History     Changes to the Program   Version 2.11.7: January 19, 2010 Fixed several small problems. Version 2.11.6: October 9, 2009 Added scroll bars to the main window and various dialogs so that the windows will display on laptop computers using screen resolutions less than 1024 by 768 pixels. Adjust object module: When the 'rotate about origin' feature is selected the coordinate system axes will display in the center of the view window and the 3D object will disappear out of the view window if it is far enough away from the origin. Added an option to turn off the display of the axes so that the 3D object appears in the center of the view window. Added an option to display a background image in the OpenGL view window. Added an option to save UV texture coordinates when saving clip map objects to LWO files. Reduce polygons module: calculations are slightly faster and four radio buttons control how many vertices are added or deleted for each movement of the scroll button. Stage was modified. A texture image can be displayed on the stage and the stage can be used outside of the 'Avatar and Animation' module. Version 2.11.5: August 18, 2009 Toolbar changes: revised icons, added a popup toolbar and a toolbar under the Tool Palette, added variable gaps between the buttons and increased the custom toolbar layouts from 1 to 5. Added an optional lock to block the reset of the camera pivot point to the center of the object by clicking the middle mouse button with the cursor over an empty area of the view window. Added an option that allows the camera to rotate around the local coordinate system of the 3D object. Added additional light parameters for output to a Kerkythea scene file. Added a new control that simulates holding down the 'ctrl' key when using keyboard shortcuts. Added an option that allows polygons to be hid temporarily to see inside a mesh for the 'Modify Quads', 'Triangle Delete', 'Triangle Fracture' and 'Triangle Relocation' modules. Layers for 'holes' and 'shared edges' created from one water-tight check are automatically deleted when the next water-tight check is done if the names of those layers have not been changed. Added an option so that text from a DXF or VRML file can be saved to a DXF file as either 3D objects or as DXF TEXT entities. Added an option so that text in a VRML file can be converted to 3D objects. Version 2.11.4: June 1, 2009 Added an option so that an alpha channel mask can be saved to a Kerkythea scene file for each PNG image from a Chief Architect project. Version 2.11.3: May 5, 2009 Fixed a problem where long texture file names were being truncated when reading VRML files. Version 2.11.2: May 2, 2009 Added support for RWX avatar tag numbers from 55 to 81. Added support for VRML files including lights and cameras that were written by Chief Architect. Added writing of Kerkythea XML files. Camera and lights from a VRML 2 (97) file are written to the XML file. Version 2.11.1: February 16, 2009 Blocked warning messages about quads that should not have been displayed during the building of DXF regions and exploded blocks. Version 2.11.0: February 11, 2009 The help file was transferred to HTML Help from WinHelp so that the help file can be displayed on computers using the Vista operating system. Version 2.10.9: December 23, 2008 Added an option that creates a texture that contains the color for each of the layers that are selected. UV coordinates are created for every polygon for the meshes located on the selected layers. The selected layers can then be combined into a single layer. This feature also works in batch processing of files. Version 2.10.8: November 11, 2008 The X, Y and Z edit boxes have been activated for the 'Pivot', 'Move'. 'Rotate' and 'Scale' operations in the 'Adjust' group of controls on the 'Edit' page in the Tool Palette. Added an option to make all layers children of a selected layer. Fixed OpenGL viewer so that the object can not be stretched in the horizontal direction or not drawn at all when the size of the view window is changed. Added an option so that a material attribute from a layer can be global copied to either all layers or only to those layers selected for display in the view window. Version 2.10.7: October 28, 2008 Added creation of thumbnails using the command line. Added reading and writing of CableMod XML files. Added a new set of controls for creating, deleting and modifying quads on a per layer basis. Version 2.10.6: May 3, 2008 Added reading and writing of geometry and basic material properties only for Satellite Tool Kit, STK, files. Added reading of Tecplot ASCII files. Version 2.10.5: January 24, 2008 The water-tight check has an option to display the edges for holes on a new layer. 'Snap to Vertex' mode in 'Edit Vertices' module: If multiple vertices are selected, their positions remain relative to the first vertex when it is snapped to another vertex. Lasso a group of polygons by drawing an outline around them. Added a new feature to 'Edit Vertices' module: select an edge and divide the edge and its adjacent triangles into multiple triangles. Version 2.10.4: November 4, 2007 Added an option to convert the top of a mesh or a collection of meshes to a landscape. Added an option to save LWS files when creating objects containing clip maps which are saved to LightWave LWO files. Added partial reading of 3DMF files. 'Edit Vertices' module has been revised. Added write support for Collada DAE files. Fixed a problem with the normals written to a STL file. The "no indent" flags for the ASCII file formats have been replaced with one general "no indent" flag. Added an option to check if polygon meshes are water-tight. Added an option to erase either point clouds or lines from all layers. Added read support for NASTRAN BDF files. Version 2.10.3: July 17, 2007 Fixed a problem with the OpenGL viewer on Windows Vista where several textures were all displayed as the same texture. When reading a VRML file, the parser now detects when the space character is missing between URL and the following string. Problem with the JPEG component that occurred when the DLL was used with Borland C++ Builder 6 has been fixed. Version 2.10.2: May 23, 2007 Improved removal of messages from the operating system message queue which may aid program operation on Windows Vista. Added option to not reset zoom speed on file read and reload. The list of layer names can be displayed in either one column or multiple columns on the 'Layers' page in the 'Tool Palette'. Right click on camera field of view, camera pan, camera rotate and camera zoom buttons to reset to default state. The orientation of the object affects how the UV coordinates are projected onto the object for planar, cylindrical and spherical mapping. New controls allow for controlling the orientation of the object during texture creation. Version 2.10.1: March 10, 2007 Added optional display of textures blended with the colors from the triangle delete, triangle divide, triangle fracture and triangle relocation modules. Fixed a problem in the create UV coordinates module where the texture translation controls did not work correctly when the texture scale was less than 1.0. Added a routine for combining a series of short polyline segments into one polyline for the extrusion module. Improved routine for removing vertices