For the last sample before we start creating our own programs, open ThunderStreamlines.net. This data set is of a simulated rain cloud (thunderhead). The isosurface is semi-transparent—another nifty feature of DX since you often need to see inside objects. The twisting colored Ribbons are made by DX dynamically; they are
not modeled objects in the data that is imported! The Ribbon module has been fed a vector field of wind (velocity and direction) and DX itself calculates the direction and twist of a sheet of massless particles through this field. Feel free to look at the program itself. It's not too complicated considering the sophisticated visualization it produces!
When you look at the program, notice another powerful feature of DX: in this net, there is more than one Import module. That means that it is possible to open up several different data sets, perform very different operations on the inputs, and Collect the results together into the same (or multiple) Images.
That's a whirlwind tour of the Samples directory. You should explore the sample programs at length, not only now while you are just learning about DX, but especially later on when you need some inspiration or want to see how a particular module is used in a network. There are some very clever techniques illustrated in these samples! Return to them from time to time. I did not make these Samples and I've learned a lot of things by poking around in here.
Many data visualization techniques are generic across different disciplines. The reconfigurability of the basic building blocks in Data Explorer means that a physicist's visual program may illustrate a useful technique that can be readily extracted and adapted for use in a biologist's visual program (and vice versa). We encourage you therefore to look at how the examples work and not simply at what each produces as output.
You may want to read about "Help" in advance because you can get more detailed information on modules within nets while you are exploring the samples and thereby get more insight into what is going on. We discuss "Help" in Section 4 of "The Visualization Process" module.
