## Tutorial on Using and Writing a Loader for Own Geometry File Formats

> This applet demonstrates how to parse a geometry file in a user defined file format. As an example, this tutorial uses a very simple file format called abc which is defined solely for this tutorial. Note, JavaView does not support this file format except in this tutorial.

> The abc format has a comment header, followed by a list of vertices in R3 and an optional list of faces. The loader generates a point set or an element set depending on whether faces are supplied.

> A sample geometry file is cube.abc. To write an own parser simply modify this loader. It is a good idea to name the loader by the extension of your file format.

> The applet parameter filename may be a relative name or the URL of an abc geometry file.

> View source code:
> PaLoader.java of applet,
> PgAbcLoader.java of loader,
> cube.abc,
> cubePoints.abc

> Here is an example of a cube in the sample file format abc. Note the faces are optional in this dataset.

>     8
>     0.0 0.0 0.0
>     0.0 1.0 0.0
>     1.0 1.0 0.0
>     1.0 0.0 0.0
>     0.0 0.0 1.0
>     0.0 1.0 1.0
>     1.0 1.0 1.0
>     1.0 0.0 1.0
>     6
>     0 1 2 3
>     4 7 6 5
>     0 4 5 1
>     1 5 6 2
>     2 6 7 3
>     3 7 4 0