The new version of Ab3d.PowerToys brings you even more useful classes and utilities for WPF 3D.

The sample application that comes with the library is again a very good demonstration of capabilities of the WPF 3D engine.

The main new part of the library is added support for creation of basic 3D objects and 3D lines.

Now the library contains all the essential parts that are needed with 3D WPF development:

• advanced cameras
• camera controllers
• simplified mouse events handling on 3D objects (improved in beta 2)
• basic 3D models (new in beta 2)
• 3D lines (new in beta 2).

The following basic 3D objects can be created: Plane, Circle, Box, Pyramid, Sphere, Cone and Cylinder.

Advantages of the 3D models in Ab3d.PowerToys are:

• The biggest list of supported 3D objects with lots of propertes for customization of objects.
• Many different ways to create 3D objects: in XAML with Visual3D classes, in code with Model3DFactory class (to create GeometryModel3D objects) or in code with classes under Ab3d.Meshes namespace to create MeshGeometry3D objects.
• Highly optimized code to make the creation as fast as possible.

3D lines can be created from code with Ab3d.Models.Line3DFactory. The methods in the Line3DFactory return 3D lines as GeometryModel3D objects. This means that you can add 3D lines to the existing Model3DGroup.

The lines can be also created as Visual3D objects with the following classes: LineVisual3D, MultiLineVisual3D, PolyLineVisual3D, AxisVisual3D, ColoredAxisVisual3D or WireGridVisual3D. The visuals can be used in XAML which means that you can see the results in Visual Studio designer.

There is also a Ab3d.Models.WireframeFactory to create wireframe objects from existing 3D models. WireframeFactory also contains methods to create lines for 3D model normals.

Because WPF does not natively support 3D Line, the line must be created with 3D model that consists of two triangles. The positions of the triangles depend on the position of the camera and size of Viewport3D. This means the code that draws the line must constantly check if the camera was changed, the parent Viewport3D or Visual3D is changed or the parent is not visible any more. This process can normally affect performance. The implementation in Ab3d.PowerToys library is designed in such a way that the performance impact is minimal. The code caches many properties and updates only those lines that need update. When the update is needed the new MeshGeometry3D is not rebuild from stretch but instead only positions are changed. It also checks if the lines were removed from the visual and acts accordingly. There are a few 3D lines implementation for WPF, but the highly optimized lines updater makes this implementation the most advanced.

Important:

The Ab3d.PowerToys will be available as a standalone product.

It will also be available for free with Ab3d.Reader3ds Pro version (existing customers of Ab3d.Reader3ds Pro will also get the license).

Beta notice:

The current version of Ab3d.PowerToys is in Beta 2. That means that it is almost feature complete but is not yet fully tested and documented. This version will expire on 31th January 2010.

Roadmap:

• Beta 2 - start of November 2009
• Release Candidate - middle of November 2009
• Release - start of December 2009

To read more about Ab3d.PowerToys see Ab3d.PowerToys web page.

The Ab3d.PowerToys Beta 2 and the samples can be downloaded from my Downloads page.

The Ab3d.PowerToys library is a collection of classes and utilities that simplify programming with 3D in WPF. With Ab3d.PowerToys programming with 3D was never easier!

The following are the main parts of the library:

• Cameras
• Camera Controllers
• Mouse Event Manager 3D

The library defines a few new Cameras that can be used instead of the current WPF's cameras. The main difference between Ab3d Cameras and WPF cameras is that Ab3d Cameras does not use Vectors to define the LookDirection, but instead use angles in degrees to define it. This is much more natural. For example if you want to look at the scene a little bit from the right and from above, you just define the Heading to be 30 and Attitude to be -45. You can also define the Distance from the scene. The most important Ab3d Cameras are: SceneCamera, FirstPersonCamera and ThirdPersonCamera. All the Ab3d Cameras with their properties can be seen on the class diagram.

Camera Controllers are used to control the camera. The MouseCameraController can be used to change the angle and distance of the camera with the mouse. This way it is very simple to rotate the camera around. The CameraControlPanel shows nice buttons to rotate the camera and move the camera closer or farther away. There is also a CameraPreviewPanel that graphically shows at which angle the camera is looking at the object or scene.

