Geometric Objects

Overview

This chapter describes the QuickDraw 3D geometric objects and the functions you can use to manipulate them. Geometric objects form the basis of any three-dimensional model, so you need to know how to define (and perhaps also create and dispose of) geometric objects to render any image. QuickDraw 3D provides a rich set of geometric primitive objects, which you can group, copy, illuminate, texture, or otherwise modify as desired.

To use this chapter, you should already be familiar with the QuickDraw 3D class hierarchy, described in the chapter "QuickDraw 3D Objects." earlier in this book.

This chapter begins by describing the QuickDraw 3D geometric primitives. Then it shows how to create and manipulate instances of those primitives. The section "Geometric Objects Reference" provides a complete description of the geometric primitives and the routines you can use to create and manipulate them.

This chapter also provides definitions of the fundamental mathematical objects (points, vectors, matrices, quaternions, and so forth) that are used in defining QuickDraw 3D geometric objects. For routines that you can use to manipulate those basic mathematical objects, see the chapter "Mathematical Utilities." For routines that you can use to group geometric primitive objects into groups or collections, see the chapter "Group Objects" later in this book.