The Render module is built using the Inventor SceneViewer, which allows a number of different viewing paradigms. To access all the functions of the SceneViewer, the Render control panel must be popped up into its own window. A more limited amount of interaction is still possible in the mini control panel on the map editor.
The Render window has a viewing area in the center, a menu across the top, some icons on the right edge, and viewing controls on the other edges. The viewing controls will change with the viewer that is selected; the other features will remain the same. The "decorations" are not present when the control panel is on the map editor.
There is also a popup menu available in the viewing area that can be accessed with the right mouse button. This menu is also available in the mini control panel.
The eight icons on the right edge of the control panel are buttons that activate, from top to bottom: picking, viewing, help, home, set home, view all, seek, and camera type. Here is a brief description of these commands:
Picking/Viewing There are two major modes in Render, viewing and selection/picking. In viewing mode, the camera parameters - position, direction, field of view, etc. - can be changed. It is important to keep in mind that in this mode it is not camera, not the objects in the scene, that is moving.
Selection/picking mode does not involve the camera. In this mode, mouse and button events affect the selection of objects, attachment of manipulators, and querying objects through picking.
The Picking and Viewing icons choose between these two modes. Click on the arrow to enable selection/picking. Click on the hand to enable viewing.
Selection is done by clicking the left mouse button on an object in the scene. When something is selected, a red box will be drawn around it. To deselect, click on something else or on the background.
Help The Help button brings up a help screen describing the different viewers. You must have Inventor installed on your machine for this to work correctly.
Home and Set Home The Home button returns the camera to the previous set of parameters saved with Set Home. Set Home saves the current state of the camera for later recall with Home.
View All The View All button finds the geometry in Render and modifies the camera parameters to create a reasonable view that shows everything on the screen.
Seek The Seek button changes the cursor to a crosshair. When the mouse button is pressed, the view will be changed to put the object under the crosshair in the center of the screen. If the object has a normal vector associated with it, the resulting view will be along the normal.
Seek is a temporary mode that stays active only until the mouse button is pressed in the viewing area. If there is no object under the crosshair, no camera changes are performed.
Camera Type The Camera Type button toggles between using a perspective and an orthographic camera. Use of this button when an input camera is wired is highly discouraged.
The menu bar at the top allows access to other functions:
File
SaveThis menu item saves the current geometry into the last specified file. If a save has not been previously done, it brings up a file browser. The geometry is saved in the Inventor ASCII format, and can be quite large.
Save As... This menu item brings up a file browser to save the current geometry. It operates in the same manner as Save.
Save Options... This menu item brings up a cascading menu where various options can be selected. You can choose to save the current geometry in "Explorer" or "Inventor" format. Saving as "Explorer" shared geometry format (with cxSo style node and field names) allows shared manipulation of the data when read back into Explorer; Saving as "Inventor" geometry format (without cxSo) allows the data to be handled by other Inventor programs. Toggle options are also provided to include "Camera" and/or "Lights" and/or "Screen Geometry" with the saved geometry. "Screen Geometry" refers to geometry read in via Render's "Screen" port. You may wish to set these, depending on which viewer is going to be used to read the saved geometry. If ivview is used and you wish to include the "Screen Geometry" you must also include the "Camera" to correctly view the saved geometry. If SceneViewer is used, then "Screen Geometry" cannot be viewed correctly and is best not included. SceneViewer also ignores the "Camera", it is best to read camera information via its "Read Environment..." option. SceneViewer can read environments saved from Render, see "Save Environment..." below. If the saved geometry is going to be read back into a Render module, via its "Input" port, then do not include "Screen Geometry", it will be rendered incorrectly. If an included "Camera" is found Render will adjust its camera to that of the included "Camera".
Read Environment... This menu item reads in a previously saved environment - camera, lights, and some rendering options. The format is an Inventor file with a specific scene graph organization. This proper format is easily created with the Save Environment menu selection. Render can read environments saved by SceneViewer.
Save Environment... This menu item saves the current environment - camera, lights, and some rendering options. The environment may be read in to the Render module later with the Read Environment menu selection. The environment can also be used with SceneViewer.
