Class Graphics


Class Graphics is an intrinsic class in SansGUI that supports 3-dimensional (3D) graphics object display for scientific or engineering visualization and data exploration. It provides simulation developers with a framework that simplifies multi-threaded, multi-windows, 3D graphics programming, using the industry-standard OpenGL® API from Silicon Graphics, Inc. Interactive 3D graphics operations, such as translation, rotation, zooming in and out, and user selection, are supported with user interface controls in this class, handled automatically by SansGUI. However, the actual responses to these controls may be modified by the simulation developer according to the requirements of the subclasses in the simulators.

Attributes

Class Graphics contains intrinsic attributes useful for windows and 3D graphics operations. These predefined attributes are hidden attributes, which can be accessed programmatically or examined in a Service Session in the SansGUI Run-Time Environment. Similar to the Collection intrinsic class, class Graphics can be extended to include additional attributes the simulation developers need. This class is a reference class, meaning that its subclasses and their deriving objects can be referred to and updated by other objects or parts for dynamic 3D scene rendering at simulation run time.

Class Functions

The Graphic Windows are created and maintained by the SansGUI framework; therefore, the developers do not need to deal with all the windows management issues between Win32 and OpenGL APIs. As suggested by Woo et al. in their OpenGL Programming Guide, three abstract functions are needed to integrate OpenGL graphics into any window-based systems:

In addition to the three functions above, we include a fourth function, Select, to handle interactive user selections in the abstraction:

The Initialize, reshape, select, and display functions are mapped to the Begin Run, Pre-Evaluation, Evaluation, and Post-Evaluation DLL function entry points, respectively, in the SansGUI run-time environment. These four DLL functions associated with Graphics objects are active only when the Graphics windows of the objects are displayed. When the simulation is not running, these DLL functions are called in response to messages from Windows or user's operation (see Per Message column in the table below). Prior to the function calls, SansGUI sets the SG_STAT_EDIT status bit in the Graphics data object to inform the simulator. During a simulation run, the Evaluation (Select) function is called per evaluation cycle, and the Pre-Evaluation (Reshape, or resize window) and Post-Evaluation (Display, or render scene) functions are called only during screen refresh cycles. The SG_STAT_EDIT bit is cleared to indicate that the functions are called in a normal simulation run. Because SansGUI allows the user to operate on windows (reshape, select, rotate, translate, etc.) while the simulation is running, these function calls may possibly be triggered by Windows messages, intermingled with the calls from the simulation execution cycles. Therefore, the developer should check the SG_STAT_EDIT bit to perform appropriate operations in the DLL functions. In addition to the SG_STAT_EDIT bit, a SG_STAT_PRINT bit may be checked to know if the function call is triggered by a printing process. One example of using this bit is to change the background colors of the screen display and hardcopy output.

 

 

Function

DLL Entry

Per Message

Per Run Cycle

Per Refresh Cycle

 

Initialize

SG_xBgnRun

Initial Update

-

-

 

Reshape

SG_xPreEval

Window Size

-

Called

 

Select

SG_xEval

Mouse Events

Called

-

 

Display

SG_xPostEval

Window Paint

-

Called

 

An important point to remember is that these four functions are called only when the Graphics Window is opened. Other DLL functions in the Graphics class are handled normally as in other reference classes. See the DLL Function Entry Points section for general definitions and semantics.

A note for developers using Compaq Visual Fortran: Because we need to turn on the as-is option for external function names, all the OpenGL function calls (FGL*) in the source files shall have all upper-case letters in their names. We use FGL* routines in the examples, as suggested by Compaq Visual Fortran.

Ports and Connectivity

Not applicable.

User Interface Controls

A Graphics dialog is displayed after the user selects the View Object menu item from a Graphics object's context menu or clicks on the View Object button in its Object Properties dialog. The user interface controls listed below are the default settings in class Graphics. The actual behavior of these controls may be different in other simulators. Please check your specific simulator documentation for details.

Key Combination

Operation

Horizontal Scroll Bar

Rotate displayed scene about the Y-axis

Vertical Scroll Bar

Rotate the displayed scene about the X-axis

Arrow Keys

Similar to the horizontal and vertical scroll bars

Ctrl+Arrow Keys

Move the scroll boxes with a larger increment

Shift+Arrow Keys

Move the scroll boxes to the ends

PageUp / PageDown Keys

Move the vertical scroll box with a larger increment

+ Key on Numeric Keypad

Zoom into the displayed scene

- Key on Numeric Keypad

Zoom out off the displayed scene

Ctrl+Left Mouse Button

Drag to move (or translate) the displayed scene

Home Key

Move the scene to the center and reset the rotation angles

End Key

Move the scene to the center and reset the zoom factor

Subclassing Notes

To implement 3D graphics using class Graphics, the simulation developer creates a subclass from this class, adds additional attributes after the intrinsic attributes if needed, and implements the four special DLL functions described in the Class Functions section above.

See Also

 



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