This release brings many improvements to almost all our products.

The metafile reader (Ab2d.ReaderWmf) library got most of the changes. The svg reader (Ab2d.ReaderSvg) also got a few new features. There were also some improvements that affected all the products except ZoomPanel. ZoomPanel control was left out of this release because the library is waiting for a major upgrade. Now when this release is out I will finally start working on it (many things are already prepared - like mini map, rotate the content, zoom slider, etc. - they just need to be polished and tested).

Let me first describe the changes that affected all the products (except ZoomPanel):

• The licensing dialogs are now created in WPF and not in Windows Forms as before (this skips loading Windows Forms and other related assemblies and therefore speeds up the application start - especially in evaluation version).
• Improved commercial license code that tries to find embedded resources - this code is now much faster.
• Added splash screens to all of the converter applications.

Besides the changes above the Ab3d.Reader3ds and Ab3d.PowerToys libraries did not get any new features.

But as mentioned before the Ab2d.ReaderWmf library was improved quite significantly. The code that transformed positions data from metafile into WPF was rewritten from ground up. The new version now enables to specify in which units the read positions will be - they can be in Pixels, Millimeters, Inches or GdiCompatable units. This can be useful when the drawing for example in Microsoft Visio is created in millimeters, the WPF elements that are created with pasting the drawing into Paste2Xaml can be also defined in millimeters. When the default Pixel units are used, the size of the read metafile is now the same as the size that is shown when the metafile is opened by Windows.

This is the list of changes in Ab2d.ReaderWmf library:

• Added MetafileUnits property. It specifies the units in which the metafile is read. By default its value is set to Pixel. It can be also set to Millimeter, Inch or GdiCompatable. This can be useful to preserve the positions and other properties when the drawing is created in millimeter or inch units.
• Added AutoSize property - defines if size of the root canvas is get from metafiles bounds or its frame. When bounds is used, the root canvas size is just as big as its containing objects.
• Added GetSize(units) method that can be used to get the size of the read metafile in the specified units.
• The size of the read metafile is now by default (if MetafileUnits is Pixel) the same as the size shown when metafile is opened by Window.
• Improved reading metafiles that use MM_LOMETRIC, MM_HIMETRIC, MM_LOENGLISH, MM_HIENGLISH or MM_TWIPS mapping mode.
• When reading polyline from a metafile and it has only 2 points a Line is used instead of a Polyline.
• Added UsedMinLineWidthFactor to get the used minimal line width.
• Improved Ab2d.Utility.ReaderWmf.ResourceDictionaryWriter - now the process of creating ResourceDictionary from metafiles can be better customized by creating a derived class.
• Removed obsolete Ab2d.WmfViewbox control - the control has been obsolete for a few versions - Ab2d.Controls.WmfViewbox should be used instead. This also removes the need for Designer assemblies to remove the obsolete control from Designer ToolBox.

The Paste2Xaml application that can be used to simply copy objects from drawing application and paste them into XAML was also improved - support for the new features of the Ab2d.ReaderWmd library was added.

Some of the changes were also made in Ab2d.ReaderSvg library:

• Markers (arrows and other line endings) are now correctly show on line and polyline elements (before they worked only on path elements).
• markerWidth and markerHeight attributes are now correctly handled.
• Removed obsolete Ab2d.SvgViewbox control - the control has been obsolete for a few versions - Ab2d.Controls.SvgViewbox should be used instead. This also removes the need for Designer assemblies to remove the obsolete control from Designer ToolBox.

Now I have to put together the new version of ZoomPanel.

Than a new exciting area awaits - Silverlght 5 with its 3D.

A minor update for Ab2d.Reader3ds and Ab3d.PowerToys libraries is available.

The update fixes licensing code for WPF Browser applications (partially trusted) - before it was not possible to use both Ab3d.Reader3ds and Ab3d.PowerToys the same WPF Browser application.

The update also fixes problems with reading some tga files with Ab3d.Reader3ds. Because some older 3ds files use tga files for textures quite often, the internal tga file reader was added to version 7.0. This version had problems with some tga files. This problems are now fixed.


