Alexander Federov, senior software engineer
Prague art for sale in Prague
So now we get into the nitty-gritty details of new APIs from ODA. The first is the new Visualize API. It is a file-independent module meant for handling display duties. It is not tied to DWG or any other file format.
It handles the following tasks:
- overlays, such as cursors, traciers, snap points
- partial graphics cache regeneration (for faster display of large drawings)
- metafiles for hatches, text, and block references
- spatial filters to cull entities not on the screen
- multi-threaded metafile preprocessing
The Visualize API is implemented in object-oriented C++ and works with all common compilers found in Linux, MacOS, and Windows.
It does the following renderings:
- wireframe, hidden lines removed, shaded, and other render modes
- visual styles such as silhouettes, hidden edges, and transparency
- lineweights and line styles
- materials
- zoom, pan, orbit, and other view changes
Visualize can output to 2D and 3D PDF files.
In summary, Visualize is meant to speed the development of software that might or might not work with DWG files, such as markup software and file viewers -- as well as CAD systems. We are seeing examples of how it can be used as an ACIS SAT viewer, a point cloud viewer, and a DWG viewer.
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