[AstroPy] 3-D Graphics Tools for for Documentation, Presentations, etc.

[Wayne Watson]

Thanks. I'm not familiar with it. A requirement I forgot to mention is 
that I be able to execute the program under Win. I'm using standard PC 
graphics. No Silicon Graphics machines here. :-)

I edged out of *nix years ago, but may fire it up in a month or two on 
an older PC. About 15 years ago, I put together a program that would do 
the trick that I'm looking for in this instance.

Rick Wagner wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Have you looked at S2PLOT? It's has relatively simple interface, and 
> includes the ability to embed 3D data in PDF's. Oh, and it has a 
> Python wrapper, making it useful to us.
>
> http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/s2plot/
>
> --Rick
>
> On Apr 19, 2009, at 10:04 AM, Wayne Watson wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the information. I would agree with you for a presentation,
>> but I need it mostly this time for a paper I'm writing. I will be giving
>> a talk, so I could use a video 3-D clip. However, in this case, it may
>> not be useful. I'm simply trying to show three coordinate systems with
>> the same origin. One is an image plane (x-y), and the other two are
>> az/el, separated by an angle about the zenith. A celestial sphere needs
>> to be shown with a few stars on it. I could go overboard with this, by
>> rotating one of the coordinate systems around the north pole, and
>> drawing the path of the stars on the sphere, but I'll worry about that
>> for another time.
>>
>> Anne Archibald wrote:
>>> 2009/4/19 Wayne Watson <sierra_mtnview at sbcglobal.net>:
>>>
>>>> Many years ago to put together a presentation or article on celestial
>>>> mechanics, spherical trig, trajectory analysis, etc. I would use a
>>>> compass, ruler, and maybe a French curve to draw the figures, 
>>>> coordinate
>>>> axes, etc. on paper. Labels would be typed onto the sheets. I would 
>>>> like
>>>> to think that over the last decade that some modest software package
>>>> might be available to do this. Does anyone know of any?
>>>>
>>>
>>> You might try Mayavi2. It's more oriented towards 3D visualization,
>>> but I think with appropriate options it can probably be made to do
>>> what you're asking for. (It's also worth noting that an interactive 3D
>>> plot can be much more informative than a single 2D projection.)
>>>
>>> Anne
>>>
>>>
>>
>> -- 
>>            Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
>>
>>              (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
>>               Obz Site:  39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet
>>
>>            All the neutrons, and protons in the human body occupy
>>            a cube whose side is 5.52*10**-6 meters (tiny!). That
>>            adds up to a 150 pound person. It's not a surprise that
>>            we are mostly space. (Calculation by WTW)
>>
>>
>>
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>
>

-- 
           Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)

             (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
              Obz Site:  39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet  

           All the neutrons, and protons in the human body occupy
           a cube whose side is 5.52*10**-6 meters (tiny!). That
           adds up to a 150 pound person. It's not a surprise that
           we are mostly space. (Calculation by WTW)