data display

With the new Flexscript OpenGL commands, we now have more ability to better display data. We could always use all the OpenGL commands in C++ and some draw commands in Flexscript, but now we have a little more control of drawing. These could be used to make new ways to display data in a model, instead of just using the recorder object.

I've attached three models that draw 3D graphs. There's a cartesian 3d graph of a function of x, y, and time, a polar function of theta, phi, and time, and an actual practical application that draws a 3D bar graph of a global table.

Most of the code is in the OnDraw triggers of the visual tools. This code can be adapted to make some cool data displays.

Thanks, Alex. This is really great! The cartesian model (and polar model) shows a great way of visualizing functions with parameter t.

The different of Flexscript and C++ is so dramatic here. If I change it to Flexscript, Flexsim almost hang on. I guess here is the case that a DLL could be used.

Here is one interesting but simpler pattern (an ideal water wave) by using the following code:

        double t=10*sqrt(time()/100);
        double z00=5+cos(y0+t);
        double z01=5+cos(y1+t);
        double z10=z00;
        double z11=z01;

For the polar model, add two lines before draw rectangle to make it more interesting:

        double t=10*sqrt(time());
        glColor3d(sin(t+x00),cos(t+y00),(sin(t+z00)+cos(t+z00))/sqrt(2.0));

To view the effects, it is better to comment out the glEnable(GL_LIGHTING) line.

Some questions: What glDisable(2884); and glNormal3D do?

First of all, here's an updated bar graph code. Copy it into any OnDraw trigger (especially a visual tool), and it will fully display any global table with a nice picklist option.

treenode current = ownerobject(c);
treenode view = parnode(1);
/**draw global table bar graph                                                             \n*/
/**table name: */
string tablename=/**/"processtimes"/**/;
/**\nbar width:*/
double barwidth=/**/2/**/;
/**\nbar height:*/
double barheight=/**/2/**/;
int tablenum=getrank(ownerobject(reftable(tablename)));
for(int row=1;row<=gettablerows(tablenum);row++){
    for(int col=1;col<=gettablecols(tablenum);col++){
        double value=gettablenum(tablenum,row,col);
        drawcube((col-1)*barwidth/get(spatialsx(current)),//x
                -(row-1)*barheight/get(spatialsy(current))+barheight*gettablerows(tablenum),//y
                0.000001,                                 //z
                barwidth/get(spatialsx(current)),         //sx
                barheight/get(spatialsy(current)),        //sy
                value/10,                                 //sz
                0,                                        //rx
                0,                                        //ry
                0,                                        //rz
                0,                                        //red
                min(value*11,255),                        //green
                0,                                        //blue
                0,0,0);                                   //no texture
    }
}

glNormal3d sets the normal vector of a polygon (facing straight out of the polygon), which is used in determining the lighting. If this vector is facing a light, the polygon is bright. If this vector is facing perpendicular to a light, the polygon is dark. I calculated the normal vector using a cross product of two vectors along the edges of the polygon. I'm not sure why, but it is calculating it wrong on the first row (when y0=0), so it's shading the first row wrong. Maybe there's a way to do it correctly automatically with an OpenGl command.

GL_CULL_FACE is supposed to be #defined to 2884, but just manually entering its integer value does the same thing as glDisable(GL_CULL_FACE); Back-face culling is an optimization that makes it not draw polygons that are facing away from the camera. It makes it look bad in the Cartesian graph, so I disabled it.

Hi Alex, I need to turn off back face culling, however, either glDisable(GL_CULL_FACE) or glDisable(2884) doesn't work on my machine using Flexsim 5.02.

The glDisable(2884) works.