File Applications/sliceomatic/sliceomatic.m

  SLICEOMATIC - Slice and isosurface volume exploration GUI
 
  SLICEOMATIC(DATA) - Use 3D double matrix DATA as a volume data
 
  Example:
 
        [x,y,z] = meshgrid(-2:.2:2, -2:.25:2, -2:.16:2);
        v = x .* exp(-x.^2 - y.^2 - z.^2);
        sliceomatic(v)
 
  Using SLICEOMATIC with no arguments is equivalent to the above
  example.
 
  SLICEOMATIC(DATA, X, Y, Z) - Run sliceomatic using the specified data 
  coordinates for the volume DATA. X, Y, and Z are the vectors over which
  DATA is defined.
 
  ex:
        x = -2:.2:2; y = -2:.25:2; z = -2:.16:2;
        [X,Y,Z] = meshgrid(x,y,z);
        v = X .* exp(-X.^2 - Y.^2 - Z.^2);
        sliceomatic(v,x,y,z)
 
 
  Using the GUI:
  -------------
 
  Create/Delete slices:
  
  The white bars on the top, left, and right allow insertion of
  new slices on the X, Y, and Z planes.  Click in an empty area to
  add a new slice or surface.  Right click on a control arrow to
  reconfigure or delete that slice.
 
  Create/Delete isosurfaces:
 
  The colored bar at the bottom is used to place and position an
  isosurface.  The color in the bar indicates a position (as seen
  in the slice) where the isosurface will go.  Right click on a
  control arrow to reconfigure or delete the isosurface.
 
  Orientation of the view:
 
  When the rotate camera button is on, the popup menu will control
  the camera.  Turn off camera rotation in order to get individual
  control over properties of the slices and isosurfaces.
 
  Changing Defaults:
 
  The defaults menu provides default features of newly created
  slices and surfaces.  The AllSlices menu controls properties of
  all the slices and surfaces in the scene.  Use popup menus on the
  objects themselves, or the control arrows to change individual
  properties.
 
  Color & Alpha Maps:
 
  The Colormap popdown controls the currently active colormap.
  This map is used to color the slices.  The Alphamap popdown
  controls the alphamap used on the slices.
 
  Use the color or alpha maps to change how areas of your data are
  highlighted.
 
  Controls Control:
 
  The Controls menu allows you to adjust how the controls look.  An
  important feature here is the "Animate" item.  You can enable or
  disable an animation when some changes are made.  Since this is
  decorative, it may be important to turn this off for large data
  sets.
 
  Doing Cool Stuff:
  ----------------
 
  Exploration:
  You can get a quick feel of the current data set by adding a
  slice using the ColorTexture option.  Such a slice can be dragged
  through the data very quickly.
 
  Highlight an Area:
  If certain values in your data are interesting (very large, very
  small, or very median values) you can use transparency to make
  parts of your slices disappear.  Choose AlphaTexture options from
  the defaults, and sweep some slices across your data.  Use the
  AlphaMap to pick out certain data sets.  The example given here
  looks best with the `vdown' alphamap.
 
  Contours on slices:
  You can add a contour onto a slice to further extract shapes
  from the data you are exploring.  Auto-selecting contour limits
  will choose contours on a per slice basis.  Auto-selecting
  contour lines from a volume arbitrarily specifies 10 levels
  based on the limits of the volume.
 
  Hidden Shapes:
  Use the isosurface control bar to create an isosurface.  Be
  patient with this control.  It often takes a while for the
  surface to be created.  Click and hold the mouse button down
  until the first surface appears.  Drag the surface through the
  values until you get something you like, then let go.  If your
  data set is very large, you will need to wait while the new and
  more accurate isosurface is created.
 
  Volumes:
  You can simulate a volume object by creating lots of stacked
  slices.  Simply use the proper Alphamap and transparent textures
  to highlight the correct data, and a large stack of slices will
  let you simulate a volume object.
 
  Customized Graphics:
  -------------------
 
  To add your own graphics into the sliceomatic display, whatever
  that may be, you can use the following technique:
 
  1) click on a control arrow
  2) use gco to get the data for that object
     slice = getappdata(gco,'arrowslice')
  3) use GET to get the cdata and position data which you can use
     to add your own graphics.
 
  Setting Default Values:
  ----------------------
 
  If you want to change some default setup feature of sliceomatic,
  use the "Save Preferences" menu item.  Future sliceomatic
  sessions will then retrieve those settings.
 
 
  BUGS:
  ----
 
  1) Inaccurate Slice
     Sliceomatic does not use the `slice' command.  All slices are
     created by explicitly extracting data from the volume.  As such,
     only slices at integer values are allowed.
  
  2) Crashes MATLAB
     Sliceomatic uses the default OpenGL setup.  If you encounter
     frequent crashes you can start by enabling software OpenGL
     rendering.  This should always fix the problem, and would
     likely slow things down too.  You should also update your
     graphics driver for your video card.  On Windows, in
     particular, drivers are updated frequently.  For detail on how
     to overcome these problems, visit this web page:
   http://www.mathworks.com/support/tech-notes/1200/1201.html
 
  See Also: SLICE, ISOSURFACE, ISOCAPS, CONTOURC, COLORMAP, SURFACE