The Visualization Management System Approach To Visualization In Scientific Computing

Abstract

abstract geometry of the data from the three dimensional geometry used to construct a graphic representation. An example willhelp clarify this point. Consider applications involving the theory of elasticity in an anisotropic medium. The medium itself,which we will refer to as the space is three dimensional. The stress and strain fields in the medium are symmetric rank2 tensors and hence six dimensional. To visualize these fields directly would require nine dimensions, three for the base spaceand six for the field. An even worse case is the elastic modulus, a partially symmetric rank 4 tensor and thus, in general, 21dimensional. Fields such as these have a well defined abstract geometry, but no unique graphic representation.A final requirement is flexible geometric and graphic representation. A given data set may have multiple geometric representations and a given geometric representation may have multiple graphic representations. A ViMS must supportexploration of different representations. As an example, consider an application with three function values, Vi, V2, V3calculated at the nodes of a two dimensional grid. Some of the possible geometric representations the user may wish to