Print... This menu item brings up the Inventor printing dialog, where you may select a printer and hardcopy specifications. PostScript may also be dumped to a file.
Edit
Pick Parent This menu item selects the parent node of the currently selected node
Pick All This menu item selects all nodes in the scene. Please note that only nodes received via the "Input" port are selected, i.e cameras and nodes received via the "Annotation" and "Screen" ports are NOT selected.
Copy This menu item copies all the selected nodes into the "Inventor clipboard", which can subsequently be pasted into other applications.
Single Selection If this menu item is choosen then only one scene node can be selected at a time
Toggle Selection If this menu item is choosen then multiple scene nodes can be selected. Picking a node toggles its selection state on/off.
Shift Selection If this menu item is choosen then multiple scene nodes can be selected, by pressing the "shift" key whilst making a selection. If the "shift" key is not pressed then all previous selections will be cancelled (deselected).
Viewing
Pick/Edit This menu item toggles the mode between viewing and selection/picking. It performs the same function as the Eye icon on the right edge of the control panel.
When viewing is active, the camera may be moved and altered. In selection/picking mode, objects may be manipulated within Render or queried through picking.
User Pick Mode When viewing is not active, either selection or picking may be done. Selection refers to selecting and manipulating objects within Render - attaching manipulators, changing material properties, etc. Picking transfers information about events outside the module through the Pick output port. The User Pick Mode menu item toggles between these two interpretations of events. When User Pick Mode is on, mouse button and keyboard events trigger an output of pick information.
Examiner The Examiner is one of four mutually exclusive viewers. A viewer is a paradigm for manipulating the camera. The Examiner is selected by default when Render is executed.
The Examiner implements a "crystal ball" interface, allowing rotation of the camera about a center point while the left mouse button is pressed. The center of rotation may be translated by moving the mouse with the middle button pressed.
Press the Help icon while the Examiner is active to get more information about this viewer.
Fly The Fly viewer is intended to simulate constrained flight through space. The left and middle mouse buttons increase and decrease speed exponentially. The direction of flight is controlled with the mouse position.
The Fly viewer does not give dynamic control over roll. It is constrained to use a constant "up" vector.
Press the Help icon while the Fly viewer is active to get more information about this viewer.
Walk The Walk viewer simulates a walkthrough by allowing motion and camera pointing with a constant eye level. Press the left mouse button to move forward and backward or turn left and right. Press the middle mouse button to control the direction of sight.
Press the Help icon while the Walk viewer is active to get more information about this viewer.
Plane The Plane viewer lets you manipulate the camera with respect to the viewing plane. The camera can also be aligned to the major axes.
Press the Help icon while the Plane viewer is active to get more information about this viewer.
View Selection This menu item works like View All, except it only considers the currently selected object.
Fog This menu item toggles fog effects. It is only active on machines with a hardware accumulation buffer.
Antialiasing This menu item toggles antialiasing. It is only active on machines with a hardware accumulation buffer.
Screen Door Transparency There are four mutually exclusive types of transparency selectable. The default is screen door transparency, which is supported on most machines. Screen door transparency is generally the cheapest transparency mode.
Blended Transparency Blended Transparency is active on machines which support blending. An alpha buffer is not needed.
Because of the way blended transparency is done, there may be artifacts when a transparent object obscures itself or other objects. The Blended Transparency mode takes no steps to avoid these artifacts.
Delayed Blended Transparency Delayed Blended Transparency renders all opaque objects before any transparent objects. This takes care of artifacts that may occur when transparent objects obscure opaque objects. There may still be artifacts when a transparent object obscures itself or another transparent object.
Sorted Blended Transparency Sorted Blended Transparency renders all opaque objects before any transparent objects, and then renders transparent objects in back to front order, based on their bounding box. This takes care of artifacts that occur when one transparent object obscures another transparent object and the two objects are noninterpenetrating. Artifacts may still occur if a transparent object obscures itself or if two transparent objects intersect.
Edit Background Color... This menu item brings up a color editor to change the background color of the viewing area.
Editors
Material Editor This menu item attaches a material editor to the currently selected object. The editor is a popup window that contains widgets to change the appearance of the object.
