Alternatives to TecPlot for 3D Data Visualization

By Ljuba Miljkovic at Mon, Jun 18 2007 9:50am |

I perform numerical simulations that result in large x,y,z data sets that need to be plotted in 3D space. I'm looking for an alternative to the rather user-malevolent Tecplot 360.

My issues with it are that it takes too many clicks to accomplish simple tasks like taking the average value of my data or removing "slices" so I can explore the interior. Plus, even the latest very of Tecplot is a blind port of the Unix version, so you don't get any Mac niceties. I've heard of Data Tank (http://www.visualdatatools.com/DataTank.html) and Aabel (http://gigawiz.com/aabel.html) but I haven't had time to try them yet (I just got back from WWDC).

I'd like to see if anyone else out there has some suggestions for data visualization/exploration tools that are Mac- and user-friendly.

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Mon, 2007-06-18 12:09 — drc

Data Analysis

Hi,

There is a list of data analysis apps here. In addition to the ones you mention DataDesk and Prism are probably worth looking at.

How large are the data sets?

Mon, 2007-06-18 12:26 — Ljuba Miljkovic

Large Data Sets

I have about 20 sets of 50,000 x,y,z coordinates. Each coordinate has about a dozen variables assigned to it. So, about 10 million individual pieces of data.

Mon, 2007-06-18 15:32 — drc

Large Data Sets

I think both Datadesk and DataTank should be able to cope, the new version of Aabel might be able but I'm not sure about any of the other "user friendly" applications would be upto the task.

Thu, 2007-06-21 11:23 — arm

I highly recommend DataTank.

I highly recommend DataTank. It's much faster and easier to use than Tecplot (last I tried; a year ago), and handles large space-and-time varying datasets very well. Various grid types and XYZ scatter data are supported.