Software to draw spheres ...

[TaoRich]

Greetz,

 

I need to draw spheres, with a decent 3D representation - the figures will be used to explain my argument.

 

I'm going to need to illustrate the sphere:

• expanding, and contracting
• show radius of the sphere at various stages of the expansion/contraction
• show slices/shell sections at various time intervals

Then I'm going to need to superimpose one sphere inside the other and illustrate:

• interrelationships between the spheres

I saw this diagram in one of the posts here in the forum:

 

 

 

That's pretty much along the lines of how I'd like my figures to look. A simple line diagram, with a clear 3 dimensional visual element.

 

Can anyone suggest any simple drawing program I can use ?

 

Preferably something that will run on Ubuntu Linux.

Preferably something simple and easy to use.

 

I've got blender and a bunch of other 3D modelling packages installed already, but have not yet put a huge amount of effort into surmounting the learning curve.

They seem a bit like taking a sledgehammer to kill an ant - wayyyy to heavy for the simple job I have at hand.

 

I'm hoping there's something better suited to quick easy mathematical/geometric diagrams.

 

Cheers

Rich

[Blahah]

Have you tried Google Sketchup? It's very simple and free, and the basic mode does nice line drawings in 3D/ I can't actually remember if it does spheres, but I'm pretty sure it will.

 

edit: Sketchup does do spheres, and it's particularly good for the radius measurements you mentioned.

Edited February 20, 2011 by Blahah

[TaoRich]

Actually if you're just doing line drawings like that one, you could do it in Gimp easily.

 

But you'd have to use your own judgement as to how to portray the 3D elements.

In the words of the immortal bard: "Aye, there's the rub."

I'm downloading Google Sketchup and will check it out - as soon as I reboot into Windows. If it looks useful, I'll try to get it running under Wine on Ubuntu.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[Xittenn]

I'm not so sure sketchup is appropriate...

 

I don't think it will be that easy to do especially if you wish to pull out a solid arc. Blender sucks but not because it is so hard to use, it just isn't that great a piece of software. It will however get the job done and knowing how to use Blender will greatly help you if you routinely require such projects to be completed. There really isn't a simple solution to animation! The de facto is no matter how simple the tools are to use the final portrayal of a complex idea requires that each point of interest be elaborated on for it to exist. This requires that the individual doing the creating also do the transcribing.

 

If it is important to you and you are truly stuck I may have an hour to put something together for you. I would need a full description of what it is you require and the result would be a series of image files and not a complete animation; a complete animation would be a significant markup in time. Just a friendly offer ....

[ajb]

LaTex and PStricks?

[Blahah]

I tried what you wanted to do, the sphere within a sphere, in Sketchup and it was fairly straightforward.

 

You might also try Archimedes Geo3D or Geup 3D which are both designed for drawing simple geometric 3D.

[TaoRich]

LaTex and PStricks?

LaTeXDraw is a free PSTricks code generator or PSTricks editor for LaTeX. It has the usual drawing tools (lines, rectangles, circles, Bezier curves) and can resize, rotate, move and join objects using vector transformations. LaTeXDraw uses SVG as its file format and figures can be exported as PSTricks code, pdf, eps, jpg, bmp, png, ppm.PSTricks is an extension of LaTeX which allows the creation of drawings, diagrams and graphs in 2D or 3D.

 

Sounds promising !

 

Right there in my Ubuntu Software Centre.

 

I'll let you know what I think of it when I've pulled the 178 MB down overnight.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

Edited February 20, 2011 by TaoRich

[ajb]

I have only used very basic features of PSTricks, and usually they have been implemented by other packages. So, I cannot really offer any advice on how to use it. However, LaTeX packages usually have good guides and finding examples is usually quite easy. Good luck.

[TaoRich]

I'm not so sure sketchup is appropriate...

I'll try latex as per the post above. It sounds promising.

 

If it is important to you and you are truly stuck I may have an hour to put something together for you. I would need a full description of what it is you require and the result would be a series of image files and not a complete animation; a complete animation would be a significant markup in time. Just a friendly offer ....

Thanks for the kind offer - appreciated.

 

I'll press ahead trying out the first steps on my own ... but I'll yell for a bit of help if I get tired of hitting my head against a brick wall.

 

What I need is pretty simple, maybe 6 or 8 diagrams total.

 

Even If I have to use Gimp, it's not a train smash.

 

Once I've worked out what visual elements I need to get the first line drawing looking reasonably 3D, I can resize and rework the 2D circle and elliptical perspective components to get the various stages in my progression.

 

I just really need to illustrate a start-space and an end-space, and a few shell slices to explain a few step-wise progressions over time.

 

The two spheres/spaces that need to be superimposed are symmetrical/identical in all ways so I can re-use and simply re-shade in a complementary colour.

 

The diagrams need only to be a "visual aid" to imagination and explanation, rather than a "dissection and labelling of the mathematical beast".

 

I missed this post in the middle of my response flurry.

 

I tried what you wanted to do, the sphere within a sphere, in Sketchup and it was fairly straightforward.

Ohhh ... lovely ... I might bug you for some help via PM

 

Definitely going to try Sketchup on the other commercial side of my boot sector.

You might also try Archimedes Geo3D or Geup 3D which are both designed for drawing simple geometric 3D.

Downloading Archimedes now.

 

 

- - -

 

I do some testing of them all tomorrow.

 

I'll put up some opinion and sample pics as I make progress ... or scream for help if I don't seem to be making headway.

 

Again, I'm loving being here ... you people are so friendly and helpful ... pleasantly surprised and very grateful.

 

Cheers

Rich

Edited February 20, 2011 by TaoRich