We have organized two unique visual data analysis environments: 1) visual data analysis tools that run independent of the web that allows the user to extend their investigation from the DESKTOP to a CAVE, and 2) Web-based visual data analysis tools that run interactively with computer simulation submitted from a Web NPIB (Network Programming Interface Builder) form.

DESKTOP: Accelrys's ViewerLite: For academic institutions Accelrys Inc. has provided an educational version of ViewerLite that can be used in the Nano section of these CRCD web pages. A free educational copy of ViewerLite can be downloaded either from the Accelerys ViewerLite site or from the Tools section of these CRCD web pages. ViewerLite was designed to be used on the researcher/students' desktop computer: Windows or Mac. This is a convenient investigative tool for analyzing small data files on PC computers. For Reference we have provided links to Accelerys Inc. Viewer web pages: Feature Tour, Sample Molecules, Gallery, and System Requirements.

CAVE: AtomView: Was created by John Shalf and Ron Kriz at NCSA in the summer of 1997. The motivation for creating AtomView was to allow researchers and students to visualize large atomistic nanostructures in an immersive CAVE environment. AtomView uses the same file format as WebLab Viewer which provides the researcher/student a choice to extend their analysis from the desktop to a CAVE. A student project provides some background information and how to use AtomView. A complete description of AtomView with tutorials and instructions for downloading and installation are provided in the Tools section of these CRCD web pages. AtomView also allows the investigator to view molecular dynamic simulations.

Each section, nano, micro, and macro have an interactive computer simulation section that allows the user to submit a simulation to a distributed network computing environment and view computer simulation results as VRML files. The CRCD server organizes information for distribution to available computing resources on the internet, archives the results on the CRCD server, organizes simulation results and creates graphical results for viewing back to the remote-site clients' Web browser. Two tools are used to create visual representations of simulation results: VRML and PV-Wave.

VRML: VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) is a simple text-based interactive visual data analysis language that allowed the CRCD developers to create graphical three-dimensional objects of their nano-, micro- and macro-structures. These structures can be viewed and interactively manipulated on the CRCD Web pages with the Cosmo Player Web Plugin. With the Cosmo Player installed on the remote site clients Web browser, it is possible to visually analyze these structures on the Web pages by rotating, panning, and zooming in and out of the 3D structure. The Cosmo Web Plugin can view both VRML 1.0 & 2.0 file formats. WebLab Viewer can create VRML 2.0 files for viewing in the Cosmo Player. For the CRCD Web pages we have however created only VRML Ver1.0 (VRML_1.0) files so that we could view the same VRML files on the Cosmo Player Web Plugin and in the CAVE. All VRML files generate in these CRCD web pages are VRML Version 1.0. Source of the VRML files created in these CRCD Web pages are provided in the Wavesurface modules for Hexagonal and Orthorhombic anisotropy. To sucessfully map textures and transparency that work both in the CAVE and in the Cosmo Web browser plugin requires a unique VRML_1.0 format which we have documented here as a link for your reference. We have also taught high school instructors how to build VRML_1.0 models that were used on the web, CCC, and CCC_atom. This effort has been supported by the TILT program of the Institute for Connecting Research and Science to the Classroom at Virginia Tech in collaboration with the Central Virginia Governors School

PV-Wave & IMSL: Wave is an acronym for Workstaion Analysis Visualization Environment that was orginally created by Precision Visual Inc in the late 1980s. IMSL software, created by IMSL Inc., are a collection of scientific subroutine libraries used by engineers, scientists and statisticians for the last 25 years. Precision Visual Inc. and IMSL Inc. merged their combined visualization and numerical software resources and formed a new company called Visual Numerics Inc. (VNI). VNI is a network centric company who has extended PV-Wave and IMSL with Java technology to create JWave and Java Numeric Language (JNL) which is used extensively by these CRCD web pages to create images, animations, and 3D objects of computer simulations results. Virginia Tech has been a principal partner and co-creator of early Java-Wave applets. A summary of this collaboration is given in Ref.[3]. PV-Wave and IMSL is used extensively in these CRCD Web pages to create the majority of images returned by the computer simulation JWave and NPIB API. In each section where PV-Wave, JWave, or IMSL is used, we provide the source code used to generate these images. Working examples are provided below as links to existing modules. Below we provide a summary of modules that have have extensively used JWave, IMSL, and PV-Wave together with some simple PV_Wave examples.

Simple PV-Wave Examples:

1) "X-Y plots" of stresses at a laminate "Free-Edge",

2) Animated GIF files" stress wave propagation in anisotropic plates, and

3) VRML files of three-dimensional anisotropic wave surfaces