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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 .

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

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

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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Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. By using this website, you agree to the processing of the data collected about you by Google in the manner and for the purpose described above. Support The design of the Shape software was partially supported by the "Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México" (UNAM-DGAPA, UNAM-PASPA).

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

The Shell Modifier converts a normal mesh into a shell with user defined thickness. The shell thickness can be set as a function of distance in the Magnitude dialog. Note that the shell can be generated outwards (positive) or inwards (negative) of the original mesh by changing the sign of the magnitude. Currently the magnitude can only be changed as a function of distance from the world coordinate center. This might change in future releases. The magnitude dialog allows you to define the thickness as an Analytic Function of distance or use a graph where you can generate an arbitrary function by manually placing points and setting the spline interpolation. The graph on the right shows the way it was done in this example. Note that only the newly generated mesh is affected by the shell modifier. In the three pictures above the mesh is shown for three different settings. The first one on the left has both parts of the shell enabled. For the second one, the Outer geo flag was disabled. Therefore only the original object mesh remains. On the right, however, the Inner geo flag was disabled. Then the new shell mesh is left. Now the rendered volume fill out the whole space within the outer mesh of what was a shell. Note that the position in the Modifier Stack is important. If a Shell Modifier is placed at the end of the stack, the result will be a shell thickness that conforms to the Magnitude graph. However, if another geometry operator, such as a Bump Modifier or a Squish Modifier is placed below the Shell Modifier, then the final thickness may strongly different from that set up in the Shell Modifier. Caution: If the original mesh is locally complex and the thickness similar or larger than the local curvature, then the newly created mesh for the shell may self-overlap. This can lead to undesirable results. Make sure the thickness of the shell is compatible with the complexity of the mesh. Sometimes applying the shell in the opposite direction by inverting the magnitude of the thickness solves or reduces this potential problem. Modifiers: Shell

Animation Module Overview 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. A simple example application is the simulation of the lightcurve of an exoplanet or of eclipsing binary stars. An application that aims more at purely visualization could be rotating the virtual camera around an object go generate a movie that shows the structure as seen from many points of view. Since animation implies the generation of a large number of individual images that can be joined together in the Movie Module, care needs to be taken in preparation in order for the rendering process to not take an unacceptably large amount of time. The key question is which type of rendering do you need : Camera motion: If you animation will consist of camera motion only and the spatial resolution that you need is small enough to allow you to use the grid renderer, then you can save a lot of time. In this case the steps before the final ray casting to determine the image pixel values can then be precalculated and saved. Then they do not need to be repeated for every frame. Another option to get a camera animation is to use the interactive iluvia software from ilumbra.com . Using the Export Module in Shape you can quickly output your model in a format suitable for iluvia and inspect your model interactively or very quickly set up and capture animations. Varying model parameters: If parameters of the model itself need to be changed over time, then the precomputed grid changes and a full render is needed for every frame. For complex models and high resolutions, this may take a lot of time to compute, depending on your computing equipment. Once you decided which type of animation and spatial resolution you need, you can time the rendering and estimate the total time it will take to render the necessary number of frames. For each rendering, come basic stats are output in the Info Module that include the time it took to render. This information can be used to estimate the total time necessary to render out the full animation. General workflow: 1. Set up the timing and output parameters in the Parameters Panel on the right. 2. Select variables to be animated from the Parameter Tree. They appear in the Animation Parameter Stack. 3. Select each animated parameter in the Animation Parameter Stack and set up its animation graph as a function of time 4. Render the animation Animation Module UI: The Animation Module is divided into five main sections. A control bar is at the top and the parameter tree and the animation parameter stack are on the left. In the middle you find the animation graph for the animated parameters. At the bottom is the time line . Finally, the General and Output parameters are in the panels on the right. Control Bar: Animate: Starts the rendering of an animation. After each rendered image it advances one frame and renders again. Refresh: Updates the Parameter Tree after new renderable parameters have been added somewhere in Shape. This does not happen automatically, so make sure to click on this button to see any new parameters. Up & Down: In the Animation Parameter Stack move selected parameters up or down. This has no effect on the result but is helpful to keep order in the stack when a large number of parameters is animated. Remove: Removes selected parameters from the Animation Parameter Stack. Copy & Paste: Copy the animation graph from a selected animation variable in the Animation Variable Stack and paste it to another that you select after copying the previously selected graph. Parameter Tree: The parameter tree is a hierarchical list of all animatable parameters. The parameters may be from the UI, general project parameters or from particular objects. Additionally global parameters that have been defined in the Math module will also show at the bottom of the parameter tree. To select a parameter for animation, open the parent branches in which it is located. Once the parameter appears, double click on the tick box to the left of the parameter name. When the tick mark is on, the parameter appears in the Animated Parameter Stack, where the time variation of the parameter is set up (see below). Note that newly created parameters or objects do not automatically show in the parameter tree. To have them appear click on the Refresh button in the menu bar at the top of the Animation Module. Animated Parameter Stack: The Animated Parameter Stack is the list of parameters that are selected from the Parameter Tree to be changed, i.e. animated over time. The first column shows the Parent branch in the Parameter Tree, the second is the name of the parameter. The third column contains the value of the parameter at the current time of the animation time line. To select a parameter click on the row for that parameter. Automatically its animation graph will be shown. Animation Graph (not shown): In the Animation Graph you set up how the parameter selected in the Animation Parameter Stack changes over time. Note that in this graph the x axis is in units of time as defined in the Parameter Panel on the right (see below), whereas the Time Line at the bottom is in terms of the frame number. The graph is not shown here . It work the same way as other graphs in Shape. For more information on how to set up a graph see the manual page on Graphs . Parameter Panel (right side) General: Timing and frame numbers are set up in this tab. Name: The base name of for the output frames of the animation Start Frame: The frame number at which to beginn the animation. It may be necessary to start from a position different from 0 or 1 when an animation was interrupted or if several will be concatenated. # Frames: The total number of frames for the duration of the animation from the Start Time to the End Time . Start Time & End Time: in terms of time units (see below) when is the animation meant to start and end. Time Units: Select the desired time unit from the drop-down list. The default is Years. Make sure the unit in the Variable tab is the same or consistent with the needs for this model. The animated variable that is selected and displayed in the graph uses the units from the Variable tab . Occasionally these units need to be different from each other. Fields: Include the calculation of field lines, magnetic or velocity. Distribute: Recompute the distribution of particles for each frame. Render: Do a full render at each time step. Camera animation with "Autorender" on in the Render Module does not require this, since the model grid does not change and is calculated either before the animation is started or with the first frame. After that autorender is used if the Render flag in the Animation Module is off. Variable Some control parameters for the animated paramater that is currently selected in the Animated Parameters Stack . Time Units: The time units to be used for this variable. Make sure it is the same as the Time Unit in the General tab or you are certain of the animation graph in this context of a different general time unit. Enabled: Enable the animation of this variable. If for some reason you disabled this variable, then later you might wonder why it doesn´t change in an animation. It may well be that you forgot that you disabled it. So, if something in your animation doesn´t change as expected, make sure all the variables that you need change are actually enabled for animation. Stamp: The total number of frames for the duration of the animation from the Start Time to the End Time . Stamp Format: The number format for the numerical stamp. Output: Here you define the output format and what you wish to output and where on disk it is to be placed. Directory: Set the output directory for the individual animation frames. Note that the name of the files is set in the General Tab. Image Type: Specify the image type by writing the standard extension for the image. For instance, if you wish to output PNG format images, then write ".png". 3D Mesh: Output and image of the 3D Mesh. Note that it is not the mesh itself that is output, but rather an image of the view in the 3-D Module. Hydro: Output the full data from the hydrodynamics module at each time step. Note that, depending on the resolution, this might lead to a large amount of data to be output. Plots (Images): Output images of any graphs that the animation might generate in the Graph Module. You can adjust the image resolution for these outputs. Plots (Ascii): Output the ASCII values of any graphs that the animation might generate in the Graph Module. Math Variable: Output any math variables that change over time during the animation. Stereo: Output stereo images. dStereo (deg): The parallax anglee. This is the difference between the horizontal camera angles for the two stereo images.

