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Downloads The most up-to-date installers for Window, Mac OSX and Linux can be found found at: Installers Updates Occasionally, updates will be issues without supplying new installers. This greatly reduces the size of the downloaded needed. The update packages will contain library files that simply need to be copied over the files that already exist on your system (whever you have installed ShapeX). Shapemol Shapemol is a complementary code for SHAPE that computes synthetic line profiles and maps for the molecular line emission of a numerical nebula model. shapemol solves the statistical equilibrium population of a given molecular species using the LVG approximation formalism (see Santander-García, M., Bujarrabal, V., Koning, N., & Steffen, W. 2015, A&A, 573, A56). For Shapemol to function, you need to download the data tables corresponding to the molecular species you wish to reproduce. The latest version of the Shapemol tables, along with the installation instructions, can be downloaded below. See Masa, E, Alcolea, J., Santander-García, M., Bujarrabal, V., Sánchez Contreras, C., Castro-Carrizo, A., Steffen, W., & Koning, N., 2026, A&A, in press. for details. Shapemol Tables M1-92 Example Notes: Since the last release, Shape has been revamped almost completely. In particular, the user interface (UI) and the rendering algorithms have seen profound changes. New modules and modifiers help with the workflow New manual & website help the user to get started User forum - ask questions, share tips & tricks, propose features Installers for Windows, MacOSX, Linux RPM & Debian IMPORTANT NOTE: Remember that to take full advantage of your computers RAM, you need to manually set it in the ShapeX.cfg file. Search for this file within the installation directory. Open it with Administrator privileges and add the minimum and maximum RAM that you will allow Shape to use, say e.g. 14 GB of your actual RAM of 16 GB. Edit the .cfg file in a text editor with the following lines: [JVMOptions] -Xms1000m -Xmx14000m Make sure that there are no spaces before or behind the lines with the numbers. Save the file and run Shape. At the bottom of the UI the "Total (Mb): " should now indicate approximately 1.4E4 .

Quick links Modules: Overview Downloads Modifiers: Boost Bump Density Displacement GeoRotation Image Displacement Image Texture PA/Inc Rotation Pressure Projection Random Rotation Shear Shell Size Spiral Squeeze Squish Stretch Taper Temperature Texture Displacem. Translation Twist Universal Velocity Warp Key sub-systems: Overview

Shape The interactive 3-D astrophysical laboratory Images inspire us. Images lead to ideas. Shape was made as a tool to test astrophysical inspiration. Play True or False. By finding out whether an idea works or not, either way, we deliver new insight into nature for ourselves and others. That is why with Shape we make 3-D images of the universe...and more... Shape responds to your scientific creativity for morpho-kinematic modeling or spectral radiation transfer calculations. Create schematic educational visualizations or even photo-realistic images of astronomical objects. Our Introduction and Overview gives you more information about what you can do with Shape. UPDATE REQUIRED (January 21, 2022) Due to a bug in some renders after camera rotation, an update is needed. Please go to the DOWNLOADS for a link to the patch and instructions. SBa Galaxy This 3-D volumetric galaxy model was created in ShapeX based on a detailed analysis of an actual galaxy image. The Orion Nebula This volumetric 3-D model of the Orion Nebula was created using pure polygon mesh and path objects with radiation transfer computation for the scattering and absorption by the dust from the central illuminating stars. Proto-planetary disk with jet. The dusty disk of this proto-planetary object has an enriched structure using noise-textures added to a relatively low-resolution hydrodynamic simulation from the Hydro Module. The disk and jet were then separated using filters and assigned different emission (jet) and dust scattering (disk) properties. Ring Nebula For the creation of this planetary nebula the application of image texture mapping along the line of sight allowed to include details of the dusty globules at precisely the right projected positions in the nebula. The environment of Eta Carinae This is the complex mesh structure that Mehner et al. (2016) used to model the fast expanding gaseous environment of the massive Eta Carinae stellar binary system. Eta Carinae Homunculus model This simple bipolar model of the dusty Homunculus around Eta Carinae demonstrates the multi-wavelength modeling capabilities with ShapeX. From left to right the wavelength range of the rendering moves from the optical to the infrared. About Shape was created by Wolfgang Steffen and Nico Koning. Shape is free software supported by the Institute of Astronomy, UNAM. Legal and Privacy Information Home: Homepage_about User Guide Index Introduction Learn about the possibilities and limitations of astrophysical modeling and visualization in Shape. What types of physical models can be done. Whether you pursue research or outreach, find out what you can do and what you need to learn to successfully apply Shape in your field. Overview A quick tour is given through the integrated modules of Shape is given. We briefly describe how they work individually and how the general workflow brings everything together via interactive input but no need for a single line of coding from the user. Modules The modular design of Shape allows the user to concentrate on the job at hand. The desktop and the main toolbar are the hubs to get you around. In this section we describe the functionality of each of the modules, so you can quickly decide which one will be needed for your project. Goto Introduction Goto Overview Goto Modules Data Preparation Images, spatially resolved spectra and other data can be displayed as direct background references to build your models. Such data images need to be prepared carefully and correctly imported into Shape. In this section we describe how such data images can be prepared and set up in Shape. Goto Data Preparation Coordinate Systems Detailed knowledge of the various coordinate systems is necessary to correctly modeling in Shape. This is particularly true when kinematic are to be modeled. Here is a description of the coordinate systems in different contexts of the available tools. Goto Coordinate Systems Radiation Transfer Mathematical and physical details about the radiation transfer on the Cartesian grid in Shape are described. The physics and approximations for the calculations of scattering on dust particles are also layed out. Radiation Transfer Home: Service Home: Contact

