Provided by: geomview_1.9.5-4.1build2_amd64 
NAME
Geomview - interactive geometry viewer
SYNOPSIS
geomview [-b r g b] [-c commandfile] [-wins #windows] [-noinit] [-nopanels] [-noopengl]
[-wpos xmin ymin xsize ysize] [-wpos xsize,ysize[@xmin,ymin]] [-e external-module-name]
[-M[cg][sp] pipename] [-start external-module-name [arg ...] --] [-run external-module-
path [arg ...] --] [file ...]
DESCRIPTION
Geomview is an interactive geometry viewer written at the Geometry Center. It displays the objects in
the files given on the command line and allows the user to view and manipulate them interactively.
The present version (1.7) of geomview runs on Silicon Graphics Irises, and X Window System workstations.
We are very interested in hearing about any problems you may have using it; see below for information on
how to contact us.
In addition to providing interactive control over a world of objects via the mouse and keyboard, geomview
has an interpreted language of commands for controlling almost every aspect of its display. It can exe‐
cute files containing statements in this language, and it can communicate with other programs using the
language. See geomview(5), e.g. the file man/cat5/geomview.5 in the geomview distribution, for more de‐
tails of the language.
TUTORIAL
This manual page serves only as a (very) terse reference manual for geomview. For a gentler introduction
to the program and the format of the data files it can read, see "overview" and "oogltour" in the "doc"
directory of the geomview distribution, or better, see the full manual: "geomview.tex" or "geomview.ps",
also in the "doc" directory. The source distribution also includes a tutorial for how to write external
modules in the "src/bin/example" directory.
OPTIONS
-b Set the window background color to the given r g b values.
-c Interpret the commands in commandfile, which may be ``-'' for standard input. The command lan‐
guage is described in geomview(5). Commands may be supplied literally, as in ``-c "(ui-panel main
off)"''; since they include parentheses, they must be quoted.
-wins Causes geomview to initially display #windows camera windows.
-wpos Specifies the initial location and size of the first camera window. With ``-'', you are prompted
for window placement.
-M objname
Display (possibly dynamically changing) geometry (or commands) sent via ``togeomview -g objname
[geomview-shell-command]'' or ``geomstuff objname file ...''. The data appears as a geomview ob‐
ject named objname.
Actually listens to the named pipe ``/tmp/geomview/objname''; you can achieve the same effect with
the shell commands:
mkdir /tmp/geomview;
mknod /tmp/geomview/objname p
(assuming the directory and named pipe don't already exist), then executing the geomview command:
(geometry objname < /tmp/geomview/objname)
-M[cg][ps[un|in|in6]] PIPENAME|TCPPORT
The -M option accepts modifiers: a 'g' suffix expects geometry data (the default), while a 'c'
suffix expects GCL commands. A 'p' implies the connection should use a named pipe (the default on
everything except on the NeXT), while 's' implies using a UNIX-domain socket (the default on the
NeXT). Since version 1.9 of Geomview internet domain sockets are also supported; use 'sin' to make
Geomview listen on the IPv4 port given by TCPPORT, or use 'sin6' to make Geomview listen on an
IPv6 port (also as specified by TCPPORT). 'sun' is a synonym for 's', i.e. use the Unix domain
socket with the name PIPENAME. If PIPENAME starts with a slash ('/'), then it is assumed to be an
absolute pathname, otherwise the named pipe or socket is created below ${TMPDIR}/geomview/.
So -Mcs fred selects reading commands from the UNIX-domain socket named /tmp/geomview/fred, -Mcsin
40000 selects reading commands from the IPv4 port '40000'.
-noopengl
Disable the use of OpenGL for (possibly) hardware accelerated rendering, even if the Geomview bi‐
nary has support for OpenGL compiled in. This also disables the support for transparency and and
textures
-nopanels
Start up displaying no panels, only graphics windows. Panels may be invoked later as usual with
the "Px" keyboard shortcuts or "(ui-panel ...)" command.
-noinit
Read no initialization files. By default, geomview reads the system-wide ".geomview" file, fol‐
lowed by those in $HOME/.geomview and ./.geomview.
-e modulename
Start an external module; modulename is the name associated with the module, appearing in the main
panel's Applications browser, as defined by the emodule-define command (see geomview(5) for de‐
tails).
-start modulename arguments ... --
Like -e but allows you to pass arguments to the external module. "--" signals the end of the ar‐
gument list; the "--" may be omitted if it would be the last argument on the geomview command
line.
-run shell-command arguments ...
Like -start but takes the pathname of executable of the external module instead of the module's
name.
GEOMETRY FILE FORMATS
The format of the files read by geomview is described in oogl(5); type "man 5 oogl", or see the file
man/cat5/oogl.5 in the geomview distribution, for details.
Note to users of MinneView (the precursor to geomview): geomview can read MinneView files, but MinneView
cannot read all geomview files.
STARTUP FILES
Immediately upon starting up geomview reads and executes the commands in the system-wide .geomview file
in the "data" subdirectory of the geomview directory. Then, if there is a file named .geomview in the
current directory, it executes the commands in that file. If no in the user's home directory, and exe‐
cutes it if found. The startup file of an individual user overrides the systemwide defaults, since later
commands take precedence over earlier ones.
EXTERNAL MODULES
Geomview has the ability to interact via its command language with other programs, called "external mod‐
ules". Many such modules have been written and appear in the "Application" browser in the main geomview
panel. To invoke a module you click the mouse on the module's entry in this browser. This starts the
module and adds an additional entry to the browser, beginning with a number in square brackets as in
``[1] Crayola'', which represents the running instance of that module. You can terminate the module by
clicking on the numbered entry. Modules are documented separately from geomview. See the manual page
for each module for details.
