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

[Bridgman, William T.]

If you are doing line plots, I believe matplotlib has some 3-D  
capabilities.
http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/

For 3-D datasets, I've had good luck with VisIt
https://wci.llnl.gov/codes/visit/

If you are trying to do line drawings, Pyx has some of this capability  
but you'd have to do the 3-d projection yourself.
http://pyx.sourceforge.net/

I've used Inkscape for Illustrator-type applicatios
http://www.inkscape.org/
although some of its functionality is limited.

For 3-D rendered plots, I've used pyPOV with POVray.
http://code.google.com/p/pypov/
http://www.povray.org/
but these are steep learning curves.

Tom
On Dec 23, 2009, at 12:37 AM, Wayne Watson wrote:

> It was some months ago when I posted this, and had limited time to
> really look at the tools suggested. I did delve into Visual Python,  
> but
> it wasn't really suitable for the task. I ended up doing my drawings  
> in
> Word, and omitted spheres and arcs for the most part, but did draw
> coordinate systems with labels. It worked. However, I still am curious
> about drawing coordinate systems.
>
> In my present case I have three coordinate systems going for two
> observing stations on the earth, a meteor moving overhead, and the
> general earht centered system. What I'm ultimately trying to do is to
> solve for the az-el of points on the meteor path (great circle is  
> fine,
> 60 miles high), for each station. Currently, I'm drawing this with
> pencil and paper. It's working, and helps my thinking and  
> computations.
> It does produce a lot erasures and re-draws.  I'd be curious if anyone
> has done this in mayavi2 or S2PLOT? Any examples? I have more  
> freedom to
> see what's available.
>
>
>
> Wayne Watson wrote:
>> 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?
>>
>>
>
> -- 
>           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
>
>             "... humans'innate skills with numbers isn't much
>              better than that of rats and dolphins."
>                       -- Stanislas Dehaene, neurosurgeon
>
>                    Web Page: <www.speckledwithstars.net/>
>
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--
Dr. William T."Tom" Bridgman               Scientific Visualization  
Studio
Global Science & Technology, Inc.          NASA/Goddard Space Flight  
Center
Email: William.T.Bridgman@nasa.gov         Code 610.3
Phone: 301-286-1346                        Greenbelt, MD 20771
FAX:   301-286-1634                        http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/