Coin3D
| Coin3D | |
|---|---|
| Developer | Kongsberg Oil & Gas Technologies (formerly known as Kongsberg SIM) |
| Stable release | 4.0.6
/ October 10, 2025 |
| Repository |
|
| Written in | C++ |
| Engine | |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | scene graph API |
| License | BSD license |
| Website | coin3d |
Coin3D is a free and open-source implementation (library) of the Open Inventor API. Coin3D was originally developed and maintained as commercial software by the Norwegian company Kongsberg Oil & Gas Technologies (formerly Kongsberg SIM).[1] Coin3D, like Open Inventor, is a C++ object-oriented retained mode 3D graphics API used to provide a higher layer of programming for OpenGL. The API provides a number of common graphics rendering constructs to developers such as scene graphs to accomplish this. Coin3D is fully compatible with the Open Inventor API version 2.1.[1] Coin3D can be used to drive advanced visualization solutions in a wide range of application domains such as geo-modelling, CAD, medical visualization, robotics and presentation.
Uses
[edit | edit source]According to Kongsberg Oil & Gas Technologies, the software is used in a number of commercial and open-source, scientific visualization or 3D modeling projects such as OpenRAVE. Apple, for example, used Coin for 3D rendering in iWork '08 and later. FreeCAD relies on Coin3D for visualization.[2][3]
License history
[edit | edit source]From 1998 to 2011 Coin3D was developed and maintained by Systems in Motion (SIM), later renamed to Kongsberg SIM, later merged into the parent company Kongsberg Oil & Gas Technologies Kongsberg Gruppen. During this period Coin3D was available under a dual license scheme: GPL or a proprietary commercial license. Mid-2011, Kongsberg decided to end Coin3D as a commercial product due to diminishing demand and changing business focus. As a service to the user community Kongsberg re-licensed Coin3D under the less restrictive BSD 3-clause license.[1][4][5] Since then, the BSD licensed source code has been maintained by its users and is available at GitHub.[1]
Integration with GUI development kits
[edit | edit source]Several libraries exist that are designed to integrate Coin3D with GUI development environments.
- For developers targeting multi-platform - 'Quarter' provides a seamless integration with the Qt framework.
- For developers targeting Windows - 'SoWin' integrates with the Win32 API.
- For developers targeting Mac OS X - Sc21 provides integration with Apple's Cocoa framework
Legacy GUI bindings are Qt (SoQt), Win32 API (SoWin) and Motif (SoXt) are also maintained.
Language bindings
[edit | edit source]Coin3D is written in C++, but can be accessed from other programming languages using available bindings. Bindings have been developed for Python Pivy, Java and JavaScript.
External links
[edit | edit source]- Lua error in Module:Official_website at line 94: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- http://community.livejournal.com/coin3d_ru[permanent dead link] Coin3D programming community (RU)
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ a b c d Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Mr Parry's blog on his FreeCAD development. by Luke A. Parry, FreeCAD Developer
- ^ FreeCAD Third Party Libraries
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ November 1st 2011, Coin3D Professional Edition License End Of Life Letter