Some of you have already noticed that the evaluation version has a brand new installer that enables installing any product from only one installer (before each product has to be installed separately). With the new versions the new installers are now available also for commercial products.

Because of the new installers there are also new commercial versions of Ab2d.ReaderSvg and Ab2d.ReaderWmf libraries available to commercial users. Those versions contain just small changes made for the new installation process and do not bring any new functionality.

With the release of Ab3d.Reader3ds v7.0 and Ab3d.PowerToys v2.0 a new milestone in 3D programming was reached.

The first version of WPF brought us simplified programming with 3D. With WPF there is no need any more to deal with C++, DirectX and graphics drivers. Now programmers can use xaml and managed code to define the 3D scene. Besides this WPF can use high end graphic cards when they are available and can fallback to software rendering when the computer does not have an accelerated graphics.

Of course WPF does not provide all the features of DirectX, so it is not capable of running high end 3D games. But my customers have already proven that it is very capable of showing very complex 3D scenes with models with several hundred thousands triangles.

But WPF still lacks many features to make programming with 3D easy.

Now with Ab3d.Reader3ds and Ab3d.PowerToys users have the ultimate framework to work with WPF 3D.

The Ab3d.PowerToys includes advanced cameras, camera controllers (rotate and move the camera with the mouse, etc.), 3D objects (Box, Sphere, Cone, etc.), 3D lines, 3D text and classes to simplify using mouse events on 3D objects.

With Ab3d.Reader3ds and Viewer3ds it is possible to define 3D models in almost any 3D modeling application (3D Studio Max, Maya, AutoCad, etc.), save the objects into 3ds file and use the 3D models in your WPF application.

The libraries gives you a complete solution for:

• creating monitoring systems with 3D models,
• displaying 3D simulations and mathematical models,
• displaying 3D models of your products or prototypes,
• creating designing and configuration applications in reality-like 3D scenes,
• creating interesting 3D effects,
• etc.

That was a short overview. Now to the details about the libraries and more information about new features.

The new version of Viewer3ds application (3ds to xaml converter) that comes with Ab3d.Reader3ds library brings many new improvements.

The application is now using the Ab3d.PowerToys library. Therefore it was really easy to add camera rotation and movement. Among other changes I would also like to mention the new possibility to get detailed information about selected objects (sizes, materials, detailed mesh information, etc.).

The Ab3d.Reader3ds library also got many improvements.

The biggest enhancement is great performance improvement - because of optimized algorithm and multi-threaded processing some 3ds files are read 80% faster. But reading some very large 3ds files can still take a few seconds. To improve user experiance it is now possible to get progress reports while reading the file. The samples that came with the library demonstrate how to show progress window on another thread or read the 3ds file on another thread and show the progress on the main thread.

Let me also mention some other important changes:

• Improved handling of texture files with simplified notifications about missing texture files.
• Added GetXaml method to Reader3ds class to get formatted xaml text of the read 3ds file.
• Improved reading FiledOfView and SpecularMaterials.
• Improved support for running in partially trusted environment.
• Added Lights collection.

Complete list of changes can be seen here.

I am really proud of the features and capabilities the Ab3d.PowerToys library. They really bring WPF 3D to a completely new level.

The library makes Visual Studio a simple 3D modeling application as all the 3D objects and cameras that are defined in xaml are immediately seen in designer window. This way it is very easy to arrange the objects, set camera or otherwise define the scene.

Already the previous version of the library had advanced cameras (SceneCamera, FirstPersonCamera, ThirdPersonCamera) that enable setting the camera with simply setting heading, attitude and bank angles and defining some other properties like distance. The cameras can be simply rotated with the mouse or camera control panel. The new version goes further with enabling moving the camera. Now any camera can be rotated and moved around. And it is possible to assign rotation and movement of the camera to any mouse button and to any keyboard modifiers. For example the following two lines of xaml add a SceneCamera to the scene and enable rotationg the camera with right mouse button and moving the camera with right mouse button and alt key pressed:

<cameras:SceneCamera Heading="30" Attitude="-20" Distance="200"/>
<ab3dControls:MouseCameraController RotateCameraConditions="RightMouseButtonPressed"
                                    MoveCameraConditions="RightMouseButtonPressed, AltKey"/>

The previous version of Ab3d.PowerToys already included many basic 3D objects (Box, Sphere, Cone, etc), 3D Lines and simplified mouse event handling on 3D objects.

