91.3 Graphics Software Software for scientific and engineering applications has changed dramatically in the past several years. In the 1970s and early 1980s, there were few graphics software tools available. Most of the engineering packages were in the CAD area. Many specific engineering applications required users to develop and implement programs to solve their problems. These programs were written in the Fortran or C programming languages using low level graphical commands or calls to some standard or quasi-standard(e.g, the CORe package) graphic utines. Most of these systems were developed for a mainframe computer environment. A trend begun in the late 1980s resulted in a change in computing hardware environments as well as in software approaches. Predominantly, the hardware platforms are PCs, microcomputers, and powerful Unix workstations, with most of these machines having excellent graphics capabilities. Software moved from code generation to customized stand-alone scientific and engineering software tools. Software development uses standard languages and graphical user interfaces for CH, C, Fortran, and Pascal, as well as more sophisticated languages such as JAVA, Hyper Text, Unix X11, Microsoft's Windows, and Post Script. The technical community is relying more and more on the increased power of computers to easily support software packages that manipulate complex data and represent them in a visual manner. Engineering Software Packages Several commercial scientific and engineering software packages have graphics functionality. It is difficult to distinguish graphics or visualization capabilities without discussing some of these packages. An excellent reference is found in the IEEE Spectrum Focus Report: Softwar These graphical application software packages fall into five categories 1. Logic simulation for application-specific integrated circuits(ASICs) Software in this area might display a schematic of a multigate ASIC from large functional building blocks. These blocks could represent a finite-state machine with several states and gates. Representative packages are Mentor Graphics'Auto- Logic, Cadence Design Systems' HDL Synthesizer and Optimizer, and Teradyne's Frenchip. HDL is a 2. Electromagnetic design and simulation Software in this area might simulate a printed-circuit board for a 32-bit-wide, 8-bit-byte reversal network. Multilayers of a board are displayed, with colors indicating current densities in lines. Representative systems are Hewlett-Packard's High Frequency Structure Sim- ulator(HFSS), a finite-element-based product having animation of field plots and conductor loss and 3-D full-wave solution and S-parameter output; Sonnet Software's"em"package with animation of conductor currents; and Compact Software's Microwave Explorer with X-Windows and OSF Motif raphical interfaces. 3. Data acquisition, analysis, display, and technical reporting. Systems in this area have compute-intensive analysis routines and enhanced visualization of data which capitalize on sharper display resolutions These packages could produce plots and graphs based on acquired data that are displayed in several windows at once; changes to one window could result in recalculation and updating of corresponding windows. Packages in this area frequently have support for standard languages and graphical user interfaces for C and Fortran as well as the Unix X1l interface or Microsofts windows. Representative packages are HP's VEE-Test; Design Sciences Math Type; DSP Development's DADiSP; National Instru- ments'Labwindows; Speakeasy Computing s Speakeasy Zeta, which features user-tailored graphical user interface and PostScript output; and Mihalisin Associates'Temple-Graph, which produces a color Post 4. Mathematical calculations and graphics for visualization Applications for these packages would be curve fitting, evaluation of integrals, statistical analysis, signal processing, and numerical analysis. Features include programmability in languages such as C, Fortran, and Pascal and 2-D and 3-D representations The leading package in this area is Mathematica by Wolfram Research, which is a general system and programming language for numerical, symbolic, and graphical computations in engineering, research, science,financial analysis, and education [Wolfram, 1991]. Other packages are Amtec Engineering Tecplot, Integrated Systems'Xmath, Math Works' Mathlab, Jandel Scientific's SigmaPlot, and NAGs Axiom. e 2000 by CRC Press LLC© 2000 by CRC Press LLC 91.3 Graphics Software Software for scientific and engineering applications has changed dramatically in the past several years. In the 1970s and early 1980s, there were few graphics software tools available. Most of the engineering packages were in the CAD area. Many specific engineering applications required users to develop and implement programs to solve their problems. These programs were written in the Fortran or C programming languages using low￾level graphical commands or calls to some standard or quasi-standard (e.g., the CORE package) graphical routines. Most of these systems were developed for a mainframe computer environment. A trend begun in the late 1980s resulted in a change in computing hardware environments as well as in software approaches. Predominantly, the hardware platforms are PCs, microcomputers, and powerful Unix workstations, with most of these machines having excellent graphics capabilities. Software moved from code generation to customized stand-alone scientific and engineering software tools. Software development uses standard languages and graphical user interfaces for CH, C, Fortran, and Pascal, as well as more sophisticated languages such as JAVA, HyperText, Unix X.11, Microsoft’s Windows, and PostScript. The technical community is relying more and more on the increased power of computers to easily support software packages that manipulate complex data and represent them in a visual manner. Engineering Software Packages Several commercial scientific and engineering software packages have graphics functionality. It is difficult to distinguish graphics or visualization capabilities without discussing some of these packages. An excellent reference is found in the IEEE Spectrum Focus Report: Software. These graphical application software packages fall into five categories: 1. Logic simulation for application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Software in this area might display a schematic of a multigate ASIC from large functional building blocks. These blocks could represent a finite-state machine with several states and gates. Representative packages are Mentor Graphics’ Auto￾Logic, Cadence Design Systems’ HDL Synthesizer and Optimizer, and Teradyne’s Frenchip. HDL is a hardware description language. 2. Electromagnetic design and simulation. Software in this area might simulate a printed-circuit board for a 32-bit-wide, 8-bit-byte reversal network. Multilayers of a board are displayed, with colors indicating current densities in lines. Representative systems are Hewlett-Packard’s High Frequency Structure Sim￾ulator (HFSS), a finite-element-based product having animation of field plots and conductor loss and 3-D full-wave solution and S-parameter output; Sonnet Software’s “em” package with animation of conductor currents; and Compact Software’s Microwave Explorer with X-Windows and OSF Motif graphical interfaces. 3. Data acquisition, analysis, display, and technical reporting. Systems in this area have compute-intensive analysis routines and enhanced visualization of data which capitalize on sharper display resolutions. These packages could produce plots and graphs based on acquired data that are displayed in several windows at once; changes to one window could result in recalculation and updating of corresponding windows. Packages in this area frequently have support for standard languages and graphical user interfaces for C and Fortran as well as the Unix X.11 interface or Microsoft’s Windows. Representative packages are HP’s VEE-Test; Design Science’s MathType; DSP Development’s DADiSP; National Instru￾ments’ LabWindows; Speakeasy Computing’s Speakeasy Zeta, which features user-tailored graphical user interface and PostScript output; and Mihalisin Associates’ Temple-Graph, which produces a color Post￾Script output link to Mathematica. 4. Mathematical calculations and graphics for visualization. Applications for these packages would be curve fitting, evaluation of integrals, statistical analysis, signal processing, and numerical analysis. Features include programmability in languages such as C, Fortran, and Pascal and 2-D and 3-D representations. The leading package in this area is Mathematica by Wolfram Research, which is a general system and programming language for numerical, symbolic, and graphical computations in engineering, research, science, financial analysis, and education [Wolfram, 1991]. Other packages are Amtec Engineering’s Tecplot, Integrated Systems’ Xmath, MathWorks’ Mathlab, Jandel Scientific’s SigmaPlot, and NAG’s Axiom