(From MMikami, 000702)

PLOTMTV (v.1.4.1) may be useful to draw "phonon mode eigenvectors"
(produced by anaddb), though it is a relatively old package ('94-'95).
This package may be easily compiled on unix platforms.
In my case, I compiled it on my Linux box, as usual;
just rewrite one line in the Imakefile (for a printer), xmkmf,
and make World ... No compilation errors appeared on RedHat 6.0-like
system (kernel 2.2.13, XFree86 3.5, egcs-2.91.66, glibc-2.1.2).
(Some Linux system seems to include this package already ...)

The URL (ftp site) for retrieving the package is
  ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/applications/Plotmtv1.4.1.tar.Z
and the useful links for data formats are
  http://csep1.phy.ornl.gov/cornell_proceedings/tutorials/Plotmtv/overview.html
  http://csep1.phy.ornl.gov/plotmtv/plotmtv.html

If we want to plot vector fields in 3-D, for example,
just prepare a data file (e.g. mode.dat, please see below), and

plotmtv -3d mode.dat

That's all. We can rotate, zoom in/out, print our figure
with the menu bar upside. We still need to modify the figures
for publications, but it would be useful to grasp how phonon modes
look like at first hand. And ... the plotmtv is freely available !

(mode.dat)
-----------------------------(cut)-------------------------------------------
$DATA=VECTOR
%xmin= -10
%ymin= -10
%xmax=  20
%ymax=  20
%zmin= -10
%zmax=  20
%vscale=  4.00
 0.000  4.091  3.501   0.854  1.478  0.000
 3.543  2.046  8.829  -0.854 -1.478  0.000
 0.000  4.091  7.774  -0.487 -0.844  0.000
 3.543  2.046  4.557   0.487  0.845  0.000
 0.000  0.000  0.000   0.000  0.000  0.000
 7.086  0.000  0.000   0.000  0.000  0.000
-3.543  6.137  0.000   0.000  0.000  0.000
 3.543  6.137  0.000   0.000  0.000  0.000
 0.000  0.000 12.330   0.000  0.000  0.000
 7.086  0.000 12.330   0.000  0.000  0.000
-3.543  6.137 12.330   0.000  0.000  0.000
 3.543  6.137 12.330   0.000  0.000  0.000
------------------------------(cut)------------------------------------------

"%" lines are the ranges for a plot (%xmax, %xmin, ...)
and a scale factor for vectors (%vscale= ...).
Next, some lines for the vector-field data follow;
The format for the vector field data is like

   (x, y, z) (Vx, Vy, Vz)
     point     vector at the point
(This is in free format ...)

I attach the screen shot ("mode.png", PNG format) for the above example.
(This is one "Raman mode" in the oxysulfide system ...)
(See ~ABINIT/Infos/Images)

P.S.
Just after writing the above, I have found the newer plotmtv at
   ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/sci/math/tela/needed/Plotmtv1.4.4t.tar.gz
it is said that this newer version is prepared for "Tela" package:
   http://www.geo.fmi.fi/prog/tela.html
("Tela" may compete with "Matlab" ?)
In any case, I wish it might be useful for the other users ...

