Node Kits

• Why Node Kits?
• Hidden Children and SoNodeKitPath
• Node-Kit Classes
• Node-Kit Catalog
• Parts Created by Default
• Selecting Parts and Setting Values
• Other Methods: getPart() and setPart()
• Macros for Getting Parts
• Specifying Part Names
• Creating Paths to Parts
• Using List Parts
• Using Separator Kits to Create Motion Hierarchies
• Examples

Chapter Objectives. After reading this chapter, you'll be able to do the following:

• Use node kits in a scene graph, selecting the required parts and setting their values
• Explain the difference between a path, a full path, and a node-kit path
• Create a simple motion hierarchy using node kits This chapter describes node kits, which are a convenient mechanism for creating groupings of Inventor nodes. When you create a shape node such as an indexed triangle strip set, you usually also need at least a coordinate node, a material node, and a transform node. You may also want to specify drawing style and a material binding. Instead of creating each of these nodes individually, specifying values for their fields, and then arranging them into a subgraph, you can simply use an SoShapeKit, which already contains information on how these nodes should be arranged in the subgraph. You then use a special set of convenience methods to specify which nodes you want to use and to set and get the values of these nodes. This chapter introduces the concepts of node kits, node-kit catalogs, catalog entries, and hidden children.