Besides improved cameras the following are the main improvements of the new version:

• Added support for 3D text.
• Improved PolyLines - they are now correctly connected to each other.
• Added MultiMaterialBox where each side of the box can have its own material.
• Added CreateFrom method to all Ab3d.Cameras - it can be used to create any Ab3d.Camera from existing WPF's Camera (or camera read from 3ds file with Ab3d.Reader3ds).
• Added CameraAxisPanel - a predefined panel that shows the axis orientation for the target camera.
• Added RectangleVisual3D, WireBoxVisual3, WireCrossVisual3D, VerticalPlaneVisual3D and LineArcVisual3D.
• Added IsVisible property to all 3D models derived from Visual3D.
• Added CreateWireframe method that takes Model3D to create wireframe from Model3DGroup or GeometryModel3D.
• Fixed for using in partially trusted environment - before creating custom cursor was not allowed - now a Hand cursor is used instead.
• BREAKING CHANGE: Fixed Bank - now the positive bank values rotate the camera in the clockwise direction (before the direction was counter-clockwise). For example bank angle 30 means that the Camera is rotated as a head would be bended to the right.

The complete list of changes is really long - it can be seen on Abd3.PowerToys web page.

A quick preview of cameras and 3D objects can be seen from two cheat sheets (prepared with WPF; full source code is included with the samples that come with the library):

Cameras cheat sheet


3D Objects cheat sheet

The following are a few screenshots (click on xaml link to see the xaml source code):

[xaml]	[xaml]	[xaml]
[xaml]	[xaml]

To see more screenshots and details about the library see Abd3.PowerToys web page.

Ab3d.Reader3ds and Ab3d.PowerToys are separate products, but when the Ab3d.Reader3ds pro library license is purchased, the price for Ab3d.PowerToys library is ONLY 1 USD.

I am already planning to add a few new exciting features to the library. If you have any recommendation and other comments you are most welcome to post them to the library’s forum.

As usual the new version can be downloaded from User Account page (for commercial users) or from my Downloads page (for evaluation version).

PS: For the customers of Ab3d.Reader3ds with expired updates subscription I am preparing a very special offer to renew the subscription – detailed information will be sent to your email in the following days.

To celebrate the launch of Ab3d.PowerToys and to bring some christmas felling to my web page, I have decided to give you 20% discount for all Ab3d.PowerToys licenses and to Ab3d.Reader3ds Pro licenses.

To apply for the discount enter "PowerToys" into the discount textbox on my Purchse page. Than click Apply and add the items to shopping cart.

The discount is valid until the end of January 2010.

And here is another gift. A 3D santa model (available in 3ds and xaml):

Santa3D.zip (473.10 kb)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I am happy to announce that the final version of Ab3d.PowerToys has been released.

Ab3d.PowerToys is the ultimate helper library for work with WPF 3D.

The main parts of the library are:

• Cameras (SceneCamera, FirstPersonCamera, ThirdPersonCamera, etc.),
• Camera Controllers (MouseCameraController, CameraControlPanel),
• 3D Models and Visuals (Sphere, Box, Cylinder, etc.),
• 3D Lines,
• Event Manager 3D (simplified event handling on 3D objects).

The created 3D objects and used 3D cameras are fully visible in Visual Studio Designer.
This means that the 3D scene can be very easily designed in Visual Studio.

With Ab3d.PowerToys programming with 3D cannot be easier!

