Introduction to QuickDraw 3D

Overview

This chapter provides an introduction to QuickDraw 3D, a graphics library that you can use to manage virtually all aspects of 3D graphics, including modeling, rendering, and data storage. For example, you can use QuickDraw 3D to define three-dimensional models, apply colors or other attributes to parts of the models, and create images of those models. QuickDraw 3D provides a large set of capabilities for creating and interacting with models of 3D objects. In addition, QuickDraw 3D is easily extensible in many ways, so you can, if necessary, add capabilities that are not provided by QuickDraw 3D.

This chapter begins by describing the basic capabilities provided by QuickDraw 3D. Then it describes the application programming interfaces that you use to create and manipulate QuickDraw 3D objects. The section "Using QuickDraw 3D" provides source code examples illustrating how to use QuickDraw 3D to define, configure, and render simple three-dimensional objects. The section "QuickDraw 3D Reference" , describes the QuickDraw 3D routines you need to use to initialize and terminate QuickDraw 3D, as well as some basic routines for managing sets, shapes, and strings.