Kokomope Java Viewer Documentation
==================================

By Ara Knaian, 2/13/08, ara@mit.edu

This is a very simple Java application that 
displays a binary STL file in a window and
allows it to be spun, zoomed, and panned on.
The goal is to allow 3D viewing of objects
from a web application.

It watches the files it is displaying for 
changes to their modification time, and redownloads
them as changed, giving a dynamic update behavior.

It can also display a KAF (Kokompe Assembly File)
file, which is a simple text file listing a set
of STL file URL's, each with it's own modelview 
matrix and color.  It is smart about only downloading
each STL file once, even if it shown multiple times,
and about only re-downloading files when they are updated.



How to Use
==========

Left-click and drag to rotate.
Right-click and drag to pan.
Spin the mouse wheel to zoom.
Alternately, Press + and - on the keyboard to zoom, if you dont have a mousewheel.

How to Install / Integrate
==========================

This application is meant to be called
using Java Web Start.  A sample jnlp file
is checked into this directory.

If you place javaviewer.jar and 
Viewer.jnlp into a directory on a webserver.
when you go to Viewer.jnlp in a web browser,
the application should start.

The first thing it does it to load the 
binary STL file, via HTTP.  The URL
it uses is set by the property 
jnlp.stlurl, defined in the jnlp file.

You can also give the URL as the first argument
on the command line, for standalone use independent
of java web start. e.g.

java -classpath javaviewer.jar javaviewer.Viewer file://c:/foo.stl



To-Do
-----

* Help tab to display a screen indicating how
 to pan/zoom, etc.

* Buttons to click to snap to orthographic views

* A more compressed format to store trimeshes than
binary STL, to accelerate file loading over network.
Store vertex list and then integer references to verticies
instead.  (Make it check file extension / header to 
see what kind of file.)  Also needs support in trimesh
class that generates these.  Ideally, this format would
be designed to be compatible with GL vertex arrays, 
so we could just load the data and go with minimal 
manipulation on the client.

* Accleration of drawing using VBO's, if supported
by graphics card

* Reworking internals to be faster --- could just
take STL file straight out and set GL on it,
possibly, using ByteBuffers