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Review of Visualisation Systems

4.4 IRIS Explorer

4.4.1 - Data Readers
4.4.2 - Tools for importing data

4.4.1 Data Readers

The following is a list of readers supplied with the package or available in the public or commercial domain:

In addition, the following CFD-related readers for IRIS Explorer should soon be available commercially from SciViz:

ABAQUS
ANSYS
FIDAP
FLUENT
LS-DYNA3D
MSC/DYTRAN, MSC/NASTRAN

Finally, NAG has developed readers for a number of formats, including PHOENICS, USGS, NTF, etc. These will be made available as part of the next release (3.0) of IRIS Explorer.

4.4.2 Tools for importing data

Explorer provides a number of tools for importing data.

Standard IRIS Explorer Datatype Readers: There are a set of modules which are capable of reading standard Explorer data types from files, one for Pyramids, Lattices and Geometry. They are capable of reading data saved in either ascii or binary format.

Basic Ascii Format to Explorer Format: There are several modules which take files in simple ASCII formats and produce lattices. For example, the module ReadXData creates a 1D lattice from the data in an ascii file in the following format: n, x1, f(x1), x2, f(x2),... xn, f(xn), where n is the total number of data pairs. These modules are all written using DataScribe (see below).

DataScribe: This is IRIS Explorer's visual programming interface for creating modules to read data in a variety of user-defined formats. It takes ASCII or binary data files and outputs lattices (or vice versa). An example from DataScribe is shown in figure 9. Some of the features of DataScribe are:

It is possible to use pattern matching to skip text headers or actively search for character strings within a file to find formatting values. The pattern matching includes the use of UNIX "*" and "?" wildcards.
DataScribe provides a ruler for formatting ASCII data that makes reading and writing formatted files easier. It allows the interleaving of text and values at specified columns and reading values only from specific columns.
Values describing the size and shape of the data can be read in from the data file or set to a constant value. Also, it is possible to read to EOF removing the need to know the whole extent of the data.
A number of different files can be read by one DataScribe module and combined into one or more output lattices. DataScribe can also be used to read Explorer formats and transcribe sections or channels of data.
Parameter values can be attached to widgets on the control panel of a data input module and can be used to section the data. The control panel can be edited from DataScribe by altering the appearance, default values and position of the widgets.
A number of example DataScribe readers come with the system and the scripts they use are available as a starting point for making further readers. Having created a data reader the script and module resource files are saved and can then be inserted as a module in the Explorer map.

DataScribe only works with Lattices. However, there are examples in the manual (with the source provided on-line) of readers which produce Pyramids, plus the module ComposePyr can be used to build a pyramid from a set of lattices.

Review of Visualisation Systems

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