The following code demonstarates that with only a few lines of xaml a WPF application can use a camera that is showing the whole scene (SceneCamera) and can be rotated by the mouse (MouseCameraController) or by nice buttons (CameraControlPanel). There is also a preview of the camera that is showing from which angle the camera is looking at the scene. Also if the WindGeneratorModel model does not contain a light, a camera light is automatically added to the scene and it is iluminating the scene from the camera's position (ShowCameraLight="Auto").

<Window x:Class="Ab3d.PowerToys.Samples.Window1"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:cameras="clr-namespace:Ab3d.Cameras;assembly=Ab3d.PowerToys"
xmlns:ab3d="clr-namespace:Ab3d.Controls;assembly=Ab3d.PowerToys">
  <Grid>
     <Viewport3D Name="MainViewport3D">
         <ModelVisual3D Content="{StaticResource WindGeneratorModel}"/>
     </Viewport3D>
     
     <cameras:SceneCamera Name="SceneCamera1"
                             Heading="30" 
                             Attitude="-30" 
                             Distance="3" IsDistancePercent="True"
                             IsDynamicTarget="True"
                             ShowCameraLight="Auto"/>
                          
     <ab3d:MouseCameraController TargetCameraName="SceneCamera1" 
                                    IsMouseWheelZoomEnabled="True"/>
                               
     <ab3d:CameraControlPanel TargetCameraName="SceneCamera1"
                                 VerticalAlignment="Bottom" 
                                 HorizontalAlignment="Left"/>
                              
     <ab3d:CameraPreviewPanel TargetCameraName="SceneCamera1" 
                                 Width="100" Height="100" 
                                 VerticalAlignment="Bottom" 
                                 HorizontalAlignment="Right"/>
  </Grid>
</Window>

The EventManager3D class is a helper class that enables user to simply subscribe to mouse events on 3D objects. The following mouse events are supported: MouseEnter, MouseLeave, MouseDown, MouseUp, MouseClick, BeginMouseDrag, MouseDrag, EndMouseDrag (MouseDoubleClick is not in available in beta). This way you do not need to do the complicated 3D hit testing any more. You can simply subscribe to mouse events. This way you the code is much simpler and better organized.

The following code shows a sample used of EventManager3D:

                    
EventSource3D eventSource;
EventManager3D eventManager;

eventManager = new EventManager3D(MainViewport);                                 


eventSource = new EventSource3D();
eventSource.TargetObject = myButton3D;
eventSource.MouseClick += new MouseButton3DEventHandler(myButton3D_MouseClick);

eventManager.RegisterEventSource3D(eventSource);                                 


eventSource = new EventSource3D();
eventSource.TargetObject = myMovableObject3D;
eventSource.BeginMouseDrag += new Mouse3DEventHandler(myMovableObject3D_BeginMouseDrag);
eventSource.MouseDrag += new MouseDrag3DEventHandler(myMovableObject3D_MouseDrag);
eventSource.EndMouseDrag += new Mouse3DEventHandler(myMovableObject3D_EndMouseDrag);

eventManager.RegisterEventSource3D(eventSource);                    

Beta notice:

The current version of Ab3d.PowerToys is in beta. That means that it is not yet features complete and not fully tested.

Roadmap:

• Beta 1 - 13th October 2009
• Beta 2 - end of October 2009
• Release Candidate - middle of November 2009
• Release - start of December 2009

The Ab3d.PowerToys beta 1 and the samples can be downloaded from my Downloads page.

To make the ZoomPanel control even better a few methods were added to the new version:
FitToWidth, FitToLimitsWidth, FitToHeight, FitToLimitsHeight.

The methods can be very usefull when the ZoomPanel is used to show the documents. The new methods are demonstrated in the improved version of Documents Brower sample (see image below).

The new version v2.1.3551 can be downloaded from my Downloads page.

The ZoomPanel control has been improved to work correctly with Wpf Browser applications running in Internet Zone.