Filamentary texture generator in Shape LEGAL AND PRIVACY INFORMATION Impressum Dr. Wolfgang Steffen Contact: e-mail: contact@ilumbra.com Responsible for the content: Dr. Wolfgang Steffen Hautzenbergstrasse 1 67661 Kaiserslautern Germany Copyright 2021 Owners: Dr. Nico Koning (ilumbra), Dr. Wolfgang Steffen (ilumbra) Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal use the Software without restriction, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. THE SOFTWARE MAY BE USED AND DISTRIBUTED IN COMPILED FORM. NO PORTION OF THE ORIGINAL CODE MAY BE USED, CHANGED OR DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION IN WRITING BY THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS. Disclaimer of liability: Liability for the Shape software and the manual contents The Shape software is provided as is and no guarantee is given for its fitness for a particular purpose. We can not be made responsible for any incorrect scientific results or other that may or may not appear in publications of any kind. The contents of the Shape manual may not correspond to the version of the Shape software that user is applying and may therefore or for other reasons deviate from the actual functionality of the software. 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Math module of the Shape software. Math Module Overview The Math module is a tool to centralize parameter values that are used in more than one place in Shape. In a way similar to a spreadsheet it allows to compute variables from other variables that have already been defined further up. This makes it possible to set up a complex mathematical model of physical processes that can then be harnessed throughout the rest of Shape. Global Variables: Since the variables defined in the Math Module can be used throughout Shape, they are called Global Variables. Whenever you wish to use variables from the Math Module in other modules, make sure to enable the flag "Use global variables" where applicable. Workflow The basic workflow consists first in adding new slots for new variables in the order of dependency, if any. Then provide a meaningful name for and defining their relationships and values. They can then be used in a variety of contexts throughout Shape. Variable Names: While Shape automatically assigns a letter as a name for new variables, it is very highly recommended to change them with meaningful and descriptive names, such that they can easily be understood wherever they might appear in Shape. The name can be changed by double-clicking on the name field of the variable. Column Functionalities Variable: This column contains the name of the global variables. In order to use a variable in some other module of Shape, the name needs to match. Upper and lower case letters are not distinguished. When a new variable is added, it receives a default name in alphabetical order. Change the variable names to something descriptive of the meaning of its content. Expression: Variables get assign a value through a mathematical expression in this column. In most cases this will simply be a value. A value can be given in integer or floating point format as well as scientific format such as 1.09435e-7 for numbers that are much smaller than 1, or 3.2E15 those that are much larger than 1. In addition to numbers the field can contain more complex mathematical expression, including those combining one or more global variables that are further up in list. To avoid recursive dependencies, variables further down can not be included. Valid mathematical expression may include the basic symbolic operators +-*/ and ^, but also common textual operators which include the following reserved functions and variable names: POWER, SIN, COS, TAN, COT, RAND, CSC, ARCSIN, ARCCOS, ARCTAN, EXP, LN, LOG10, LOG2, ABS, SQRT, ROUND, ARCTANH, UNARYMINUS, LT, GT, and the irrational numbers "e" and "pi"; As mentioned above, these functions can also be written with lower-case letters. Menu bar The buttons on the top menu bar of the Math Module control the overall content of the Math Module. Calculate : The Calculate button executes all calculations that may in standby, e.g. for iterative computations. Direct calculations of variables that depend on variables further up are executed on confirming the variable name with the Enter key. Variable : The Variable button adds a new variable to the end of the list. The variables sequentially get names of single letters in alphabetical order. As mentioned above, it is recommended to change these names to something descriptive of its meaning. The variable name is changed by double-clicking on the text field. Separator : Separators are used to keep different sections of the list of variables clearly distinct. They can also function as headings if you add some descriptive text to their text fields. The separators are colored in dark blue. Constants : This button adds a set of variables that contain the most important natural constants in SI units. If you only need a subset of them, simply select the unwanted ones and delete them with the Remove button. Remove : To remove variables from the Math Module, select them and click the Remove button. You can select several variable together with Shift-Click and remove them in one operation. A confirmation dialog helps to make sure that you do not delete variables by accident.. Up & Down : To move a variable in position in the list, select the variable and click on the Up or Down button to move it by one position. Repeat the operation until the variable is in the desired position. Defaults : Use these buttons to restore the default values that variables may have in the Default field. Note that this button restores the defaults of ALL variables at once . Individual or a subset of defaults have to be reset manually. Save & Load : In order to keep sets of variable interchangeable between different projects that have similar setups, one can save the content of the Math Module in a file with the Save button. To open a saved set of variables use the Load button.