from polylines used in the extrusion module. Added sharp edges when calculating normals for smooth rendering. Version 2.10.0: February 10, 2007 Small changes to code. Version 2.9.24: January 10, 2007 New feature creates polygon meshes for exploded solids that have been saved to a R12 (Release 12) DXF file. Primitive solids are not supported as AutoCAD does not write primitive solids to a R12 DXF file. Version 2.9.23: December 11, 2006 Snap to vertex has been added for polygon meshes. Revisions to existing camera controls plus addition of new camera controls. Fixed a problem when reading CDED and USGS 1-degree DEM files. Added display of vertex color maps (color per vertex) to the OpenGL viewer. Fixed a problem when reading RGB and not RGBA vertex color maps from a LWO file. Fixed a problem where floating point errors could happen when creating UV coordinates. RWX files are converted faster. Reading OBJ files: Fixed a problem where some data was lost because the line termination characters were changing in the file. Reading DXF files: Fixed a problem that caused some mesh data to be lost when DXF blocks were inserted in other DXF blocks. Fixed a problem that caused some computers to crash when shutting down the program. Version 2.9.22: October 7, 2006 Small changes to code. Version 2.9.21: July 25, 2006 Added writing of a 3D model to a XYZ file. Version 2.9.20: July 16, 2006 When reading LightWave LWO2 files and a layer using multiple surfaces is divided into several layers, the names for the new layers will be a combination of the original layer name plus the surface name instead of just the surface name. Fixed some errors that occurred when reading the "KamaKazi Kube" OBJ files. When writing RWX files, the Vertex keyword is written instead of the VertexExt keyword. Version 2.9.19: July 2, 2006 Added an option to write the texture file extension to RWX files. Added read and write support for the Collision command for RWX files. When reading OBJ files, if a material is used several times only one layer is now created instead of multiple layers. Version 2.9.18: May 3, 2006 Shortcut added: To deselect a layer, place the cursor over the layer in the OpenGL view window and while holding down both the 'shift' and 'ctrl' keys click the right mouse button. Fixed a problem when reading LightWave files. If a surface using a UV texture was assigned to more than one layer the textures were not displayed correctly. Added support for saving the 3D object rendered in the view window as a thumbnail bitmap. Also added a batch mode for creating thumbnails for all the 3D files in a folder. Added a routine to convert bitmap files to XYZ files. Added a batch routine to create objects containing clip maps and to save them as LightWave LWO files. Version 2.9.17: March 18, 2006 Fixed a problem when inserting blocks in DXF files. Quads could not be displayed correctly and exported to files. XGL, ZGL files: Added support for reading meshes stored as instances \ prototypes \ blocks in the file. Version 2.9.16: March 14, 2006 Fixed a problem with reading vertex normals from Wavefront OBJ files. Fixed reading of USGS SDTS files. The reading of this file format was not updated in version 2.9.15 when regions were added to the landscape database. In the 'Edit Vertices' module, scroll buttons have been added for moving or translating one or more vertices and for rotating and scaling of a group of vertices. Added a 'Triangle Delete' module so that triangles can be selected and deleted from the layers. Added a 'Triangle Fracture' module which fractures or divides each selected triangle on a layer into three triangles. The 'Divide Triangles' module was renamed 'Triangle Divide'. Animations: A range of frames can now be deleted. A range of frames can be copied and inserted at the currently selected frame. VRML files: Added support for reading texture file names and texture transforms in prototype nodes. Fixed a problem when reading the Switch node. Version 2.9.15: February 7, 2006 Added a new feature that allows for moving triangles and quads from one layer to either another layer or to a new layer. VRML files : Fixed a problem with reading the Switch node and another problem that could prevent the VRML material properties and the texture name from being applied to the layer. Fixed three problems (space in file name, quotation marks around file name and tab character) that could prevent the MTL file referenced in the OBJ file from being read. Added support for RWX avatar tag numbers from 43 to 54 which are scheduled for addition to Active Worlds browser 4.1. The landscape can be saved to a DXF file as contour lines with a user specified contour interval. A region or smaller area can be set for the landscape and the region can be saved to any of the 3D file formats. The size and position of the region can be changed without reloading the landscape file. Version 2.9.14: December 24, 2005 Fixed a problem that caused the OpenGL viewer to crash on computers using the Windows 9x Operating Systems. For any 3D object, a layer can have it's pivot point changed. The layer can be rotated or scaled about it's pivot point and be moved to a new position. Selected layers and their polygons, lines and points can be copied from one MDI document to the clipboard and then can be pasted into a different MDI document. An avatar can be written to a RenderWare RWX file in a format that can be converted by the rwxtobod.pl script to make a BOD file that can be used in the WorldsPlayer browser. Added writing of UV texture coordinates to Lightscape LP files. Fixed a problem where the wrong polygon flag was written for quads to LP files for Lightscape Version 3.2. Added reading of Tag Image File Format TIF files. Reading 3DS files: Fixed a problem created in version 2.9.12, where multiple materials on a layer could cause the key frame data to be applied to the wrong layer if duplicate layer names were created. Fixed a problem where one or more triangles could have their surface normal flipped, when a polygon with holes was triangulated. DXF files: Added support for the ELLIPSE entity: Fixed a problem that could cause the bulge to be deleted when duplicate vertices were deleted for the POLYLINE and LWPOLYLINE entities. Version 2.9.13: September 5, 2005 Texture files can be copied from their original folders to a new folder. An option allows supported texture file formats to be saved to another supported texture file format during the copy operation. Added an optional header for XYZ files. Adding reading and writing of ArcInfo ASCII Grid files. Added reading and writing of Portable Network Graphics, PNG, files and reading of Graphics Interchange Format, GIF, files. Added writing of Open Inventor 2.0 files. Version 2.9.12: June 19, 2005 Changed how the axis system is handled for STL files so that the object is not mirrored on the Z axis (Y axis in AccuTrans 3D) in STL files. RWX files: Tags for clumps and triangles / quads are now handled separately. All layers that contain multiple materials are now automatically divided when a file is read. Faster reading of a set of VRML files that contain thousands of IndexedFaceSet nodes and that were created by Pro/ENGINEER. The option to write a reversed polygon to 3D Studio, LightWave, VideoScape and Wavefront files to create double