7. Shapes

Shape nodes are the objects that can be made visible in a scene when you view it. Particular classes of shape nodes generate particular shapes of objects in the scene. Each class has its own collection of fields whose values modify the appearance of a shape.

7.1 Shape Classes

These are just a few of the shapes available in Open Inventor, showing their fields and the respective default values. Remember that in your scene descriptions you don't have to bother including all the fields for a node, just the fields that you want to have something other than their default value.

Cone. A Cone node is exactly what it sounds like, a node to include a cone-shaped object in the scene. The parts field indicates which portions of the cone you want to make visible.
```
     Cone {
          parts         ALL
          bottomRadius  1
          height        2
     }
```

Cube. A Cube node describes a rectangular solid object.

     Cube {
          width   2
          height  2
          depth   2
     }

Cylinder. A Cylinder node describes a cylindrical object. Again, the parts field indicates what portions of the cylinder you want to make visible.
```
     Cylinder {
          parts   ALL
          radius  1
          height  2
     }
```
Sphere. A Sphere node represents a spherical shape. You could perform transformations on this to generate other shapes like ellipsoids.
```
     Sphere {
          radius  1
     }
```
Text2. A Text2 node is normal text to be displayed on the screen. Set the string field with the text you want displayed.
```
     Text2 {
          string         ""
          spacing        1
          justification  LEFT
     }
```

Text3. A Text3 node is a 3D text object that can be displayed in a scene.

     Text3 {
          string         ""
          spacing        1
          justification  LEFT
          parts          FRONT
     }

More Information

More information on Open Inventor shapes is available in:

the man pages for the corresponding C++ class;
the Inventor Nodes/File Format Quick Reference;
the Inventor Mentor.