Filamentary texture generator in Shape Key Sub-S ystem: Textures Many astronomical objects, especially nebulas have filaments with random structures. This can be simulated with procedural 3-D texture s. In Shape procedural textures can be applied to physical quantities such as density, temperature, velocity, etc . These textures are multiplied on top of the spatial variation given by the Magnitude of a quantity. Open the Texture Parameter Panel by clicking on the Edit button beside the Texture label in the parameter panel of a selected modifier. Getting the right texture may require quite a bit of experimentation, often combining several basic textures. Texture Parameter Panel The Texture Parameter Panel has several sections. At the top-left is the preview window, where a single slice from the x-y coordinate plane of the 3-D texture is shown. A list of combined basic textures is below the preview window and various types of parameters are at the top-right. Transformation modifiers can be added at the bottom-right. Basic Workflow Initially the texture editor is blank. A new texture is added from a list of different types after clicking on the Add button to the right of the Textures List. The most commonly used type is the Space Convolution noise. Now a preview of the texture is generated using the default parameters. To get the texture that is needed change the parameters until a suitable result is obtained. More than one texture may be combined by adding further textures to the list. Note that the combination is done in the form of a multiplication of the texture values in the range (0-1). Therefore, the more textures you combine, locally the result becomes smaller and smaller. In the modifiers area, rotation and translation modifiers can be applied that are similar to the corresponding image modifiers applied in the Render Module. This is not descussed in more detail in this section. Textures Panel Add: Opens a dialog with a list of different types of procedural noise from which to choose. When you click on OK, the new texture is included in the list of already chosen textures. Del: Deletes the selected texture from the list. Up & Down : Move the selected texture up or down in the list. Copy & Paste: Copy stores the selected texture in a buffer. Paste pastes the copied texture as a new texture to the list. Note: As mentioned above, if there is more than one texture they are combined as a local product of their values, which range in the interval (1,0). Moving the textures up and down in the list does not change the result since multiplication is a commutative operation. However, if you explicitly name the textures, the sequence may help at keeping order General: Name: Set a name for this texture Enable: Enable or disable this texture Seamless : This parameter works together with the Distortion (see below). If a Distortion is applied that stretches the texture along the angle in a cylindrical coordinate system, a discontinuity appears at the 0 to 360 degrees transition. To prevent this enable the Seamless flag. An attempt is then made to generate a seamless texture by copying and rotating the same texture by 180 degrees and overlapping the two with a linear transition between the two that excludes the seam region. Currently, the result is a seamless texture that has a 180 degrees point symmetry. Bias: Sets a minimum intensity for the texture. If b is the bias level, now the range for the texture is (b,1). Properties: The detailed parameters for different types of textures vary. Here we discuss the example of Sparse Convolution Noise, which is the most suitable for most filamentary features in diverse nebular objects. Many of the parameters are common to all textures, others will differ. But a bit of experimentation will clarify the meaning of the differing parameters. Sparse Convolution Noise: Scale: The scale of the texture can be set separately in the three coordinate directions. By default they are looked together, i.e. when you change one of them, the other two automatically get the same value. They can be unlocked by unchecking the Lock flag. Then the values can be set independently. To asses the size of the features in the context of the model domain note that the preview window has the same size as the scene size in the Render Module. X Y Z Offset: These parameters move the texture along the corresponding axis. The units are those of the Render Module. Exponent : Controls the contrast between the highest and lowest levels of brightness. High values deemphasize initially lower values. Freq: The levels of spatial frequencies to be included in the random noise generation. Higher values will include smaller features. Type 2: This type generates a different look and overall smaller structures. Invert: inverts the greyscale, the interval (0,1) is linearly mapped to (1,0). Image Size: Sets the pixel size of the texture preview image. Z slice : Selects the slice to be shown in the preview. Changing the value moves the preview through the cube of slices along the line of sight. Distortion: This button opens a dialog that controls the re-mapping of the noise as a function of position. Analytical expressions can be set up to remap the noise in different coordinate systems. This allows the user to stretch the noise pattern in radial or circular directions. There is an example for such a distorted texture on the right. The second image is the same texture after applying the Seamless flag (see above). Below is the dialog that opens when you click on the Distortion button. It is similar to other Graphs . Make sure to set the correct coordinate system for the distortion to be applied. The example uses the Cylindrical Coordinate system and distorts the radial and the angular directions. Some experimentation with the analytic expression or point graph is likely needed to get the desired result.

