HOOPS Demo Viewer Application

HOOPS Demo Viewer is a non-commercial desktop application that is meant to evaluate some of the Techsoft3D toolkits, including HOOPS Exchange. It can be installed on any Windows (x64) platform and comes with a 30 days evaluation license. The HOOPS Demo Viewer will allow you to:

• Read and visualize your 3D CAD models (assemblies and parts) from all the 30+ CAD, standard and BIM formats that HOOPS Exchange supports.

• Access to the model structure (tree, views…), properties (meta-data), and other business critical information like Product Manufacturing Information (PMIs).

• Export the loaded models into standard formats such as OBJ, STEP, Parasolid and more

Download And Install

HOOPS Demo Viewer is available on Windows (x64) platform and can be downloaded from the HOOPS Exchange free evaluation page. If not already done, use this page to create a free evaluation user account to access to the HOOPS Exchange API as well to the HOOPS Demo Viewer.

If you already created an account, you can directly download HOOPS Demo Viewer here. Download will start immediately and will take from a few seconds to a few minutes (package is about 500 Mb).

User Interface

Command	Description
Axis Triad	Turns on/off the triad displayed in the 3D view
Nav Cube	Turns on/off the View navigation cube displayed in the 3D view
Home	Restores the initial view of the model
Model Browser	Turns on/off the model browser pane
Properties	Turns on/off the Properties pane
Rendering Mode	Changes the rendering mode (Shaded, Shaded with lines, Tessellated, Wireframe, Hidden lines)
Window Background Color	Enables you to select a background color for the document
Perspective Mode	Toggles the 3D display in perspective or orthographic projection
Orbit	Activate a 3D control tool (accessible from the Left Mouse Button)
Zoom Fit	Fits the visible parts to the screen
Mode	Faces + Edges: Toggles the selection mode (Faces + Edges, Edges, Faces)
Show Import Options	Display the import options

Loading a model

Open a file

You can also open a file by dragging it from Windows Explorer and dropping it into the application main view.

Recent files can also be re-opened from the Recent Document list.

To load a model, open a file from the File/Open dialog (or by using the CTRL-O shortcut):

If you checked the ‘Show Import Options’ check box before, a dialog appears upon load which allows you to specify import options. See the next subsection for an explanation on import options. Clicking Open without checking ‘Show Import Options’ will import the selected file with the import options which were specified last (or the default ones, if they were never specified).

Import Options

General Tab

The “General” tab allows you to select a reading mode and which entities have to be imported. These options options may vary depending on the format of file you’re opening.

Important notes:

• Depending of the format of the model you will read in HOOPS Demo Viewer, the available Reading options may vary.

• Not all the reading capabilities and options supported by HE are exposed in HOOPS Demo Viewer

• Some of the exposed options correspond to advanced functions that are provided by HE (like in the Conversion tab or like “Sew” (if proposed) from the General tab)

  • We advise you to not use these options in the context of this course

Reading modes

• Reading: Brep + Tessellation

  • Will extract the exact geometric definition of models from the CAD file and generate the tessellation (visualization information) from this geometry during the reading process

  • The Tessellation is calculated using the Tessellation parameter that are defined in the “Tessellation” tab

  • Both geometry and tessellation are kept in session.

• Reading: Tessellation

  • If tessellation exists in the read CAD file, it will be directly extracted, meaning that the Tessellation parameter that are defined in the “Tessellation” tab won’t impact the graphic quality

  • If tessellation doesn’t exist in the read CAD file, the exact geometric definition of the model is loaded and the tessellation is calculated using the Tessellation parameter that are defined in the “Tessellation” tab.

  • Once the tessellation is calculated, the exact geometric definition of the model is dropped.

• Reading: Features

  • Will read the exact geometry from the model as well as the design features that have been used to generate it.

    • Choosing this reading mode will import B-rep, tessellation, and a feature tree. The feature tree will be visible in the Model Browser, and you’ll be able to interact with it to inspect the CAD features and collect their properties. Note that when importing feature trees, sewing and incremental loading is not supported. If the user selects the feature trees reading mode, the above-mentioned options will be changed to conform with the limitations of feature trees. Features are only available for CATIAV5, Unigraphics and ProE (Creo) files. The option to import feature trees will not be presented when importing files of other types

Tessellation Tab

The “Predefined tessellation” drop down list provides you with 5 predefined levels of quality (from extra-low to extra high). Selecting “Custom” allows you to fine tune these settings.

• Chord ratio: Specifies the percentage of bounding box used to compute chord height. The value must be from 10 through 10,000.

• Chord height: Specifies the actual chord height value.

• Angle: Specifies the maximum angle between two contiguous segments of wire edges for every face. The value must be from 10 through 40.

PMI Tab

Import PMI: Check this box if you want to import the Product Manufacturing Informations from the CAD model

• Note that PMIs are available for the following CAD formats: CV5, NX, CREO, SolidWorks, STEP, JT

Interacting with the model

3D controls

The default operator for the HOOPS Demonstration Viewer allows the user to orbit, pan, zoom, zoom to extents and select.

• Orbiting around the Camera target is activated with the left mouse button. Alternatively, you can orbit around the position under the mouse cursor by pressing the middle mouse button (as long as geometry is present underneath the mouse cursor)

  • Panning is activated with the right mouse button

  • Zooming is activated through the mouse wheel

  • Zooming to extent is activated by a double left click on a portion of the main window not occupied by the model

  • Selection happens when the left mouse button goes up, if the location at which it goes up matches the location at which it went down

  • Hold shift to get dynamic highlighting

  • Press ‘H’ to hide

  • CTRL-A selects everything

• After switching operators, the user can go back to this operator by clicking on Orbit, on the HOME tab

Exporting the model

A file export operation can be initiated by pressing CTRL+S or by pressing File/Export:

The file name is automatically populated based on the name of the model you are trying to export. Its extension changes automatically if you select a different export type.

If the “Show Export Options” check box is checked, a dialog allowing the user to specify export options for the file that was selected will appear. Clicking Save without checking “Show Export Options” will export the selected file with the export options which were specified last (of the default ones, if they were never specified).

This is the Export Options dialog:

Once a successful export has been completed, the following fields are saved to the preference files, and will be remembered on subsequent export operations, even between different runs of the applications: the type of exports, the export options, the folder in which you saved your last export.

Once an export operation starts, it cannot be canceled by the user.