The following is the list of improvements from the Release Candidate version:

• Added public Model property as Model3D to all 3D UIElements,
• CenterObject on ThirdPersonCamera now accepts object type instead of Model3D - so it is now possible to assign Visual3D and UIElement3D as center object,
• Transformed the CurrentSurfaceHitPoint on MouseDrag3DEventArgs when used on Visual3D objects - now the real hit Point3D is get,
• Fixed EventManager3D when there were no drag surface registered but there were some event sources subscribed to drag event,
• Added HitObjectName and HitObject to BaseMouse3DEventArgs,
• Added additional comments and code samples to help file.

There are also a few new samples.

Two new samples show the power of EventManager3D. One show how easy is to create a 3D object that is moved around with the mouse. The other sample shows how to use EventManager3D with Ab3d.Reader3ds library. The sample is similar to Robot Arm sample in Reader3ds samples. But instead of using sliders to move the robot, this sample utilizes the powerful EventManger3D so the robot can be moved around simply by dragging the mouse. Also the light can be switched on and off by clicking on it.

The most interesting new sample is the 3D Cannon simulation. It shows a 3D simulation of a cannon where user can set many parameters like Gravity, Drag factor, ball mass, etc. It is also possible to switch between many possible cameras. The following image shows the sample in action:

The 60-days evaluation of Ab3d.PowerToys can be downloaded from Downloads page.

The price for Ab3d.PowerToys license starts from $179.00 (very low price for the amount of work-hours saved). It is also possible to buy full source code for the library.

And that is not all. When a Ab3d.Reader3ds Pro license is bought, the Ab3d.PowerToys license is get for free!

And that is still not all - see the next blog post that is coming very soon

The Ab3d.PowerToys library has advanced to Release Candidate version.

Here is the list of changes from beta 2:

LIBRARY:
- Added Ab3d.UIElements namespace with 3D objetcs that derive from UIElement3D
- Added ToolTip property to all classes under Ab3d.UIElements namespace
- Added PreviewCameraChanged event to BaseCamera - with the event it is possible to limit the camera movement with setting the Handled property in the event args to true
- Added ShowRotateCursorOnMouseOver property to MouseCameraController - if true it shows the RotationCursor when UsedMouseButton is set to Left and mouse is over the EventsSourceElement
- Added MaterialTypeConverter so it is possible to set Material and BackMaterial on all Ab3d Visuals and UIElements with simply specifying the color name
- Added constructor for Box3DModel that takes Rect3D as parameter
- Improved possibility to set custom images to CameraControlPanel - also added sample to show this
- Redesigned the TargetPositionCamera and TargetRect3DCamera classes - added BaseTargetPositionCamera and BaseTargetRect3DCamera
  This way it was possible to add additional methods to TargetPositionCamera - MoveLeft, MoveUp, etc that move and strafe the camera
  Also now the SceneCamera and other cameras that are derived from TargetRect3DCamera do not have TargetPosition and TragetRect3D properties
- Improved Design Time support:
  Removed all unused properties in VS Properties Editor for cameras
  Added icons for ToolBox (not final yet)
- Changed IsEnabled property in LinesUdater into UpdateMode enum - open for future improvements
- Added IsEmissiveMaterialUsed to LinesUdater to control if EmissiveMaterial is used to create the lines
- Added tons of comments into the code - also improves the help file

SAMPLES:
- Added samples for Ab3d.UIElements
- Added UIElementsToolTipSample - how simple is to use ToolTip property on Ab3d.UIElements
- Added CustomControlPanelSample - demonstrates how to use custom images for CameraControlPanel
- Added simple camera animation sample
- Added sample to demonstrate how to limit the camera movement with using PreviewCameraChanged event
- Improved LinesStressTest sample to show how to manually update the lines to improve the performance of the application

OTHER:
- Added ClassDiagram images to Resources directory so the class diagrams can be printed by the users

The Release Candidate version can be downloaded from my https://www.ab4d.com/Downloads.aspx

If you already have a previous version installed, just install the new version over the previous one (no need to uninstall the previous version first).

Note: This version will expire on on 31th January 2010.

Release is planned for the first half of December 2009.

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.