Modules In this section we give an overview of the functionality of the different modules and provide links to more detailed information on how to use them and their subsystems. Click on the Module Icon to the left of the description for more information and access to video tutorials on the module. 3-D Module In the 3-D Module the geometric and most other properties of a model are set up interactively. Description Render Module This module takes care of the rendering of image and position-velocity diagrams and a number of settings for other render options. Description Physics Module Radiation transport properties such as emissivity, absorption or scattering are set up as materials (species) in the Physics Module. Description Desktop Module The Desktop Module is your hub to all the other modules, project files, ShapeX configuration and more. Description Video Tutorial Math Module The Math Module allows you to set up variables and relations between them that can then be used throughout Shape as "global variables". Description Modifier Module The Modifier Module lists all modifier that are currently in use and allows you to change parameters of a selection of modifiers simultaneously. Description Maps Module The Maps Module displays channels maps of the 3-D model. The number and velocity range between the first and last channel can be set up. Description Animation Module Most parameters in Shape can be animated over time. This can be used to generate time variation of the models either for scientific modeling of time varying phenomena or for visualization purposes. Description Filter Module Filters for various physical quantities can be defined here. They can then be applied to objects in the 3-D Module. Description Movie Module In the Movie Module one or more animation sequences can be concatenated to a movie and exported for viewing with an external movie player. Description Export Module The Export Module exports the 3-D model into various output formats that can then be used as data for external use. Description Hydrodynamics Module Shape is the first astrophysical tool to introduce an interactive mesh-based setup for such simulations without the need of programming or scripting by the user. Description

