1. Introduction and Availability

1.1. Introduction

AthosGEO View is an open-source visualizer for geodata, with some data editing and manipulation features. The focus is on block models and sampling sets, which can be complemented by background topography or any geometric shapes like buildings, geological units, faults, limits, boundaries, points with markers, and much more.

Did you know?

AthosGEO View is built on top of ParaView which is an open-source scientific data analysis and visualization tool. All of it’s functionality is available also in AthosGEO View, and also the user interface and logic are the same.

Finally, AthosGEO View is also the base for AthosGEO Blend, which extends the abilities of the first with functions that are specifically interesting for the production of cement raw material. This is a commercially licensed tool.

1.1.1. In this Guide

This user’s manual is designed as a guide for using the AthosGEO View application, dealing with the specific data set types, their visualization and some manipulation options.

Did You Know?

In this guide, we will periodically use these Did you know? boxes to provide additional information related to the topic at hand.

Common Errors

Common Errors blocks are used to highlight some of the common problems or complications you may run into when dealing with the topic of discussion.

For an introduction to basics of user interface, working pipeline, loading and saving data etc., please refer to the documentations for ParaView which are referenced in First Steps. This includes also advanced options such as the Python integration that are available in AthosGEO View in exactly the same way as in ParaView.

This current guide can be split into two volumes. Introduction and Availability to Surfaces and Lines will introduce the basic concepts of the different AthosGEO View specific data set types like block models and sampling sets, together with the various attribute naming conventions. More generic VTK data types like surfaces, lines, points and tabular data are discussed in the context of geodata processing. In Manipulating Block Model Attributes some advanced block model related subjects are handled, basically the interactive manipulation of attribute data.

The remaining chapters, from Display a Block Model to Animations, are about the different ways to visualize and analyze geodata sets like block models and sampling sets with AthosGEO View. Please remember that this can only cover some examples because with the means of the underlying ParaView, plenty of additional possibilities are available.

1.2. AthosGEO View is a Custom Software Derived from ParaView

ParaView is an open source, 3D data visualization and analysis software with a special focus on processing huge data sets, including the ability to process the data on several different server and client computers, running a variety of operating systems.

For more information, examples, software download etc., please refer to the ParaView website: https://paraview.org

Thanks to the fact that ParaView is open source, it is possible to download the sources, modify and/or extend the code and in this way derive an own custom software from it. AthosGEO View is exactly such a customized and extended variant of ParaView.

As a consequence, many features in AthosGEO View are identical to how they exist also in ParaView, like:

  • The user interface (GUI)

  • The concept of the processing pipeline with Sources, Filters, Readers, Writers, Views and Representations

  • Many of the specific Filters etc. in ParaView, with exceptions that do not seem so relevant for the purposes of AthosGEO View

  • The Python interface

  • The ability to export views as images or generate animations

The big advantage of this setup is the fact that all these powerful features did not have to be rewritten for AthosGEO View. For certain desirable functionality this can of course also be a limitation. An example would be functions for the interactive manipulation of data as described in Manipulating Block Model Attributes.

Certain things that are available in ParaView are not or not fully made available in AthosGEO View so far, mostly because it was considered of less importance for geodata processing, like:

  • So far, only a binary version with installation packages for Windows is available, while ParaView supports also Linux and Mac computers with binary packages.

  • During the development of extensions, no effort was done to allow for distributed computing on several computers, because block model or sampling set data are normally not as large as some other data sets that are processed with ParaView in other fields.

  • Some filters are not included because they are considered less important for geodata.

1.3. Availability of AthosGEO View

1.3.1. Binaries

Binaries of AthosGEO View can be downloaded from cobo GmbH (https://cobo.bockemuehl.ch). The only requirement is a free registration. Binaries are only available for Windows so far.

1.3.2. Sources

Sources of AthosGEO View are available through GitLab here:

https://gitlab.com/cobo-gmbh/athosgeo-view

Detailed instructions for building the software are still missing. So far it has been successfully done for both Windows and Linux.

Did you know?

AthosGEO View does not come with an automatic update mechanism for new versions and releases: It is up to the user to check whether there is something new available.

And more: There is not even an update installation available: Installing a new version or release will be like installing a new software on a computer.

This means that in order to do a full update, two steps are required:

  1. Download and install the new version or release.

  2. Uninstall the old version or release.

Is this a bug or a feature? It is actually a behaviour that is inherited from ParaView, and it is considered as a feature for users who want to have the full control of their tools: “Do I need that new release?” - “Just install and try!” - “And if I find that I do not want it?” - “No problem, you still have the old software, and you only remove it if you know what you really want!”