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4. Commands

There are two types of commands in partiview: Control Commands and Data Commands. Probably the most important difference between the two is that Control Commands return feedback to the user, whereas Data Commands are interpreted without comment. The command window expects to receive Control Commands. However, it is possible to enter a Data Command where a Control Command is expected, using the add command prefix. (Likewise, a control command may be given where data is expected, using the eval prefix.)

4.1 Control Commands

(see partibrains.c::specks_parse_args)

Control Commands are accepted in the Command window, and in some other contexts. Generally, partiview gives a response to every Control Command, reporting the (possibly changed) status.

Typically, if parameters are omitted, the current state is reported.

Some commands apply to particles in the current group (see Object group commands); others affect global things, such as time or display settings.

Data Commands can also be given, if prefixed with add.

4.2 I/O commands

read specks-file

Read a file containing Data Commands (typical suffix .cf or .speck).

async unix-command

Run an arbitrary unix command (invoked via /bin/sh) as a subprocess of partiview. Its standard output is interpreted as a stream of control commands. Thus partiview can be driven externally, e.g. to record an animation (using the snapshot command), or to provide additional GUI controls. Several async commands can run concurrently.

add data-command

Enter a Data Command where a Control Command is expected, e.g. in the text input box. For example,

  add 10 15 -1 text blah
adds a new label "blah" at 10 15 -1, or
  add kira myrun.out
loads a starlab output file.

eval control-command

Processes that control command just as if the eval prefix weren't there. Provided for symmetry: wherever either a control command or a data command is expected, entering eval control-command ensures that it's taken as a control command.

add filepath (data-command)

Determines the list of directories where all data files, color maps, etc. are sought. See the filepath entry under Data Commands.

4.3 Object group commands

Partiview can load multiple groups of particles, each with independent display settings, colormaps, etc. When more than one group is loaded, the Group Row appears on the GUI, with one toggle-button for each group. Toggling the button turns display of that group on or off. Right-clicking turns the group unconditionally on, and selects that group as the current one for other GUI controls.

Many Control Commands apply to the currently selected group.

Groups always have names of the form gN for some small positive N; each group may also have an alias.

gN

Select group gN. Create a new group if it doesn't already exist.

gN=alias

Assign name alias to group gN.

object objectname

Likewise, select object objectname, which may be either an alias name or gN.

gN control-command

object objectname control-command

Either form may be used as a prefix to any control command to act on the specified group, e.g. object fred poly on

gall control-command

Invoke the given control-command in all groups. For example, to turn display of group 3 on and all others off, use:

gall off
g3 on

on

enable

Enable display of currently selected group (as it is by default).

off

disable

Turn off display of current group.

4.4 View commands

View commands affect the view; they aren't specific to data groups.

fov float

Angular field of view (in degrees) in Y-direction.

cen[ter] X Y Z [RADIUS]

Set point of interest. This is the center of rotation in [o]rbit and [r]otate modes. Also, in [o]rbit mode, translation speed is proportional to the viewer's distance from this point. The optional RADIUS (also set by censize) determines the size of the marker crosshair, initially 1 unit.

censize [RADIUS]

Set size of point-of-interest marker.

where (also) w

Report the 3-D camera position and forward direction vector.

clip NEAR FAR

Clipping distances. The computer graphics setup always requires drawing only objects in some finite range of distances in front of the viewpoint. Both values must be strictly positive, and their ratio is limited; depending on the graphics system in use, distant objects may appear to blink if the FAR/NEAR ratio exceeds 10000 or so.

To set the far clip range without changing the near, use a non-numeric near clip value, e.g. clip - 1000.

jump [X Y Z] [Rx Ry Rz]

Get or set the current position (XYZ) and/or viewing (RxRyRz) angle.

readpath

Read a Wavefront (.wf) file describing a path through space.

rdata

Synonym for readpath.

play speed[f]

Play the currently loaded (from readpath/rdata) camera animation path, at speed times normal speed, skipping frames as needed to keep up with wall-clock time. (Normal speed is 30 frames per second.) With "f" suffix, displays every speed-th frame, without regard to real time.

frame [frameno]

Get or set the current frame the frameno-th.

update

Ensures the display is updated, as before taking a snapshot. Probably only useful in a stream of control commands from an async subprocess.

bgcolor R G B

Set window background color (three R G B numbers or one grayscale value).

cen[ter] [X Y Z [RADIUS]] int[erest] [X Y Z [RADIUS]]

Set point of interest. This is the center of rotation in [o]rbit and [r]otate modes. And, in [o]rbit mode, translation speed is proportional to the viewer's distance from this point. The optional RADIUS (also set by censize) determines the size of the marker crosshair, initially 1 unit.

censize [RADIUS]

Set size of point-of-interest marker.

