Seeking software for presenting closed 3D surfaces

[Denial]

I am looking for some software, preferably freeware, that can present three dimensional surfaces in a user-friendly manner.

My (pre-calculated) data consists of scalar values (w) that apply at locations in three-dimensional space (x,y,z). Thus I have a large number of data quadruplets of the form
w = f(x,y,z)
The software I am seeking will be able to present the "contour" surfaces where w has a constant, user-specified, value.

These surfaces will usually, but not always, be closed surfaces, perhaps shaped a bit like the surface of a teardrop or a heavily distorted sphere.

Please note that I am NOT seeking software for data of the form w = f(x,y). I need the additional dimension.

Any suggestions?

 

[GregLocock]

The usual suspects, Octave and Scilab, will do it, but they aren't user friendly.

You could use excel, just sort on w and then display the 3d points, using an excel addin or two to generate a revolving 3d plot.





Cheers

Greg Locock

I rarely exceed 1.79 x 10^12 furlongs per fortnight

 

[SomptingGuy]

Your search term should be "isosurface". Plenty of hits when combined with "octave".

- Steve

 

[dik]

Have you looked at Google Sketchup? I use it for modelling shading/shadows... Easy to use and relatively user friendly free software.

Dik