TRI_SURFACE_DISPLAY
Display a Triangulated 3D Surface in MATLAB

TRI_SURFACE_DISPLAY is a MATLAB program which gets the names of the node and element files defining a 3D triangulated surface, reads the information from the files, and displays the surface on the screen.

A TRI_SURFACE or triangulated mesh surface is a special case of a polygonal surface. Examples of polygonal surfaces, and programs to display them, are also available elsewhere.

Usage:

tri_surface_display ( 'prefix' )

where prefix is the common filename prefix, so that

prefix_nodes.txt contains the node coordinates.
prefix_elements.txt contains the indices of nodes forming each triangular element.

Licensing:

The computer code and data files described and made available on this web page are distributed under the GNU LGPL license.

Related Data and Programs:

BALL_AND_STICK_DISPLAY, a MATLAB program which demonstrates the creation of a 3D "ball and stick" image;

BEZIER_SURFACE_DISPLAY, a MATLAB program which reads two files defining a Bezier surface and displays it.

FEM_BASIS_T3_DISPLAY, a MATLAB program which displays a basis function associated with a linear triangle ("T3") mesh.

FEM_BASIS_T6_DISPLAY, a MATLAB program which reads a quadratic triangle mesh and displays any associated basis function.

MESH_DISPLAY, a MATLAB program which reads data defining a polygonal mesh and displays it, with optional numbering.

MPAS_GRID_DISPLAY, MATLAB programs which can read an MPAS NETCDF grid file and display the primary polygonal mesh or the dual triangular mesh.

OBJ_DISPLAY, a MATLAB program which reads an OBJ file defining a 3D object and displays it within MATLAB.

OBJ_TO_TRI_SURFACE, a MATLAB program which reads an OBJ file and extracts the surface mesh data as a TRI_SURFACE dataset.

PLY_DISPLAY, a MATLAB program which displays an image of a 3D graphics file in PLY format;

POLYGONAL_SURFACE_DISPLAY, a MATLAB program which reads two files defining a polygonal surface and displays it within MATLAB.

QUAD_SURFACE_DISPLAY, a MATLAB program which reads files defining a 3D quadrilateral mesh surface and displays it within MATLAB.

SPHERE_GRID, a dataset directory which contains examples of grids of points on spheres, some of which have been triangulated, and hence can be displayed by TRI_SURFACE_DISPLAY.

STLA_DISPLAY, a MATLAB program which reads an ASCII STL file and displays it.

STLA_TO_TRI_SURFACE, a MATLAB program which reads an ASCII STL file and extracts the surface mesh data as a TRI_SURFACE dataset.

TET_MESH_DISPLAY, a MATLAB program which reads files defining a tet mesh and displays an image within MATLAB.

TRI_SURFACE, a data directory which contains examples of 3d triangulated surface files.

TRI_SURFACE_DISPLAY_OPENGL, a C++ program which displays the 3D graphics information in a TRI_SURFACE file using OpenGL.

TRI_SURFACE_IO, a MATLAB library which reads and writes the 3D graphics information in a TRI_SURFACE file;

TRI_SURFACE_TO_PLY, a MATLAB program which converts a TRI_SURFACE data structure into a PLY data structure.

TRIANGULATION_DISPLAY_OPENGL, a C++ program which reads files defining a triangulation and displays an image using Open GL.

TRIANGULATION_ORDER1_DISPLAY, is a MATLAB program which reads files defining a piecewise constant triangulation of data, and displays a corresponding 3D surface.

Source Code:

tri_surface_display.m is the source code.

Examples and Tests:

DART is a simple dart shape, involving 5 nodes and 6 triangular faces.

dart_nodes.txt, the node file;
dart_elements.txt, the triangle file;
dart.png, a PNG image.

SPHERE is a sphere, tiled with an 8 by 8 array of logically triangular patches.

sphere_nodes.txt, the node file;
sphere_elements.txt, the triangle file;
sphere.png, a PNG image.

TETRAHEDRON is a tetrahedron, defined by 4 triangular faces.

tetrahedron_nodes.txt, the node file;
tetrahedron_elements.txt, the triangle file;
tetrahedron.png, a PNG image.

You can go up one level to the MATLAB source codes.