The material editor is always attached to the selected object. If no object is currently selected, changes in the material editor will not affect anything.
If material parameters are specified as part of the object definition, those values cannot be changed in the material editor. For example, if colors are explicitly set on an object by cxGeoColorAdd(3), changing the diffuse color in the material editor will have no effect. Other parameters, however, may still be edited.
The sphere in the material editor is a sample rendering of the material as specified. Because lighting in the editor in general is not the same as in the actual scene, the appearances may not be exactly the same.
The sliders in the editor allow changing the mix of the ambient, diffuse, specular, and emissive components of the lighting model. The color of each component may be changed by attaching a color editor with the radio and toggle buttons. Activating a radio button (diamond shaped) selects that component alone. Activating a toggle button (square shaped) allows changing the color of more than one component simultaneously.
Other sliders in the material editor allow changing the shininess and transparency of the material.
Color Editor This menu item brings up a graphical color editor that sets the diffuse color on the currently selected object. It can also be brought up from the material and light editors to choose other colors.
Use the left mouse button to select a color in the color wheel area. The color pads to the left show the current color (on the left) and one saved color (on the right). This allows comparison and easy switching. Use the buttons underneath to copy one pad to the other.
The Sliders menu allows bringing up a slider to manipulate intensity (Value) as well as sliders for choosing colors in the RGB or HSV color spaces.
Transform Sliders This menu item attaches a Transform editor to the currently selected object. The editor is a popup window that contains widgets that can be used to change the scale, orientation, and location of an object.
The transform sliders are always attached to the selected object. If there is no selected object, changes in the transform sliders will not be applied to anything.
Manips A manipulator is a graphical object that can be attached to the selected object to transform it. There are several types of manipulators which can be selected through this menu.
Transformer This is a new manipulator with some improvements over the older inventor manips. The manipulator has small cubes at the corners and small balls sticking out of the middle of each face. Click and drag any face of the box for 2D translation in the plane of that face. The face you selected will highlight in yellow. While you drag, yellow feedback arrows display the two directions of motion. Press the <Shift> key and the arrows turn orange; you may now pick between these two directions to constrain the motion. The direction you move the cursor in will determine which direction is chosen. Press the <Control> key and the dragger will translate perpendicular to that plane. The translation field is modified as the face is dragged.
Click a corner to scale the dragger. The corner you selected will turn yellow and radial lines will indicate that you may move toward and away from the center of the box. Drag radially and you will perform uniform scale. Press the <Control> key to scale about the opposite corner instead of the center of the box. To stretch the dragger non-uniformly, press <Shift> when you drag the corner cube. Now you will see three orange arrows indicating that your gesture will determine which direction to choose. Move the cursor and the selected arrow will turn yellow while the others disappear. Now the dragger will stretch only in the direction you selected. Pressing <Control> at the same time as <Shift> allows you to stretch the dragger while keeping the opposite side pinned in place. When you drag a corner, this modifies the scaleFactor and possibly the translation field of the dragger.
Click one of the spherical knobs to rotate the dragger. When you first click, you'll see two orange lines and two purple circles. The purple circles indicate the two ways you can rotate. The orange lines are, once again, the two choices for your mouse gesture. Each line begins you moving around one of the two circles. Once you move the cursor far enough, the selected line turns yellow and you begin rotating the dragger about the selected circle. The other circle and line will disappear. To perform unconstrained ("free") rotation, just press <Shift> while you drag the spherical knob. There will be no choices; instead all three purple circles will be displayed, forming a ball that you can roll around. Regardless of how you rotate, dragging the spherical knobs will modify the rotatation field of the dragger. Depending on how it is centered and what transforms precede it in the scene graph, rotation is likely to affect the translation and scaleFactor fields as well. Pressing the <Control> key will change the center of rotation in both the constrained and unconstrained (<Shift>) case. By default, rotation occurs about the center of the bounding box. With <Control> depressed, rotation occurs about the middle of the opposite side of the bounding box. The purple feedback will change to illustrate this; the feedback circles increase in size and purple crosshairs sprout at the new rotational center.
