InvenTcl: A fast prototyping environment for 3d graphics and multimedia applications

Abstract

This paper describes InvenTcl which is an interpretive version of Open Inventor, a 3D graphics toolkit. To create InvenTcl, the Open Inventor toolkit is “wrapped" inside the interpreter Tcl/Tk and [incr Tcl]. To wrap InvenTcl the Open Inventor header files are parsed to create [incr Tcl] interpretive objects with the same names as objects in Open Inventor. Additionally, window event management, non-objects and object bindings are included and managed by InvenTcl. The ad- vantages of InvenTcl include: script-able and direct manipulation of 3D objects in an Open Inventor scene, easy prototyping of 3D graphics and animation, low bandwidth communication of 3D scenes and animations (using scripts), and easy integration of 3D graphics with other media for fast prototyping of multimedia applications.