GART

Streamlines

A seed is followed through the field until it leaves the sheet or nears an existing line. Finished lines propose new seeds at a fixed offset: even spacing, not clumps.

Streamlines: A seed is followed through the field until it leaves the sheet or nears an existing line. Finished lines propose new seeds at a fixed offset: even spacing, not clumps.Streamlines: A seed is followed through the field until it leaves the sheet or nears an existing line. Finished lines propose new seeds at a fixed offset: even spacing, not clumps.

About this pattern

Jobard & Lefer, 1997

Streamlines, vector field, drawn by GART: A seed is followed through the field until it leaves the sheet or nears an existing line. Finished lines propose new seeds at a fixed offset: even spacing, not clumps.
Streamlines · CC BY 4.0

Jobard and Lefer’s even-spacing method (1997): trace a seed forward and back until it leaves the sheet or nears an existing line, then offer new seeds at a fixed offset to either side. The sheet fills at even density instead of clumping.

TopicsVector field (opens in a new tab)Streamlines, streaklines, and pathlines (opens in a new tab)

Behind the mathematics

Bruno Jobard

Streamline placement algorithm

Computer graphics researcher who, with Wilfrid Lefer, introduced an image-space method for evenly spaced streamlines.

Wilfrid Lefer

Streamline placement algorithm

Computer graphics researcher who co-authored the influential evenly spaced streamline placement algorithm used in flow visualisation.