QuickDraw 3D

"QuickDraw 3D is a cross-platform application program interface (API) for creating and rendering real-time, workstation-class 3D graphics. It consists of human interface guidelines and toolkit, a high-level modeling tool kit, a shading and rendering architecture, a cross-platform file format and a device and acceleration manager for plug and play hardware acceleration. ... QuickDraw 3D is now integrated into the QuickTime 3 release..."

QuickDraw 3D images can be embedded within a document and viewed using an appropriate browser plug-in or an external viewer. For further information see the QuickTime site.

Specification of a box in 3DMF text format

This smidge of 3DMF displays a block with an attached URL and an attached description at a defined position in space.

  box4:
    Container (
      Box (
        0 0 6.390954 # orientation
        0.8 0 0 # majorAxis
        0 0.8 0 # minorAxis
        18 -1 0 # origin
      )
      attributeset5:
      Container (
        AttributeSet ( )
        DiffuseColor ( 1 1 0.4 )
      SpecularColor ( 1 1 1 )
        HighlightState ( 0 )
        Container (
          W3Anchor (
            "https://www.shef.ac.uk/chemistry/web-elements/webelements/elements/text/key/He.html"
            0 )
          cstring6:
          CString (
            "Relative popularity of helium (hydrogen=10.0)."
          )
        )
      )
    )
  )
  

In principle, all sorts of special effects could be applied to the block, but these may distract attention.

Example pages

• density plot (note you will jump to the appropriate element by clicking on the plot)

Plug-in configuration

Some sources of VRML plug-ins or an external VRML viewers:

• Quick3D [Plastic Thought] for Macs and PCs
• QuickDraw 3D Viewer Application for Windows [Apple]
• Microsoft Internet Explorer displays 3DMF files without modification on MacOS
• [A list of 3D plug-ins from NetScape]

The browser may need to be configured as follows:

• Description : QuickDraw 3D metafile
• MIME Type : x-world/x-3dmf
• Suffixes : .qd3, .3dmf, .3dm

© 1999 Mark Winter

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