sided polygons has been removed. When writing RWX files, only the keyword 'AddMaterialMode Double' is used for double sided polygons. The option to write a reversed polygon to the file has been removed. Aligning surface normals: New buttons added plus the align modes can be toggled by holding down the shift key and clicking the left, middle and right mouse buttons. Select a new pivot point in the OpenGL window to rotate the object about by positioning the cursor over the spot and clicking the middle mouse button. To return the pivot point to the center of the object, position the cursor over an empty area of the view window and click the middle mouse button. New zoom mode added which uses the mouse scroll wheel. Also toggle between the 3 zoom speeds by holding down the shift key and moving the scroll wheel. Quads that are read from a file are now stored as both quads and triangles in the AccuTrans 3D database. Layers can now be selected in many modules by moving the cursor over the object in the view window and clicking the right mouse button. In the 'Layer Transfer' module, holding down the shift key and clicking the right mouse button also selects a layer. Added reading of SBP files produced by the ShopBot digital probe and converting the data to a polygon mesh. Version 2.9.11: March 1, 2005 The texture parameters used to create UV coordinates for each layer can now be read and saved to an AUV file. RWX prototype names are now used for the layer names. The optional layer name is now written after the RWX ClumpBegin command and used for the layer names when the file is later read by AccuTrans 3D. When adding files, the original file name is maintained as additional files are added. Added the option of using the file name as a prefix rather than a number. Added new options for adjusting layer names on the "Layers" menu. Fixed a problem where some polygons were not read from LightWave LWO2 files. Added "drag and drop" support to open files selected in Windows Explorer and dropped anywhere on the AccuTrans 3D window or on the AccuTrans 3D icon on the Windows Desktop. Version 2.9.10: released January 31, 2005 Added option to change texture or mask on one layer and simultaneously change the identical texture or mask used on other layers. Change the attributes on one layer and then copy them to all layers using the same texture and mask. Added writing of multiple layers as a single layer with multiple materials to DirectX, LightWave, RenderWare, Softimage, StereoLithography, trueSpace, XGL and ZGL files. Note: STL files only use one material. Version 2.9.9: released November 24, 2004 Added writing of tags to non avatar RWX files. Added reading and writing of RGB and RGBA vertex color maps for LightWave LWO2 files. Added reading of vertex color maps from VRML 1 files. Added reading and writing of vertex color maps for VRML 2 files. These additions allow for the reading of Lightscape lighting solutions stored in a VRML 1 file. Version 2.9.8: released October 22, 2004 Fixed a problem that crashed the OpenGL viewer on some computers and displayed a floating point error message. Added writing of animations to DirectX files. Version 2.9.7: released October 3, 2004 Revised the handling of material properties for layers. The "Layers->Global Attributes" menu command has now been discontinued. Point clouds are saved as particles to a Maya MA file. Regions created in AutoCAD and saved to a Release 12 DXF file are converted into triangles. Added reading of files produced by the MaxNC digital probe and converting the data to a polygon mesh. Version 2.9.6: released August 10, 2004 Added writing (but not reading) of the prelight command to RWX files. Added reading and writing of UV texture coordinates to 3DStudio ASC files. Creating UV coordinates: Added scroll buttons to adjust texture transform parameters: center, rotation, scale and translation. To identify a layer in the OpenGL window, move the cursor over the object and the layer name is shown in the status bar. Modified the triangle to quad routine. Version 2.9.5: released July 11, 2004 Changed method of writing global and batch layer attributes to *.prefs file. Added reading of XGL and ZGL files and writing of ZGL files. Added the option of resetting the Output Scale Factor to 1.0 on program startup. Changes for RWX files: Added support for filmstrip textures. "Texture Modes Lit" linked to emissiveRGB from other file formats. Default for TextureModes has been set to Lit when reading files. TextureMode command is now read the same as TextureModes command. "MaterialModes Double" and "MaterialMode Double" commands are now read. Comment lines can now be written at the start of the RWX file. For reading RWX files, added support for quads that are non convex. In the 'Adjust Object' module, added a "Snap To Ground" control which sets the lowest elevation of the object at ground level (Z = 0). Added a new preferences flag: Duplicate vertices can now either be removed (deleted) or not removed when a file is read or when merging vertices, edges and faces. Duplicate vertices and faces should not be removed from objects that will be used for morphing. Added an option when reading 3DS files to use or not use key frame data to scale, rotate, translate and clone the polygon meshes Version 2.9.4: released March 29, 2004 Setting number of decimal places for writing files: Added translation for RWX files and UV coordinates for all files. Changes for writing DirectX files. Textures now display correctly in MeshView by Microsoft. Version 2.9.3: released March 17, 2004 Added a routine to reduce the number of polygons in an object. The routine is based on code by Stan Melax. Version 2.9.2: released February 24, 2004 Text to 3D module now supports both single byte and two byte Unicode TrueType fonts. Saving of avatars to RWX files was changed so that the pelvis is centered at the origin and the lowest elevation of the avatar is set at ground level. Version 2.9.1: released February 16, 2004 Added writing of X3D files. Version 2.9.0: released February 8, 2004 The wildcard characters ( * and ? ) can now be used with file names in the batch conversion module. RWX files: Added read and write support for the 'AddMaterialMode Double' and 'RemoveMaterialMode Double' keywords. Added the optional display of the view / camera axes Added a function to divide every triangle on a layer into either 3, 4 or 6 triangles. Landscapes: Added support for CDED DEM files and MicroDEM MD files. A custom bitmap is now used in place of Windows OS bitmaps for large landscape bitmaps. Landscapes can now be displayed using the OpenGL viewer. The colors used for displaying the 2D contour map are also displayed on the 3D view of the landscape. OpenGL viewer displays texture maps on the landscape. UV coordinates can be saved to the 3D file formats that support them and are saved when the landscape is converted to a 3D object. Batch Conversion: the last file type selected for adding files is stored in the preferences file. Creating UV coordinates: Vertex normals are now automatically calculated. Added some options for planar mapping. Custom colors defined in the 'Windows Color' dialog are now saved in the preferences file. Version 2.8.21: released December 9, 2003 3DMF files: Added writing of TriMesh. Pixmaps can now be saved