The new importplot and exportplot commands permit the exchange of 3-D geometric data between a variety of formats and Maple plots. After import, a geometric object can then be combined with other visualizations in Maple using existing tools such as plots[display].  The following new data formats are supported for both import and export:

In addition to importing from a local file, importplot also allows the user to import directly from a URL.

Import Examples

The following examples illustrate imports from PLY and STL file formats. $\mathrm{gear}≔\mathrm{cat}\left(\mathrm{kernelopts}\left(\mathrm{datadir}\right)\,''/example/gear.ply''\right)\:$ $\mathrm{plottools}\left[\mathrm{importplot}\right]\left(\mathrm{gear}\right)$ $$ $\mathrm{figure}≔''http://www.maplesoft.com/data/examples/stl/dodecahedron.stl''\:$ $\mathrm{plottools}\left[\mathrm{importplot}\right]\left(\mathrm{figure}\right)$

Export Examples

The following examples illustrate exporting Maple 3-D objects to BYU and OFF formats, then importing them back. $f≔\left(y\^3-x\^7\right)\*\left(y\^2-2\*x\^5\right)\:$ $\mathrm{knot}≔\mathrm{algcurves}\left[\mathrm{plot\_knot}\right]\left(f\,x\,y\,\mathrm{epsilon}\=0.8\,\mathrm{radius}\=0.1\,\mathrm{tubepoints}\=9\,\mathrm{axes}\=\mathrm{none}\right)\:$ $\mathrm{plots}:-\mathrm{display}\left(\mathrm{knot} \right)$ $\mathrm{surface}≔ \mathrm{plot3d}\left( \sin \left(x\right)\+x\*\cos \left(y\right)\, x\=-5..5\, y\=-5..5\,\mathrm{color}\=\mathrm{purple}\right)\:$ $\mathrm{plots}:-\mathrm{display}\left(\mathrm{surface}\,\mathrm{axes}\=\mathrm{none}\right)$ $\mathrm{KnotFile} ≔\mathrm{cat}\left( \mathrm{FileTools}:-\mathrm{TemporaryDirectory}\left(\right)\, ''/MyKnot.byu''\right)\:$ $\mathrm{plottools}\left[\mathrm{exportplot}\right]\left(\mathrm{KnotFile}\,\mathrm{knot}\right)\:$ $\mathrm{SaddleFile} ≔\mathrm{cat}\left( \mathrm{FileTools}:-\mathrm{TemporaryDirectory}\left(\right)\, ''/saddle.obj''\right)\:$ $\mathrm{plottools}\left[\mathrm{exportplot}\right]\left( \mathrm{SaddleFile}\,\mathrm{surface}\right)\:$ $\mathrm{plottools}\left[\mathrm{importplot}\right]\left(\mathrm{KnotFile}\right)\;$ $$ $\mathrm{plottools}\left[\mathrm{importplot}\right]\left(\mathrm{SaddleFile}\right)$

Now, let's point to a sample zip file and look to see what is included inside it:

$\mathrm{zipfile} ≔ \mathrm{FileTools}:-\mathrm{JoinPath}\left(\left[ \mathrm{kernelopts}\left(\mathrm{mapledir}\right)\, ''data''\, ''help''\, ''FileTools''\, ''sample.zip''\right]\right)\:$ 

$\mathrm{Contents}\left(\mathrm{zipfile}\right)\;$

There are three files, we will read each of them in.

The first file is stored with the suffix ".m", so it is immediately restored as a Maple object when read into Maple.

$\mathrm{data} ≔ \mathrm{ReadFile}\left(''data.m'' \mathbf{in} \mathrm{zipfile}\right)\;$

The second file is plain text. In this case we additionally use the parse command to turn the plain text into equations.

$\mathrm{opts} ≔ \mathrm{parse}\left(\mathrm{ReadFile}\left(''options.txt'' \mathbf{in} \mathrm{zipfile}\,\mathrm{string}\right)\right)\;$

The third file is an image. We will extract it into a temporary directory.

$\mathrm{imagefile} ≔ \mathrm{cat}\left(\mathrm{FileTools}\left[\mathrm{TemporaryDirectory}\right]\left(\right)\, ''/myantennas.jpg''\right)\:$

$\mathrm{Extract}\left(''antennas.jpg'' \mathbf{in} \mathrm{zipfile}\, \mathrm{imagefile}\right)\;$

Now, let's plot the data, image, and options we just read in.

$\mathrm{plots}\left[\mathrm{polygonplot}\right]\left( \mathrm{data}\, \mathrm{background}\=\mathrm{imagefile}\, \mathrm{opts}\right)\;$

This short section will show how the sample zip file was created.$$

Start with naming the container zip file -- "myzip.zip".  Individual files within the zip will be specified using in to separate the container name with the in-zip name. The data is already defined in the previous section, we'll write it out to a sub-file with a .m extension.

$\mathrm{newzipfile} ≔ ''myzip.zip''\:$

$\mathrm{WriteFile}\left( ''data.m'' \mathbf{in} \mathrm{newzipfile}\, \mathrm{data} \right)\;$

Here the options are written as plain text.

$\mathrm{WriteFile}\left( ''options.txt'' \mathbf{in} \mathrm{newzipfile}\, ''axes=none,\; view=[-600..300,-800..100]''\right)\;$

The image is taken from the data directory on disk and put directly into the zip archive.

$\mathrm{ReadWriteFile}\left( ''antennas.jpg'' \mathbf{in} \mathrm{newzipfile}\, \mathrm{cat}\left(\mathrm{kernelopts}\left(\mathrm{mapledir}\right)\,''/data/images/antennas.jpg''\right)\right)\;$

We are done. Let's look to see what is inside our new zip file.

$\mathrm{Contents}\left(\mathrm{newzipfile}\right)\;$

This new zip file that we created can be read by standard tools like WinZip and pkzip. Similarly, files created using these tools can be opened and read by Maple.

We create an undirected unweighted soccer ball graph.

Here we export the soccer ball graph S to a compilable LaTeX file.

Finally, we compile "soccer.tex" and we obtain a LaTeX output document containing a picture as shown below: