Sam, Joel-
Thanks for the advice. Samuel gets the prize. Scattered data seems to
be the way to go.
On May 24, 2005, at 9:49 AM, Samuel Pelaez wrote:
Hey Dan,
I'm far away from being a DX expert. But once I needed to draw a
set of vectors at different positions in space and with different
directions. If I'm understanding all right your problem now is on
how to associate the positions at wich your vectors are located in
space with the vectors' coordinates. Well, the way I did this
(maybe there is a more professional way to do it) was to write in
the same file positions and vector coordinates. That is, I wrote a
file with 6 columns: [x y z vx vy vz] where (x,y,z) is the spatial
location (position) of a vector with coordinates (vx,vy,vz). Doing
it this way DX associates one position with one vector, row by row.
However, I don't read the data as a "Spreadsheet format file".
Instead I use "Scattered data". I am a DX newbie, so I'll try to
show you a really simple way (the most simple, i think) of plotting
3d-vectors with DX. Let me explain it step by step, as to a 5-year-
old kid, because that is the only way I find these explanations
usefull.
First of all prepare your data file with 6 columns [x y z vx vy vz]
Open DX and select "Import Data..."
Choose your data filename
Select "Grid or scattered file"
In "Grid type" select the dotted square (on the right), named
"Scattered data"
Set "Number of variables" to 1
Activate the item "Positions in data file"
Set "Dimension:" to 3
Click on "Describe Data..."
In this new window set "# of Points" to the amount of vectors you
have (~450?)
On the right column there is a "Field list" with two items:
"locations" and "field0". The "locations" item referes to the
positions in space where your vectors will be plotted, and "field0"
will refer to your vectors' coordinates.
Select the "field0" item and in the "Structure" selector choose "3-
vector". Click on "Modify"
Save this file as a *.general file. Now DX knows how to read your
data.
Close this window and return to the last one. There click on
"Visualize Data..."
Here in the "Image" window you should see a lot of thin 'needles',
representing your data. From the menu select "Windows -> Open
Visual Program Editor".
If you want you can change the "Glyph" type by double-clicking the
"AutoGlyph" tool and changing "type" (from "speedy", set by
default) to "rocket" (my favourite) or wathever you want...
hope this is helpful you. Good luck...! ;-)
Samuel.