Modifiers The Image Displacement Modifier uses an grey-scale image to move vertices as a function of the image pixel intensity. This allows one to use actual images to influence the model structure. As shown in the example mesh on the right, a potential application is in the modelling of spiral galaxies. An external drawing device can be used to design structures almost interactively with the automatic update functionality. For this example the image of a spiral galaxy was smoothed and a flipped copy of it generated. The flipped version is needed for the top-bottom symmetry of the galaxy structure. The image on the right is the rendered image. The Image Displacement Modifier (IDM) works in a similar way as the Bump Modifier with the basic difference of using an image as data source instead of a simple function. The handling of the Gizmo for placement is similar. One difference is that the Gizmo of the IDM include a preview of the image to help with the precise placement and scaling. In this example of a spiral galaxy two IDM are required, one for each side, as shown in the example modifier stack on the right. Parameters: Name: If multiple Modifiers are used, make sure to name them adequately for ease of identification. Enabled: When deselected, the modifier will not be applied. Filename: Click on the button on the right to open the file selection dialog to open the image file to be used to the IDM. The filename will be displayed in the text field. Width & Height: The full size of the image in the 3-D Module in local x & y directions. Radial: Select this option if you wish the displacement to be radial from the origin of the Local Coordinate System of the mesh. Auto Update: If you change the image texture using an external software such as Gimp or Photoshop, then you can enable the automatic loading of the image by clicking on Start. Make sure to Stop it again after you finish. Since the image is read from disk, you need to save it after every change you want to be updated in Shape. Interval (ms): The the interval between Updates of the image from disk. Magnitude: Set up the how the mesh displacement shall be as a function of the pixel brightness of the image assuming that it has an interval from x=(0-1) for greyscale values of (0-255). You can use an analytic function of x (the pixel value between 0 and 1) or a corresponding point function. Widget: Opens the Widget panel shown on the right and enables the preview of the displacement image that helps to place it correctly. To see the preview image, the Display has to be enabled and the object needs to be selected in the object tree. The not only the Widget arrows are show, but also the preview image as shown below the Widget panel on the right. Note on Rendering IDM objects: Below are a few renderings of the example galaxy object. The first one shows the rendering at an intermediate viewing of the disk. At the center the bulge is seen as a vertical uniformly lit structure. This is typical for the applications of the IDM, especially with small-scale features. These turn out to look like little vertical "sticks". There are a number of measures that one can take to remedy that depending on the feature and the application of the IDM. For the smooth structure of the galaxy, for instance, one can use the Taper Modifier to taper off the emission towards the surface of the mesh. This is shown below where the galaxy has been rendered edge-on. The upper image is without and the lower one has a Taper Modifier applied. In addition to the IDM to strengthen the spiral features in the galaxy an Image Texture Modifier was applied with the same image. Modifiers: Image Displacement

