			 StageTools Release 1
			     August 1997

OVERVIEW:

StageTools is a suite of external modules for the Geomview program
that provides a means of using Geomview to create animations in the
form of MPEG movies, animated GIFs, or video tapes.  To do this, you
write a "script" for the movie that indicates how the objects should
move within Geomview.  These scripts use a language that includes
high-level control over objects and motions, allowing you to
manipulate individual objects, hierarchical compound objects, and
several objects concurrently.  StageTools also includes a module that
lets you create objects for use in your movies.

The modules that make up the StageTools suite are the following:

	StageManager	The main movie-making tool.  This module lets
			you script your movies, save them in files,
			preview them, and record them in final form.

	StageStills	This module lets you take snapshots of
			geomview scenes.  It gives you control of the
			format of the resulting image (GIF, TIFF,
			JPEG, etc.), the number of colors, the size, and
			the scaling to be applied to the image.

	CenterStage	This module lets you create Geomview objects
			mathematically.  It can generate parametric
			surfaces and curves, polyhedra, vectors, and
			combinations of these (e.g., tubes around
			curves, offset surfaces and curves, etc.).
			These can be combined into hierarchical,
			compound objects.  Objects can include
			parameters that are dependent on sliders,
			check-boxes and type-in areas for their
			values.  StageManager can be used to control
			these values, so that, for example, you can
			create a movie that shows how a surface
			deforms in response to changes in its
			parameters.

	StageHand	This module lets you control Geomview
			interactively using the high-level language of
			StageManager.  (StageHand lets you enter
			commands and see their results immediately,
			rather than typing in a bunch of commands and
			then running them, as you would in StageManager.)

The StageTools suite also includes two other programs, StageDoor and
BackStage, that work behind the scenes to control Geomview.  See the
technical documentation for these products for more information on
them.


MORE ABOUT GEOMVIEW

Geomview is a 3D viewing program available from the Geometry Center at
<http://www.geom.umn.edu/locate/geomview>, or from their FTP site at
<ftp://ftp.geom.umn.edu/pub/software/>.


OTHER TOOLS REQUIRED BY STAGETOOLS:

All the StageTools modules are written in TCL/TK, so you must have
TCL/TK installed on your system.  This is available from
<ftp://ftp.smli.com/pub/tcl/>.  StageTools requires version 7.5 or
later of TCL and version 4.0 or later of TK.

CenterStage will run without any additional software, but the other
tools require other unix programs to do some of their work.  In
particular, you must have programs for converting PPM images to the
formats you are interested in using (usually GIF, TIFF or JPEG), a
program for converting image files into MPEG movies, and a program for
converting GIF files into an animated GIF file.  StageTools is set up
to use the ImageMajick package as its image conversion tool,
mpeg_encode as its mpeg encoder, and gifmerge for its animated GIF
maker.  These are available at the following locations:

	ImageMajick	ftp://ftp.smli.com/pub/tcl/
	mpeg_encode	ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/linux/sunsite/apps/
                          graphics/convert/mpeg_encode-1.3-src+bin.tgz
	gifmerge	ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/linux/sunsite/apps/
                          graphics/convert/gifmerge-1.33.src.tgz

If you want to use programs other than these, you will need to
customize StageTools to suit your needs.  See the CUSTOMIZATION
document for more information.

If you can not find or install all these tools, you can still run
StageManager in preview mode.  If you don't have ImageMajick (or some
replacement for it), you will not be able to save frames or images; if
you don't have mpeg_encode, you will not be able to create MPEG
movies; and if you don't have gifmerge, you will not be able to save
animated GIFs.  Except for these functions, StageManager and the other
tools should operate properly even without these tools.


INSTALLATION:

Unpack the StageTools tar file to create the StageTools directory. One
possible command for doing this is:

	gzip -dc StageTools.tar.gz | tar vfxp -

If you want to installs StageTools publicly (for all users of
Geomview), you should place the StageTools directory in the
Geomview/modules/tcl directory.  If you want to install it privately
in your own account, you can place it anywhere you like.

Once the StageTools directory has been unpacked, cd to the StageTools
directory and issue the command:

	wish fix

(make sure that the TCL/TK "wish" interpreter is in your command
path).  This command will look up the location of "wish" and fix the
executables that are part of the StageTools distribution so that they
can find it.  If you do not do this shell, the StageTools external
modules may complain "command not found".  Once this is done, you can
install the StageTools external modules.

To install the StageTools modules publicly, issue the command:

	installTools

(This will install a .geomview-StageTools initialization file in each
subdirectory of the Geomview/modules directory.  These directories are
named by architecture, e.g., sgi, x11, etc., so this command will make
StageTools available under each architecture you have available.  If
you want to restrict StageTools to a particular architecture, use the
command "installTools arch" where "arch" is the name of the
architecture (directory) where you want StageTools to be installed.
You can specify as many architectures as you want.)

To install the StageTools modules only for yourself, issue the
command:

	installTools home

(This will append commands to your .geomview initialization file in
your home directory.)

Once you have installed StageTools, the modules should appear in the
Geomview modules selector the next time you start Geomview.


GETTING STARTED:

To start one of the StageTools modules, simply click (once) on its
name in the Geomview modules selector (on the main Geomview panel).
It may take a few moments for the module to start up, so be patient.

The StageManager and StageHand modules are a little unusual in that
they use the StageDoor module to carry out their communication with
Geomview and with other modules.  For this reason, when you click on
StageManager or StageHand, you will see the module start, then
StageDoor will start, then StageManager or StageHand will disappear
from the modules selector.  THIS IS THE CORRECT BEHAVIOR AND DOES NOT
INDICATE A PROBLEM.  In a few moments, the StageManager or StageHand
window will open, so be patient.  If the StageDoor module exits (or if
you get error messages in the terminal window where Geomview was
started), THAT indicates a problem.


DOCUMENTATION:

The documentation for StageTools is available on the World-Wide Web at
<http://www.geom.umn.edu/locate/StageTools>, and int the
StageTools/doc directory.  Both StageManager and CenterStage have a
help menus that launch a web browser to view the local pages.  You may
want them to view the "official" pages at the Geometry Center,
however.  In this case, you should change the URL found in the
StageTools/lib/help.tcl file to point to:

    http://www.geom.umn.edu/locate/StageTools/$_program(name)/


BUG REPORTS AND COMMENTS:

Please send bug reports and comments to <mailto:software@geom.umn.edu>.