at pixel sizes of RGB16 and RGB24 as well as the previous RGB32. Added support for masks for RWX and 3DS files. Display of masks in the OpenGL viewer will be added at a later date. Reading 3DS files: Fixed the direction of surface normals for mirror objects. Added support for floating point colors and percentages for materials. AccuTrans 3D can now be associated with a file type in Windows Explorer so that right clicking on the file name, the 'Open with' menu item can be used to open the file in AccuTrans 3D. double clicking on the file name opens the file in AccuTrans 3D. Version 2.8.20: released November 15, 2003 Fixed a problem that had the CPU at 100% usage when an object was not being displayed in the view window. After clicking the 'OK' button in the 'Windows Save As' dialog box if the file name does not have a file extension one is added. Version 2.8.19: released November 12, 2003 Fixed a problem when reading avatars from RWX files: The joint position was overwritten by the center point of the layer. Added writing of XGL files. Layer material properties known as ambient, reflection, specular and transparency are represented by both RGB color properties and single value properties. The RGB color properties are now linked to the single value properties. Version 2.8.18: released November 1, 2003 Added the creation of UV texture coordinates based on planar, cylindrical and spherical texture mapping. Version 2.8.17: released October 24, 2003 Changed OpenGL viewer startup so that it does not execute until after the main window is displayed. 3DS Files: Objects are positioned and cloned according to data read from the key frame section of the file. Version 2.8.16: released October 16, 2003 Changes made for reading of DXF files for the extrusion module. VRML files: Added support for textures on the box, cone, cylinder and sphere primitives and the ElevationGrid node. Also added support for the TextureTransform node. When a landscape is written as an Elevation Grid node, UV texture coordinates can now be created and saved to the file. POV-Ray files: Changed to writing version 3.5 files and added writing of normals and UV texture coordinates. Version 2.8.15: released September 9, 2003 In the 'Adjust Object' module, added controls so that the location of the origin in the 3D object can be adjusted using the mouse. Version 2.8.14: released August 29, 2003 Landscape elevations can now be scaled. Elevations less than zero meters can now be saved to VistaPro files. Version 2.8.13: released August 17, 2003 Faster reading of LightWave files that use UV texture coordinates. Fixed a problem where the OpenGL viewer did not display large bitmaps. Version 2.8.12: released August 11, 2003 The 'Open As', 'DXF' and 'VRML' pages have been removed from the 'Tool Palette' and replaced with the 'Open With Options', 'Segments Per Arc' and 'VRML Primitives' dialog boxes. Added a vertical toolbar. Button size has been increased to 28 x 28 pixels for better visibility on screen sizes larger than 800 x 600. In the avatar module, the Green Man group of buttons with pictures of body parts on them has been replaced by one button with multiple hot spots. Each hot spot surrounds a body part. Added support for tags 31 to 42 for ActiveWorlds avatars. Tag numbers 30, 40, 100 and 200 can be set for the layers and saved to RWX files. When converting triangles to quads, the angle between the edges will now be checked. The check value is user adjustable. Version 2.8.11: released April 5, 2003 Fixed a problem where a binary SEQ file that started at frame 0 instead of frame 1 was not read. VRML files: Fixed problem where crease angles were not always read. Crease angles for primitives converted to 3D meshes can now be set. Added reading of PointSet nodes. Added reading of Inline nodes for VRML 1 files. Fixed problem when reading normals. Fixed problem with clockwise and counter clockwise ordering of vertex indices for triangles. Fixed a problem that occurred when texture file names contained spaces. Added flag to control writing of texture paths to files. Added option to display or not display warning messages when writing StereoLithography files. Fixed problem that prevented reading of some 3D Studio ASC files and another problem that prevented reading of some Imagine IOB files. Contour lines stored in DXF files can now be converted to a landscape. Code redone for checking size of objects being written to files and dividing objects that are too large. The default layer name used for constructing layer names when reading some file formats is now user adjustable. When a file is read, the layer names are no longer converted to all uppercase. Fixed problem where a NAN, not a number, present as a UV texture coordinate in a file caused a crash. Added writing of normals to Maya MA files. The group of controls for setting maximum limits for vertices, edges and triangles for file formats in the 'Save Object As' dialog box has been removed. Version 2.8.10: released February 2, 2003 Fixed a problem where negative UV texture coordinates were not correctly converted to positive values when writing RWX files. Added writing of DirectX files and Softimage dotXSI files. The version 3.5 dotXSI files were tested in the Softimage | XSI Viewer, version 3.6.1. Fixed problem where the material properties could be assigned to the wrong layer when dividing an object from a 3DS file. The 'Flip YZ' check box was removed from the 'Save Object As' dialog box. Version 2.8.9: released December 16, 2002 Viewpoint Scene Builder changed the reading of OBJ files some time between version 3.0.7.26 and 3.0.11.131. The Z coordinate of the vertices is now multiplied by -1.0 when written to OBJ files that will be used with MTX files. Version 2.8.8: released November 21, 2002 Adding reading of IFF files and 8, 16, 24 and 32 bit TGA files. Adding reading and writing of UV texture coordinates for the color channel of LW6+ files. XYZ files can now be read and stored as a point cloud without a polygon mesh being created for the vertices. The point cloud can be displayed in the OpenGL viewer but it can not be saved to any file formats. Due to a problem, quads are now deleted as a Lightscape file is read. 'Batch Convert': After the file has been read, added the option of either merging layers with same materials or merging all layers. Version 2.8.7: released October 2, 2002 Select the pages of file formats that will be displayed in the 'Global', 'Batch' and 'Layer Attributes' dialog boxes. Batch attributes can be selected and applied to all the layers after a 3D object has been read from a file. Changed the algorithm for reducing layer names to a maximum of 10 characters for 3DS files. Version 2.8.6: released September 24, 2002 Joint translations in avatar animations can be saved to Viewpoint MTX files. Added read and write support for Active Worlds SEQ files. Joints can now be translated / moved in avatar animations. Version 2.8.5: released September 5, 2002 Added reading of textures and UV coordinates for trueSpace COA files. DXF files: Faster reading. Added function to convert text to 3D objects for entities TEXT, ATTDEF, ATTRIB and DIMENSION. Added support for entities MTEXT and LWPOLYLINE. Interface Changes: Reinstalled context-sensitive help that was discontinued at version 2.5.0. Button