How to make drawing programs.

M

metfuel

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I am wondering if someone could point me in the right direction for info pertaining to programming 2d and 3d applications. I am not an experienced programmer but I am slowly learning so that doesn't matter. Any info that would pertain to being able to do it in os x under cocoa or whatever even developing to run under x11.

I am a CAD student and am really tired of not having anything to be able to draw with on the mac, and know that other people want this also. The main market is for architects (which I am not), and the cad programs that are out there for mac are really lacking. I would like to impliment a command line that would allow the user to type the commands in as well as using the gui. as far as things as to what im looking to do is make a 2d application like autocad, and a 3d application like unigraphics and have them work together for people who do mechanical drawings, and work with parts all of the time.

thanks
 
I think you can use the DrawSprocket.Framework for 2D drawing and for 3D you will want to use OpenGL.Framework or GLUT.Framwork which is an OpenGL wrapper framework to help with creating GL windows & getting user input.

You could skip the 2D with DrawSprocket and go all OpenGL. OpenGL can draw 2D if you only draw on the X,Y plane and not the X,Z plane.

Apple provides free developer tools that will be able to build any type of application you want.
You can get them at developer.apple.com after signing up for a free developer account.

One great thing about those tools is in Interface Builder(what you can use to create your app's GUI), there is an OpenGL view which you can drag onto your interface.

You will want to familiarize yourself with OpenGL coding as well. While it's not a very complicated language, there is a lot you can do with it, and it requires you to think entirely in 3D.

Good luck!
 
Cool thanks for the start of where to look for some stuff. Do you know anything about the coding process? Like just basic things about making a straight line even, or a circle?
I'm just a newbie so by the time I get it done autocad will have an os x app out :)
 
Does Captain Code know about the coding process? :eek: Does Windows have bugs? :D ;)

Check out the Developer Tools site, and sign up for the newsletter. You should be able to find a number of resources to aid you.
 
I haven't done any drawing like what you want to do, but there is a TON of stuff on drawing at Apple's developer site.

drawing in 2D

drawing in 3D

There is a lot of info, but once you have the developer tools installed, you will be able to try out the examples and see how it all works.

You'll probably want to read up on the architecture of Objective-C and it's Model/View/Document architecture so you will know what all the classes are for.

That can be found on Apple's developer site as well.

Happy coding :D
 
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