A user wishing to build a structure in a PHIGURE program has the choice of :
- creating it via PHIGS, by calling the POPST and PCLST functions before and after any structure element insertion function
- creating it by calling a single PHIGURE function which produces a structure representing a 2D or 3D object
PHIGURE includes the following structure-building functions
generalized 2D or 3D primitives
linear, logarithmic, calendar, and any other axes
pie charts, histograms
processing 2D grids
processing 3D grids
isolines, isosurfaces
isovalue key
cutting planes on 3D grids
Structures produced by both PHIGS and PHIGURE are easily displayed if they are included in the list of structures in a scene.
PHIGURE functions defining the CSS may be divided into 3 types :
functions for creating a complete structure
e.g. the TCUBE function which builds a structure representing a parallelepiped
functions for inserting or modifying PHIGS attributes in an existing structure
e.g. the TSPLCI function modifies the polyline color attribute
specific PHIGURE attribute modification functions
e.g. the TSAXLB function
The first parameter of all these functions is a structure identifier. These are managed by the application. Any problems due to recursive CSS are not dealt with by PHIGURE.