[AstroPy] 3-D Graphics Tools for for Documentation, Presentations, etc.

[Rick Wagner]

Hi,

Have you looked at S2PLOT? It's has relatively simple interface, and  
includes the ability to embed 3D data in PDF's. Oh, and it has a  
Python wrapper, making it useful to us.

http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/s2plot/

--Rick

On Apr 19, 2009, at 10:04 AM, Wayne Watson wrote:

> Thanks for the information. I would agree with you for a presentation,
> but I need it mostly this time for a paper I'm writing. I will be  
> giving
> a talk, so I could use a video 3-D clip. However, in this case, it may
> not be useful. I'm simply trying to show three coordinate systems with
> the same origin. One is an image plane (x-y), and the other two are
> az/el, separated by an angle about the zenith. A celestial sphere  
> needs
> to be shown with a few stars on it. I could go overboard with this, by
> rotating one of the coordinate systems around the north pole, and
> drawing the path of the stars on the sphere, but I'll worry about that
> for another time.
>
> Anne Archibald wrote:
>> 2009/4/19 Wayne Watson <sierra_mtnview at sbcglobal.net>:
>>
>>> Many years ago to put together a presentation or article on  
>>> celestial
>>> mechanics, spherical trig, trajectory analysis, etc. I would use a
>>> compass, ruler, and maybe a French curve to draw the figures,  
>>> coordinate
>>> axes, etc. on paper. Labels would be typed onto the sheets. I  
>>> would like
>>> to think that over the last decade that some modest software package
>>> might be available to do this. Does anyone know of any?
>>>
>>
>> You might try Mayavi2. It's more oriented towards 3D visualization,
>> but I think with appropriate options it can probably be made to do
>> what you're asking for. (It's also worth noting that an  
>> interactive 3D
>> plot can be much more informative than a single 2D projection.)
>>
>> Anne
>>
>>
>
> -- 
>            Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
>
>              (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
>               Obz Site:  39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet
>
>            All the neutrons, and protons in the human body occupy
>            a cube whose side is 5.52*10**-6 meters (tiny!). That
>            adds up to a 150 pound person. It's not a surprise that
>            we are mostly space. (Calculation by WTW)
>
>
>
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