axes

General Module Function

The axes module is used to place 3D axes in the viewer scaled by the model data and/or user defined limits. Axes accepts data from many of the Subsetting and Processing modules and outputs directly to the viewer. Data passed to Axes should come from modules which have scaled or transformed the mesh data, for example explode_and_scale. Axes generated by axes and displayed in the viewer are transformable with other objects in the viewer.

The User interface to axes is very comprehensive. Each coordinate direction axis can be individually controlled. Axis labels and tick marks for each axes can be specified. The label font, label precision, label orientation, and other label parameters are all user specified. Many of the parameters do not have default values that will produce the desired results because many variables control how the axes should be defined.

axes requires a field input to position and size the axes. If you disconnect the (blue/black) field input port, you no longer lose the axes bounds values and your axes remain in place. This is useful when field data changes in an animation so that you don't constantly recreate the axes.

Also, the size of text and tick marks is based on a percentage of the x-y-z extent of the input field. This now allows you to set the extent of one or more axes to zero so you can have a scale of only one or two dimensions.

Module Input Ports

• View [View] This is the primary Purple port which connects to the viewer to receive the extent of all objects in the viewer AND outputs the axes.
  • This port can be used as your only connection from axes to the viewer and no other connections are needed.
• Input Geologic Field [Field] Accepts a field to receive the extent
• Input Objects [Renderable]: Accepts a renderable output port to receive the extent
• Minor Ports not needed for most all cases
  • Z Scale [Number] Accepts Z Scale (vertical exaggeration) from other modules
  • Explode [Number] Accepts the Explode distance from other modules

Module Output Ports

• Output Object [Renderable] Outputs the axes to the viewer.

Properties and Parameters

The Properties window is arranged in the following groups of parameters:

• Properties: controls the scaling and exploding
• Spatial Definition: Controls the extents and grid densities
• Display Settings: controls layer exploding and cell sets
• All Axes Settings: Controls parameters for XYZ simultaneously
• X Axes Settings: Controls parameters for X axis
• Y Axes Settings: Controls parameters for Y axis
• Z Axes Settings: Controls parameters for Z axis

in_view (Purple) : This port accepts the output of the viewer directly.  It will draw the axes around everything displayed in the viewer.  This port will only cause the module to run when the port is connected or when the "Accept Current Values" button is pressed.  If the models coordinate extents are going to change often then another input port should be used.

objects_in (Red) : This port accepts any  number of (Red) output ports from other modules.  When any of those modules are run the axes module will run as well.

meshs_in (Blue/Black) : This port accepts any  number of (Blue/Black) output ports from other modules.  When any of those modules are run the axes module will run as well.

explode (Grey/Green) : This port accepts a float value representing the explode distance from explode_and_scale.  If you have an explode distance set to anything but 0, the Z axis tick labels are not printed.

z_scale (Grey/Brown) :  This port accepts a float value representing Z exaggeration of the model from modules like explode_and_scale to ensure that the Z axis is correctly labeled.