The BOOLE viewer
----------------

BOOLE's output may be viewed using our in-house viewer of trimmed
Bezier patches.  Unlike BOOLE, the viewer does not have anyone who is
actively maintaining a public release.  So rather than trying to make
the source code portable and releasing it, we are releasing it in
binary form only.  (This is not related to copyright issues.)

The viewer binary is called `trim' and it runs on SGI workstations
running IRIX 6.x.  (The IRIX binary format changed between versions 5
and 6.)  More specifically,

% file trim
trim:  ELF 32-bit MSB mips-2 dynamic executable (not stripped) MIPS -
version 1

The input file format for `trim' is somewhat different from the BOOLE
output format.  The conversion to `trim' input is accomplished by a
program called `subodhify' included with the BOOLE distribution.  Here
is how to make it:

    cd boole-1.1
    make subodhify

And here is how to use it:

    subodhify booleout booleout.trim


Using `trim'
------------

trim is distributed as a gzipped executable.  After gunzipping it, try 
it by running

    trim -t .01 -p -f booleout.trim

The options' meanings are:

    `-t .01'  set a tolerance to .01 (feel free to experiment)
    `-p'      use spline trimming curves (necessary for BOOLE output) 
    `-f booleout.trim' use this subodhified file as input

Multiple files can be specified (use just one `-f', though).  Each
input file will have its own, randomly-chosen color on the screen.

Interact with `trim' with the mouse.  The third button brings up a
GLUT menu.

If you have difficulties with `trim', please let us know.  We are
currently exploring other options for viewing BOOLE output more
flexibly; please share your opinions.

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Please address all feedback concerning BOOLE to geom@cs.unc.edu, with
the word BOOLE in the subject.