The rich Inventor set of pre-programmed building blocks defines a full-featured, extensible framework upon which entire applications can be developed. It includes a wide variety of geometry, property, and group objects as well as manipulators for user interaction, and high-level viewers and editor components.
Open Inventor establishes a file format standard for 3D data exchange. This format enables 3D cut and paste between applications and encourages data sharing and reuse among end-users. File converters allow easy transfer of your work to Inventor-based applications.
Open Inventor is available on other non-Silicon Graphics platforms through third party developers, allowing your application development to target wide user audiences.
For a comprehensive technical description of Open Inventor, refer to the Silicon Graphics Open Inventor Technical Report and The Inventor Mentor a nd The Inventor Toolmaker from Addison Wesley.
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Cube Unit cube
Cylinder Unit cylinder
Cone Unit cone
Face set* Set of polygons
Line set* Set of 3D lines
NURBS* Curves, trims and surfaces
Point set Set of 3D points
Quad mesh Quadrilateral mesh
Sphere Unit sphere
Text2 Screen-aligned 2D text
Text3 3D text
Triangle strip set* Strips of triangles
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* These shapes come in two varieties: indexed and non-indexed
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Base color Material description by a single color
Color index Color for shapes in overlay
Complexity Defines smoothness of rendered shape
3D and 4D coords Coordinates used for vertex-based shapes
Draw style Drawing style of shape (e.g. Iines, filled)
Environment Defines environmental properties (e.g. fog,
haze, light)
Font Defines font type for text shape
Lighting model Base color or Phong
Material Defines spectral and surface properties of shape
Material binding Defines how materials bind to shapes
Material index Material for shapes in overlay
Normal Defines normals for shapes that use them
Normal binding Defines how normals bind to vertex-based
shapes
Pick style Defines how shapes respond to picking
Profile curves 2D curves used by NURBS and text3 shapes
Shape hints Defines hints for rendering shapes
Texture Defines texture to be used by shapes
Texture coordinates Defines how to apply a texture to a shape
Texture binding Defines how to bind texture coordinates to a
shape
Transform Scales and orients shapes in the scene
Units Defines units of the object (e.g., feet, meters)
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Annotation Group that is drawn on top layer
Array Creates a 3D array of its children
File Group that is read from a specified file
Group Traverses child list left to right
Level of detail Chooses best child
Multiple copy Traverses children multiple times
Selection Maintains and performs selection tasks
Separator Isolates groupspecific properties
Switch Traverses only one of its children
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Callback Generic scene traversal with callbacks
GL render Draws a scene or object into a GL window
Get bounding box Returns 3D bounding box of scene or object
Get matrix Returns 4x4 matrix for object
Handle event Processes an input event
Highlight render Renders scene with highlighted shapes
Print Renders off screen
Ray pick Returns objects under specifled point
Search Searches scene for specific object or object
type
Write Writes the scene to file in Inventor file format
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Callback Callbacks for various scene operations
Clip plane Defines a clip plane
Directional light Illuminates scene along a single direction
Event callback Callback for event handling
Info Text description or comment
Label Short text label
Orthographic camera Orthographic projection of a scene
Perspective camera Perspective projection of a scene
Point light Illuminate scene from a point in all directions
Spot light Directed light with intensity drop off and cutoff
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Blinker Switch group that cycles through children
Engine classes Boolean, calculator, gate, on-off, counter,
etc.
Pendulum Oscillates between two rotations
Rotor Spins rotation along a fixed axis
Sensor classes Alarm, data, field, idle, one-shot, timer,
etc.
Shuttle Oscillates between two translations
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Centerball Rotates an object
Drag point Drags an object in 3-space
Handle box Scales and translates an object
Jack Scales and translates an object
Light dragger Directional, point, and spotlight draggers
Rotate draggers Constrained cylinder, disc, and sphere rotator
Scale draggers Constrained ID, 2D and uniform scaler
Tab box Translates and rotates and object
Trackball Rotates an object
Transform box Translates and scales an object
Translate Constrained lD and 2D translator draggers
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Appearance kit Kit of most commonly used properties
Camera kit Camera node kit
Group kit Group node kit
Light kit Light node kit
Scene kit Scene management kit (lights, cameras,
objects,etc.)
Shape kit Shape node kit
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Color editor Edits a color with callbacks
Examiner viewer Rotates camera around objects in 3D
space
File browser Opens files
Fly viewer Flies camera through the scene
Light editor Edits a directional light
Material editor Edits a material in a 3D scene
Material list Selects a material from a list
Plane viewer Constrains viewer to a specific view
ing plane
Print dialog Invokes Inventor printing
Render area Manages a 3D scene (rendering, pick
ing, etc.)
Walk viewer Walks camera through a scene
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *The Inventor Mentor Programming guide *The Inventor Toolmaker Advanced programming guide *The Open Inventor C++ Reference Manual Reference Manual for C++ classes The Inventor Mentor on-line On-line version of The Inventor Mentor Inventor Technical Report Short technical summary of Open Inventor -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*indicates Books published by Addison-Wesley and available in bookstores
