Design of an end-user data visualization system

The authors describe the architecture of an end-user visualization system that supports interactive analysis of three-dimensional scalar and vector data in a heterogeneous hardware environment. The system supports a variety of visualization methods with applicability in disciplines such as computational fluid dynamics, earth, and space sciences, and finite-element analysis. The authors discuss how design goals and hardware constraints lead to a simple, cohesive paradigm for implementing a powerful, flexible, and portable visualization system. To assure efficient operation across a broad range of hardware platforms, the tools were implemented so that their interactivity is largely independent of data complexity. To gain portability, the system was built on a platform-independent graphics layer and user interface management system. The authors outline general concerns with current visualization methods and show how the approach simplifies the visualization process