From templer@vplayground.com Sat Feb 27 00:47:09 CST 1999 Article: 237368 of sci.math Path: news.math.niu.edu!husk.cso.niu.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.erols.net!outgoing.news.rcn.net.MISMATCH!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!nntp.giganews.com!news2.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Robert Templeton" Newsgroups: sci.math References: <36D1AEEA.44AAC39A@himolde.no> Subject: Re: A program for 3D Geometry? Lines: 49 X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3155.0 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3155.0 Message-ID: Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 16:33:56 -0700 NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.225.104.59 X-Trace: news2.giganews.com 919726487 207.225.104.59 (Mon, 22 Feb 1999 17:34:47 CDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 17:34:47 CDT Xref: news.math.niu.edu sci.math:237368 Kåre Morstøl wrote in message <36D1AEEA.44AAC39A@himolde.no>... >I am currently working on a program for visualizing and calculating 3D >geometry. I was wondering if anyone knew of any similar programs. I have >looked all over the web and haven't found any. I'm thinking of a program >that let's the user define geometrical objects (like points, vectors, >lines and planes) and displays them in a 3d-window, allowing the user to >rotate and look at them from any angle. The program should also perform >calculations, like cross product, areas, volumes, angles and so on. I >find it hard to believe that noone has made such a program already >(though it might be good news for me if I was to be the first one). >Anyway, I would be very grateful if anyone could tell me if such a >program exists, and of course also where it might be found. I would also >be interested in any feedback as to what such a program should be like. > I'm aware that some big and expensive math programs like Scientific >Workplace and MathCad might do what I have described, but I'm looking >for shareware/freeware programs. > You are not looking hard enough. There exists a multitude of source code specific to 3D geometry. Most CAD, Virtual Reality, Rendering, Game, Medical imaging, and Math programs use 3D graphics. Two good books: "Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice" by Foley, van Dam, Feiner, Hughes "3D Computer Graphics" by Alan Watt Web Sites: http://cg.cs.tu-berlin.de/~ki/engines.html http://www.grafix3d.dyn.ml.org/ http://www.fsz.bme.hu/~szirmay/book.html http://www.opengl.org/Developers/developers.html You should try several FTP sites: ftp://x2ftp.oulu.fi/ When you login to the FTP site, goto "pub", then look for "source", "programming", "code", "graphics", "3d". Eventually you will find tons of download-able archives. Also, try a search engine like Yahoo, Web Crawler, HotBot, Snap, Lycos. Use keywords like "3D", "graphics", and "programming" to confine the hits. There does exist freeware and shareware programs that do what you like, but they will be a little more difficult to find. You may try the FTP sites (or FTP Search) or CNet, ZDNet, or another web site which has good collections of freeware/shareware programs and links.