G-DOT(1)

💅 G-DOT(1) — the BRL-CAD one, bestie

okay so real talk, this is the g-dot page from the BRL-CAD manual set. it's short, it's sweet, and it turns your geometry database into a graph. let's go 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

g-dot — convert a BRL-CAD database to the DOT graph language

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

g-dot [-o output.dot] input.g [object1 ...]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so g-dot literally exports the hierarchy of a BRL-CAD input.g geometry database into the DOT graph description language. iconic behaviour honestly.

each named object gets walked recursively and emitted as a directed graph, and the edges are labeled with the Boolean operation joining members — that's u, +, -. nodes are colored by type, and the color coding is:

• regions → blue 💙
• groups → green 💚
• primitive solids → red ❤️

if you don't give it any object, it exports all top-level objects in the database. and if input.g is -, the database is read from standard input. the resulting graph goes to standard output unless you pass -o.

the output can be rendered to an image by graph-drawing tools such as Graphviz (dot), Tulip, or OmniGraffle. slay.

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -o output.dot — write the DOT output to output.dot instead of standard output. ⚠️ heads up bestie: if the file already exists, output is appended to it. it does not overwrite. no cap.
• -h — print a usage message and exit.
• -? — print a usage message and exit. (same energy as -h, she's just quirky like that 💅)

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

⭐ Example 1. Render a model hierarchy as a PNG image

g-dot -o moss.dot moss.g all.g
dot -Tpng moss.dot -o moss.png

what this does: exports the hierarchy rooted at all.g from moss.g to moss.dot, then uses the Graphviz dot program to render it as a PNG image. two commands, one cute little picture 🖼️

⭐ Example 2. Pipe a database in and a graph out

mged -c moss.g <<< 'q' >/dev/null 2>&1
g-dot moss.g | dot -Tsvg -o moss.svg

what this does: exports all top-level objects of moss.g and pipes the DOT stream directly into Graphviz to produce an SVG without an intermediate file. main character pipeline energy fr fr 🔥

🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

brlcad(1), mged(1), g-vrml(1)

👑 AUTHOR 👑

BRL-CAD Team

💖 COPYRIGHT 💖

This software is Copyright (c) 1989-2026 by the United States Government as represented by U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

💀 BUG REPORTS 💀

Reports of bugs or problems should be submitted via electronic mail to devs@brlcad.org 📬

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okay that's the whole page, mwah 💋 this one's from the BRL-CAD crew — big BRL-CAD energy, and the page is filed under G-DOT(1) in the manual set, so you'll always know where to find her again. bye bestie, go draw some graphs 🌸✨