First we describe a simple example how to run partiview
with a supplied sample
dataset. Then we describe the different windows that partiview
is made up of, and
the different commands and keystrokes it listens to.
Now start the program using one of the sample "speck" files in the
data
directory:
% cd partiview-0.3/src
% ./hipbright
and this will come up with a display. You should probably enlarge the window a bit. Mine comes up in roughly a 300 by 300 display window, which may be a bit small (certainly on my screen :-)
hit the TAB key to bring focus to the one line command window inbetween the log screen (top) and viewing screen (bottom). Type the commands
fov 50 (field of view 50 degrees)
jump 0 0 0 80 70 60 (put yourself in the origin
and look at to euler angles
RxRyRz (80,70,60)
and it should give a nice comfy view :-)
[spatial units are parsecs, angle units are degrees]
Now play with the display, use the 't', 'r', 'f' and 'o' keys in the viewing window and use the left and mouse buttons down to (carefully) move around a bit, and make yourself comfortable with moving around. Using the 't' button you get some idea of the distance of the stars by moving back and forth a little (the parallax trick). In fact, if you 't' around a little bit, you may see a green line flashing through the display. That is on of the RGB (xyz) axes attached to the (0,0,0) [our sun] position. You should see Procyon and Sirius exhibit pretty large parallaxes, but Orion is pretty steady since it is several hundred parsecs away. If you move the right mouse button you will zoom in/out and should see our Sun flash by with the red-green-blue axes.
Try and use the middle mouse button (or the 'p' key) to click on Sirius or Procyon, and see if you can get it to view its properties. Now use the 'P' key to switch center to rotation to that star. Sirius is probably a good choice. Move around a bit, and try and get the sun and orion in the same view :-)
[NOTE: these Hipparcos data do not have reliably distance above 100-200 pc, so Orion's distances are probably uncertain to 30%]
A little bit on the types of motion, and what the mouse buttons do
| left middle right
| button-1 button-2 button-3
--------------------------------------------------------------------
f (fly) | fly 'pick' zoom
o (orbit) | orbit 'pick' zoom
r (rotate) | rotate X/Y 'pick' rotate Z (+bug?)
t (translate) | translate 'pick' zoom
The point of origin for rotations can be changed with the 'P' button. First you can try and pick ('p' or button-2) a point, and if found, hit 'P' to make this point the new rotation center default.
red = X axis
green = Y axis
blue = Z axis
The top row, from left to right, shows the following buttons:
item
g1 (or whichever group) is the currently selected group. See command object
?
Shortcut to select fly/orbit/rot/tran, which can also be activate by pressing the f/o/r/t keys inside the viewing window.
Toggle to turn the points on/off
Toggle to turn polygons on/off
Toggle to turn labels on/off
Toggle to turn textures on/off
Toggle to turn boxes on/off
Slider controlling a datavar variable (which?)
The second row from the top controls loading and playing sequences of moving through space
Brings up a filebrowser to load a .wf path file. This is a file with on each line 7 numbers: xyz location, RxRyRz viewing direction, and FOV (field of view).
Play the currently loaded path
Control individual path frames
Slider
The third window from the top contains a logfile of commands gives, and can be resized by dragging the bar between command window and viewing window. The Logfile windows also has a scroll bar on the left.
The Command window is a single line entry window, in which VIRDIR commands can be given. Some commands show their result in the Logfile window, others on the originating console.
The Viewing window is where all the action occurs. Typically this is where you give single keystroke commands and/or move the mouse for an interactive view of the data. It can be resized two ways: either by resizing the master window, or by picking up the separator between Viewing window and Command window above.