This is the base class from which all nodekit nodes are derived. Nodekits provide a convenient mechanism for creating groups of scene graph nodes with some larger meaning. When you create a shape node such as an indexed face set, for example, you almost always precede it with a coordinate node. You may also want to add a transform node or specify properties with material, drawing style, material binding, etc. Instead of creating each of these nodes individually and then arranging them into a subgraph, you can use a nodekit of the appropriate type (in this case, OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoShapeKit).

Each class of nodekit has a nodekit catalog (OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoNodekitCatalog) that describes the nodes in the subgraph, referred to as parts . The catalog has an entry for each part, with information such as the partName , partType , and nullByDefault (if false the constructor creates it). The catalog also describes the arrangement of parts in the subgraph. (Other information is described below; a complete description is in the OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoNodekitCatalog reference page.)

If we regard the scene graph arrangement as a branching tree, then the top node (root) of the arrangement is always the nodekit itself. The leaf nodes are those at the bottom (containing no children). Some leaves of the tree are defined in the catalog to be public parts, while other leaves are private . All non-leaf parts are considered internal to the nodekit structure and are marked private. Public parts are accessible; they may be requested, changed, or set by the programmer with member functions such as OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoBaseKit.GetPart(System.String, System.Boolean). Private parts are not accessible, so methods such as OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoBaseKit.GetPart(System.String, System.Boolean) will have no effect on them. For example, if you call OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoBaseKit.GetPart(System.String, System.Boolean) to retrieve a private part, NULL will be returned even when the part exists.

Every nodekit reference page has a Parts section describing the function of each public part it adds to those inherited from its parent class. Also, a Catalog Parts section has tables of often-needed information from the catalog (part type, etc.). These tables include all public parts, both new and inherited. Only the public parts of a nodekit are described in the reference pages. Nodekits take care of the rest for you; they automatically arrange the subgraph, creating and deleting the private parts when necessary. (The OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoNodekitCatalog reference page has methods for finding out the part names and arrangement of all parts, both public and private.)

The nodekit catalog is a template shared by all instances of a class. They use the shared catalog as a guide when creating parts (i.e., constructing actual nodes), but each instance stores its own parts separately. Moreover, nodekits are not OIV.Inventor.Nodes.SoGroup nodes, and parts are added as hidden children ; you can only access parts with the methods of OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoBaseKit and its derived classes.

Any public part may be retrieved with OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoBaseKit.GetPart(System.String, System.Boolean), installed with OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoBaseKit.SetPart(System.String, OIV.Inventor.Nodes.SoNode), or removed by giving a NULL argument to OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoBaseKit.SetPart(System.String, OIV.Inventor.Nodes.SoNode). Paths from the nodekit down to a part can be created by OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoBaseKit.CreatePathToPart(System.String, System.Boolean, OIV.Inventor.SoPath).

By default, parts are not created until the user requests or sets them. This keeps the subgraph uncluttered and efficient for traversal. Additionally, removing a part (setting it to NULL) has the extra effect of removing any internal parts that are no longer needed.

Since nodekits hide their children, any OIV.Inventor.SoPath containing nodekits will end at the topmost nodekit. However, since nodekits may be nested within other nodekits, you may wish to cast an (OIV.Inventor.SoPath *) into an (OIV.Inventor.SoNodeKitPath *). The methods of OIV.Inventor.SoNodeKitPath allow you to view all nodekits that lie on the path (see the reference page for OIV.Inventor.SoNodeKitPath).

Public parts in the nodekit catalog fall into three categories:

regular nodes

nodekits , or nested nodekits (which may nest recursively). Any node which is public in a nested nodekit is accessible to the higher level nodekit(s) that contains it. The description of OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoBaseKit.GetPart(System.String, System.Boolean) below shows how to refer to nested parts by name (e.g., "appearance.material"). This works for any nodekit method that takes a part name for an argument.

lists , or list parts. These parts group together children ( list elements ) of a particular type or types. As with nested nodekits, you can refer to individual elements using notation described in OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoBaseKit.GetPart(System.String, System.Boolean) (e.g., "childList[0]", or if the list elements are in turn nodekits, "childList[2].transform").

When the catalog denotes that a part is a list, the part itself is always a node of type OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoNodeKitListPart. The catalog specifies a set of permissible listItemTypes and a listContainerType for that part. It gives this information to the OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoNodeKitListPart when it creates it. From then on, the list part will enforce type checking. So even if you retrieve the OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoNodeKitListPart with OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoBaseKit.GetPart(System.String, System.Boolean), you will not be able to add illegal children. (See the OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoNodeKitListPart reference page for more information). As an example, the callbackList part of OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoBaseKit has an OIV.Inventor.Nodes.SoSeparator container and allows only OIV.Inventor.Nodes.SoCallback and OIV.Inventor.Nodes.SoEventCallback nodes in the list. Children may be added, retrieved, and removed from an OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoNodeKitListPart node using methods that are similar to those of OIV.Inventor.Nodes.SoGroup. However, type-checking is strictly enforced.

