Getting Started with J3DWorkbench
J3DWorkbench is, well, a
workbench (a place to build 3D content), made up of Views:
- Scenegraph View -- a
hierarchy of named objects in the 3D scene
- Canvas View -- one or many
windows or viewports into the 3D world
- Properties View -- a
hierarchy of properties for the currently-selected 3D object(s)
J3DWorkbench is a tool for building rich, interactive 3D content,
including geometry, textures, lights, animations, and particle-like
effects such as fire, smoke, and water.
Wizards
J3DWorkbench includes wizards for building a variety of configurable
shapes that you can combine into more complex objects. In addition,
objects (geometry) can be imported in a number of formats, such as
Collada and 3DS.
J3DWorkbench J3D File
A J3DWorkbench 'scene' is saved in a '.j3d' file, which can be loaded
and displayed by J3DWorkbench, or through any Java Swing/AWT
application, an Applet, or Java Webstart. In the latter cases, Java 3D
and the core J3DWorkbenchRuntime libraries must be packaged and
distributed with the scene. The '.j3d' format is a Java 3D binary
format, which is enriched by J3DWorkbench runtime classes that have
been serialized with the saved file.