size reduced from 24 x 24 to 20 x 20. Select font and font size. Select underline, bold and color for text on buttons. Added Windows color picker dialog box for selecting colors. Added a reload last file read function. Menus were reorganized. Added user adjustable upper and lower toolbars. Most keyboard shortcuts were temporarily discontinued until code for new user adjustable keyboard shortcuts is ready. Version 2.8.4: released June 18, 2002 Convert a landscape to a 3D mesh and then delete the triangles at the minimum elevation (the ocean). Version 2.8.3: released June 9, 2002 Added display of transparent materials to the OpenGL viewer. Fixed problem when reading trueSpace files that had duplicate object names and numbers: mesh and material data could be assigned to the wrong layer. Version 2.8.2: released June 2, 2002 Fixes problems writing 'double sided' and 2D lines to LW6+ files. Version 2.8.1: released May 23, 2002 Avatar module using OpenGL display only: Multiple avatars can be displayed and animated simultaneously. Avatar module using OpenGL display only: Ghost avatars can be displayed for the joint key frames that precede and follow the current frame that is being viewed. The number of ghost avatars to be displayed can be set plus the distance between the avatars can be changed. Avatar module: The '<' and '>' buttons for rotating joints, positioning joints and moving body parts has been replaced by a new '<>' button which works the same as the old buttons plus adds a new feature where moving the mouse, with the button depressed, changes the values and updates the avatar display in real time. 'Default Rotations' menu command and button for the 'Align Surface Normals' and 'Edit Points' modules has been replaced by three new buttons which 'Rotate', 'Zoom' and 'Pan' the camera. Changes for reading LW6 files. Version 2.8.0: released April 12, 2002 The previously separate avatar and animation tutorial was added to the help file. Vertex coordinates were switched from float back to double in the internal database for those users who need more accuracy. The OpenGL viewer now works for everything except landscapes. Version 2.7.37: released March 13, 2002 Vertex normals for smooth rendering can now be calculated. Smooth rendered surfaces are now displayed in the OpenGL viewer. Added read / write support for vertex normals for VRML and OBJ files. Write only support for MTX files. Version 2.7.36: released February 24, 2002 The OpenGL viewer now displays BMP and JPG textures. A list of directories containing texture files can now be created. After a file has been read, these directories are searched to find the correct path to the texture files. Version 2.7.35: released February 16, 2002 Inserting surface normals in the OpenGL display lists can cause a long delay when the display lists are being built for 3D objects that contain a large number of faces. A new option in preferences allows selecting between GL_COMPILE and GL_COMPILE_AND_EXECUTE modes so that the best mode for the graphics card can be chosen. Added writing of LW6 files and fixed a couple of problems when reading large LW6 files. Vertex coordinates were switched from double to float in the internal database to consume less memory. Version 2.7.33: released February 10, 2002 Added reading of USGS landscapes stored in DEM/SDTS files. Elevations for landscapes are now stored as floating point numbers instead of as integers in the internal database. Fixed a problem when creating the avatar hierarchy. Children of OBJ2, OBJ3, TAIL2, TAIL3 and TAIL4 were incorrectly made children of OBJ and TAIL. Version 2.7.32: released January 24, 2002 The 'triangles to quads' routine now checks for coplanar triangles that overlap and then does not combine them into a quad. Version 2.7.31: released January 22, 2002 2D lines are now written to 3DMF files. Version 2.7.30: released January 10 2002 When a 3D object is created from a BMP or IFF file, the object is now scaled by the Input Scale Factor. Fixed problem where the 'Preferences: Options' dialog box was hidden behind the main window after the 'Set Background and DXF Colors' dialog box was closed. Version 2.7.29: released January 8, 2002 Fixed an error in the triangles to quads routine. Version 2.7.28: released January 4, 2002 Quads are now written in batch mode. For Maya files, quads instead of triangles are written for landscapes and for other 3D objects either triangles or quads can be written to the file. Revised routines for aligning surface normals. Visible change is when one triangle of a quad has the surface normal flipped then the other triangle making up the quad is immediately flipped. Revised database and routines for triangles to quads. Less memory is required to store quads. Version 2.7.27: released December 23, 2001 Added support for writing Maya ma files. Files are read by Maya 2.5 Evaluation Version. Fixed Problem: Divide by zero error when saving an object with only one vertex. Fixed Problem: Access violation error when reading a file if a RWX prototype only contained one vertex. Fixed a problem when reading VRML proto nodes. Version 2.7.25: released December 4, 2001 Added a second category for XYZ files. The original and first category is called 'Mesh' and the new and second category is called 'Point Cloud'. The new category works the same as DXF point cloud files. Converting triangles to quads: Before joining two triangles the angle between the two surface normals is calculated and compared to a test value. The test value is user adjustable and can be set for 0.0 degrees for coplanar triangles to any other value to allow for some curvature in the quad. Added support for reading XYZ coordinates stored as POINT entities in a DXF (point cloud) file that was created by a sample probe measuring elevations on a real world object. Version 2.7.21: released November 8, 2001 Fixed problem: In the 'align surface normals' module with the 'default rotations' button depressed, the view window would not display the object correctly after a rotation using the mouse. Changed writing of meshes, triangles and quads to a 3DMF file so that the surface normals are now pointing in the correct direction. BeginGroup and EndGroup are no longer written to 3DMF files. A 3D object can now be written to a 3DMF file as a group of quads (4 sided polygons) as well as the previous mesh or group of triangles. Version 2.7.18: released November 1, 2001 Fixed problem: trueSpace 5.1 files could not be read. Version 2.7.17: released November 1, 2001 Added a new preferences flag: Duplicate faces can now either be removed (deleted) or not removed when a file is read or when merging vertices, edges and faces. Version 2.7.16: released October 22, 2001 Fixed a problem that caused some computers to go into an endless loop when reading VRML files. Version 2.7.14: released October 17, 2001 Changed from a Single Document Interface, SDI, to a Multiple Document Interface, MDI. The number of multiple documents has been initially limited to six documents. Added support for landscapes so that the coordinates can be written to either an ASCII or Binary XYZ file. Added support for reading binary XYZ files. Version 2.7.10: released October 4, 2001 The image displayed in the OpenGL viewer can now be saved to a BMP file. Changes were made so that new files