Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why would I want to use Open Inventor .NET for graphics applications?

Because .NET is a promising environment for creating applications with faster development, leading to reduced time to market and development cost, as well as reduced maintenance and deployment costs. Until now, no solution existed allowing the robust performance and features needed by demanding graphics applications to be distributed as widely or as easily.

What do I need to start developing?

You first need a .NET development environment: you can use the kit available on your system or any Interactive Development Environment (IDE) compliant with the .NET 2.0 Development Kit. Then, simply install Open Inventor .NET on your system.

How does it work?

Open Inventor .NET uses the runtime libraries of Open Inventor C++ to deliver optimal performance to specific hardware. Open Inventor .NET uses an OpenGL rendering engine in order to achieve full hardware 2D and 3D acceleration. Open Inventor .NET also includes a high performance visualization kernel that enhances .NET capabilities for data viewing. Things you thought were not possible with .NET become reality, with rendering speed and interactivity that rivals 3D native applications!

How do I develop my own application?

Open Inventor .NET provides you with more than 1000 classes you can use to implement a wide range of applications for academic and private companies in research, scientific, and business areas. A number of examples and on-line documentation will help you get started quickly. Developers appreciate the ease of use of .NET, which is implemented as a high-level object-oriented language, and is easier to learn, use, and maintain than C or C++. .NET comes with a rich framework of standardized classes, including Winforms components to build user interfaces. Open Inventor .NET has been designed to take full advantage of the .NET programming environment as well as to facilitate C++ migration to .NET.

Open Inventor .NET with Interactive Development Environment

Open Inventor .NET can be used with any IDE supporting .NET 2.0 such as Visual Studio 2005, and others will be supported by Open Inventor .NET if they are .NET 2.0 compliant.

I have the following errors during demonstration building. Where does it come from ?

Warning 1 The referenced component 'CrystalDecisions.ReportSource' could not be found.     
Warning 2 The referenced component 'CrystalDecisions.Shared' could not be found.    
Warning 3 The referenced component 'CrystalDecisions.Windows.Forms' could not be found. 
Warning 4 Could not resolve this reference. Could not locate the assembly "CrystalDecisions.ReportSource, 
Version=10.2.3600.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=692fbea5521e1304, processorArchitecture=MSIL". 
Check to make sure the assembly exists on disk. If this reference is required by your code, you may get compilation errors. AdvancedTextBoxV2 
Warning 5 Could not resolve this reference. Could not locate the assembly "CrystalDecisions.Windows.Forms, 
Version=10.2.3600.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=692fbea5521e1304, processorArchitecture=MSIL". 
Check to make sure the assembly exists on disk. If this reference is required by your code, you may get compilation errors. AdvancedTextBoxV2 
Warning 6 Could not resolve this reference. Could not locate the assembly "CrystalDecisions.Shared, 
Version=10.2.3600.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=692fbea5521e1304, processorArchitecture=MSIL". 
Check to make sure the assembly exists on disk. If this reference is required by your code, you may get compilation errors. AdvancedTextBoxV2

As described in the demonstrations documentation in the user's guide, you should set "Copy local" to true for InventorNet and SbLinear.