PLOT3-DM(1)

NAME

plot3-dm - interactively view 3-D UNIX plot files in a display manager window

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SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
EXAMPLES
SEE ALSO
AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT
BUG REPORTS

SYNOPSIS

plot3-dm [-t o|X] [plot_file ...]

plot3-dm opens an interactive display-manager window and renders one or more BRL extended three-dimensional UNIX plot files (see plot3-fb(1)) into it. The view can be rotated, translated, and zoomed with the mouse, and a small set of Tcl commands is available for scripting the view and managing the loaded plots. The program is a sample application distributed with BRL-CAD to demonstrate how to drive the libdm display-manager library, and its source is installed alongside the other sample applications.

One or more plot_file arguments may be given on the command line; each is loaded as a named object (the basename of the file). If no plot_file is given and standard input is not a terminal, plot commands are read from standard input instead.

Once the window is open, commands are entered on the standard input. Useful commands include openpl file … (load more plot files), ls (list loaded plots), draw / erase / closepl name (control individual plots), zoom factor, vrot x y z, ae azim elev [twist] (set the azimuth/elevation view), reset (fit all plots to the window), and exit (or q) to quit. The view may also be manipulated directly with the mouse: the left, middle, and right drag modes rotate, translate, and zoom the scene.

OPTIONS

-t o|X: Select the display-manager backend. X (the default) uses the X11 display manager; o (or O) requests the OpenGL (ogl) display manager. Any other value falls back to the X backend.
-h, -?: Print a short usage message and exit.

EXAMPLES

Example 1. View a plot generated from a BRL-CAD geometry database

rt -o model.plot3 model.g component
plot3-dm model.plot3

Render a region of the geometry in model.g to a 3-D UNIX plot file with rt(1), then open it in an interactive window where it can be rotated and zoomed to inspect the wireframe.

Example 2. Load several plots at once using the OpenGL backend

plot3-dm -t o first.plot3 second.plot3

Open both plot files together in the OpenGL display manager; each file becomes a separately named, individually drawable object that can be toggled with the draw and erase commands.