AVS Modules                                                     sphere to geom 
College of Chemistry, UCB

NAME
     sphere to geom - create a geometric object from a sphere list

SUMMARY
     Name	   sphere to geom

     Type	   data input

     Inputs	   none

     Outputs	   geometry, one sphere list and two line lists

     Parameters	   Name		   Type
		   Data File       browser
		   min x           dial
		   max x           dial
		   min y           dial
		   max y           dial 
		   min z           dial
		   max z           dial

DESCRIPTION
     This module began as a simple wrap around the sphere.c filter but
     has been extended to include some interesting features.  It uses
     the same ascii file format as /usr/avs/filter/sphere.c, however, the
     user may also add a list of lines "bonds" to the end of the file and
     these will be picked up and added to the geometry output.  The min and
     max dials have the effect of 3D cropping on location within the
     bounds while retaining the boundary box.

INPUTS
     none

OUTPUTS
     The module outputs a geometry consisting of separate points, box,
     and lines objects.  The edit list for the geometry places
     the default camera at an appropriate normalization without disturbing
     the 3D coordinates.

PARAMETERS
     Data File			-the ascii file containing sphere location,
				 color, and radius information.  The format
				 for the file is:
	   xmin ymin zmin
	   xmax ymax zmax
	   Number_of_points
           <center1x> <center1y> <center1z> <radius> <col1r> <col1g> <col1b>
	   .
	   .
	   <EOF> or Number_of_lines
	   <p1_l1x> <p1_l1y> <p1_l1z> <p2_l1x> <p2_l1y> <p2_lz>
	   .
	   .
	   <EOF>
				 <p1_l1x> denotes the x coordinate of the
				 first point of line number 1.

     min x			-These dials set the cropping range for
     max x			 for the displayed points.  They are set
     min y			 to the appropriate value when the data
     max y			 file is read in.
     min z
     max z


EXAMPLE
     Typical network usage:

     sphere to geom
	       |
     render geometry
               |
     display pixmap


College of Chemistry, UCB						5/25/92	
Tim O. Robinson