Key Sub-S ystem: Coordinate Systems There are several coordinate systems defined in Shape. First of all in most contexts the coordinates may be defined in Cartesian, Spherical or Cylindrical coordinates. Note that for the spherical coordinates the label convention is that of the North America, with q being longitude and f the latitude. Hierarchy of coordinate systems: In addition to the types of coordinate system, there is a hierarchy that determines the origin and orientation of the coordinates. First there is the global "world" coordinate system that is fixed and everything else is embedded in this system. The orientation of the world coordinate system is show by the colored coordinate axes in the lower left corner of the 3D views in the 3D Module (see images on the right). Note that it is not centered on the center of the coordinate system and only provides a visual cue of the orientation. The colors of the xyz axes follow the common order of the color channels rgb (red, green, blue), respectively. Every object has its own "local" coordinate system , that may move around in the world coordinate system depending on the types of modifier that are applied. As an illustration compare the two images on the right. In the first one the spherical mesh and the density distribution are centered on the world coordinate system. No changes have been made to any positions. In the second example a Translation Modifier has been applied. It moves the mesh away from the World Origin. Not only the mesh is moved but the density distribution goes along. Similarly, the Rotation Modifier will rotate the density structures along with the mesh, since thee local coordinate system changes . The translation, rotation and scale operations can be interactively handled using the corresponding Move, Rotate and Size tools in the System tab that is located to the left of teh 3-D views. It is important to note that, contrary to the Translation and Rotation modifiers, the Size tool and Modifier does NOT change the scaling of the local coordinate system. This would cause too many practical problem during modeling. It only changes the mesh. This is similar to the Displacement modifier which only moves the mesh, not the coordinate system. For rotating only the mesh, operators such as the Twist modifier can be applied. In third place there is the "widget" coordinate system that is applied to some modifiers. They often need to be centered at different positions within an object, which can be achieved by moving and rotating the coordinate system of the modifier using the Widget tool or Widget dialog . Different modifiers have independent widget coordinate systems. By default modifiers follow the local coordinate system , meaning that their widget coordinates are coincident with the local system until the widgets themselves are changed. But the coordinate center that a modifier refers to can be changed by changing the widget either interactively with the Widget tool or numerically by opening the Widget dialog from within the modifier panel. To open the Widget dialog click on the Widget Edit button at the bottom of the modifier panel. In the image on the right under the widget dialog the object mesh remains at the world origin, while the density distribution is off-center at the position of the widget . The widget itself is represented by arrows. Each modifier may have independent widget, i.e. local coordinate system positions. In the following image shows the application of the Displacement modifier , which moves only the mesh , not the coordinate system. The mesh container changed position, but the density distribution remained centered on the world coordinates. An additional fourth coordinate system is that of the observer or camera . These are the coordinates seen in the "shape view port" of the 3D Module and the rendered image in the Rendering Module . OPERATOR ORDER MATTERS! In the modifier stack several rotations, translations and other operators can be applied one after the other. The result of such combined operations, in general, strongly depends on the order in which they are executed. Therefore the order of the operator in the modifier stack is very important. For instance, translation can be combined in any order (they are commutative ), rotations among themselves and rotations together with translations can not. Coordinate Display Options Dialog: The Options Dialog that opens by clicking on the wrench icon on the menu bar of the 3D Module allows you to customize the display of a Cartesian coordinate mesh within the 3D views. It can helps as a reference during the modeling process. An example is show in the bottom image in the column on the right. A little experimentation should clarify the meaning and effect of the various parameters.

The Squish Modifier changes the distance of a vertex perpendicular to a plane (default: local xz-plane), The action is similar to the Squeeze Modifier , except that it´s planar, not radial around an axis. The Magnitude dialog allows you to define the squish amount as an Analytic Function of position along the reference axis. You can also use a Point graph where you can generate an arbitrary function by manually placing points and setting the spline interpolation. To do this, select Point from the Function drop-down list under the graph. The example graph on the right shows the way it was done for the example mesh displayed below. Widget: The Widget opens the Widget Dialog. It allows you to change the direction of the Squish Modifier. The purple arrow will indicate the direction of its action. Modifiers: Squish

