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Visualization
Software
Using AVS at NCSA
The current release of AVS is 5.3 and
is installed on the SGI Origin2000
system.
Contents
Local Information
Company Information
What is AVS
AVS (Application Visualization System) is a product of Advanced
Visual Systems Inc. of Waltham Massachusetts. It is primarily targeted
at 3D scientific visualization. It uses a graphical/dataflow paradigm for
programming. Graphical operations can be distributed across multiple machines
for coarse-grained parallel operation.
What is AVS Animator
AVS animator is an add-on to AVS which allows you to create movies using
key frame animation. With this method of animation, you set key frames
which are snapshots of your complete animation at several extremes and
the system automatically interpolates all changes that occur between these
key frames to create a smooth animation. Animator also has facilities
to control video recording equipment such as frame-by-frame video recorders.
Where is AVS
AVS 5.3 is currently installed on the
SGI Origin2000 system.
The interactive memory limit is relaxed for avs allowing AVS to
access up to 1 Gigabyte of memory for its computations.
To use AVS, you must add the following line to your .login
-
set path = ($path /afs/ncsa/packages/SciViz/avs_5.02/IRIX_5.2/bin)
Although it is not necessary to run avs, you should get the configuration
files as
described below. These files
give you acess to more AVS modules and help colors to be rendered correctly
on your machine.
How do I run AVS
You can run avs by simply typing
avs at the command prompt. A tall
window will appear on the left side of your screen. Click on the button
titled network editor to get the full AVS user interface. If you
press on AVS Applications you will find a button called AVS Demos
which gives you access to a series of automated demonstrations of AVS to
get you aquainted with its capabilities. Please visit the AVS
Beginners Tutorial for more information on getting started with AVS.
There are additional configuration files that you can download
from this server (bach.ncsa.uiuc.edu) which can give you access
to more AVS modules.
Getting the configuration files
You will need to copy these configuration files into your home directory
on the machine that you will be running avs.
-
.avsrc
-
If you have 24 bit (TrueColor) graphics on your own workstation, get the
avsrc.24
-
If you have 8 bit (PseudoColor) graphics, get the avsrc.8.
-
If you have a Sun workstation, often the avs graphics appear very dark.
Adjusting the gamma correction parameter in the configuration file can
correct for this. Use avsrc.Sun for these.
-
Some SGI hardware acellerators like the RealityEngine and Elan require
DirectColor graphics. So get avsrc.SGI for these machines.
-
If you are uncertain which type of graphics you have, just get the default
.avsrc. It is a text file with detailed instructions on how to edit it
if it doesn't work.
-
avs.Xdefaults
-
This sets the sizes and colors of various user interface elements. It is
not necessary, but it does allow you more freedom in defining the appearance
of AVS if you have it. The file is well documented.
These configuration files help AVS take the most advantage of the graphics
capabilities of your workstation.
AVS Help System
AVS has an extensive help and tutorial system built in. Just look for help
buttons in any of the AVS windows. Also, for individual modules, press
the right mouse button on the box at the right side of the module.
This will bring up a menu which summarizes information about that particular
module. There is a help button at the bottom of this menu that will
pop up a help viewer with more detailed information about the module, including
demonstration networks.
The National
Center for Supercomputing Applications
University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
SCDwebmaster@ncsa.uiuc.edu
Last modified: October 4, 2001