Mesh Viewer

[ Description | 3D formats | Requirements | Screenshots | Example models | Downloads | Contact ]

The latest version is mview-0.3.0

Description

The Mesh Viewer is an easy to use lightweight application for displaying three dimensional models (triangular meshes) from a variety of file formats. It uses OpenGL to render the models.

The program was born under the need for quickly displaying reconstructed triangulated meshes. The Mesh Viewer is based on an idea and an early elementary implementation from Craig Robertson. The current version has been developed by Helmut Cantzler and various contributors.

Triangular meshes can be displayed texture mapped (optional with bilinear filtering), solid or as a wire frame (all lines or just the front lines). The surface normals of the triangles can be displayed optionally. Loaded models can be rotated, translated and scaled (all done with the mouse). The model is lighted by multiple light sources. Viewpoints can be saved. Screenshots of the model can be taken (as BMP, JPEG, PNG and so on). The program is able to calculate the texture map for the 3D model.

Supported 3D formats

Mesh Viewer supports the following 3D file formats:

A short description of the features and capabilities of some of the supported 3D formats can be found here.

Requirements

Mesh Viewer should compile and run under all Unix derivatives and Microsoft Windows. It was tested under Linux, Windows XP and Solaris.

Mesh Viewer requires a 3-button mouse (or emulation) in order to rotate (left button), translate (middle button) and zoom (right button) the model. It is recommended to use a 3D acceleration graphics card for displaying models. This is specially important for displaying models with texture. Linux on i386 with nVidia 3D acceleration cards (nVidia driver needed) is supposed to work fine.

The following libraries are required for using Mesh Viewer under Unix:

Most recent Linux distributions should include these libraries.

The following libraries are required for using Mesh Viewer under Microsoft Windows:

Building instructions for Linux and MS Windows can be found here.

Screenshots
Arenberg castle
Mummy
Stanford bunny
Example 3D models

totem.zip (574KB)

This is a textured 3D model of an Indian totem. The model was reconstructed by NRC Institute for Information Technology in Canada.

bigben.zip (616KB)

This is a textured 3D model of an miniature model of Big Ben (bell of the Palace of Westminster in London). The model was reconstructed by Toby Breckon.

bunny.zip (600KB)

This a destimated version of the Stanford bunny. The model was reconstructed by the Stanford Computer Graphics Laboratory.

Additional example models can be found here:
Downloads

Mesh Viewer is distributed under the terms of the LGPL. The changelog can be found here.

Source code

mview-src-0.3.0.tar.gz (607KB)

MS Windows executable

mview-win-0.3.0.zip (2.4MB)

The Windows executable already includes the required LibQT and LibJPEG (statically linked in) libraries.

Contact

Comments, suggestions or bugs can be sent to Helmut Cantzler < cantzler at gmx dot net > or Toby Breckon < toby dot breckon at cranfield dot ac dot uk >