Desktop Module Video Tutorial The Desktop Module is your control and navigation center. It allows to open modules and customize the quick navigation bar at the top, open recent projects with a single click, customize general parameters and open utilities. Module area: You can left-click on the icons for the different modules to switch to them. Right-click opens a little button that allows you to pin the icon to the main Menu Bar at the top of the user interface. Alternatively, you left-click and drag the icon onto the Menu Bar. Menu Bar: The Menu Bar is the quick navigation tool and stays there on all Modules. Drag-and-drop icons from the Desktop here and arrange them according to the needs for the most efficient workflow on your project. Right-click on an icon to unpin it from the Menu Bar. Files: In this section of the Desktop you have access to project files. You can save the current project with its current name and location (Save) or save it with a new name or location in the file system (Save As). Furthermore, you can open an exiten project (Open) or clear the current project and start a new one (New). Recent Files: In this section of the Desktop you have access to project files that you have been working on recently using a quick access button. Just click on the button of the project that you would like to open. If the displayed file name is not enough to identify the correct project, just hover over the button to display the full file path as a tool tip. Information tools: There are a few tools that will display useful information or where you can configure a few general parameters that you might need to change from their defaults in order to optimize the performance of ShapeX on a particular system. The Memory tool will show the memory usage as a function of running time. The Progress tool shows how the difference forground and background processes are progressing. The Help tool opens this website. The Config uration tool allows you to set multi-threading and autosave parameters (how often the current project file is backed up automatically), as well as a project directory, where ShapeX will start to look whenever you open a file dialog. System information about the interactive Java3D libraries and other Java system data can be found in the J3D and System information tools. Commands: There a few additional tools that are either just commands to be executed or open a tool that did not fit into the other categories. The Shape It! button simply executes a rendering and is equivalent to the Render button located at the left end of the Menu Bar. The Reset button resets the Menu Bar to its default configuration with the minimum necessary modules. Finally, the Units tool open a utility that allows to convert between different units, such as cgs to SI, which come in handy since many astrophysics books use cgs units, while ShapeX works with SI units.

They are a key functionality in ShapeX the usage of which should be mastered in order to create the most realistic models. Modifiers determine the properties of the objects as a function of position in space, hence it is important to know as much as possible about coordinate systems in general (Spherical, Cartesian & Cylindrical) and how they are used in ShapeX. See Coordinate Systems for more information on this topic. Modifiers are assigned to an object in the form of a list or Modifier Stack . This list of operators is executed on the object from the top to the bottom. For many of the modifiers the order in which they are executed does not matter. However, some operators, e.g. those that globally or locally involve some form of rotation, need to be stacked in the right order to produce the desired result. It is therefore important to know whether they order can be reversed or not. Knowledge about commutative properties of operators, or sufficient experimentation, is useful here. Modifiers Overview Modifiers are a operators in the 3-D module that allow you to add or change, i.e. modify properties of an object in the scene. There are different types of modifiers, some change the geometry of the mesh objects, others assign scalar or vector type physical properties such as density or velocity, respectively. After adding or selecting a particular modifiers, its Properties are displayed under the Modifier Stack . These can then be edited either by changing parameter value fields or after opening additional dialogs or graphs. Adding or deleting modifiers is done using the blue + and the red x sign, respectively. When you select a modifier you can move it up and down in the stack with the green arrows. More than one modifier of the same type can be applied with different coordinate systems. In some cases you might have to change the Operation setting from Replace to either Add or Scale , otherwise the last modifier of this type replaces all previous ones. Using combinations of the same type of modifiers allows a larger variety of structures to be build. Modifiers can also be copied and pasted with the corresponding buttons. When you use the paste button, a small dialog will open that asks you to decide whether the modifier should be a copy or and instance of the original modifier. When you choose copy then the new modifier will be completely independent from the other. However, and instanced modifier will always change together with its original and vice versa. Instanced modifiers are a great tool to provide the same parameters for more than one object, while only needing to change a single one of them. Types of Modifiers Physical Modifiers Physical modifiers add or change physical properties as a function of position. They include the Density , Temperature , Pressure , Image Texture , Taper , Velocity, GField and BField . The Boost modifier is a helper modifier to the scalar physical modifiers and is used to change those quantities, but depending on the geometry of another mesh object. This is useful, for instance, to reduce or cut out part of the density of one object using another. Geometry Modifiers Geometry modifiers change the structure of the polygon mesh. They include Bump, Curvature, Displacement, Image Displacement , Projection, Random, Sculpt, Shear, Shell, Size, Spiral, Squeeze, Squish, Stretch, Texture Displacement, Twist, Universal, and Warp . The geometry modifiers move the vertices of a polygon mesh within the local coordinate system of an object. If you move or rotate the local coordinate system with a Rotation or Translate modifier, then the geometry modifiers act in the transformed coordinate system. Note that the Displacement modifier is a geometry modifier and moves only the vertices, but not the origin of the local coordinate system is does the Translate modifier. This is useful when you want to move a complete object, such as a small sphere within a fixed coordinate system and apply, for instance, the Velocity or Density modifiers in the original coordinate system. Modifier Parameter Panel: Common Parameters The parameters that modifiers take vary considerably. They are described in the sections for individual modifiers. What they have in common are the Name field and the Enabled flag . In the Name field you can set a name for this particular modifier, which is strongly recommended, since it allows one to easily identify a modifier, which becomes more and more important once the number of modifiers increases for a particular object or for the project itself. It is especially important once the Modifier Module is used to manage a large number of modifiers. As the name implies, the Enabled flag allows one to enable or disable a particular modifier. Modifier Module: The Modifier Module becomes important once a model contains a large number of objects and modifiers. Often different objects have similar basically the same modifiers that have at least some parameters in common. If they are not instances of each other or have their parameters organized as global variables, the Modifier Module allows you to select a number of modifiers and change their parameters in a single operation. It also provides a good way to get an overview of which modifiers are used by which objects as well as the possibility to sort them by type. For more details on the Modifier Module go to its more detailed description in its own section of this manual.

