Table of Contents About This Book What This Book Contains What You Should Know Before Reading This Book Conventions Used in This Book Key to Scene Graph Diagrams Suggestions for Further Reading Acknowledgments 1. Key Concepts Adding Nodes and Actions to Inventor Actions, State, and Elements Elements and Actions Caching Runtime Types Extender Macros 2. Creating a Node Overview Initializing the Node Class Defining the Constructor Implementing Actions Creating a Property Node Creating a Shape Node Creating a Group Node Using New Node Classes Creating an Abstract Node Class The copy() Method The affectsState() Method Uncacheable Nodes Creating an Alternate Representation Generating Default Normals 3. Creating a Field Overview Initializing the Field Class Creating a Single-Value Field Creating a Multiple-Value Field 4. Creating an Action Overview Initializing the Action Class Defining the Constructor Defining the Destructor Traversal Behavior Implementing Static Methods Creating a New Action Using New Action Classes 5. Creating an Element Overview Deriving a Class from an Existing Element The initClass() Method Destructor The init() Method The set() and get() Methods The print() Method Additional Methods Special Considerations for Caching Special Behavior for Derived Elements Pushing and Popping Elements Creating a New Element 6. Creating an Engine Overview Defining Inputs and Outputs Initializing the Engine Class Defining the Constructor Implementing an evaluate() Method Creating a Simple Engine Dealing with Multiple-Value Fields Notification and Evaluation Creating a New Field Converter 7. Creating a Node Kit Overview Defining and Naming Catalog Entries Initializing the Node-Kit Class Defining the Constructor About Parts Defining a Node-Kit Part Changing a Defined Part Writing Information About Parts SoAppearanceKit PyramidKit JumpingJackKit 8. Creating Draggers and Manipulators Creating a Simple Dragger Creating a Compound Dragger Creating a Manipulator 9. Creating a Selection Highlight Style Built-in Highlighting Overview The apply() Method Creating a Highlight in the Overlay Planes Rendering Only Selected Objects 10. Creating a Component Creating a New Component Creating a New Viewer Creating a Constrained Viewer 11. Creating an Event and Device Creating an Event Dispatching Events Creating a Device Index