Install MNHiddenLines ?

Register MNHiddenLines ?

Header files for MNHiddenLines ?

The theory of calculating hidden lines mathematically ?

Why a math hiddenbuffer and an opengl hiddenbuffer ?

Install MNHiddenLines ?

The first possibility is to use our installation program. Within everything will be installed and registered. Also quite a lot of samples are delivered and the whole documentation (help and pdf) will be installed.

The second way is to install it manually. With our mnhl_bin.zip, mnhl_doc.zip and mnhl_samp.zip.

1. Unpack all files to a folder e.g. c:\Program Files\MNHL

2. Copy MNHL.dll and axMNHiLines.dll to windows\ system running Win95/98 or windows\system32 running WinNT/2000.

3. Register the ActiveX library axMNHiLines.dll with the tregsvr by using: tregsvr c:\windows\system32\axMNHiLines.dll

4. Run the Sample1.exe and load an arr file you want to view. Switch to the math device with "Switch device kind" and load the same arr file again. Now you will see the shapes in the math hiddenlines buffer.

5. Check out the delivered Sample Delphi project to see the handling with the hiddenlines buffers.

Register MNHiddenLines ?

Whenever you add polygons to the math based hidden buffer a "register check" will be processed. When you have already registered the MNHiddenLines your application start normally. When you have NOT registered the MNHiddenLines you will be prompted to register by a register form. When you ignore the register form (by closing it), your application starts normally, but at each start of your application the register form appears - UNTIL YOU REGISTER.

How to register:

First of all - you have to buy the product in our shop.

You have two possiblities to register:

1. When you receive the confirmation mail after buying, you will have a link in this mail to register your MNHiddenLines online. Just click this link and you will see a register form in your internet browser, fill in the appropriate fields and choose "Confirm registration". You will immediatly receive a registration mail with your request key.

2. Or - when the register form comes up (when accessing the MNHiddenLines library), switch to folder "Register", enter a valid email address (the request key will be sent to this email address), enter the register name and click "Register online" button. Now you will be redirected to our online registration site. Fill in the appropriate fields and choose "Confirm registration". You will immediatly receive a registration mail with your request key.

What do i have to do with the keys:
When you start your application, based on MNHiddenLines, the register form will come up. Switch to folder "Register" and fill in the received request key. Please do also check that the register nameis the same as the one you have received. Click "Register" button and the MNHiddenLines are successfully registered.

What do i do when the registration fails:
You have always the possibility to send us a fax. Send the fulfilled MNHiddenLines_fax.txt (you will find it in your installation folder) to us (00423 377 10 85) and you will receive the needed keys as fast as possible. When the registration procedure tells you that the key is wrong - double check that the registered name and the request key do fit to the informations you have received. When nothing helps - try to uninstall the product - reinstall it and try the register process one more time.

Licence notes:
Please do carefully read the licence notes. They are located in your installation folder and you will see the licence notes during setup after this latest notes file.


Header files for MNHiddenLines ?

We do deliver header files for Delphi 3, 4, 5. Note that the header files for Delphi5 do also fit to Delphi 6. You can also use the pas files for other Borland products like C.

Additionally we deliver an ActiveX library called axMNHiLines.dll. When installing the product with our setup, the library is registered to Windows. You have to register the library in your developement IDE - then you can access the ActiveX control TaxMNHL or use the COMObjects classMNHiddenBuffer, classMNOglBuffer and finally classMNUtils. See our samples for the techniques.

The theory of calculating hidden lines mathematically ?

When programming graphics - a hidden lines algorithm is one of the most time consumpting part.

Basically you have to differ between pixel based and vector based hidden lines algorithms. In case of pixel based themes you will find quite fast ones, partwise directly aided by hardware accelerators to draw hidden lines. E.g. depth-sort, z-buffer or Planedividingalgorithms. Their time behaviour mainly depends on the raster size of the device. The number of polygonal surfaces doesn't influence the time factor extreme (see T. Rauber: Algorithmen in der Computergraphik, B.G. Teubner Stuttgart). On the other hand we have vector based algorithms - and their time factor is t = a*x^b, where x defines the number of lines, t is the time, and a and b are two qualitycoeffizients with 1 <= b <=2.

Handling vectorbased device vectorbased hiddenlines are a must. Our hidden lines algorithm is a pure vectorbased algorithm. It is served as a Windows dynamic link library (DLL), and so the DLL can be used by any developing languages for Microsoft Windows.

Basics: All shapes of a scene are made with 3D-polygonals. Their orientation defines on which side the material will be. Is the orientation positive - the material is will be on the right side.

Here we define the polygonals clockwise: ABCD, EFBA, BFGC, aso ...

Additionally a 3D polygon can have one or more holes. They have to lay in the same plane. The orientation of the holes have to be in the inverse orientation.

These 3D polygonals will be projected to a xy-plane defines by a projection base. Normally such a projectionbase is defines by a 4x4 matrix where the four coordinates define the homogenized coordinates of a 3D vertex. This projection can be coded by yourself. The most common projection we offer as source code (Normalprojection, axonometrie and
perspective).

The calculation of hidden lines mainly happens in the projection plane. For these calculations there has to be called a inverse projection. This inverse projection is rather easy and fast for the affine projections, but rather complicated when projecting in perspective view.

For calculation the coordinates for a output device (e.g. screen) you have to project the coordinates in to device coordinates. When calculating these coordinates a zoom factor can be realized where no recalculation of hidden lines would be neccessary.

Why a math hiddenbuffer and a opengl hiddenbuffer ?

Use the math based hiddenlines buffer to calculate and operate on vector data, change the scene and let the new data be calculated. Use the OpenGL based buffer to have fast operations on screen.