Visualization of Electron Density Maps

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Volslice3D is an improved version of the Volsice utility distributed with the Situs package. Situs is a program package developed to provide a robust and quantitative method for the localization of biomolecular subunits in low-resolution data. Volslice is a part of Situs and a utility to display these low-resolution volume data-sets, created by an electron microscope. Volslice displays the electron density maps with ascii characters in a unix terminal window. This is a very fast and easy to use method, especially for old unix workstations which are not capable to display 3D graphics.

Volslice3D displays the electron density maps by using 3D graphics. To run the program you must have access to a modern unix workstation with a hardware accelerated 3D graphic equipment (e.g. a SGI O2). With such a workstation you are able display a slice for every dimension at the same time, and to rotate the entire scene. With Volsice3D it is easier to get an overlook over the complete density map.

• Easy to use. The program provides a simple and intuitive graphical user interface.
• Stereo support (with shutter glasses like crystal eyes)
• Headtracking support (with the polhelmus fastrak system)
• Very portable. Supports now several unix plattforms and runs on PCs with linux or windows as well.

You can read a short html documentation here.

We are using Volslice3D in a VR environment. A headtracking system, stereo shutter glasses and a dual side projection system allows the user to get a better impression of the 3D space.

Our latest development is the ad-box. The ad-box is a generic interface for vr devices. It is possible to connect devices which are using multiple potentiometers and buttons. As a first demonstration device for the ad-box, we created a small cube with some bars (one for each axis). The bars are internally conntected to simple potentiometers. When you move a bar, the slice belonging to this axis will move the same way on the screen. The movement of the entire cube is tracked, so when the user rotates the cube, the scene on the monitor will rotate, too. We think that this is the most intuitive way to use Volslice3D.

The following pictures show the cube and the ad-box.

You can find more information (at the moment only available in german!) about the ad-box here.

At the moment, you can only download binaries. If you cannot find your favorite computer/os here, please write me an email. The software is easy to port, so it is possible that I can create a binary for you.

If you want to test volslice3d you need a data file. The Situs package contains some data files you can use. If you dont want to download the complete Situs package you can download a test data file here: