[MUG] Re: Interactivity of plots and plot files

Author: Gerald A Edgar Posted: 08/06/2001 19:59:23 GDT

>> From: "Gerald A. Edgar"

Erik Leunissen wrote:

>Some plot commands produce a plot on display that can be manipulated
>interactively (the animation controls, the 3D-rotation, ...)
>
>Two questions:
>
>1. Is there a way to retain the interactive features of these kind of
>plots when they are written to a file or another plot device?
>

Interesting question. Animations can be saved as animated GIFs. But
what of 3D objects that we want to be able to manipulate? ("Export
as HTML" does not retain the interactivity.)

When you have a 3D plot window, the Export menu lists some 2D output
formats, but also POV. That is a 3D format. A POV file can then be
rendered by the free programs POV-Ray or MegaPOV. But these programs
do not seem to export to any other 3D formats. A quick web search
did not find any conversion programs from POV to other 3D formats.
Looking at a POV file shows that it is a text file, and the syntax is
readable, so conversion programs should be possible.

"?plot,device" shows that Maple can produce output files in many 2D
formats, plus POV again, and also DXF. But unlike POV, most 3D
programs *can* import and export DXF. So I guess if you want Maple
to output 3D information (and you cannot use POV files directly),
then DXF format is the one to use. The drawback is that DXF has no
colors, just triangles.

Perhaps some enterprising person will write a parser for POV into a
more common color 3D format (3DMF, OBJ, 3DS). Or maybe it would be
easier to parse Maple's own plot3D objects?

--
Gerald A. Edgar

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