Since the newsgroup users here are deeply into 3D, math and computing: do 
you have any suggestions what library to use for visualisation of simple 3D 
plots?

For 2D plots I have used Zedgraph and JFreeChart in the past. However now 
I'd like to plot points in 3D. And Google is not my friend in this, since I 
get either something horribly complicated like VTK (that would be like 
dropping a tactical nuke on a sparrow), 3D graphics engines for games, 
libraries to visualize meshes etc.

What I need is the following:
- Open Source
- 3D coordinate system (automated plot of labeled x,y,z-axis)
- point markers (enter <x,y,z> and draw a marker and/or text at this point)
- .Net Wrapper

Nice to have:
- ability to plot vectors or lines (you enter <x0,y0,z0>, <x1,y1,z1> and a 
line or a vector (arrow) is drawn
- easily rotateble and zoomable view

Somebody must already have implemented someting like this - I just cannot 
find it. Maybe somebody in this newsgroup has.

BTW: No, I do not want to use povray for this if I can help it. ;-)
I have found the 3d templates on sourceforge ( 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/scpovplot3d )- though I did not try them.
It would be too slow. I need something simple that renders fast.

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TC wrote:

> What I need is the following:
> - Open Source
> - 3D coordinate system (automated plot of labeled x,y,z-axis)
> - point markers (enter <x,y,z> and draw a marker and/or text at this point)
> - .Net Wrapper
> 
> Nice to have:
> - ability to plot vectors or lines (you enter <x0,y0,z0>, <x1,y1,z1> and a 
> line or a vector (arrow) is drawn
> - easily rotateble and zoomable view
> 
> BTW: No, I do not want to use povray for this if I can help it. ;-)
> It would be too slow. I need something simple that renders fast. 

The other package is GNUplot, of course...

I'm not sure what you're trying to do, but if you can't find a library 
for it, it might be quicker to put one together yourself. It looks like 
you're not trying to do anything especially complex, so it shouldn't 
take that long I guess.

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> I'm not sure what you're trying to do, but if you can't find a library for 
> it, it might be quicker to put one together yourself. It looks like you're 
> not trying to do anything especially complex, so it shouldn't take that 
> long I guess.

Yup, if you just want to throw a few 3D lines and points on the screen, 
rotate in realtime in 3D, and you're in .net anyway, then just used managed 
Direct3D (reference the Microsoft.DirectX.* assemblies).  There are plenty 
of tutorials online to get you started.

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