Bioinformatics Advance Access originally published online on March 17, 2008
Bioinformatics 2008 24(9):1210-1211; doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btn091
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Celestial3D: a novel method for 3D visualization of familial data
1Laboratory for Genetic Epidemiology, Western Australian Institute for Medical Research and UWA Centre for Medical Research and 2General Practice, School of Primary, Aboriginal & Rural Health Care, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
*To whom correspondence should be addressed.
| Abstract |
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Summary: Traditional two-dimensional (2D) software programs for drawing pedigrees are limited when dealing with extended pedigrees. In successive generations, the number of individuals grows exponentially, leading to an unworkable amount of space required in the horizontal direction for 2D displays. In addition, it is not always possible to place closely related individuals near each other due to the lack of space in 2Ds. To address these issues we have developed three-dimensional (3D) pedigree drawing techniques to enable clearer visualization of extended pedigrees. Currently no other methods are available for displaying extended pedigrees in 3Ds. We have made freely available a software tool—Celestial3D—that implements these novel techniques.
Availability: Freely available to non-commercial users
Contact: celestial3d{at}genepi.org.au
Supplementary information: www.genepi.org.au/celestial3d
Associate Editor: Martin Bishop
1A more extensive list of software tools appears in the Supplementary Material.
Received on October 5, 2007; revised on March 5, 2008; accepted on March 5, 2008