The cause of the problem was a real surprise - the Assembly.GetName() method requires FileIoPermissions - in Internet Zone this is not allowed :(

The new version v2.0.3544 can be downloaded from my Downloads page.

I have just added two interesting Use case samples to ZoomPanel samples.

Besides Painter sample thare are now also Documents Browser and Image Browser samples.

Documents Browser sample shows how to create a WPF application to browser documents that were scaned or recieved by fax. The list of documents is read from Documents.xml file. The documents data are than binded to a ListBox and an Image control. The Image control is enclosed into a ZoomPanel to add zooming and panning support to the document browser.

Image Browser sample shows how to create a simple Image Browser application in WPF. The application also uses the ZoomPanel control to enable users to observe the details of the shown images.

Painter sample shows how simple is to add zooming and panning to a drawing application. The implemented zooming is same or even better as in some of the best professional drawing applications.

Also the Feedback page in the samples application is now fixed - it will not send your feedback to localhost any more :)

All the new samples are available with the ZoomPanel package that can be downloaded from my Downloads page.
If you already have the new ZoomPanel control and would just like to get the new samples, they can be downloaded here: ZoomPanelSamples.zip.

And one last note:
The price for the ZoomPanel is still only $69.00 for a single developer license. It is also possible to buy full source code of the library.

The ZoomPanel control can add animated zooming and panning to any WPF application. With the new version many new features were added to make it the ultimate Zoom Panel control for every zooming scenario.

The following video shows how easy is to add professional zooming and panning to a sample drawing application.

Here is the complete list of new features:

• Added IScrollInfo support - possibility to use ZoomPanel inside ScrollViewer.
• Added posibility to limit the zoom area with ViewboxLimits, ViewboxMinSize and IsViewboxLimited properties.
• When animating images the scale quality is lowered to increase the frame rate.
• Added support for custom or dynamic zoom content - for example for showing maps - RegisterCustomContentProvider and UnregisterCustomContentProvider.
• Added a new ZoomPanel.SetViewboxNow method - the value is of Viewbox is immediately changed regardless of IsAnimated property.
• Added a new ZoomPanel.ResetNow method - immediate reset of viewbox.
• Added ResetToLimits and ResetToLimitsNow methods.
• Added PreviewViewboxChangedEvent and ViewboxChangedEvent - in PreviewViewboxChangedEvent subscriber can prevent or change the changed Viewbox.
• Added IsResetToLimits to ZoomController - if true the reset button on ZoomController resets the ZoomPanel to limits.

The samples that come with ZoomPanel have also been greatly improved. They demonstrate all the aspects of the controls and classes available with the library.

To make the use of the ZoomPanel even simpler the package also includes a detailed help file.

More about the new ZoomPanel can be seen on ZoomPanel page.

The new version can be downloaded from my Downloads page.

The biggest improvement of the new Ab2d.ReaderSvg is added support for svg patterns. This feature has been requested by many users because svg patterns are commonly used by svg file created with Microsoft Visio. Another big improvement is support for complex strokes and pens - now also LinearGradientBrush, RadialGradientBrush, VisualBrush are supported.

Here is the whole list of changes:

• Added support for all types of svg patterns:
  before only TexturePatterns were supported, now other types of patterns are supported as well. All patterns are now converted into VisualBrush.
  NOTE: Silverlight does not support VisualBrush - Red brush is used instead.
• Added support for complex Strokes and Pens - before Strokes and Pens can be only SolidColorBrush. Now also other types of Brushes are supported (LinearGradientBrush, RadialGradientBrush, VisualBrush, etc.).
• Fixed using opacity on some svg elements.
• Improved support for RadialGradient when gradientTransform was used.
• Fixed getting the size of the root svg element when only width or only height is specified (when AutoSize is false).
• Fixed using Ab2d.ReaderSvg inside WinForms applications.
• Fixed licensing problems when used on 64-bit OS.

The new version can be downloaded from my Downloads page.
After downloading just install the new version over the previous version (no need to uninstall).