Article: Data analysis doesn’t have to mean programming

Let’s assume you’re more than aware of the advantages of using dedicated graphing software rather than trying to battle through with spreadsheets. You may even be using one of the good graphing programs on the market. But what if your requirements push the limits of what even these programs can offer? What if you need to enter the world of true data visualisation but still have graphing facilities? Enter Tecplot.

Tecplot combines engineering graphing and plotting with true scientific data visualisation into one integrated software package. Other programs either do the standard graphing and plotting, or they do the more advanced data visualisation, but only Tecplot combines both. It has 3-D surface and volume visualisation capabilities that you simply won’t be able to find elsewhere for Windows; it can handle large sets of parametric 3-D surfaces, finite-element grids, and multi-block volumetric data. But Tecplot also has a more compre-hensive feature set than most Unix-based scientific data To give you an example, a primary feature in Tecplot that sets it apart from most other plotting software is the ability to display data on multiple, non-rectangular grid structures without the requirement to interpolate to a rectangular grid. All the while, its point-and-click user interface is a world away from command-line mathematical analysis programs. The latest version, Tecplot 9.0, is now well established. The developers promised an application which would take on others for speed, but reports of the program being over 100 times faster than Tecplot 8.0 have impressed everyone. OpenGL has been implemented in Tecplot 9.0 allowing Tecplot to take advantage of the fast graphics cards now available affordably. It’s OpenGL - along with a number of algorithm enhancements - which have made 3-D rendering substantially faster and more accurate. 3-D rotations, zooms, and translations can now be performed with fully rendered images. Take a look.