Visualization Data Representation

Ray Gasser
rayg@bu.edu

http://www.bu.edu/tech/support/res
earch/training-consulting/online-
tutorials/paraview/#VISPIPE

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Characteristics of Data
 Data is discrete
– Interpolation functions generate data values in between known points

 Structure may be regular or irregular

– Regular (structured)
• need to store only beginning position, spacing, number of points
• smaller memory footprint per cell (topology can be generated on the fly)
• examples: image data, rectilinear grid, structured grid

– Irregular (unstructured)
• information can be represented more densely where it changes quickly
• higher memory footprint (topology must be explicitly written) but more
freedom
• examples: polygonal data, unstructured grid

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Characteristics of Data
 Data has a topological dimension
– determines methods for visualization
– determines data representation
– examples:
• 0D - points
• 1D - lines/Curves
• 2D - surfaces
• 3D - volumes
 Data is organized into datasets for visualization
– Datasets consist of two pieces
• organizing structure
– cells (topology)
– points (geometry)
• data attributes associated with the structure
– File format derived from organizing structure

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Organizing Structure (Topology)
 Topology
– the way in which constituent parts are interrelated or arranged
– specified by one or more cells (types vary with visualization packages)
• vertex - (0D) point
• polyvertex - (0D) arbitrarily ordered list of points
• line - (1D) defined by two points
• polyline - (1D) ordered list of one or more connected lines
• triangle - (2D) ordered list of three points
• triangle strip - (2D) ordered list of n + 2 points (n is the number of triangles)
• polygon - (2D) ordered list of three or more points lying in a plane
• pixel - (2D) ordered list of four points with geometric constraints
• quadrilateral - (2D) - ordered list of four points lying in a plane
• tetrahedron - (3D) ordered list of four nonplanar points
• voxel - (3D) ordered list of eight nonplanar points with geometric constraints
• hexahedron - (3D) ordered list of eight nonplanar points

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Examples of Cell Types

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Organizing Structure (Geometry)
 Geometry
– point coordinates assigned to a topology in 3D space
– represented by points
– example: (0 0 0), (0 1 0), (1 0 0) would be the geometry for a triangle

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Examples of Dataset Types
 Image Data (Structured Points)
– regular in both topology and geometry
– examples: lines, pixels, voxels
– applications: imaging CT, MRI

 Rectilinear Grid
– regular topology but geometry only partially
regular
– examples: pixels, voxels

 Structured Grid
– regular topology and irregular geometry
– examples: quadrilaterals, hexahedron
– applications: fluid flow, heat transfer

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Examples of Dataset Types
 Unstructured Points
– no topology and irregular geometry
– examples: vertex, polyvertex
– applications: data with no inherent
structure
 Polygonal Data
– irregular in both topology and geometry
– examples: vertices, polyvertices, lines,
polylines, polygons, triangle strips
 Unstructured Grid
– irregular in both topology and geometry
– examples: any combination of cells
– applications: finite element analysis,
structural design, vibration

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Examples of Dataset Types
 XML
– much more complicated than the dataset
types described above, but supports
many more features

– provides the user with the ability to

extend a file format with application
specific tags

– in VTK the XML dataset has support for

compression, portable binary encoding,
random access, byte ordering, and
multiple file representation of piece data

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Data Attributes
 Data attributes associated with the organizing structure
– Scalars
• single valued
• examples: temperature, pressure, density, elevation
– Vectors
• magnitude and direction
• examples: velocity, momentum
– Normals
• direction vectors (magnitude of 1) used for shading
– Texture Coordinates
• used to map a point in Cartesian space into 1, 2, or 3D texture space
• used for texture mapping
– Tensors (generalizations of scalars, vectors and matrices)
• rank 0 ( scalar), rank 1 (vector), rank 2 (matrix), rank3 (3D rectangular array)
• examples: stress, strain

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Visualization of Attributes
 Scalar Algorithms
– Color Mapping
• maps scalar data to colors
• implemented by using scalar values as an index into a
color lookup table

– Contouring
• construct a boundary between distinct regions
• two steps:
– explore space to find points near contour
– connect points into contour (2D) or surface (3D)
• 2D contour map (isoline):
– applications: elevation contours from topography, pressure
contours (weather maps) from meteorology

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Visualization of Attributes
– Contouring (cont)
• 3D isosurface:
– applications: tissue surfaces from tomography, constant
pressure or temperature in fluid flow, implicit surfaces
from math and CAD

– Scalar Generation
• extract scalars from part of data
• example: extracting z coordinate (elevation) from
terrain data to create scalar values

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Visualization of Attributes
 Vector Algorithms
– Hedgehogs
• oriented scaled line for each vector

– Oriented Glyphs
• orientation indicates direction
• scale indicates magnitude
• color indicates magnitude, pressure, temperature, or
any variable

– Warping
• advect a simple object to indicate flow
• vertices individually translated by flow

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Visualization of Attributes
 Vector Algorithms (cont)
– Field Lines
• Fluid flow is described by a vector field in three dimensions for steady (fixed
time) flows or four dimensions for unsteady (time varying) flows
• Three techniques for determining flow
– Pathline (Trace)
• tracks particle through unsteady (time-varying) flow
• shows particle trajectories over time
• rake releases particles from multiple positions at the same time instant
• reveals compression, vorticity
– Streamline
• tracks particle through steady (fixed-time) flow
• holds flow steady at a fixed time
• snapshot of flow at a given time instant
– Streakline
• particles released from the same position over a time interval (time-varying)
• snapshot of the variation of flow over time
• example: dye steadily injected into fluid at a fixed point

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

 Visualization of Attributes
– Field Lines (cont)
• Four ways to show flow
– Streamlines
• lines show particle flow

– Streamlets
• half way between streamlines and glyphs
• example: stream arrows

– Streamribbon
• rake of two particles to create a ribbon
• maintain constant tangent distance between
particles
• reveals vorticity
– Streamtube
• circular rake of particles to create a tube
• relative radius of tube indicates
compression/divergence
• color can indicate pressure, temperature

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Visualization of Attributes
 Modeling Algorithms
– Clipping
• can reveal internal details of a surface

– Cutting/Slicing
• cutting through a dataset with a surface

– Subsampling
• reduces data size by selecting a subset of
the original data
• modifies topology

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Visualization of Attributes
 Volume Rendering
– used for data that is inherently
volumetric
– examples: biomedical imaging, MR
scans, CT scans, ultrasounds

 Time Animation

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Sources

 The Visualization Toolkit, 3rd Edition, Will Schroeder,

Pearson Education, Inc, 2002.

 The VTK User’s Guide, 4.2 Edition, Kitware, 2003 .

 Kitware: www.vtk.org

SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008