Module: Export | website

Export Module

Overview

The Export Module exports the 3-D model into various output formats that can then be used as data for external use. It was mainly designed to prepare models for export to the iluvia software for external interactive visualization.

The Export Module uses data from an intermediate output of Shape that contains all the radiation information within a cubic grid with uniform voxels. The name and disk folder in which this intermediate file is located are set in the Output tab of the Render Module.

Exporting Shape models into new formats for external visualization may be a challenge. This is due to the fact that in Shape you may can use a variety of physical radiation effects, some of which can not be directly mapped to the simpler treatment of emission and opacity in interactive graphics software that rely on ARGB color coding or similar.

General Workflow:

In the Output tab of the Render Module, make sure there is a valid filename and path provided. The output will be with the extension .ilv . This file is loaded into the Export Module. Then a previsualization is generated by adjusting the parameters on the left and right side of the preview image in the middle. The parameters on the left adjust the behavior on the level of the voxels of the input grid. Those on the left adjust the visualization on the image plane after the preview rendering. The preview attempts to recreate the view of a GPU rendering by simulating a similar shader. It also allows you relatively quick interactive inspection. For low resolution you can interactive rotate the object for inspection.

Parameter Panels:

Volume:

The parameters on the left side of the preview control the values of voxel data cube before it is previewed and converted to a different data format. Note that scaling and clamping these values in the presence of opacity maybe result in non-linear behavior that sometimes is not intuitiv. In combination with the parameters on the output side (Preview parameters), it may require some trial and error to obtain the expected result.

Filename: Select the .ilv input file to be used for exporting to an external file format. Click on the icon on to the right of the text box to open the file system dialog and choose a file from disk.

Reload: If the content of the input file has been updated and the filename remains the same, use the Reload Button to load the new content.

Size: Shows the width of the cube by the number of voxels along one side.

Downsample: If the original .ilv file is too large, it can be downsampled x2 in terms of side length by clicking on this button.

Intensity range: The range of voxel intensities.

Histogram: The histogram of the voxel intensity values opens when this button is clicked.

Opacity range: The range of opacity values is shown.

Histogram: Shows the histogram of the voxel opacity values when this button is clicked.

Intensity scale: Scale all voxel intensities by this factor.

Opacity scale: Scale all voxel opacity values by this factor.

Max Intensity: Set the value of the maximum intensity. All higher values of voxel intensity are clamped to this value. If the default value of -1 is set, then the maximum value of all voxels is automatically used.

Max Opacity: Set the value of the maximum opacity. All higher values of voxel opacity are clamped to this value. If the default value of -1 is set, then the maximum value of all voxels is automatically used.}

Show stars: This flag switches on any stars that might be saved in a file that has the same base name as the .ilv file.

Show volume: Shows the volume save in the .ilv file.

Show cube: Show a line cube that delineates the space domain of the .ilv file.

Preview:

The Preview parameters to the right side of the preview image window control the preview in the output format. It allows you relatively quick interactive inspection. For low resolution you can interactive rotate the object for inspection.

Image size: The preview image resolution in pixels. Lower resolution allows for a faster and more interactive preview.

I factor: Intensity factor to be applied to the preview at the image level.

Star factor: A scaling factor for the brightness of the stars.

A factor: A scaling factor for the opacity.

Camera:

X, Y, Z rot: The rotation angles of the preview camera around the cartesian coordinate axes (in degrees).

X, Y, Z pos: The shifted position of the preview camera around the cartesian coordinate axes in units of the width of the domain (0-1).

Zoom: Camera distance from the center in units of the width of the domain.

Reset Camera: Set the camera values back to the defaults.

Statistics: Shows the Maximum value of the preview image. It is convenient to adjust this to values near 1.

Export:

Format: Various output formats can be chosen.

Most importantly, the DDS format is a standard format that encapsulates slices of the data cube in ABGR image format, that can then be imported in external volume visualization software. This is also the format for the iluvia software that is developed by ilumbra.com where you can fully interactively view your models.

The Volume option, is a .ilv file with properties that correspond to the transformation that the Export Module made to the original.

The PNG option outputs a sequence of slices of the volume in standard PNG image format including absorption. The slices are in the XY plane and change along the Z-axis of the World Coordinate System.

Directory: Select the directory on disk where to output the exported file.

Omit empty: When selected, the slices where the emission and opacity are both zero will be omitted from the output. This may save data and may reduce the load on the visualization system that will process the output data.

Crop:. When activated, the output will be cropped to a size of Crop size. This is useful for models in which for some reason the domain is significantly larger than the content.

Export: Start the export process.