ImportExport

This example provides a good starting point for writing your own importer/exporter using the Softimage C++ API. The example shows how to create a user interface for a typical import/export application, export geometry using the CGeometryAccessor class, and import polygon meshes using the CMeshBuilder class.

Example Files

Location
Files	importexport.cpp importexport_menu.cpp importexport_prop.cpp importmesh_command.cpp exportmesh_command.cpp helper.cpp helper.h GNUmakefile ImportExport.vcproj

Running the Example

To run the example

On the main Softimage menubar, click Demo Tool > Import Export Demo.
To export geometry information and cluster properties, select a polygon mesh object and click Export. Note that you can subdivide the exported geometry if you want. The data is exported to the text file specified in the text box.
To import a file, type the name of the file in the text box in the Import group, and then click Import Polygons to import a mesh with quads, or Import Triangles to import a mesh with triangles. The chunk size allows you to optimize the memory allocation when importing large sets of polygon mesh data.

Notes

The exporter demo outputs the following information:
- Number of polygons, vertices, edges, nodes, and triangles
- Number of vertices per polygon
- Polygon vertex indices, vertex positions, vertex crease values, node indices, normals, edge indices, edge creates values, and hard edges
- Triangle vertex indices, node indices, and polygon index map
- Envelop weight map values
- UV values
- Vertex color values
- Polygon user normal values
- User motion values
- Shape key values
- Weight map values
- User data values for vertices, nodes, edges, and polygons
- Polygon material indices
The importer example does not import cluster properties and materials.

Building the C++ Example

Softimage SDK includes a compiled version of ImportExport. If you want to modify the code, you can rebuild the example by following these instructions.

To build the example on Windows

Open an Softimage command prompt, and type devenv to start Visual Studio .NET.

Starting Visual Studio .NET from an Softimage command prompt ensures that environment variables such as XSISDK_ROOT are set (otherwise you'll get build and link errors).

Tip To load the ImportExport project from the command line, type:
```
devenv ImportExport.vcproj
```
In Visual Studio .NET, open the project file ImportExport.vcproj.
Select a configuration (Win32 Release or Win32 Debug) and build the DLL.

To build the example on Linux

In a shell (tcsh) window, type:
```
source $XSI_HOME/.xsi_<xsi_version>
```
Change directories to
```
cppsrc
```
To remove all intermediate files before building the example, run this command:
```
gmake clean
```
To compile the example, run this command:
```
gmake
```

Keywords

This example uses the following keywords:

C++ example, import, export, mesh, polygons, vertex, vertices, CMeshFileReader, CMeshBuilder, ProgressBar, IsCancelPressed, GetUIToolkit, GotoSection, EndSection, GetLongValues, AddPolygons, AddVertices, PolygonMesh, CErrorDescriptor, CustomProperty, AddProperty, GetParameters, AddParameter, PPGItem, PutLabelMinPixels, PutLabelPercentage, AddEnumControl, AddButton, PutAttribute, AddGroup, AddRow, EndGroup, EndRow, PPGEvent, callback, PPGEventContext,GetAttribute, Button, GetParameterValue, ExecuteCommand, Menu, MenuItem, AddCallbackItem, XSILoadPlugin, RegisterCommand, RegisterMenu, siMenuMainTopLevelID, RegisterProperty