What Is Open Inventor?

• A set of building blocks that enables you to write programs that take advantage of powerful graphics hardware features with minimal programming effort
• A library of objects and methods used to create interactive 3D graphics applications
• Based on OpenGL; written in C++.
• Objects include database primitives, including shape, property, group, and engine objects; interactive manipulators, such as the handle box and trackball; and components, such as the material editor, directional light editor, and examiner viewer.
• Facilitates moving data between applications with its 3D interchange file format. End users of 3D programs can cut and paste 3D scene objects and share them among a variety of programs on the desktop.

The Inventor Toolkit includes:

• A 3D scene database that includes shape, property, group, engine, and sensor objects, used to create a hierarchical 3D scene
• A set of node kits that provide a convenient mechanism for creating prebuilt groupings of Inventor nodes
• A set of manipulators, including the handle box and trackball, which are objects in a scene database that the user can interact with directly
• An Inventor Component Library for Xt, including a render area (a window used for rendering), material editor, viewers, and utility functions, used to provide some high-level interactive tasks

Inventor Architecture