Introduction

In 2016 one of my customers asked me if I could somehow add the possibility to display 3D objects to her application.

After searching for a bit I ended up locating the required functionality in the GLScene project and figured I could wrap that as an ActiveX so that it can be consumed from within in DataFlex applications.


I'm very pleased to be able to say that my customer - Joretta Beanland from New Horizons Software is so generous to share this control with the community, so that now everybody can add this capability to their DataFlex apps.

What is available?

Well, ..you get it all.

First off, there's a DataFlex demo application that displays most of the exposed functionality.
The demo application already includes a compiled ActiveX control, so that you can experiment immediately.

Then there's the source code of the ActiveX control in Delphi, so that you can tweak it any way you need all by yourself.

The GLScene project itself is licensed under the Mozilla Public License and as such I figure it is easiest to keep that same license here.

This does not restrict commercial use in any way, except that you have to keep the author's license on any of the files.

The Demo workspace

First register the OCX file in the program's folder:

  regsvr32 -i STLViewer.ocx 

Then open the DataFlex workspace in the DataFlex Studio (the workspace is in DataFlex 19.0, but earlier DataFlex versions should work)

Run the demo application.

The above is just the standard teapot example with a slight adjusted color and an extra light source.

You can zoom (mouse scroll wheel), rotate, drag it to display the other side etcetera...

This is a wire frame view of the same teapot STL demo file.

Download

• STLViewerDemo workspace ~ 2.5MB
• STLViewer control ~ 56kB
• STL test files ~ 1MB

Subversion

http://svn.vdf-guidance.com/STLViewerDemo/trunk/STLViewer%20Demo

project page

http://projects.vdf-guidance.com/projects/stlviewer