The increasing power of techniques to model complex geometry and extract meaning from 3D information create complex data that must be described, stored, and displayed to be useful to researchers. Responding to the limitations of two-dimensional (2D) data representations perceived by discipline scientists, the Partnership for Research in Spatial Modeling (PRISM) project at Arizona State University (ASU) developed modeling and analytic tools that raise the level of ion and add semantic value to 3D data. The goals are to improve scientific communication, and to assist in generating new knowledge, particularly for natural objects whose asymmetry limit study using 2D representations. The tools simplify analysis of surface and volume using curvature and topology to help researchers understand and interact with 3D data. The tools produced automatically extract information about features and regions of interest to researchers, calculate quantifiable, replicable metric data, and generate metad...