could be loaded or a switch could be made to a different module (such as 'editing points', 'aligning surface normals', 'create avatar') without first having to exit the module being used. Version 2.7.9: released September 25, 2001 Fixed a problem, for some video cards in 1024 x 768 mode, where the controls were not positioned correctly in the window. Version 2.7.7: released September 24, 2001 For avatars, joint pivot points for layers without tag numbers are now read and written to RWX files. A bounding box, with user selectable color, can now be displayed around the entire object. Added an option to either reset or not reset to two sided rendering from one sided rendering when reading a new file. Hierarchy and joint pivot points for avatars are now read from a 3DS file. Added a one level undo function to the 'Edit Vertices' module. Move or pan the camera using the mouse. Press and hold the 'Ctrl' key and then press and hold the right mouse button. Moving the mouse pointer up or down or left or right will pan the camera. In the 'Edit Vertices' module, the number of vertices, edges and triangles on the selected layer are now displayed. 'Edit Vertices' and 'Align Surface Normals' modules: To rotate the entire object using the mouse, press and release the ' ` ' key located above the 'tab' key and to the left of the '1' key. The entire object can now be rotated using the mouse. When finished rotating the object, press and release the ' ` ' key to return either to editing vertices or aligning surface normals. Using this key is the same as clicking on the 'Default Rotations' button. Routine to detect key presses and releases has been relocated to improve key detection. Fixed problem: When in 'Edit Vertices' mode after selecting 'Edit2->Default Rotations', it could not be deselected. Location and size of the main window is now stored in the at3d.prefs file. The upper and lower horizontal toolbars can be positioned at the top or bottom of the main window. The 'Tool Palette' has been moved into the main window and can be placed on either the right or left side. Buttons can be displayed with and without boundary edges. Disabled buttons can be displayed as ghosted or invisible. Disabled menus and menu items can be displayed as ghosted or invisible. Version 2.7.5: released August 13, 2001 Preliminary support for reading Maya RTG files has been added. Several things still need to be added including parent-child hierarchy and animation support. Version 2.7.4: released August 12, 2001 Due to problems with reading a couple of file formats and current and future database changes, the option to NOT delete layer attributes when clearing a 3D object from memory has been discontinued. Layer attributes are now always deleted. Fixed a problem when reading avatars from a RWX file. If a 'Scale' command was placed before the first 'ClumpBegin' command, the joint position was not scaled. In the 'Layer Attributes' dialog box, click on the 'global copy' button associated with an attribute and the value of that attribute will be copied to all the other layers. In the 'Global Attributes' and 'Layer Attributes' dialog boxes, enter a new value in an edit box and press the 'Enter' key and the database is updated and the position of the scroll bar will change. If the 'Enter' key is not pressed the database is not updated. The database for material attributes for the layers has been extensively modified. The controls in the 'Global Attributes' and 'Layer Attributes' dialog boxes have been redesigned. Version 2.7.3: released July 26, 2001 Improved the conversion of polygons, using more than 4 edges, into triangles. Multi sided polygons that are twisted or have edges which cross over one another may not convert correctly. Fixed several problems with the division of RWX Clumps using multiple materials into multiple layers. Version 2.7.2: released July 24, 2001 Fixed problem: When inserting a SEQ file in an existing animation, memory overflow problem caused an access violation error. Version 2.7.0: released July 17, 2001 Added a new warning message. If the 3D object has been labeled as an avatar, a warning message will be given if the 3D object is not being saved to the file as an avatar. Avatar animation sequences can now be saved to a Viewpoint Scene MTX file. 'Make Avatar' module: Additional controls for 'Location', 'Altitude' and 'Facing Angle' have been added plus controls for a 'Pin To Floor' feature. 'Make Avatar' module: All of the layers in an avatar can now be made into joints and rotated. Added write support for Viewpoint Scene MTX files. The required Wavefront OBJ and MTL files are also written when the MTX file is created. Added a new file save feature so that each layer making up the 3D object can be saved to its own file. Select an output file name and the name of each layer is appended to that file name as the file is written. When an avatar animation is running in the OpenGL viewer the avatar can be rotated using the mouse in the 'Main' view window. Using buttons you can zoom in, zoom out, reset the zoom, select 'front', 'right', 'left', 'back', 'top' or 'bottom' views or switch joints using the body part/joint buttons. Short cut keys on the keyboard can also be used. When using the OpenGL viewer in the 'Make Avatar' module, three styles of avatars can be selected: wireframe, hidden wireframe and solid painted. The stage in the 'Make Avatar' module can now be wireframe or solid with colored squares. The grid size for the stage and the length of the stage in the X and Y directions can be changed. The color of the squares can be changed. Added a new viewer using OpenGL. This viewer is still under development. Fixed a problem in the 'Make Avatar' module: The program went into an endless loop when trying to change from the 'Move' page to another page or when clicking on the 'Make Joint Rotations Permanent' button on the 'Action' page. Fixed a line buffer overflow problem when reading Wavefront OBJ files created by Poser 4. Added writing quads with textures to Wavefront OBJ files. Added preliminary reading of LightWave 6 (LW02) files for 3D geometry only (no textures). Fixed: The surface normals were pointing in the wrong direction when a 3D object, but not a landscape, was written to a STL file. Added a new check box called 'Origin' in the 'Change Object 1' page. When this check box is checked, the object rotates about the origin rather than the center point of the object. Fixed a problem with reading multiple layers from a STL file. Added an option to select not writing the comments #texbegin and #texend to a RWX file. Fixed a problem where TextureModes were not being written or were written incorrectly to a RWX file. TextureModes can now be set in the 'Global Attributes' dialog box. Fixed a problem, that occurred under a certain condition, where the wrong vertex and UV pair was picked for a polygon in a RWX file. Removed unnecessary ClumpBegin and ClumpEnd pairs from some styles of RWX files. Textures are now written to all styles of RWX files including files that contain quads. Textures are now written to 3DMF files. Fixed some problems with reading and writing Wavefront OBJ files. Revised the internal database for the program. Extensive code changes due to the new method of addressing the database. Faster conversion of triangles