Filters for physical quantities in Shape can be defined here. Filter Module Overview A variety of box filters can be defined in this module and applied to objects in the 3-D Module. To apply the filter look for the Filters drop-down list in the General Parameters tab for mesh objects. All filters defined in the Filters Module appear in this drop-down list. Select the filters to be applied. The Filter Module has three main areas, the Tool Bar at the top, the Filter List on the left and on the right the Options for the selected filter. Menu Bar: Add: Use the Add button to add a new filter to the Filters list. When you click on this button a pop-up opens with a list of Filter Types from which to choose one. In the Options Panel change the Name to something recognizable, e.g. the name of the object to which it will be assigned or something that describes the function it is meant to do. Remove: Remove the selected filter from the Filters list. Make sure you have selected the the filter that you really mean to delete. Copy: Copy the selected filter within the Filters list. Best to rename the filter to make it uniquely recognizable. Change the parameters in the Options Panel. Sort: Sort the filters alphabetically in the Filters list. Open: Load a previously saved filter from disk. A file opening dialog will open for you to select a file. Save: The selected filter will be saved to disk. A file saving dialog opens. Select the directory and filter name to be saved. Add an extension that helps you to recognize the file as a Shape-Filter. While you can choose any extension, we recommend to use .shf. Options: Name: Set a descriptive name for the filter. This name appears in the Filter selection drop-down list in objects in the 3-D Module. Enable: The check box activates or disactivates this filter for all objects that use it. Mode: Here to can chose the Mode of the filter, which refers to whether the range between the Min and Max values is to be included or excluded. Clamp: If checked then all values above the Max values are set to the Max values. If unchecked, then the value is set to zero. Min & Max: The minimum and maximum of the filter range.

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.

Coordinate Systems The hierarchy and types of coordinate systems is key to the flexibility of the modeling of structures and velocity fields. Video Tutorial The Modifier Stack Graphical representations of functions are a fundamental tool to control parameters that vary in space, time or wavelength. Video Tutorial Graphs Graphical representations of functions are a fundamental tool to control parameters that vary in space, time or wavelength. Video Tutorial Textures Textures are either random procedural 3-D structures or external images that determine structures of density, temperature or others. Video Tutorial Particles Particles are used to generate complex specific structures by spraying them interactively on surfaces and into volumes. Video Tutorial

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