reducecont(1)               General Commands Manual              reducecont(1)



NAME
       reducecont - to reduce the number of points in model contours

SYNOPSIS
       reducecont  [options]  input_file  output_file

DESCRIPTION
       This program will reduce the number of points in model contours to the
       minimum consistent with a defined maximum change in the model, the tol-
       erance value.  Each of the original points in the model, including the
       ones that are removed, will be within the tolerance distance of the
       line segments connecting the final, reduced set of points.  Some
       smoothing is also done, and a point will be replaced by a smoothed
       point if the smoothed point is within the tolerance distance from the
       original point.

       In a separate mode of operation, it can also be used to produce con-
       tours with points approximately equally spaced apart at a given dis-
       tance.

OPTIONS
       Reducecont uses the PIP package for input (see the manual page for
       pip).  The following options can be specified either as command line
       arguments (with the -) or one per line in a command file or parameter
       file (without the -).  Options can be abbreviated to unique letters;
       the currently valid abbreviations for short names are shown in paren-
       theses.

       -input (-i) OR -InputFile      File name
              Input model file.

       -output (-ou) OR -OutputFile   File name
              Output model file.

       -objects (-ob) OR -ObjectsToReduce       List of integer ranges
              A list of the objects to reduce (ranges are allowed, e.g.
              1,2,5-7).  The default is to do all closed contour objects, and
              open contours that lie in one plane.

       -tolerance (-t) OR -Tolerance       Floating point
              Tolerance value, or maximum change in the model (default 0.25
              pixels)

       -smoothing (-sm) OR -SmoothingPointsAndOrder       Two integers
              Number of points, and polynomial order, for the smoothing step.
              Enter 0,0 to omit smoothing.  Defaults are 5 points and order 2.

       -spaced (-sp) OR -SpacedPointsTarget     Floating point
              This option invokes an alternative method in which each contour
              is replaced by a set of points equally spaced along the contour,
              where the spacing is as close as possible to the given target
              spacing.  However, the spacing will be made larger, if neces-
              sary, to keep the total number of points from increasing.  The
              new points are interpolated along the line segments between the
              previous contour points and the distances between them will vary
              depending on the curvature of the contour.  The distance along
              the contour is in 3D and thus this option works for open con-
              tours that do not lie in a plane.  This option cannot be entered
              together with -tolerance or -smoothing.

       -help (-h) OR -usage
              Print help output.

       -StandardInput
              Read parameter entries from standard input.

HISTORY
       Written by David Mastronarde, 9/8/97
       Converted to use PIP and load objects separately, 5/24/05

BUGS
       Email bug reports to mast at colorado dot edu.



IMOD                                 5.2.0                       reducecont(1)