focallen distance

Focal length: distance from viewer to a typical object of interest. This affects stereo display (see below) and navigation: the speed of motion in [t]ranslate and [f]ly modes is proportional to this distance.

stereo [on|off|redcyan|glasses] [separation]

Stereo display. Also toggled on/off by typing 's'> key in graphics window. Where hardware allows it, stereo glasses selects CrystalEyes-style stereo. All systems should be capable of stereo redcyan, which requires wearing redgreen or red/blue glasses. Useful separation values might be 0.02 to 0.1, or -0.02 to -0.1 to swap eyes. See also focallen command, which gives the distance to a typical object of interest: left- and right-eye images of an object at that distance will coincide on the screen.

snapset FILESTEM [FRAMENO]

Set parameters for future snapshot commands. FILESTEM may be a printf format string with frame number as argument, e.g. snapset pix/%04d.ppm, generating image names of pix/0000.ppm, pix/0001.ppm, etc. If FILESTEM contains no % sign, then .%03d.ppm.gz is appended to it, so snapset ./pix/fred yields snapshot images named ./pix/fred.000.ppm.gz etc.

Frame number FRAMENO (default 0) increments with each snapshot taken.

snapshot [FRAMENO]

Capture a snapshot image of the current view. Use snapset to specify the output image name. Default format is snap.%03d.tif.

Partiview generally invokes the ImageMagick program convert(1), which must be installed and be on the user's $PATH. Convert determines the type of image (jpeg, sgi, bmp, etc.) based on the file suffix.

Convert is not needed if the snapset FILESTEM ends in .ppm.gz (invokes gzip rather than convert) or .ppm (no external program required).

4.5 Particle Display Commands

These commands affect how particles (in the current group) are displayed.

psize scalefactor

All particle luminosities (as specified by lum command) are scaled by the product of two factors: a lumvar-specific factor given by slum, and a global factor given by psize. So the intrinsic brightness of a particle is value-specified-by-lum * slum-for-current-lumvar * psize-scalefactor.

slum slumfactor

Data-field specific luminosity scale factor, for current choice of lumvar as given by the lum command. A slumfactor is recorded independently for each data field, so if data fields mass and energy were defined, one might say

lum mass
slum 1000
lum energy
slum 0.25
having chosen each variable's slumfactor for useful display, and then freely switch between lum mass and lum energy without having to readjust particle brightness each time.

ptsize minpixels maxpixels

polysize [on|off] [a|s|r]

polylum

polyminpixels

color

Specify how particles are colored. Generally, a linear function of some data field of each particle becomes an index into a colormap (see cmap, cment).

color colorvar [minval maxval]

Use data field colorvar (either a name as set by datavar or a 0-based integer column number) to determine color. Map minval to color index 1, and maxval to the next-to-last entry in the colormap (Ncmap-2). The 0th and last (Ncmap-1) colormap entry are used for out-of-range data values.

If minval and maxval are omitted, the actual range of values is used.

color colorvar exact [baseval]

Don't consider field colorvar as a continuous variable; instead, it's integer-valued, and mapped one-to-one with color table slots. Data value N is mapped to color index N+baseval.

color colorvar -exact

Once the exact tag is set, it's sticky. To interpret it as a continuous, scalable variable again, use -exact.

color const R G B

Show all particles as color R G B, each value in range 0 to 1, independent of any data fields.

lum

Specify how particles' intrinsic luminosity is computed: a linear function of some data field of each particle.

lum lumvar [minval maxval]

Map values of data field lumvar (datavar name or field number) to luminosity. The (linear) mapping takes field value minval to luminosity 0 and maxval to luminosity 1.0.

If minval and maxval are omitted, the actual range of values is mapped to the luminosity range 0 to 1.

Note that the resulting luminosities are then scaled by the psize and slum scale factors, and further scaled according to distance as specified by fade, to compute apparent brightness of points.

lum const L

Specify constant particle luminosity L independent of any data field values.

fade [planar|spherical|linear refdist|const refdist]

Determines how distance affects particles' apparent brightness (or "size"). The default fade planar gives 1/r^2 light falloff, with r measured as distance from the view plane. fade spherical is also 1/r^2, but with r measured as true distance from the viewpoint. fade linear refdist gives 1/r light falloff -- not physically accurate, but useful to get a limited sense of depth. fade const refdist gives constant apparent brightness independent of distance, and may be appropriate for orthographic views.

