Release Notes ------------- IRIS Explorer 4.0 for Silicon Graphics -------------------------------------- 1. Introduction ------------ The IRIS Explorer product is a system for combining components called modules to create powerful customized visualization applications. Modules linked this way form an IRIS Explorer Map. Modules in a map can execute on a collection of networked computers, with IRIS Explorer providing the distributed application framework. The IRIS Explorer Map Editor utility is the primary way to interact with modules that are cooperating as an aggregate IRIS Explorer application. The Map Editor can be used to start and stop modules, make and break connections between modules, and operate controls for the modules themselves. The mbuilder utility (Module Builder) can be used to build new IRIS Explorer modules from existing subroutines written in C, C++ or Fortran (even without source). With the Module Builder, you can create graphical user interfaces for modules without reprogramming their source code. Help pages are provided for all modules and example maps. IRIS Explorer documentation is available on-line as part of the product's distribution. The documentation includes an introductory tutorial, a four volume manual set, newsletters, user stories and example images. The documentation also contains links to the IRIS Explorer WWW site which is at http://www.nag.co.uk/Welcome_IEC.html Alternatively contact http://www.nag.com/ in North America or http://www.nag-j.co.jp/ in Japan. IRIS Explorer is discussed on the UseNet newsgroup comp.graphics.apps.iris-explorer IRIS Explorer is available from The Numerical Algorithms Group Ltd. for a range of workstations and computers. For further information, contact the IRIS Explorer Center nearest you. The locations are IRIS Explorer Center (Europe) Wilkinson House Jordan Hill Road Oxford OX2 8DR United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1865 516377 Fax: +44 (0)1865 516388 email: helpdesk@iec.co.uk WWW: http://www.nag.co.uk/Welcome_IEC.html IRIS Explorer Center (North America) 1400 Opus Place, Suite 200 Downers Grove IL 60515-5702 USA Tel: +1 630 971 2367 Fax: +1 630 971 2346 email: explorer@nag.com WWW: http://www.nag.com/ IRIS Explorer Center Japan (IECJ) Nagashima Building 2F 2-24-3 Higashi Shibuya-ku Tokyo Japan Tel: +81 (0)3 5485 2901 Fax: +81 (0)3 5485 2903 email: help@nag-j.co.jp WWW: http://www.nag-j.co.jp/ 2. New Features in this Release ---------------------------- This section details changes and additions to IRIS Explorer since Release 3.5. In summary these are: * Collaborative visualization. This allows geographically separate IRIS Explorer sessions to view the same visualization and to collaborate on analysis, application design construction. Teams of co-workers can now come together to build multi-user visualization applications. Finally, new collaborative modules can be built using the module builder. Collaborative visualization is discussed in detail in the Collaborative User Guide, which is part of the IRIS Explorer documentation. * Improved facilities for plotting graphs of y against x. Features include axis labelling, independent control of plotting style, logarithmic plots, domain specification. These features have been made available by extensions to the API; in addition, new modules which make use of this API are also part of the distribution (both as executables and source). * Improved printing. The use of vector PostScript has been introduced in IRIS Explorer 4.0 to provide high quality output. * The Render module has been enhanced to allow direct printing of its scene to a printer. A new print preview option has also been added. In addition, Render now supports saving its scene as VRML 2.0. Finally, the background colour of the scene has been exposed as a parameter; this allows it to be controlled from outside the module, and its value is saved when the map containing the module is saved. The background color is saved as part of the scene when it is printed. * New widgets (check boxes and extended scroll lists) have been added to the graphical user interface. * A new option has been added to the module builder to allow the construction of a collaborative module. * The map editor interface has been enhanced to offer the option of colouring each connection according to the datatype which it is transferring between the modules. A further option allows multiple connections between pairs of modules to be displayed separately. * A restriction on the maximum number of connections that could be made between modules in the map editor has been removed. * Runtime licensing. A new mechanism for a two-tier (development /runtime) licensing mechanism has been introduced, which facilitates the development and distribution of applications built using IRIS Explorer. * New modules. These include LineGraph, which produces plots of one-dimensional (y as a function of x) data, ReadECF, which reads one-dimensional data in a new format (called Explorer Chart Format), Layout, which allows you to position several pieces of geometry in the Render window, CombineGeom, which combines several pieces of geometry into one scene, and DecimateGeom, which reduces the size of a piece of geometry by merging adjacent triangles. * Modified modules. These include WriteGeom, which has been enhanced to offer VRML 2.0 output, Render, which now incorporates new options for outputting picked geometry, and OrthoSlice, which has been extended to accept 2D lattices as well as 3D lattices. * New demo maps (cross-section, movie, plotting, picking, reduction, slices, layout) and example datasets. * Performance improvements through the use of Open Inventor 2.5 for geometry data and rendering. * The documentation has been updated and enhanced for this release. Specifically, the Introductory Tutorial has been extensively revised to give a more comprehensive introduction to the use of IRIS Explorer. The delivery mechanism for other documentation (which previously included HTML, Unix 'man' pages and hard copy) has been rationalised, with attention being focussed on the HTML and printed forms of the documentation. The use of a single source greatly improves the reliability and usefulness of this valuable resource. * Bug fixes and other system enhancements. 3. Known Problems with this Release -------------------------------- None.