Note that, although all public parts are leaves in the nodekit catalog, you are free to add children to them (assuming that they are groups, nodekits, or list parts). A part's status as a leaf in the catalog just means that the nodekit will not manage the part's children. For example, OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoWrapperKit has a part called contents with a part type of OIV.Inventor.Nodes.SoSeparator. You can put whatever you want underneath the separator, as long as contents itself is an OIV.Inventor.Nodes.SoSeparator.

Thus, a nodekit only controls a section of the scene graph. Above and below that section, anything goes.

However, when nodekits are nested, they effectively create a larger `known' section of the scene graph. For example, the appearance part of the OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoSeparatorKit is a leaf node in the OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoSeparatorKit catalog. But appearance is in turn an OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoAppearanceKit, containing parts such as material and drawStyle. The two nodekits combine to make an even larger template, which the OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoSeparatorKit can examine by looking at the catalogs for both classes. So an OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoSeparatorKit can successfully return a part named "material"; first it finds (or creates) the appearance part, then it gets the material by calling OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoBaseKit.GetPart(System.String, System.Boolean) on the appearance .

When the catalog defines the listItemTypes of a list part to be nodekits, the name-able space expands further. For example, OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoSeparatorKit has a part childList which permits only SoSeparatorKits, so each list element can be further searched. Hence the name "childList[0].childList[1].childList[2].material" is perfectly legal.

PARTS

(OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoNodeKitListPart) callbackList This is the only part that the base class OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoBaseKit creates. It is a public part that is inherited by all nodekits. It provides an easy way to add callbacks for a nodekit to use during action traversal (e.g. OIV.Inventor.Actions.SoHandleEventAction). It is a list part and may contain numerous OIV.Inventor.Nodes.SoCallback and/or OIV.Inventor.Nodes.SoEventCallback nodes.

FILE FORMAT/DEFAULT

BaseKit {

callbackList	NULL
boundingBoxIgnoring	false

}

ACTION BEHAVIOR

OIV.Inventor.Actions.SoGLRenderAction, OIV.Inventor.Actions.SoCallbackAction, OIV.Inventor.Actions.SoGetBoundingBoxAction, OIV.Inventor.Actions.SoHandleEventAction Behaves like an OIV.Inventor.Nodes.SoGroup. Traverses each child in order.

OIV.Inventor.Actions.SoRayPickAction Traverses each child in order. Then, for any pick containing the kit on its path, makes an OIV.Inventor.Details.SoNodeKitDetail as follows: Sets the "detailNodeKit" (retrievable with OIV.Inventor.Details.SoNodeKitDetail.GetNodeKit()) to refer itself. Sets the "detailPart" (retrievable with OIV.Inventor.Details.SoNodeKitDetail.GetPart()) to refer the kit's leaf-most part that lies on the pickPath. Sets the "detailPartName" (retrievable with OIV.Inventor.Details.SoNodeKitDetail.GetPartName()) to be the partName of that part, as found in the catalog.

Does not descend into nested nodekits. Each nodekit along the path is the "detailPart" in its parent's detail. However, if the pick path goes through a list part, the child is used for the "detailPart", and "detailPartName" is of the form "listName[i]".

OIV.Inventor.Actions.SoGetMatrixAction Behaves like an OIV.Inventor.Nodes.SoGroup. Does nothing unless the kit is in the middle of the path chain the action is being applied to. If so, the children up to and including the next node in the chain are traversed.

OIV.Inventor.Actions.SoSearchAction First, searches itself like an OIV.Inventor.Nodes.SoNode. Then, checks the value of OIV.Inventor.Nodekits.SoBaseKit.IsSearchingChildren(). If true, traverses the children in order. If false, returns.

OIV.Inventor.Actions.SoWriteAction Begins by writing out regular fields, then writes out the parts. A nodekit does not write out its parts the way an OIV.Inventor.Nodes.SoGroup writes out its children. Instead, it writes each part as an OIV.Inventor.Fields.SoSFNode field. First the partName is written, then the node being used for that part.

To keep the files terse, nodekits write out as few parts as possible. However, nodekits always write a part if another instance or a path is writing it. If this is not the case, parts are left out according to the following rules:

NULL parts only write if the catalog states they are created by default.

Empty OIV.Inventor.Nodes.SoGroup and OIV.Inventor.Nodes.SoSeparator nodes do not write.

Non-leaf parts only write if they have non-default field values.

List parts only write if they have children or if the container node has non-default field values.

Nested nodekit parts only write if they need to write one or more parts, or if they have non-default field values.

CATALOG PARTS

All Parts

Part Name	Part Type	Default Type	NULL Default
callbackList	NodeKitListPart		yes

Extra Information for List Parts from Above Table

Part Name	Container Type	Possible Types
callbackList	Separator	Callback, EventCallback

Reference