The Shear Modifier changes the distance of the mesh vertices perpendicular to a chosen axis (default: local z-axis) along another axis. The orientation of the shear axis and direction of the shear can be changed by changing the values in the Axis boxes. Choose a value of 1.0 to select a particular axis (setting the others to 0.0). Intermediate value result in an intermediate axis. A better way to set the reference axis is using the Widget. The Magnitude dialog allows you to define the squeeze 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. Modifiers: Shear

The Squeeze Modifier changes the radius of a mesh perpendicular to a chosen axis (default: local z-axis), The action is similar to squeezing a soft object or to that of a lathe. There are three different Modes: Scale, Inverse Scale and Absolute . In the Scale mode the distance of the mesh points from the reference axis is scaled by the factor given in the the Magnitude graph as a function of position along the reference axis. In the Inverse Scale mode the scaling factor from the Magnitude graph is inverted. In the Absolute mode the mesh vertex is placed at the absolute distance provided by the Magnitude graph. The Magnitude dialog allows you to define the squeeze 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. Modifiers: Squeeze

Key Sub-S ystem: The Modifier Stack A model in Shape is build starting from a few basic mesh objects such as spheres, cylinders, tori or imported ones. Very few objects have such regular structure, however, and the fundamental purpose of Shape is to enable the user to reproduce any structure the universe comes up with at us as closely as possible. There these "primitives" have to be "modified". That is why the operators in Shape are called modifiers . Since there is a large variety of modifiers, the are assembled in a modifier stack (see the image on the right). This list of modifiers operates on the primitive mesh in sequence from the top to bottom. It is very important to note that for some operator combinations, such as rotations, the order in which they are applied makes a difference. When a new modifier is added from the drop-down list that opens by clicking on the plus (+) sign below the stack, it is added to the bottom of the list. They can be reordered by dragging and dropping them into the desired position. To delete one or more modifiers select them in the stack and then click on the "x" at the bottom of the stack. For good practice we recommend to order the modifiers by type as long as the order can be chosen without affecting the result. Modifier that apply to physical quantities such as density and temperature should go at the top, as shown in the example. Copy-Paste modifiers: Modifiers can be copied within the same stack or to the stack of a different object. To copy the modifier to the buffer click on the Copy icon at the bottom of the stack. Then click on the paste button right beside to paste it to the same object. To paste the modifier to a different object, select the target object and click on the paste button. When you do that, a small pop-up window opens with two option to select from. You can paste the modifier as a "new copy " or as an "instance ". The new copy of the modifier will act independently of the original. The instance of the original will work in unison with the original. This means that changes in the parameters of one instance will be automatically transferred to the other. You can have several instanced copies of the same modifier, thereby saving time by changing only one of them to affect all the others in the same way. This is an easy way to maintain the same structure for several meshes or other features of an object. Modifiers: There are basically three categories of modifiers: physical, geometry and transform . In the modifier stack these are identified by having a green, orange and white background respectively. The physical modifiers act on the local physical properties that determined the interaction of the gas with the radiation. Examples are the density, temperature, velocity or boost and points . The geometry modifiers move the vertices of the mesh to turn the primitive starter shapes into more complex structures. Examples for these are the bump, squeeze, twist and size modifiers. These modifiers do not move the origin of the local coordinate system. Contrary to the geometry modifiers, the transform modifiers precisely do move the local coordinate center . The physical and geometry modifiers then take the new local coordinate center as a reference. Links to descriptions of each modifier can be found in the Index .

Render Module Properties Panel: Units Properties Panel: Units Observational astronomers and theorists often work with very different units. This can be accommodated for in Shape by choosing the units that work best with your reference images or target audience. World & Image units: Various units can be selected for the World (Coordinate System) in the 3-D environment and the Images. The appropriate unit is selected from a drop-down menu and by default is set to meters (m). Some of the units are in terms of typical linear and others are in angular sizes. Energy: The energy units refer to the intensity units of the images. In addition to the SI (International System) some of the typical astronomical units are also available. Distance: The units for distances are similar to those for the World & Images, except that the angular units are, of course, not available.