HOOPS Visualize

HOOPS Visualize is a 3D computer graphics software designed to render graphics across both mobile and desktop platforms.^[2] HOOPS Visualize provides 3D Graphics API to render CAD models. It's part of the HOOPS 3D Application Framework SDK. Since June 2018 it's licensed via Siemens PLM Software.^[3]

The HOOPS 3D Graphics System was originally developed in the mid-1980s in the CADIF Lab at Cornell University. Ithaca Software later formed to commercialize the technology. Subsequently, HOOPS was widely adopted for Computer-Aided Design (CAD), Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) software.

In 1993, Autodesk, Inc. acquired Ithaca Software.^[4] In 1996, HOOPS was spun out of Autodesk by Tech Soft 3D, Inc.,^[5] which continues to develop and sell the HOOPS 3D Graphics System under the name HOOPS Visualize. The software is made available free of charge to educational institutions.

The program features a unified API that allows users to add interactive 3D visualization to both desktop and mobile applications. HOOPS Visualize provides a hierarchical scene management engine capable of handling a range of graphics entities, together with a graphics pipeline and interaction handling algorithms. It includes clash detection, multi-plane sectioning, and large model visualization, along with many other features.

Features include:

• Retained-mode graphics system with a supporting database
• Data is structured hierarchically in a scene graph^[6]
• Able to use many different contexts for rendering, including DirectX, OpenGL, as well as software and hardcopy
• Interfaces with C, C++, C#, and Java
• Out-of-core rendering mode for visualizing large point-cloud datasets
• Integrates with other engineering SDKs like ACIS, Parasolid, RealDWG, and HOOPS Exchange, as well as industry standard CAD formats
• PMI support, mark-up, model trees, point clouds
• Compatible with all major graphical user interfaces
• Platform independent input architecture^[7]

Internally it uses OpenGL or DirectX (Windows).^[3] Tech Soft 3D has developed its own framework for event handling.^[3]

The graphics kernel (Core Graphics) is based on the hierarchichal scene graph data structures.^[3]