Trackball This manipulator appears as three circular ribbons that represent a sphere. It can be used to change the orientation of an object about its center. Clicking and dragging the left mouse on the trackball outside of the ribbons allows unconstrained rotation. Click and dragging within the ribbons constrains the rotation to a fixed axis.
A custom axis may be created and oriented by holding the shift key down and clicking and dragging the left mouse. The object may be scaled by holding the alt key down and clicking and dragging the left mouse.
HandleBox This manipulator appears as a wireframe box with "handles" at the vertices and the faces. Clicking and dragging the left mouse on a face of the box allows translation in the plane of that face. Clicking and dragging the left mouse on a face handle allows scaling normal to the face. Clicking and dragging the left mouse on a vertex handle allows uniform scaling.
If the alt key is pressed while scaling, scaling is performed about the opposite vertex or face of the box. The size of the box may be changed by pressing the control key and clicking and dragging the left mouse.
Jack This manipulator appears as a "jack," a set of three axes with handles at the ends. Clicking and dragging the left mouse on the object allows free translation. Clicking and dragging the left mouse on the axes allows free rotation about the center of the object. Clicking and dragging the left mouse on the handles allows uniform scaling.
Pick Jack This manipulator behaves in a similar way to the Jack but sends pick information on the "Pick" output port. The "LatSmoke" range of modules use this pick information, see the relavent module help page for further information.
TransformBox This manipulator is a simpler versions of the HandleBox. It performs translation in a plane and uniform scaling.
DragPoint This manipulator appears as a wireframe box. Clicking and dragging with the left mouse allows free translation.
If the shift key is pressed while dragging, translation will be limited to be along a single axis.
None This menu item deactivates all manipulators.
Replace This menu item toggles whether selections from the Manips menu will be applied to the currently selected object or only to subsequently selected objects.
Lights Up to eight lights in addition to the headlight may be created and managed in Render. As lights are created, an entry in this menu will be made to control them.
The menu created has four cascade items. On/Off activates and deactivates the light. Icon turns the light manipulator on and off. Edit Color brings up a color editor to change the color of the light. Remove deletes the light and its menu entry.
Create Dir Light This menu item creates a new directional light source. Its manipulator looks like a light with an arrow. The direction of the light may be changed by clicking and dragging on the arrow head with the left mouse. The position of the icon may be changed by clicking and dragging on the light with the left mouse, but the position of the light has no effect on the lighting.
Create Point Light This menu item creates a new point light source. Its manipulator looks like a light with nothing else. The position of the light may be changed by clicking and dragging on the light with the left mouse.
Create Spot Light This menu item creates a new spot light source. Its manipulator looks like a light with an arrow and a skirt. The direction of the light may be changed by clicking and dragging on the arrow head with the left mouse. The position of the light may be changed by clicking and dragging on the light. The spread of the spot may be changed by clicking and dragging on the skirt.
Ambient Lighting This menu item brings up a color editor to change the ambient lighting characteristics.
Turn All ON This menu item turns all lights on.
Turn All OFF This menu item turns all lights off.
Show All Icons This menu item shows the icons for all the lights.
Hide All Icons This menu item hides the icons for all the lights.
There is a popup menu available by clicking on the viewing area with the right mouse button. The menu is active both in the large control panel and in the map editor control panel. Here are the menu items:
Functions This is a cascading menu that allows easier access to several commands.
Draw Style This is a cascading menu that allows overriding the drawing style set in the geometry. Some items allow using a cheaper method of rendering while the camera is in motion.
The single, double, and interactive items control the buffering of the display. On machines that can do double buffering at full color resolution, this should stay at double. Machines that sacrifice color resolution for double buffering may do better with single or interactive.
Viewing This menu item toggle viewing on and off.
Decoration This menu item toggles the display of the frame surrounding the viewing area.
Headlight This menu item turns the headlight on and off.
Preferences... This menu item brings up a preference sheet for the current viewer.
It is possible to change some of the defaults rendering options with a configuration file. This file should be named .Renderrc and should be in the user's home directory. The contents of this file must be a valid Inventor data file. It will be added to the scene graph in Render before any geometry.
