I find this tip from the talk: Doing Physics with Mathematica 6 by Michael Trott
GCText[text_,tsize_]:= ImportString[ExportString[Cell[TextData[StyleBox[
text, FontWeight->"Bold",FontFamily->"Helvetica"]], "Text", tsize], "PDF"]][[1]]
outlines = (First /@ Cases[GCText["ABC", 20], _Polygon, Infinity]);
Graphics3D[{FaceForm[],EdgeForm[Black],Polygon[Map[Append[#, 10]&, outlines, {-2}]]}];
for fun:
mPower.m is a Mathematica package that interfaces with qhull binaries.
Installation guide is not for windows platform.
Here is the quick way to get it running on Windows Vista with Mathematica 6.0.
1. download mPower.m, and put it into the Applications subdirectory of $UserBaseDirectory
In[1]:= $UserBaseDirectory
Out[1]= C:\Users\...\AppData\Roaming\Mathematica
2. download qhull for windows, put it into the folder C:\qhull
3. open mPower.m, modify the following two lines,
$QHULL=ToFileName[{$UserBaseDirectory, "Applications", "qhull", "src"}]
to: $QHULL="C:\\qhull\\"
qhullFiles={"qconvex", "qdelaunay", "qhalf","qhull", "qvoronoi"};
to: qhullFiles={"qconvex.exe", "qdelaunay.exe", "qhalf.exe","qhull.exe", \
"qvoronoi.exe"};
4. then testing, ignore the warning on regtet and pwrvtx, we only need qhull
<< "mPower.m"
points = RandomReal[1, {10, 3}];
ch = convexHull[points, convexHullFormat -> {facetNormals -> True, facets -> True}]
Thanks to the mPower developers
Technologically speaking, Apple and Microsoft are two quite different companies in many ways. We all know that in recently several years, Apple stock is very hot. Here is the stock price: APPL vs MSFT since 2004, the legend is not necessary for this graph.
DateListPlot[{FinancialData["AAPL",{2004}], FinancialData["MSFT",{2004}]}, Joined->True, Filling->Bottom]
Google Insights for Search gives another way to present it.
Google search volume index for "AAPL" since 2004
Google search volume index for "MSFT" since 2004
pts=Cases[theplot, x_GraphicsType:>First@x, Infinity];
Example 1:
g=Plot[Sin[x],{x,0,2Pi}];
pts=Cases[g,x_Line:>First@x,Infinity];
ListPlot[pts]
Example 2:
g=Plot3D[Cos[x]+Cos[y],{x,0,4Pi},{y,0,4Pi}];
pts=Cases[g,x_GraphicsComplex:>First@x,Infinity];
ListPointPlot3D[pts]
There are some very impressive presentations in Screencast Gallery.
I watched Spinthariscope by Theodore Gray. This simple shape editor is particularly interesting.
