Paraview is a open source visualisation tool, which I stumbled upon a while ago. It is based on the VTK software system and works on multiple platforms (including Windows and OSX). I have mostly used the software for the visualisation of stress analyses, including complex surfaces and vector data, and for this Paraview has been a great tool. In the beginning the philosophy behind the interface may seem a bit non-intuitive, but after a few days of playing around with it I had to admit that the truth is quite the opposite - the pipeline-structure and usage of sources and filters is actually very logical and transparent. So I recommend to be patient with this tool in the beginning - it is definitely worthwhile! As a geologist working much with Matlab and CAD-based environment, the file formats supported by Paraview are in general a bit clumsy, but analyses done with Matlab can be successfully imported by using the csv-format. For 3D CAD geometries the situation is more difficult as the dwg and dxf files are not supported currently by Paraview. But there is a way around it - there is a spin-off of Paraview, called ParaviewGeo, which supports dxf-files and, in addition, several other file formats used by common 3D modeling environments. In ParaviewGeo, dxf files can be saved for example to stl-format, which can then be imported to Paraview. A bit complex perhaps, but works!
I'll post some images of my with Paraview work soon, but in the meanwhile I recommend to give this tool a test run!
12 Feb 2011
uDig - Open Source GIS
There are several open source GIS-tools available on the web and one of them is uDig, a Java-based desktop application providing plenty of functionality for common GIS-user, and, in addition, Eclipse based SDK for experienced users (I do not belong to this latter group, so no more words on that...). uDig has a great support vor variuous file formats, including the more or less standard ESRI shapefile plus plenty of other formats, covering of course both raster and vector-based files. But what is really nice of this application is the built-in support for WMS-services and database solutions such as ArcSDE. The database for built-in coordinate-systems is also very extensive and should cover the needs of most of the users. Creating features in uDig is straightforward and works well, but what is still lacking is the availability of spatial analysis tools. However, several projects aiming for developing these tools on top of the uDig framework are already out there (check for example this) and presumably more will follow in course of time as the user and developer community grows. Nevertheless, uDig, in it's present functionality, is already a solid GIS-tool which fulfills the needs of a basic GIS user. As based on Java, uDig works on most platforms.
11 Feb 2011
OSXStereonet 1.0 released
Nestor Cardozo and Richard Allmendinger have updated Allmendinger's Stereonet-application into a slick Cocoa-based OSXStereonet version, which is a nice addition to freeware OSX geology tools. Based on a very quick test run of this software, the interface of the application looks very nice and fits well into the user-friendly environment of modern Macs - one example is the use of inspector-window instead of the oldish preference-menu. OSXStereonet supports both equal area and equal angle plots and has multiple plotting options, such as planes as poles and great circles, contouring (Kamb and 1% area contouring) and rose diagrams. Several statistical operations are also included. But the very nice addition is the support for multiple files, which can be loaded as simple .txt-files, and visualised simultaenously in a plot - each file can be stylisized separately in the inspector window. Files can be easily checked on and off by using simple check boxes in the inspector window.
OSXStereont supports image export to .pdf and .eps formats and I am personally very fond of the pdf-format, as Mac has a great support for these - for example, pdf-stereoplots can be very conveniently added to Pages by simply using the copy and paste-function. In addition of using the export-function, pdf-files can be easily generated by pressing the shift-button and dragging and dropping the plot on to the selected folder. Very nice!
To my present knowledge and experience, this is by far the best stereonet-application (freeware) for OSX I have met and I strongly suggest you to check it out. The only drawback I encountered so far is the lack of possibility to switch off the "Equal area" and "Lower Hemisphere" texts on the upper left corner of the plots. But this is version 1.0 after all - further improvements might be expected in the future. However, this is already a great tool and I will certainly stick with it for a long time!
OSXStereont supports image export to .pdf and .eps formats and I am personally very fond of the pdf-format, as Mac has a great support for these - for example, pdf-stereoplots can be very conveniently added to Pages by simply using the copy and paste-function. In addition of using the export-function, pdf-files can be easily generated by pressing the shift-button and dragging and dropping the plot on to the selected folder. Very nice!
To my present knowledge and experience, this is by far the best stereonet-application (freeware) for OSX I have met and I strongly suggest you to check it out. The only drawback I encountered so far is the lack of possibility to switch off the "Equal area" and "Lower Hemisphere" texts on the upper left corner of the plots. But this is version 1.0 after all - further improvements might be expected in the future. However, this is already a great tool and I will certainly stick with it for a long time!
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