Getting Started

This guide will help you get started with the Envision Streaming Server.

There are 3 main parts of the Visualization Streamer:

  1. VizStreamer Service - A server application with a gRPC interface capable of receiving CAE display data and streaming it to the Stream Model client model.
  2. Server Application - An application pushing data to the VizStreamer Service.
  3. Client Application - A CEETRON Envision Web client-side app with the StreamModel capable of rendering the 3D models sent from the VizStreamer Service. The cee.vs module contains all the relevant classes. Please see the documentation for ServerSession to get you started with the client-side.

VizStreamer Service

The VizStreamer Service application is provided as part of the CEETRON Envision Web distribution.

In the folder: server/vsServer/bin you will find the executable files for the 4 supported platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac (ARM and Intel)).

To start the service, run the executable file for your platform.

The default port for the gRPC server is localhost:50051. If you want to change it, you can provide the “-a <address>:<port>” argument when starting the service.

Note: You need a license for CEETRON Envision Web to run the server. This license can be provided via command line options or environment variables. See the page License for more information.

Example:

./VsServiceGrpc -a localhost:12345

Server Application

You need an application that will feed the VizStreamer Service with data to show in the client application.

We have provided several examples of this in the folder: server/VsServer/Examples. Here you find examples for C++, C#, Python and Node.js.

To run the C++ example, you need to build the example first. In the folder server/VsServer/Examples/MinimalGrpcProxy you find a simple example that sends a simple model (quad + triangle) to the VizStreamer Service. To build the example, you need to have CMake installed.

Example:

cd server/VsServer/Examples/MinimalGrpcProxy
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make

./MinimalGrpcProxy

If you have the server running, you should see the following output:

Running MinimalAppGrpcProxy
Trying to connect to service at: localhost:50051
- Proxy has connected to service
- Alive response: Server is alive at: 2025-01-31 12:16:55

- Pushing a quad and triangle to the server...
- Create a frame and publish it...
- Done!

Press any key to shutdown the proxy and exit

Client-side Model

You need a web application to show the model provided from the VizStreamer Service. The VizStreamer specific classes for the client can be found in the cee.vs module. Here are the necessary classes to get you started:

  • ServerSession: To connect with the VizStreamer Service, an instance of the ServerSession object needs to be created.
  • StreamModel: A client-side model that needs to be created from a stream in the Service.
  • CloudSession: Applications will typically create a single instance of CloudSession for managing viewers. It also handles the animationFrameCallback which is essential for Envision to update and control animations.
  • Viewer: Handles the canvas, views, picking and other view related functions.

We provide a minimal example of this in the distribution folder Examples/MinimalVsClient. This example is a simple web application that connects to the VizStreamer Service and shows the model. If you open the Examples/MinimalVsClient/index.html file in a web browser, you should see the current model in the first stream of the Service.

It will connect to the VizStreamer Service REST endpoint, default on localhost:8080. If you want to change it, you can edit the createAppInstance() method and provide another address.