INSTALLING AN EXTERNAL MODULE
Geomview looks for external modules in a special directory for modules. In the geomview distribution
tree this is the "bin/$MACHTYPE" subdirectory. A module consists of two files: the executable program,
and a "module init file", which is a whose name is ".geomview-" followed by the module name. The module
init file tells geomview how to run that program. Be sure to always keep these two files together; ge‐
omview needs both of them in order to run the module. To install a new module, simply put the module's
executable file and its init file in your geomview's module directory. The next time you run geomview,
it will know about that module.
Geomview can actually looks for modules in a list of directories; by default only the "bin/$MACHTYPE" di‐
rectory is on this list. See the set-emodule-path command in geomview(5) for details.
There is a tutorial for how to write external modules in the "src/bin/example" directory.
EXTERNAL MODULE INIT FILES
An external module init file is the file that tells geomview how to run that module. Its name must be
".geomview-" followed by the name of the module, e.g. ".geomview-foo". It should contain geomview com‐
mands; typically it will contain a single emodule-define command which enters the module into geomview's
application browser:
(emodule-define "Foo" "foo")
The first string is the name that appears in the browser. The second string is the command to invoke the
module. It may contain arguments; in fact it can be an arbitrary shell command.
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
Many geomview operations are available from the keyboard. Hitting the "?" button on the main panel, or
typing "?" with the cursor in any window, causes geomview to print a message on standard output listing
all the keyboard shortcuts.
Keyboard commands apply while cursor is in any graphics window and most
control panels. Most commands allow one of the following selection prefixes
(if none is provided the command applies to the current object):
g world geom g# #'th geom g* All geoms
c current camera c# #'th camera c* All cameras
Many allow a numeric prefix: if none they toggle or reset current value.
Appearance:
Draw: Shading: Other:
af Faces 0as Constant av eVert normals: always face viewer
ae Edges 1as Flat #aw Line Width (pixels)
an Normals 2as Smooth #ac edges Closer than faces(try 5-100)
ab Bounding Boxes 3as Smooth, non-lighted al Shade lines
aV Vectors aT allow transparency at Texture-mapping
Color: aC allow concave polygons
Cf Ce Cn Cb CB face/edge/normal/bbox/backgnd
Motions: Viewing:
r rotate [ Leftmouse=X-Y plane, 0vp Orthographic view
t translate Middle=Z axis, 1vp Perspective view
z zoom FOV Shift=slow motion, vd Draw other views' cameras
f fly in r/t modes. ] #vv field of View
o orbit [Left=steer, Middle=speed ] #vn near clip distance
s scale #vf far clip distance
w/W recenter/all v+ add new camera
h/H halt/halt all vx cursor on/off
@ select center of motion (e.g. g3@) vb backfacing poly cull on/off
#vl focal length
L Look At object v~ Software shading on/off
show Panel: Pm Pa Pl Po main/appearance/lighting/obscure
Pt Pc PC Pf tools/cameras/Commands/file-browser
Ps P- saving/read commands from tty
Lights: ls le Show lights / Edit Lights
Metric: me mh ms Euclidean Hyperbolic Spherical
Model: mv mp mc Virtual Projective Conformal
Other:
N normalization < Pf load geom/command file
0N none > Ps save something to file ui motion has inertia
1N each TV NTSC mode toggle uc constrained (X/Y) motion
2N all uo motion in Own coord system
Rightmouse-doubleclick pick as current target object
Shift-Rightmouse pick interest (center) point
Renderman:
RR send RIB output to <fileprefix>NNN.rib (default fileprefix == "geom")
RC Emulate lines using cylinders (default)
RP Emulate lines using polygons
Ra choose ASCII RIB format (default)
Rb choose BINARY RIB format
Rt choose Display token to specify .tiff file (default)
Rf choose Display token to specify framebuffer
Rs Simulate background color with Polygon (default)
Rx No background simulation - fully transparent (alpha) background
NOTES
The "geomview" command is actually a shell script that sets various environment variables which tell ge‐
omview about your local setup, and then invokes the geomview executable program "gvx" (or "gvx.OGL"). Do
not run "gvx" by itself; always invoke geomview with the "geomview" shell script.
SEE ALSO
oogl(5) - OOGL geometric file formats and conventions
geomview(5) - geomview command language reference
FILES
data/.geomview - default initialization file in geomview command language
data/geom - sample data files
ENVIRONMENT
The ``geomview'' shell script sets these internally by default; if you set them before invoking geomview,
the values you set will be used instead of the built-in defaults.
GEOMVIEW_GVX - geomview executable
GEOMVIEW_DATA_DIR - default directory for data files
GEOMVIEW_LOAD_PATH - colon-separated search path for data files
GEOMVIEW_EMODULE_DIR - default directory for external emodules
GEOMVIEW_EMODULE_PATH - colon-separated search path for external modules
GEOMVIEW_SYSTEM_INITFILE - system-wide GCL initialization script
GEOMDATA - top directory of the default data tree, used by some modules
GEOMVIEW_DOC_DIR - path to the user manual
WEBBROWSER - executable for viewing the HTML version of the manual when invoking the `Manual (HTML)' menu
item
PDFVIEWER - executable for viewing the PDF version of the manual when invoking the `Manual (PDF)' menu
item
AUTHORS
Stuart Levy Tamara Munzner Mark Phillips
Celeste Fowler Nathaniel Thurston
Daniel Krech Scott Wisdom
Daeron Meyer Timothy Rowley
The National Science and Technology Research Center for
Computation and Visualization of Geometric Structures
(The Geometry Center)
University of Minnesota
www.geomview.org
BUGS
Sometimes core dumps on bad input files.
Zoom and scale have no inertia.
Virtual spherical mode doesn't work on VGXes.
Geometry Center December 10, 1996 Geomview(1gv)