NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/comp/sys/sgi/18288

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-22 | 1.7 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!ames!sgi!fido!krypton!gavin
From: [e-mail] (Gavin Bell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: 3D Manipulator?
Date: 23 Dec 1992 00:38:27 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA
Lines: 27
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: krypton.asd.sgi.com

In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Kevin M. Sahr) writes:
>I am looking for references or code concerning devices which select and
>manipulate objects in a 3D scene using the mouse. (I understand that
>Inventor provides this sort of capability, but I'm looking for a
>solution that won't cost money....).

The computer graphics group at Brown has published a few papers; see
their paper "Three dimensional widgets" in Proceedings of the 1992
Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics, or "Using Deformations to
Explore 3D Widget Design" in the 1992 Siggraph Proceedings.

You could also read the Inventor technical report for a high-level
description of how Inventor implements manipulators (perhaps
suprisingly, manipulators were implemented almost completely
independently of the 3D widgets done at Brown).  You can get product
information like technical reports by calling 1-800-800-4SGI.  They
will probably be nicer to you if you pretend you might actually
eventually buy the product.

Let see, if you pay yourself $10 an hour, you would have to be able to
implement 3D widgets in less than 50 hours to save the $495 cost of
Inventor...  I suppose if you've already implemented the picking code
it might be possible to build a few simple 3D manipulators in that
time.

--
--gavin     ([e-mail],  [phone])