to quads. Faster reading and writing of files. The user can now select which file formats will be displayed in the combo boxes and menus when reading and writing files. It is very easy and quick to switch between the full list and the user list of file formats. Landscapes can now be written as either ElevationGrid or IndexedFaceSet nodes to VRML files. Added reading of Extrusion and ElevationGrid nodes for VRML files. Added a new function so that a pseudo 2D surface can be extruded so that it can be made into a 3D object using the 3D Systems' StereoLithography Apparatus. Fixed problem when writing a RWX file. Under a certain condition 'NULL' was not written after the 'TextureModes' command. The file with this problem could not be read by some programs. Fixed problem when reading a RWX file. The matrix elements from the 'TransformJoint' command were saved to the wrong matrix. Fixed problem where 'pelvis' was not written as the name of the root joint in a SEQ file. Version 2.6.0: released November 12, 2000 Improved reading of VRML files. Security removed with Version 2.5.32. Added support for reading and writing textures for 3D Studio 3ds, RenderWare rwx, trueSpace cob, VRML 1 and VRML 2 wrl, and Wavefront obj files. The LINE entity can now be used instead of the POLYLINE entity when creating DXF files for the extrusion module. Added support for PROTO nodes for VRML files. This support will not work for all PROTO nodes. Changed security so that registered users can reinstall software without having to obtain a new password. Added read and write support for SEQ files for avatar animation sequences used with the Active Worlds browser. Revised the 'Create Avatar' module so that both key frames and inbetween frames for animations can be created. A VRML 2.0 IndexedFaceSet that uses multiple colors can now be divided into as many layers as there are unique colors. Fixed problem where the faces were not created properly when reading a VRML IndexedFaceSet that used a large number of polygons. Added write only for 3D Metafile file format. New command combines all layers using the same material properties into one layer. Revised material properties written to a VRML file. Added writing of some material properties to a 3D Studio file. Vary number of faces used with VRML cone, cylinder and sphere primitives. For avatars, a new command merges all children without tags with their tagged parent joint to form one object. Version 2.5.0: released February 9, 2000 Faster reading of files. Installed a security system. Added read and write support for RenderWare files including avatar support. Completed read and write support for RealiMation, Version 4.1, files. Completed read and write support for Lightscape files. Added new display modes to show an object as the camera is being rotated with the mouse. Added a routine to reduce the number of vertices used in an outline formed from a polyline or a TrueType font. Program code was switched from Borland C++ Version 5.02 using OWL (Object Windows Library) to Borland C++ Builder 3 using RAD (Rapid Application Development) Version 2.4: released June 18, 1998 Removed security system. Added preliminary read and write support for RealiMation, Version 4.1, files. Work on this format will be completed in version 2.5 Added preliminary read support for Lightscape files. Work on this format will be completed in version 2.5. If a 3D Studio file contains material descriptions, the rgb color is taken from the material description and assigned to the layer. Now adjusting for a different coordinate system when reading and writing VRML files. Fixed Problem: Correct colors were not written for 2D lines in a VRML file. Correct colors were not displayed for 2D lines read from a VRML file. 2D lines were not read from a Version 1.0 VRML file. Added a simple command line interface to read one file and save it as the last file type saved in the at3d.prefs file. Fixed Problem: In batch mode, the 3D object data could not be written to some file formats such as VRML Fixed Problem: A DXF pen number greater than 255 caused a crash. Version 2.3: released October 28, 1997 Changed security so that the ASCII codes for the password can be used instead of the password to activate the save module. Fixed two problems when reading 3D Studio ASCII files: Could not read a file that started with a blank line and found a period after "Tri-mesh" instead of a comma. Version 2.2: released October 16, 1997 Added options to the security system so that the program can be moved between folders on the same computer or transferred to another computer system. Added support for 3D Studio .prj files. Added support for XYZ files. This is an ASCII file which lists the x, y and z coordinates of an M by N array of vertices. After the coordinates are read, they can either be saved as a polyline mesh to a DXF file or converted to a 3D object which can be written to any supported file format. Added read support for United States Geological Survey (USGS) digital elevation model (DEM) landscapes and GTOPO30 landscapes. A new menu item, Edit->Object, has been added. Permanent changes to the database can now be made for the entire object. The object can be repositioned, scaled, mirrored and rotated on any axis in 90 degree increments. Batch mode was changed so that a series of DXF files can be read and automatically extruded and aligned and saved as new files. Top and bottom faces can be added / deleted from all extrusions done in batch mode. For a polyline used for the upper and lower bevel profiles it is hard to specify the starting end of the polyline in AutoCAD. It is possible to extrude all possible combinations of upper and lower bevels by switching the starting end on the polyline automatically. Extrude TrueType font module has been changed. Text can still be converted to a 3D object but know the text can also be converted to a 3D stencil. Both the 3D regular object and the stencil can be created at the same time so that the text can be made to appear as though it was embossed onto a surface. Fixed Problem: When the 'By Color' check box was selected in the 'Save Object As' dialog box, this feature did not work correctly for all file formats. Added write support only for POV-Ray Version 3.0 files. Added read / write support for VRML 1.0 and 2.0 files in ASCII format. The read module will fail when reading some VRML files as not all the possible conditions have been supported. Fixed Problem: trueSpace 3 files could not be read. Fixed Problem: When saving files the center point was not subtracted correctly from the coordinates. Fixed Problem: Surface normals were set correctly in the alignment module but were then written in the wrong order to a 3D Studio file making all faces invisible. Fixed Problem: When the 'Flip YZ' check box was checked in the 'Save Object As' dialog box, the Y and Z coordinates were not exchanged with each other when writing DXF files. Added read / write support for StereoLithography files. Fixed Problem: Some LightWave files contained surfaces with duplicate names which caused a crash after the file was read. Duplicate names for surfaces are now detected. Fixed Problem: When a file was written and an object with too many vertices, edges or faces was split into two or more objects, the attributes from the original layer