PyDy Visualizer

The PyDy Visualizer is a browser based GUI built to render the visualizations generated by pydy.viz. This document provides an overview of PyDy Visualizer. It describes the various features of the visualizer and provides instructions to use it.

The visualizer can be embedded inside an IPython notebook or displayed standalone in the browser. Inside the IPython notebook, it also provides additional functionality to interactively modify the simulation parameters. The EoMs can be re-integrated using a click of a button from GUI, and can be viewed inside the same GUI in real time.

Here is a screenshot of the visualizer, when it is called from outside the notebook, i.e. from the Python interpreter:

../_images/screenshot1.png

GUI Elements

(1) Play, Pause, and Stop Buttons
Allows you to start, pause, and stop the animation.
(2) Play Looped
When checked the animation is run in a loop.
(3) Time Slider
This is used to traverse to the particular frame in animation, by sliding the slider forward and backward. When the animation is running it will continue from the point where the slider is slid to.
(4) Canvas

Where the animation is rendered. It supports mouse controls:

  • Mouse wheel to zoom in, zoom out.
  • Click and drag to rotate camera.
(5) Show Model

Shows the current JSON which is being rendered in visualizer. It can be copied from the text-box, as well as downloaded. On clicking “Show Model”, following dialog is created:

../_images/screenshot2.png
(6) Edit Objects

On clicking this button, a dropdown opens up, showing the list of shapes which are rendered in the animation:

../_images/screenshot3.png

On clicking any object from the dropdown, a dialog box opens up, containing the existing info on that object. The info can be edited. After editing click the “Apply” button for the changes to be reflected in the canvas (4).

../_images/screenshot4.png
(7) Close Dialog
Closes/hides the “edit objects” dialog.

Additional options in IPython notebooks:

In IPython notebooks, apart from the features mentioned above, there is an additional feature to edit simulation parameters, from the GUI itself. This is how the Visualizer looks, when called from inside an IPython notebook:

../_images/screenshot5.png

Here, one can add custom values in text-boxes(1, 2, 3 etc.) and on clicking “Rerun” (4) the simulations are re-run in the background. On completing, the scene corresponding to the new data is rendered on the Canvas.