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Open Inventor

Open Inventor is an object-oriented 3D toolkit developed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) offering a comprehensive solution to interactive graphics programming problems. 

The MeVisLab implementation of Open Inventor is based on the original SGI source code that was released to the public in 2000. It is suited for use with MeVisLab but can also be used independently. You are welcome to use our MacOS X & MS Windows port for your own purposes.

Download

As of MeVisLab 2.0, the Open Inventor sources are included in the MeVisLab SDK installer that is available for download.

For changes see also the Change History.

Open Inventor Documentation

Open Inventor Reference for MeVisLab (converted from the original man pages)

Recommended Literature

The Inventor Mentor by Josie Wernecke (ISBN 0-201-62495-8) Online version

This guide provides basic information on programming with Open Inventor. It includes detailed program examples in C++ and describes key aspects of the Open Inventor toolkit, including its 3D scene database, node kits, interactive manipulators, the Inventor Component Library, which contains editors and viewers, and the Open Inventor file format.

The Inventor ToolMaker by Josie Wernecke (ISBN 0-201-62493-1) Online version

The Inventor Toolmaker provides advanced information on extending Open Inventor by creating new C++ classes and customizing existing classes. Detailed examples and discussion show how to create new nodes, actions, elements, fields, node kits, draggers, manipulators, engines, and components.

Online Resources

Newsgroup: comp.graphics.api.inventor
This newsgroup is a great source of information about Open Inventor.

Open Inventor @ Silicon Graphics
Silicon graphics maintains the open source repository of Open Inventor, which can be found here.

Open Inventor from Mercury Computer Systems
Mercury Computer Systems provides a greatly enhanced, commercial version of Open Inventor that is based on the original source code of Open Inventor from Silicon Graphics.

Coin3D
Coin3D is a set of libraries used for creating 3D graphics applications. Coin3D is fully compatible with SGI Open Inventor 2.1 and is portable over a wide range of platforms: any UNIX / Linux / *BSD platform, all Microsoft Windows operating systems, and Mac OS X.

Open Inventor Examples: MarchingCubes, ScalarArithmitic
A collection of Open Inventor classes subclassing the SoShape, SoEngine, SoField, and SoXtFullViewer classes.

OpenGL
Open Inventor uses OpenGL for rendering. This site features discussion boards, news groups, and a variety of other venues for learning how to code using OpenGL.

Symbols for Open Inventor for Download

Adobe Illustrator (AI) Symbols for most of the Open Inventor nodes

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Symbols for most of the Open Inventor nodes