist of contour lines at constant values of X, Y, or both. These values set the spacing, in plot units, between these lines. PLOT SPAN These values determine the plotting range in coordinate units along the X and Y axes. The plotting range along the Z-axis is determined by the equation being plotted. PLOT PRECISION When contour lines are being drawn at constant values of X and Y, the distance between the calculated points along the lines is determined by these numbers (in plot units). The smaller these numbers are, the more detail that is available for plots that vary widely over short distances. A line is drawn between each calculated point. These values only apply to the Normal plot (see below). AXES SPAN This is identical to the Plot Span except it applies to the axes. By having the axes span separate, the axes can be made to extend beyond the range of the plot. Note that a Z-range must be given. AXES PRECISION This is the same as Plot Precision except it applies to the axes. The axes are drawn as dots at each calculated point rather than lines connecting the points. This prevents the axis lines from ever overwriting a contour line that is in front of the axis. If this number is too large, the axes will be dotted lines. SURFACE Surface is a boolean gadget that cycles through three choices as the user selects it. The options are 'X and Y', 'X only', and 'Y only'. These options control how the contour lines are drawn. If 'X and Y' is selected then contour lines will be drawn along both axes. 'X only' restricts the plot to contour lines at constant values of Y, and 'Y only' restricts the plot to contour lines at constant values of X. These options only apply to the Normal plot (see below). AXES TYPE Axes Type is another boolean gadget that cycles through three different options for the type of axes to be drawn. The 'None' option results in no axes being drawn. The 'Star' option results in standard axes being drawn with each axis crossing the other two at the origin. The 'Box' option results in a rectangular box being drawn with the vertices equal to the Axes Span values. NOTE This gadget is not implemented yet. It will allow the user to store a comment about the plot. ------------ PROJECT MENU ------------ This menu contains nine items. Some of these are not yet implemented. The >> symbol to the left of some menu items indicates that these items have subitems. NEW This is not yet implemented. It will be used to reset all plotting parameters. OPEN This item allows the retreival of stored files. It has three subitems: All, Settings, and Picture. Settings will retrieve only the settings displayed on the input window, Picture retrieves IFF ILBM graphics files, and All gets both. Picture is the only option currently implemented. (I wanted to implement the Settings option before releasing the program, but other projects delayed the coding. I decided to go ahead and release the program without the option.) When choosing Open, a file requester appears that is very much like the Deluxe Paint II requester. It lists files and directories in a selection area. The list can be scanned up or down by using the arrows or proportional gadget on the right side of the file selection area. A directory can be chosen by clicking on the directory name or typing it in the Drawer gadget. A file can be selected by clicking on the name or typing it in the File gadget. You can change to df0: or df1: or dh: by choosing one of the boolean gadgets near the bottom of the requester. The dh: gadget is unique, in that it is user modifiable. If you type the name of a device, such as vd0:, in the Drawer gadget and then exit the requester, the dh: gadget will be a vd0: gadget the next time the requester is displayed. Beware, the gadget can only hold eight characters. Once a file is selected, it can be loaded by clicking on the Load gadget, or it can be cancelled by clicking on Cancel. The Load requester was originally written by Kevin Clague (Thanks!) and then modified extensively by Randy Finch. SAVE This item allows the Settings, Picture, or All to be saved under the previously selected filename. The picture is saved as an IFF ILBM graphics file that can be retrieved by Deluxe Paint and other graphics packages. This item is not yet implemented. SAVE AS This item works just like save except a requester identical to the Load requester is displayed so a new filename can be selected. Only the Picture save option is implemented. The picture is saved as an IFF ILBM graphics file that can be retrieved by Deluxe Paint and other graphics packages. COLOR This item has three subitems: Adjust, Load, and Save. Adjust displays a color requester on the Graph screen that allows the colors to be changed by the user. The coding for this requester was done by R. J. Mical and appears in his ProSuite I. Thanks to R. J. for making this available to the Amiga community. The requester is similar to others you have seen. The current color is displayed in a box in the upper left corner of the requester. A set of RGB sliders appear along the top. These can be changed to a set of HSL sliders by selecting one of the letters in RGB. The color palette appears in the lower left corner and is arranged left to right, top to bottom. 3DPlot uses color 0 (upper left of color palette) for the background. Color 1 is the border color. Color 2 is the axes color. Color 3 will be used for text, but is not used in this version. In low resolution, colors 4-27 (24 colors) are used for the graph (more about this later). Colors 28-31 are not currently used. In high resolution, colors 4-15 (12 colors) are used for the graph. You can copy one color to another by choosing the color to be copied, choosing the Copy gadget, and then selecting the color to be copied to. You can smoothly range a series of colors by choosing the Range gadget, then the first color of the range, and then the second color. The Load and Save subitems will be used to load and save color palettes but they are not currently implemented. SCREEN This item can be used to choose the screen resolution you wish to work with. Options are low- and high-resolution, interlaced and non- interlaced, and overscan. Overscan is not yet implemented. TITLE This item simply toggles the title bar of the graph screen on and off. There is a bug when changing the screen resolution. The title bar is always turned off when changing to a new resolution but the submenu remains in its previous state, whether on or off. PRINT This item will be used to do a graphics dump to the printer but is not yet implemented. EXIT! End the program. NO WARNING is given. ------------- FUNCTION MENU ------------- The Function menu contains four items. All but one subitem is implemented. PLOT This is the action item. Choosing one of its subitems makes 3DPlot go to work. The plot appears on a separate screen, the Graph screen. The four plot options are: Normal, Hidden, Solid, and Contour. Upon choosing one of these options, 3DPlot will calculate values of Z at various points within the plot range specified by the Plot Span gadgets on the input window. Minimum and maximum distances from the viewer are determined and then split into either 24 or 12 equal ranges, depending on the screen resolution. Plotting then begins. (There could be a rather long delay before a plot begins if a large range and small spacing is chosen. It is usually good to start with a rough quick plot and then do a detailed plot when all looks well.) Far points will be plotted in color 4, near points will be plotted in color 27 or 15 depending on the resolution, and points in the middle will be distributed between the intervening colors. Normal causes the plot to draw lines along constant X or Y values or both based on the Surface gadget setting. The lines are drawn separately and have a resolution based on the Plot Precision settings. This plot usually takes the longest. Hidden draws the graph as a series of hollow (filled with background color) four-sided polygons starting with the fartherest corner and working forward. The size of the polygons is determined by the Line Spacing gadgets settings. Since each successive polygon appears in front of the previously drawn polygons, the graph will have hidden lines removed. Solid is exactly the same as Hidden except the four-sided polygons are filled with the plot color rather than the background color. This makes the graph appear as a solid figure. Contour will draw a flat graph with no perspective, letting the graph colors define the shape of the graph. This is not yet implemented. Once the graph is drawn, the axes are drawn unless the Axes Type is set to None. STOP PLOT Choosing this item after choosing a Plot option will interrupt the plot and return control to the user. SETTINGS Selection of this item causes the Settings screen containing the input window to be brought to the front. GRAPH Selection of this item causes the Graph screen containing the Plot (if one has been plotted) to be brought to the front. --------- TEXT MENU --------- This menu contains several items for adding text to the plot screen. None of these items are implemented yet and are not discussed. --------------- CLOSING REMARKS --------------- I hope you enjoy the program. If you have any questions, you can write me or contact me on BIX.