Saves SDL files which contains information necessary to render a scene.

SDL is the Scene Description Language used by Alias. An SDL file is a binary file that contains all the information necessary to render a scene, including models, shaders, lights, and animation. To convert an SDL file into editable text, use the stand-alone utility bsdl. Because they can be converted to simple text files, you can edit an SDL file "by hand". That is, you can create or edit a scene using a text editor and SDL commands. Usually, however, you will not need to directly edit SDL files. Instead, the interactive modeling program will automatically generate the SDL file for a scene and output it to the renderer. If you do convert an SDL file to text to edit it, remember to convert it back to a binary when you’re done, using bsdl.

There are, however, some cases where you may want to edit an SDL file:

• for absolute, mathematical control over scene elements such as models, animation paths, and shaders.
• to modify a generated SDL file manually, or with another program.
• to create new procedural effects using the general programming features of SDL.

By applying basic programming constructs to scene descriptions you can create useful and spectacular effects that would be tedious or impossible to create with the interactive modeler alone. You can also augment the dynamics and particle systems of the interactive modeler with the flexibility of the SDL programming language.

Once you have an SDL file describing a scene, you can then render it either within the interactive modeler, or using one of the stand-alone renderers.