were not copied to the new layers that were created for the new objects. Also there was a problem with duplicate names being created for some layers. Version 2.1: released June 16, 1997 Added support for the new file format for Imagine which allows the vertices, edges and faces to exceed the 30k limit. The new file chunks PNT2, EDG2, FAC2, CLS2, RLS2 and TLS2 which replace chunks PNTS, EDGE, FACE, CLST, RLST and TLST are supported. The new file chunks SHP2, SPC2 and PRP2 which replace chunks SHAP, SPC1 and PRP1 are not supported. Version 2.0: released May 13, 1997 A security system was added so that a fully working version of the program could be released for an evaluation period. A password enables the program after the trial period has expired. Adjacent and coplanar triangles can be combined to form quads (4 sided polygons). The four sided polygons can be saved to various file formats. DXF files can be read and stored as four sided polygons. The four sided polygons can be saved to various file formats. Lightscape prefers to use DXF files that contain 4 sided polygons. Fixed crashing problem with an Imagine file that did not contain a NAME chunk. A text string can have a TrueType font assigned to it. The text can be converted to a 3D outline which can be sub-divided into triangles and then extruded with an unlimited amount of bevels used. Read / Write support (very limited) for Wavefront files was added. Read / Write support for trueSpace files was added. Read / Write support for 3D Studio files was added. AT3D preferences file is now at Version 3. Landscapes in the form of digital elevation map (DEM) files from Scenery Animator and VistaPro can be exchanged with one another and written to other 3D formats. DEM data can be modified before the data is saved. IFF or BMP files can be converted to landscapes or to 3D outlines. Landscapes can be modified by making changes on a 2D contour map. Outlines from IFF or BMP files and simple polylines from DXF files can be extruded with unlimited number of bevels applied. A modeler was added to aid in designing the bevels. Viewer changed. 3D objects when rotated with the mouse are shown as boundary boxes for quick positioning. Internal program data storage was changed to make it easier to design the modeler for the extrusion bevels. Memory allocation and deallocation speed is faster also. Merge function added which removes duplicate vertices, edges and faces. Align function added which semi-automatically orients surface normals so that faces can be made visible in LightWave and VideoScape. 2D and 3D entities are now read and written to all 3D file formats. Improved routine (but still too slow) for sub-dividing LightWave or VideoScape multi-sided polygons into triangles. When a LightWave or VideoScape file is read the polygons are sub-divided into triangles and also kept in their original form (as is). The as is polygons can be rewritten to LightWave or VideoScape files as the original multi-sided polygons. Surface details are now read from LightWave or VideoScape files and converted either to lines or to triangles. Fixed crashes that occurred when reading some LightWave files. Support for DXF files from Corel Draw. Polylines from Corel Draw appear to be closed but they are not. Turn on the toggle for automatically closing simple polylines before reading the DXF file from Corel Draw. Polyline is now closed. When the file is saved to LightWave the DXF closed polyline is saved as a proper multi- sided polygon rather than as a series of lines. Two or more polylines that are completely inside one another can be joined together. For example, the capital letter 'D' consists of two polylines. Select these two polylines and then join them to create only one polygon. Any polygon can be sub-divided into triangles. Fixed three problems with INSERTing blocks from DXF files: Blocks inserted inside blocks did not work sometimes. Some blocks were inserted in the wrong location. Rotated arrays of blocks were not positioned correctly. Minor changes to facilitate the reading of DXF files that were not created by AutoCAD. Added additional support for special DXF to DXF transfer. Fixed problem with not allocating the correct number of vertices when converting DXF arcs. Version 1.6: released March 14, 1994 Viewer added to display object in wireframe or colored polygons. Changed routine that decodes DXF polyline to eliminate extra vertices, edges and faces. Some programs do not include a layer name with each DXF entity and this caused an error when decoding. A default name is now entered. Version 1.5: released January 13, 1994 Made changes to the calculations for polylines with width. Made changes to the special DXF to DXF conversion routine. Faster reading for LightWave, VideoScape, Sculpt and DXF Polyface objects. When memory was low and the 'Out of Memory' requester was shown, a 'Recoverable Alert' warning was given by AmigaDOS (only when the programs Enforcer and Mungwall were operating at the same time) when AccuTrans 3D closed the AmigaGuide library. This problem is fixed. Version 1.4: released October 2, 1993 Changed interface so that fewer requester windows open when reading and writing files. Special DXF to DXF conversion routine added. DXF files can contain errors and when this occurs AutoCAD will not load them. This routine attempts to patch the errors. Also files can be sorted and saved by layer color number rather than by layer name. Version 1.3: released August 6, 1993 2D entities can now be saved to a DXF file as well as to an Imagine file. Fixed problem: A polyline with width that was closed and had the last line segment, joining the last vertex to the first vertex, parallel to either the X or Y axis showed no width for that segment. Fixed Problem: A polygon mesh closed in the M and N directions had some faces calculated wrong. This problem was caused by the optimizer in SAS/C Version 6.3. Slight change of the code corrected the problem. AT3D preferences file is now at Version 2. The chunk ID is now followed by a chunk size (a ULONG) giving the number of bytes which follow in the chunk. Structure LayerPrefs has been changed to make it easier to add new attributes and for more efficient program code (code size is now reduced). Version 1 files can not be read and there is no conversion program supplied to change Version 1 files. Version 1.2: released July 28, 1993 Compiler changed from SAS/C Version 6.2 to 6.3. Fixed problem with multi-colored Imagine/Turbo Silver 3.0 objects where certain combination of names could prevent some data from being saved. Reduced size of code with some minor speed improvements. Version 1.1: released July 22, 1993 Reading of files is now faster. DXF files are read twice as fast except for decoding Polyface entities. Other file types read more than twice as fast. When decoding and checking for duplicate edges for LightWave and VideoScape files, this algorithm is still slow. An ASCII text file can now be written after an object has been saved which contains the names of the files opened and saved, the input and output scale factors, center point adjustment, etc. Fixed problem that you could not exit 'Building DXF Blocks' if an 'Out of Memory' warning was given. Version 1.0: released July 20, 1993 On-line help has changes not listed in the printed manual.