The refdist for linear and const modes is that distance r at which apparent brightness should match that in the 1/r^2 modes -- a distance to a "typical" particle.

labelminpixels

labelsize

lsize

point[s] [on|off]

Turn display of points on or off. With no argument, toggles display.

poly[gons] [on|off]

Turn display of points on or off. With no argument, toggles display.

texture [on|off]

Turn display of textures on or off. With no argument, toggles.

label[s] [on|off]

Turn display of label text on or off. With no argument, toggles.

txscale scalefactor

Scale size of all textures relative to their polygons. A scale factor of 0.5 (default) make the texture square just fill its polygon, if polysides is 4.

polyorivar

Report setting of polyorivar data-command, which see.

texturevar

Report setting of texturevar data-command, which see.

laxes [on|off]

Toggle label axes. When on, and when labels are displayed, shows a

polyside(s)

Number of sides a polygon should have

fast

see also ptsize

ptsize

makes more sense than fast.

gamma

alpha [float]

Get or set the alpha value.

speed

For time-dependent data, advance datatime by this many time units per wall-clock second.

step [timestep]

For time-varying data, sets current timestep number. Real-valued times are meaningful for some kinds of data including those from starlab; for others, times are rounded to nearest integer.

step [+|-]deltatimestep

If preceded with a plus or minus sign, adds that amount to current time.

(note that fspeed has been deprecated)

run

tfm

kiractl

viewing control options for kira (starlab) formatted data that have been read in with the kira Data Command.

kira node {on|off|root}

Show or hide center-of-mass nodes for multiple stars. With on, show CM nodes for each level in a binary tree. With root, show only the top-level CM node for each multiple.

kira ring {on|off|root}

Show circles around multiple stars; on and root as above.

kira tree {on|off|cross|tick} [tickscale]

Show lines connecting pairs of stars at each binary-tree level in a multiple group. With cross, also show a perpendicular line -- a tick mark -- which crosses at the CM point, and whose length is tickscale (default 0.5) times the true separation of the pair. With tick, just show the tick-mark with no connecting line.

kira size [sep|semi] [ringscalefactor]

Determines 3-D size of circles when kira ring on. With kira size sep, ring diameter is scalefactor * instanteous separation. With kira size semi, ring radius is scalefactor * a (the semimajor axis of the two-body system, or |a| for unbound orbits). Using semi gives typically more stable-looking rings, though they will pop if they become marginally (un-)bound. Default: kira size semi 1.5.

kira scale ringscalefactor

Another way to set the scale factor for kira size above.

kira span minpix maxpix

Sets screen-space (pixel) size limits on rings. They'll never get smaller than radius minpix nor larger than maxpix, regardless of true 3-D size. Thus even vanishingly tight binaries can always be visibly marked. Default: kira span 2 50.

kira track id|on|off

As particle id moves through time, move the viewpoint in the same way, so that (if you don't move the view by navigation) the particle remains fixed in apparent position. kira track off disables tracking, and kira track on re-enables it. Use the p key or mouse button 2 to pick a particle (or CM node if kira node on) to see its numeric id. Transient center-of-mass nodes (shown if kira node on) can be tracked while they exist.

move on|off

fwd

datawait on|off

For asynchronously-loaded data (currently only ieee data command), say whether wait for current data step to be loaded. (If not, then keep displaying previous data while loading new.)

cmap filename

Load (ascii) filename with RGB values, for coloring particles. The color command selects which data field is mapped to color index and how.

cment

rawdump

see

4.6 Particle subsetting & statistics

clipbox ...

cb ....

Display only a 3D subregion of the data -- the part lying within the clipbox.

cb xmin ymin zmin xmax ymax zmax

Specified by coordinate range.

cb xcen,ycen,zcen xrad,yrad,zrad

Specified by center and "radius" of the box. Note no spaces after the commas!

cb off

Disable clipping. The entire dataset is again visible.

cb on

Re-enable a previously defined clipbox setting.

thresh

Display a subset of particles, chosen by the value of some data field. Each thresh command overrides settings from previous commands, so it cannot be used to show unions or intersections of multiple criteria. For that, see the only command. However, unlike only, the thresh criterion applies to time-varying data.

thresh field minval maxval

Display only those particles where minval <= field field <= maxval. The field may be given by name (as from datavar) or by field number.

thresh field <maxval

thresh field >minval

Show only particles where field is <= or >= the given threshold.

thresh [off|on]

Disable or re-enable a previously specified threshold.

only[=+-] fieldname value minvalue-maxvalue <value >value ...

thresh

clearobj

Erase all particles in this group. Useful for reloading on the fly.

every N

Display a random subset (every N-th) of all particles. E.g. every 1 shows all particles, every 2 shows about half of them. Reports current subsampling factor, and the current total number of particles.

hist datafield [-n nbuckets] [-l] [-c] [-t] [minval] [maxval]

Generates a (numerical) histogram of values of datafield, which may be a named field (as from datavar) or a field index. Divides the value range (either minval..maxval or the actual range of values for that field) into nbuckets equal buckets (11 by default). Uses logarithmically-spaced intervals if -l (so long as the data range doesn't include zero). If a clipbox is defined, use -c to count only particles within it. If a thresh or only subset is defined, use -t to count only the chosen subset.

bound

Reports 3D extent of the data.

datavar

dv

Report names and value ranges (over all particles in current group) of all named data fields.

