u/Aletag

Perhaps this isn't exactly related to the sub, but you guys must know something more than me about math visualization, so here goes. I hope the mods won't remove this post.

I'm currently taking a course in linear algebra and rational mechanics, and I want to visualize what I'm learning, because that makes me understand things much better. I tried a few different programs, but each of them has some kind of bottleneck, so I wanted to kow what you guys use.

Basically, I need a quick, script-based visualization tool for 3D geometry, with an interactive scene that I can modify real-time via code or commands. What I need is a powerful environment for experimenting with the concepts that I'm studying, rather than a program that helps me generate pretty visualizations with 2000 lines of code. Ease of experimentation comes first.

What I've tried so far:

• Mathematica: quick, powerful, intuitive symbolic calculator. Can generate nice static images and decent animations. Problems: very slow when calculations get heavy, notebook-based, so there is no real scene to interact with, just an interactive cell that you have to re-run each time you modify something. Not exactly designed for 3D animations.
• Matlab: somewhat quicker than mathematica, but less elegant. I like that it's not notebook-based, so I can just stick a figure in the sideview. And I like that there is a command line that communicates directly to the scene that I'm working on. However, it is very hard to do animations, and I'm not sure they even turn out so well in the end. Not intuitive at all.
• Manimgl: this one I haven't tried yet, but it could have potential, especially if combined with sympy.
• Pyvista + pyvistaqt + pyqt6 + ipython, or, alternatively, just ipython + matplotlib. I still have to check these out, but there is definitely a learning curve.

I would love some feedback on what you guys think is "the best" for sketching out ideas and exploring mathematical concepts in 3D. I don't mind having to learn a new library or software, but I want to make sure that I'm not missing something. I mean, someone must have made a tool for this, right!? Like a more advanced geogebra, sort of. Am I missing something?

Hello, I will ask this question on this sub in hope that someone here can help me out.

I'm currently taking a course in linear algebra and rational mechanics, and I want to visualize what I'm learning, because that makes me understand things much better. I tried a few different programs, but each of them has some kind of bottleneck, so I wanted to kow what you guys use.

Basically, I need a quick, script-based visualization tool for 3D geometry, with an interactive scene that I can modify real-time via code or commands. What I need is a powerful environment for experimenting with the concepts that I'm studying, rather than a program that helps me generate pretty visualizations with 2000 lines of code. Ease of experimentation comes first.

What I've tried so far:

• Mathematica: quick, powerful, intuitive symbolic calculator. Can generate nice static images and decent animations. Problems: very slow when calculations get heavy, notebook-based, so there is no real scene to interact with, just an interactive cell that you have to re-run each time you modify something. Not exactly designed for 3D animations.
• Matlab: somewhat quicker than mathematica, but less elegant. I like that it's not notebook-based, so I can just stick a figure in the sideview. And I like that there is a command line that communicates directly to the scene that I'm working on. However, it is very hard to do animations, and I'm not sure they even turn out so well in the end. Not intuitive at all.
• Manimgl: this one I haven't tried yet, but it could have potential, especially if combined with sympy.
• Pyvista + pyvistaqt + pyqt6 + ipython, or, alternatively, just ipython + matplotlib. I still have to check these out, but there is definitely a learning curve.

I would love some feedback on what you guys think is "the best" for sketching out ideas and exploring mathematical concepts in 3D. I don't mind having to learn a new library or software, but I want to make sure that I'm not missing something. I mean, someone must have made a tool for this, right!? Like a more advanced geogebra, sort of. Am I missing something?

Hello,

I'm currently taking a course in linear algebra and rational mechanics, and I want to visualize what I'm learning, because that makes me understand things much better. I tried a few different programs, but each of them has some kind of bottleneck, so I wanted to kow what you guys use.

Basically, I need a quick, script-based visualization tool for 3D geometry, with an interactive scene that I can modify real-time via code or commands. What I need is a powerful environment for experimenting with the concepts that I'm studying, rather than a program that helps me generate pretty visualizations with 2000 lines of code. Ease of experimentation comes first.

What I've tried so far:

• Mathematica: quick, powerful, intuitive symbolic calculator. Can generate nice static images and decent animations. Problems: very slow when calculations get heavy, notebook-based, so there is no real scene to interact with, just an interactive cell that you have to re-run each time you modify something. Not exactly designed for 3D animations.
• Matlab: somewhat quicker than mathematica, but less elegant. I like that it's not notebook-based, so I can just stick a figure in the sideview. And I like that there is a command line that communicates directly to the scene that I'm working on. However, it is very hard to do animations, and I'm not sure they even turn out so well in the end. Not intuitive at all.
• Manimgl: this one I haven't tried yet, but it could have potential, especially if combined with sympy.
• Pyvista + pyvistaqt + pyqt6 + ipython, or, alternatively, just ipython + matplotlib. I still have to check these out, but there is definitely a learning curve.

I would love some feedback on what you guys think is "the best" for sketching out ideas and exploring mathematical concepts in 3D. I don't mind having to learn a new library or software, but I want to make sure that I'm not missing something. I mean, someone must have made a tool for this, right!? Like a more advanced geogebra, sort of. Am I missing something?

I'm currently taking a course in linear algebra and rational mechanics, and I want to visualize what I'm learning, because that makes me understand things much better. I tried a few different programs, with not a lot of success. The first one I thought of was Geogebra, but it's a little too basic for what I'm doing, so I tried mathematica, which was great for a while, until I created a complex scene in 3D and it started crashing. I asked an LLM for suggestions and it told me I should try pyvista, which is a python library for 3D visualization. Honestly, there are so many options that I just want to know if somebody has figured this out already.

What I'm looking for is a quick, script-based visualization tool for 3D geometry, with an interactive scene that I can modify real-time via code or commands. The problem with mathematica, for example, is that you can't really interact with a scene (except for the very limited manipulate[] command): every time you modify something in the code, you have to re-run the scene. It's not really designed for my use-case. The same goes for pyvista, really, as well as matlab (although I haven't dug into these a lot).

I'm sure that for those of you that work in the field, you often need to visualize stuff quickly, play with numbers, do a visual rundown of what you're doing. Sometimes pen and paper is just not enough. So: what do you guys use?

I apologize if this does not fit the subreddit.

I'm currently taking a course in linear algebra and rational mechanics, and I want to visualize what I'm learning, because that makes me understand things much better. I tried a few different programs, with not a lot of success. The first one I thought of was Geogebra, but it's a little too basic for what I'm doing, so I tried mathematica, which was great for a while, until I created a complex scene in 3D and it started crashing. I asked an LLM for suggestions and it told me I should try pyvista, which is a python library for 3D visualization. Honestly, there are so many options that I just want to know if somebody has figured this out already.

What I'm looking for is a quick, script-based visualization tool for 3D geometry, with an interactive scene that I can modify real-time via code or commands. The problem with mathematica, for example, is that you can't really interact with a scene (except for the very limited manipulate[] command): every time you modify something in the code, you have to re-run the scene. It's not really designed for my use-case. The same goes for pyvista, really, as well as matlab (although I haven't dug into these a lot).

I'm sure that for those of you that work in the field, you often need to visualize stuff quickly, play with numbers, do a visual rundown of what you're doing. Sometimes pen and paper is just not enough. So: what do you guys use?

I started using manim two days ago, and as I created more complex scenes I immediately noticed it's not sustainable to render a video every time I want to see what changing a value does to the scene. Do you guys just play with the scene in your head and then see the final result? How do I visualize small changes interactively?