The default Render configuration is:
ShapeHints { vertexOrdering COUNTERCLOCKWISE creaseAngle 0.0 }Here is a sample configuration file:
#Inventor V2.0 ascii# values shown are defaults DrawStyle { style FILLED # poly style, may be FILLED, LINES, POINTS, INVISIBLE lineWidth 1 # line width linePattern 0xffff # line pattern } LightModel { model PHONG # lighting model, may be BASE_COLOR, PHONG, DEPTH nearColor 1.0 1.0 1.0 # near color for DEPTH model farColor 0.0 0.0 0.0 # far color for DEPTH model } Complexity { value 0.5 # object complexity [0..1] type OBJECT_SPACE # measure, may be SCREEN_SPACE, OBJECT_SPACE, BOUNDING_BOX }
More information about rendering options and the data format may be found in the Inventor documentation.
%%------------ INPUTS ------------
Port: Input
Type: Geometry
Optional: This port is optional
This is the port where all regular geometry should be wired. The module uses information about the connections to update the proper geometry.Port: Annotation
Type: Geometry
Optional: This port is optional
Geometry that arrives on this port is rendered into a separate z-buffer from geometry on the main port. The result is that geometry on this port is always drawn in front of geometry on the main port. This may be useful for keeping annotation unobscured.Port: Screen
Type: Geometry
Optional: This port is optional
Geometry that arrives on this port is rendered in screen coordinates, [-1,+1] in both x and y, and in front of all other geometry. This port can be used to draw legends or other information that moving the camera shouldn't affect.Port: Input Camera
Type: Geometry
Optional: This port is optional
Geometry that arrives on this port is searched for a perspective camera. If one is found, that camera will be used to display the scene.Port: Snap On Redraw
Type: Parameter
Optional: This port is optional
If this port is wired, then on every data change, the image is snapped and output on the Snapshot port. See Snap Widget.WIDGETS
Port: Snap
Type: Button
This input provides an interface to capture the drawing area display into a lattice. The widget is invisible, so it must be activated by wiring a parameter in. When data is received, the drawing area pixels are grabbed from the screen and output as a lattice. The Render window must not be obscured while the snapshot is being taken.Port: Window
Type: Drawing Area
This is the module drawing area widget.OUTPUTS
Port: Output Camera
Type: Geometry
The current camera output as geometry is available on this port. The camera is sent out whenever its parameters change and there is a delay since the last change, one second by default. This keeps the port from constantly creating new data while the camera is in motion. For efficiency, the camera geometry is not created if the Output Camera port is not wired; for this reason, there will be no camera available until the first time the camera is moved after wiring the port.The output camera is created using the cxOutputDataFlush command, which interferes with execution control of loops. Therefore it is advisable not to wire Output Camera when Render is used as a loop controller or within another controller's loop. Since the camera changes only as a result of user interaction or Input Camera data arrival, neither should be used to create output camera data within a loop. The former action can be used without a loop, while the latter is easily duplicated by wiring the source of Input Camera to the destination of Output Camera.
Port: Picked Geometry
Type: Geometry
This port outputs geometry that has been picked from the scene. Data is updated on this port whenever something new is selected or deselected, including when "Pick Parent" or "Pick All" are used.Port: Sync
Type: Parameter
Outputs a parameter to be used in loop synchronization. The parameter is generated whenever Render redraws due to new input.Port: Snapshot
Type: Lattice
Constraints: 2-D.
3-vector.
byte.
uniform.
This lattice contains a snapshot of the screen in RGB pixel order. The Render window must not be obscured while the snapshot is being taken.Port: Pick
Type: Pick
Pick data is output on this port on mouse button and keyboard events when user pick mode is active.PROBLEMS
The Output Camera port causes looping problems (loop containing Render fires once, but does not iterate) because of its use of cxOutputDataFlush. Do not wire Output Camera when Render is a loop controller or used within another controller's loop.The module will not snap its input on the first arrival of the Snap parameter. This prevents spurious snapping when the module is first launched, but means that you might miss the first snapshot in an animation sequence.
SEE ALSO
AnimateCamera VolumeRender
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