4.7 Boxes

showbox list of integer box level numbers...

hidebox list of integer box level numbers...

box[es] [off|on|only]

Turn box display off or on; or display boxes but hide all particles.

boxcmap filename

Color boxes using that colormap. Each box's level number (set by -l option of box data-command, default 0) is the color index.

boxcment colorindex [R G B]

Get or set the given box-colormap index. E.g. boxcment 0 reports the color of boxes created with no -l specified.

boxlabel [on|off]

Label boxes by id number (set by -n option of box data-command).

boxaxes [on|off]

Toggle or set box axes display mode.

boxscale [float] [on|off]

gobox boxnumber

goboxscale

menu fmenu

BEGIN CAVEMENU pos P1 P2 wall P1 hid [P1] show [P1] h [P1] demandfps [P1] font help ? END CAVEMENU

datascale

4.8 Data commands

(see also partibrains.c::specks_read)

Lines starting with # will be skipped. The following Data Commands can be placed in a data file.

Control Commands can be given, if prefixed with the eval command.

read file

read a speck formatted file. Recursive, commands can nest. (strtok ok??)

include file

read a speck formatted file.

ieee [-t time] file

read a IEEEIO formatted file, with optional timestep number (0 based). Support for this type of data must be explicitly compiled into the program.

kira file

read a kira formatted file. See the kiractl Control Command to modify the looks of the objects.

object gN=ALIAS

Defines/Selects a particular group number (N=1,2,3....) to an ALIAS. In command mode you can use gN=ALIAS. Any data following this command will now belong to this group.

object ObjectName

Select an existing group. Following data will now belong to this group.

sdbvars var

Choose which data fields to extract from binary sdb files (any of: mMcrogtxyzSn) for subsequent sbd commands.

sdb [-t time] file

Read an SDB (binary) formatted file, with optional timestep number (0 based).

box[es] ....

Draw a box, using any of the following formats:

xmin ymin zmin xmax ymax zmax

xmin,xmax ymin,ymax zmin,zmax

xcen,ycen,zcen xrad,yrad,zrad

[-t time] [-n boxno] [-l level] xcen,ycen,zcen xrad,yrad,zrad

level determines color.

annot [-t timestep] string ...

tfm

Object-to-world transformation. Either tx ty tz rx ry rz or 16 numbers for 4x4 matrix. (something> must contain * a e r)

eval command

execute a Control Command.

feed command

Synonymous for eval

VIRDIR command

Synonymous for eval

filepath path

A colon-separated list of directories in which datafiles, color maps, etc. will be searched for. If preceded with the + symbol, this list will be appended to the current filepath.

polyorivar indexno

By default, when polygons are drawn, they're parallel to the screen plane -- simple markers for the points. It's sometimes useful to give each polygon a fixed 3-D orientation (as for disk galaxies). To do this, provide 6 consecutive data fields, representing two 3-D orthogonal unit vectors which span the plane of the disk. Then use polyorivar indexno giving the data field number of the first of the 6 fields. The vectors define the X and Y directions on the disk, respectively -- relevant if texturing is enabled.

Actually, unit vectors aren't essential; making them different lengths yields non-circular polygonal disks.

If polyorivar is specified but some polygons should still lie in the screen plane, use values 9 9 9 9 9 9.

texture [-lmnMDB] txno file.sgi

-l(inear)

-m(ipmap)

-n(earest)

-M(odulate)

-D(ecal)

-B(lend)

texturevar fieldno

To make polygons be textured:

It doesn't matter whether the texture-index data field is given a datavar name.

If a particle's texture-index field's value doesn't correspond to anything defined by a texture command, then its polygon is drawn as if texturing were disabled.

coord name ... 16 world-to-coord tfm floats (GL order)

dataset indexno datasetname

Give names to multiple datasets in IEEEIO files (read with ieee command). indexno is an integer, 0 being the first dataset.

datavar indexno name [minval maxval]

Name the variable in data field indexno. The first data field is index 0. If provided, minval maxval supply the nominal range of that data variable; some control commands (lum, color) need to know the range of data values, and will use this instead of measuring the actual range.

datatime time

Label subsequent data with this time (a non-negative integer).

Xpos Ypos Zpos Var0 ....

These lines, with XYZ positions in the first 3 columns, will make up the bulk of the dataset. The 4th and subsequent columns contain the values of the datavariables as named with the datavar commands. Note that data variables are 0-based.

4.9 Textures

4.10 Coordinates and Coordinate Transformations


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