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Received: by crios.inria.fr (8.6.12/8.6.12) id IAA12168; Fri, 17 Nov 1995 08:50:09 +0100
Message-Id: <199511170750.IAA12168@crios.inria.fr>
To: madelain@crios.inria.fr
cc: madelain@crios.inria.fr
Subject: ROTATER
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 08:50:08 +0100
From: Eric Madelaine 


Topic Number: 5

Date: 15 Nov 1995 16:44:16 MDT
From: "Earl, Scott W" 
Subject: Macintosh 3D Viewer
To: cavers@ditell.com

     Mac Cavers!
     Thanks to Jim Fish for the Computer Survey results. I had no idea
     there were so many Caver/Mac users out there. It prompted me to spread
     the word about an AMAZING piece of software that does wonderful cave
     stuff! (Sorry I am getting so excited, but I hate complicated, slow,
     memory-hog programs, with crummy interfaces, and this one ISN'T. It is
     very MAC, simple to use, no need for manuals, etc.)

     It is called ROTATER. As described by the programmer: "This is a

     program that reads a set of 3-dimensional points and lines and plots
     them in a window. The image can then be rotated with the mouse in real
     time." Boy, is that an understatement. Cavers already have a set of 3D
     points from crunching their survey data, so you just take those X,Y,Z
     coordinates and add a fourth column of single digit numbers to
     designate where to put a point and where to draw a line, and your data
     set is ready. Save it as a text file, and run it in Rotater. WOW! grab
     it with the mouse as if touching the outside surface of a ball with
     the cave inside, and rotate away! What was moments before a 2D line is
     now moving 3D in space. Also, the lines closest to the front are
     lighter than in the back as if front-lit which helps the effect even
     more.

     I wrote a little macro in Excel to figure the coordinates for a
     bounding cube around the cave in a different color. When the cave and
     the bounding cube rotate together it is even more impressive. I used
     Rotater to view a cave with lots of vertical passage and a confusing
     overlapping maze area and I could suddenly visualize what was never
     clear before.

     If you have a Mac, you gotta see this.
     I downloaded it from,
     http://raru.adelaide.edu.au/rotater/
     Software written by Craig Kloeden
     craig@raru.adelaide.edu.au

     Scott Earl