Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!oddjob!gargoyle!att!whuts!homxb!mhuxu!mhuxt!aluxz!krm
From: krm@aluxz.UUCP (Kurt Marko)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: 3D Plotting on the Mac
Keywords: Mathematica Graphics MacII
Message-ID: <942@aluxz.UUCP>
Date: 19 Aug 88 12:07:35 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ
Lines: 36

I'm posting this since the mailer bounced my attempt at direct e-mail, and
the reply may be of general interest.

In article <160@isagel.sunet.se> you write:
>I am trying to find a program that can make 2D images of 3D plots. Hopefully
>could this program use multiple colouring and take advantage of the MacII.
>
>I might have a 3D data set (that would produce a complicated valley-and-hill
>plot) and I would like to make a plot of this data-set with this unknown
>program, and then select the "best" view of the plot from "above" it. I would
>also like to be able to change the "view distance" to the plot.
>
I have two recommendations:  ImageTool (v1.1) from NCSA at the University
of Illinois, and/or Mathematica from Wolfram Research (not coincidentally
also in Champaign, Illinois).  Mathematica, which has received a lot of
press lately, is an extremely powerful tool for doing just about anything
you want to do with numbers, equations, formulae,... (i.e. everything from
symbolic equation solving to 3-D data plotting and analysis).  ImageTool
is strictly a data-visualization tool which makes extensive use of color
to represent three-dimensional data.  With ImageTool, you can select a

two-dimensional region (by simply dragging a rectangle) to examine more
closely with contour plots or 3-D (hidden line) plots.

ImageTool is available for $10 or $15 from NCSA (free if you can get there via
anonymous ftp) and only runs on a MacII.  Mathematica lists for about
$795 for the MacII version (ComputerWare has it for $690).  While Wolfram also
 sells a version for "standard" Macs, I wouldn't recommend it, as it takes at
least
 4MB to run effectively, and you lose all of the color plotting capabilities.

E-mail me if you need more info, or specific addresses.

Kurt Marko
AT&T Bell Labs
...!att!aluxz!krm