ginsu(1) (Nov 4, 1992) ginsu(1)
NAME
ginsu - interactively slice geoms
SYNOPSIS
ginsu
DESCRIPTION
Ginsu is an interactive slicing tool designed to be used
with Geomview. It allows the user to move around a square
slicing plane to an arbitrary position and then to slice a
particular geom with that plane. Slicing involves dividing
the geom into two seperate geoms at the plane of cleavage.
Once slicing has been performed, each of the two new geoms
created can be moved around and examined independently from
the other. Ginsu runs only on Silicon Graphics machines.
Ginsu works by constantly querying geomview for the position
of the plane as one moves it and then updating the internal
plane equation it uses. The coefficients of this equation
appear on the main panel for examination. When the plane
has been properly positioned, one enters the name of the
geom that one wishes to slice in the 'Target Clip Object'
text window, then clicks on the 'Slice!' button. The old
geom is then erased and replaced by two new geoms. The speed
at which this occurs depends on your machine and the
complexity of the geom.
In some cases one may want to manually enter the
coefficients of the slicing plane. This can be accomplished
by toggling on the 'Edit' button. Ginsu is now in edit mode
and will no longer update the coefficients if the plane is
moved about inside Geomview. To change coefficients now, one
clicks in each coefficient text box and types in a new
number followed by enter. The plane will be repositioned
each time to match the new set of coefficients. Toggling the
'Edit' button off will put us back in interactive mode.
Some things to keep in mind: Ginsu turns normalization off
when it is run and prevents it from being turned back on.
This is because keeping normalization can have some
unpleasant effects when cutting things. Ginsu depends on the
clipping plane being present. If the clipping plane is
somehow deleted, Ginsu is then forced to exit.
BUGS
Sometimes color or normal information is lost when clipping
certain geoms. This is because ginsu always converts a geom
to an OFF format geom before clipping it. When clipping the
"World" geom, everything in the world becomes consolidated
into two geoms (this could actually be thought of as a
feature).
Page 1 (printed 12/22/98)
ginsu(1) (Nov 4, 1992) ginsu(1)
SEE ALSO
geomview(1)oogl(5)
AUTHOR
Daeron Meyer email: daeron@geom.umn.edu
The Geometry Center phone: (612) 626-8302
1300 South Second Street
Minneapolis, MN 55454
Page 2 (printed 12/22/98)
