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.TH Inventor 1
.SH NAME
Inventor \- a toolkit for writing 3d programs
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.I Open Inventor 3d Toolkit
is an object-oriented toolkit that simplifies and abstracts the task of writing
graphics programming into a set of easy to use objects.
These objects range from low level data-centered objects such as Sphere, 
Camera, Material, Light, and Group, to high level application-level 
objects such as Walkthrough Viewer and Material Editor.  
The foundation concept in Inventor is the "scene database"
which defines the objects to be used in an application.  When using Inventor,
a programmer creates, edits, and composes these objects into hierarchical
3d scene graphs (i.e., database).  A variety of fundamental application
tasks such as rendering, picking, event handling, and file reading/writing
are built-in operations of all objects in the database and thus
are simple to invoke.
.PP
Since Inventor is object-oriented (written in C++), it encourages
programmers to extend the system by writing new objects.
Inventor users have created a variety of new objects that
are not included in the product, such as: Bezier surfaces,
CSG objects, animation objects, special viewers, and many more.
.PP
Inventor also supports a C interface to all the objects.
.PP
Note that the rendering mechanism inside Inventor objects employs
Open GL.  Thus, during rendering each object automatically makes the
proper, efficient calls to Open GL.  Furthermore, Inventor rendering
supports a caching scheme which automatically generates very fast
renderings of the database without traversal overheads.
.PP
Inventor picking is extremely efficient and does not utilize rendering.
Furthermore, picking returns a varitey of 3d information and detail
about what objects were picked.  A sorted list of picked objects and
corresponding information is returned to the programmer.
Picking is so fast, that programs can perform 3d locate highlighting
as the mouse moves across a 3d window.
.SH INTERACTION, EVENTS, AND DEVICES
Inventor defines a event model for writing 3d interaction.
This model is window system independent.
It is quite easy to use and makes 3d direct manipulation programming possible.
Inventor includes a variety of interactive 3d objects and tools
for writing interactive objects, such as: Manipulators, Draggers,
and Projectors.  The flexible event model encourages programmers
to extend the system to support new devices and event types.
.SH FILE FORMAT
The Inventor 3d File Format is SGI's standard for 3d data.
The format supports both an ASCII and private binary format.
The binary format is network-neutral and thus can be exported
across machine boundaries.
.SH BENEFITS
Programming 3d graphics applications with Inventor results in
large scale productivity increases.  This also increases with time
as more tools utilize the Inventor paradigm, user interfaces,
and standard file format.
.SH DOCUMENTATION
"The Inventor Mentor" published by Addison-Wesley Publishing Company
is available in technical bookstores starting in December 1993.
"The Inventor Toolmaker" and "The Inventor Reference Manual" will
be available in bookstores in early 1994.
.SH SOURCE CODE
The Inventor Toolkit includes source code to NUMEROUS programs and 
examples.
.SH FILES
/usr/share/data/models/* - Sample 3D data files
.br
/usr/share/src/Inventor/* - Source to Inventor samples and examples
.SH SEE ALSO
drop, gview, SceneViewer, ivcat, ivview, 
maze, noodle, qmorf, revo, showcase, textomatic, webspace
.br
http://www.sgi.com/Technology/Inventor.html