Vis5D Documentation
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# Saving Image Files and Printing

The SAVE PIC button on the control panel can be used to save the image in the 3-D or sounding window to a file. If you are in 'Sounding' mode the sounding window will be saved, any other mode will save the 3-D window (including all displays if multiple displays exist). When you click on SAVE PIC a pop-up window appears in which you can select the file format and filename. The choices of file formats depends on the computer you're using or whether or not you have the 'convert' program installed. The formats supported by Vis5D are:

XWD | X Window Dump, displayable with xwud or xv.
RGB | SGI image file format, displayable with ipaste or xv.
GIF | Standard GIF format, displayable with xv and many other programs.
PostScript | may be printed or viewed on-screen with a program like ghostview.
Color PostScript | may be printed or viewed with a ghostview-like program.
PPM | standard unix file format.
TGA | only available with the 'convert' program

It is recomended that the 'convert' program be downloaded. This ensures more save file formats and in some cases produces higher quality save pictures. ImageMagick's 'convert' program can be downloaded at: ftp://ftp.wizards.dupont.com/pub/Imagemagick and the www page is http://www.wizards.dupont.com/cristy/ImageMagick.html Once the 'convert' binary has been downloaded or compiled it has to be placed in a directory 'util' where vis5d is being run. For example if you are running vis5d from '/usr/home/jane' then the convert program must be placed in '/usr/home/jane/util'.

Configurations of Vis5D using OpenGL directly write XWD files. The following methods are used if no 'convert' program is present. To make an RGB file the fromxwd program is used. Unfortunately, the fromxwd program shipped by SGI has a bug which causes it to fail. Since source code for fromxwd is shipped with IRIX we include a patched version which works correctly. To make a gif file requires both fromxwd and togif (only available on SGI systems). To make a grayscale PostScript file requires the xpr utility (standard with X11). To make a color PostScript file the tops program is needed (only available on SGI systems).

If you don't have any of the utilities mentioned above you should try using xv to convert your image files.

To print a Vis5D image, position the mouse pointer over the 3-D window and press the P key. If you are in 'Sounding' mode the sounding window will be printed, any other mode and the 3-D window will be printed. You'll be asked to verify your action. Vis5D uses lpr to send a PostScript image file to the default printer or the printer specified by the PRINTER environment variable. To generate the PostScript file Vis5D uses the utilities described above. If you have problems printing you should try to first save your image as a PostScript file then try to print it manually using lpr or lp. Another option is to save your image as an XWD file then use xpr (a standard X11 utility) to convert it to PostScript and print it.

To learn more about the xwud, xpr, fromxwd, tops and togif program read the man pages. Many of these programs have options which you may find useful.

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