Is there a template to develop new importers?

[jumpjack]

I am working to an importer/converter for the ancient format .VST for VISTA software; how could I add it to Online3dViewer, once ready? Is there a template to start from, or a tutorial?

I started with VisualBasic but now I am porting to JS.

[kovacsv]

There are two components here:

• Your importer in a separate repository.
  • You should make it available as a node.js package with a browser-ready bundle.
  • The best way is to make it able to generate a three.js compatible json file, so you can use the ConvertThreeGeometryToMesh function when implementing the importer in the viewer.
• The importer in Online 3D Viewer:
  • See this document for details: https://github.com/kovacsv/Online3DViewer/wiki/Implement-a-New-Importer.
  • It should reference your importer with the LoadExternalLibrary call.
  • The result json can be easily converted to the internal model format.

Further readings:

• Architectural documentation: https://github.com/kovacsv/Online3DViewer/wiki/Architectural-Documentation
• Rhino importer for reference: https://github.com/kovacsv/Online3DViewer/blob/master/source/engine/import/importer3dm.js

[jumpjack]

Unfortunately I am not a node.js programmer, isn't it possible to add a pure-javascript (browser-side) converter?

[kovacsv]

You can implement your own importer as a pure js library, and if it's ready I'm happy to help with the integration.

[jumpjack]

I am just at the beginning, I'll keep you informed. What should it return? An array of vertex? An object?

[kovacsv]

The easiest is if you use this format: https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/wiki/JSON-Geometry-format-4