I am proud to announce IVuPy-0.1 (I-View-Py). IVuPy is a Python extension module developed to write Python programs for 3D visualization of large data sets using Qt and PyQt. Python is extended by IVuPy with more than 600 classes of two of the Coin3D C++ class libraries: Coin and SoQt.
Coin is compatible with the Open Inventor API. Open Inventor is an object-oriented 3D toolkit built on OpenGL that provides a 3D scene database, a built-in event model for user interaction, and the ability to print objects and exchange data with other graphics formats. The SoQt library interfaces Coin to Qt. See http://www.coin3d.org for more information on Coin3D. IVuPy requires at least one of the Numerical Python extension modules: NumPy, Numeric, or numarray (IVuPy works with all of them at once). Data transfer between the Numerical Python arrays and the Coin data structures has been implemented by copying. The design of the Open Inventor API favors ease of use over performance. The API is a natural match for Python, and in my opinion it is fun to program with IVuPy. The performance penalty of the design choice is small. The first example at http://ivupy.sourceforge.net/examples.html demonstrates this: NumPy calculates a surface with a million nodes in 1.7 seconds and Coin3D redisplays the surface in 0.3 seconds on my Linux system with a 3.6 GHz Pentium and a nVidea graphics card (NV41.1). The Inventor Mentor ( http://www.google.com/search?q=inventor+mentor ) is essential for learning IVuPy. The IVuPy documentation supplements the Inventor Mentor. IVuPy includes all C++ examples from the Inventor Mentor and their Python translations. There are also more advanced examples to show the integration of IVuPy and PyQt. IVuPy has been used for almost 6 months on Linux and Windows in the development of a preprocessor for a finite element flow solver and has been proven to be very stable. Prerequisites for IVuPy are: - Python-2.4.x or -2.3.x - at least one of NumPy, numarray, or Numeric - Qt-3.3.x, -3.2.x, or -3.1.x - SIP-4.3.x or -4.2.1 - PyQt-3.15.x or -3.14.1 - Coin-2.4.4 or -2.4.3 - SoQt-1.3.0 or -1.2.0 IVuPy is licensed under the terms of the GPL. Contact me, if the GPL is an obstacle for you. http://ivupy.sourceforge.net is the home page of IVuPy. Have fun -- Gerard Vermeulen -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-announce-list Support the Python Software Foundation: http://www.python.org/psf/donations.html