Developer Documentation

Using IO::Options

This example shows:

- How to control the behaviour of `Mesh::IO::read_mesh()`,
- How to control the behaviour of `Mesh::IO::write_mesh()`.

The class `OpenMesh::IO::Options` can be used when reading/writing a mesh. It controls the behaviour of the reader/writer modules by means of enabled/disabled bits in a bitset. The class provides an interface for enabling, disabling and verifying the bits in the set. We distinguish between

1. mode bits - control binary reading/writing
   - Options::Binary
   - Options::MSB
   - Options::LSB
   - Options::Swap (MSB|LSB)
2. property bits - controls which standard properties to read/write
   - Options::VertexNormal
   - Options::VertexTexCoord
   - Options::VertexColor
   - Options::FaceNormal
   - Options::FaceColor
   - Options::FaceTexCoord
   - Options::ColorAlpha
   - Options::ColorFloat
   - Options::Custom

These bits have different effects when reading or writing. The file format itself is selected by the extension of the filename.

Please take into account, each mesh has to request the standard property before loading with the corresponding option. For instance, if you enable Options::VertexNormal, your mesh has to request vertex normals. Otherwise, they will not be written into the mesh.

Note
  Face Tex Coords will not be saved as a property per face, but as a property per halfedge. Therefore, you have to request the "halfedge_texcoords2D" property

The OBJ-reader can also read information about the textures in the *.mtl file, if available. These texture information (includes texturename and index) will be saved in the property of type:

OpenMesh::MPropHandleT< std::map< int, std::string > >

with the name:

"TextureMapping"

This property will be automatically created, if textures were found. There is no other option you have to define for reading texture information beside of the request of the property.
Additionally, the OBJ loader writes the texture index per face, if the property "face_texture_index" is requested. The texture index is the same index as the index written in the texture mapping. So, it is possible to get the name of the texture from a face via its texture index over the texture mapping property to the texture name. But remember, you have to request the face texture index property first before loading the mesh.

Below in the table you can see what options are suported by which reader/writer (it is possible that the data format can support more). ASCII is not a real option and will be selected, if binary was not defined.

Reader/Writer Feature Support List
Format/Option | ASCII | Binary | MSB | LSB | Swap | VertexNormal | VertexColor | VertexTexCoord | EdgeColor | FaceNormal | FaceColor | FaceTexCoord | ColorAlpha | ColorFloat | Custom
OBJ | x |  |  |  |  | x | x *) | x |  | x | x | x |  |  |
OFF | x | x |  | x |  | x | x | x |  |  | x |  | x | x |
PLY | x | x | x | x |  | x | x | x |  |  | x |  | x | x | x **)
OM |  | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |  | x | x |  |  |  | x (Storing custom properties )
STL | x | x |  | x |  |  |  |  |  | x |  |  |  |  |
VTK ***) | x |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

*) can read the non-standard extension vertex colors (floats only):

- defined with vc (e.g. used by meshlab)
- colors encoded in a vertex line (v followed by 6 values)

**) only vertex and face properties with fundamental types. Take into account, that you don't have to request these custom properties before loading.

***) no reader exists

The program does not more than providing a command line based interface to select the option bits for reading/writing and to request mesh properties. Hence illegal combinations are possible and will result in a failure of the program. (The input file won't be damaged in this case, but be careful where you put the ouput file!)

##### Reading meshes

When reading a file the mode bits are used to give the reader an advice or hint. Depending on the format we can help the reader to interpret the data correctly. First of all we can tell it that the file contains binary data.

ropt += IO::Options::Binary;

Further on we can ask the reader two swap the byte-order.

ropt += IO::Options::Swap;

(Both can be done via the command line with the options -b and -s, respectively.)

By default the geometry and the topology is restored from the file. The file might contain more, especially it could provide normals or texture coordinates. We can examine the property bits after reading to find out what else is available:

ropt.check(IO::Options::VertexNormal)

If a property bit is set it does not mean, that it has been restored as well. The property must have been requested prior reading the file. (The demo program offers the command line option `-Xv`[nct] and `-Xf`[nc] to request vertex and face properties.)

##### Writing meshes

When writing the mesh the mode bits apparently control whether to use the binary variant and the desired byte-ordering. For example, if we choose binary mode and want to swap the byte order, we set

wopt += IO::Options::Binary;
wopt += IO::Options::Swap;

If the format does not specify the byte order the system byte order is used. If the format does not support binary storage, the mode bits are ignored.

If the format supports storing additional information, which are conform with the standard properties, we can use the property bits to tell the writer what we would like to have stored. If we would like to store the vertex normals we simply set

wopt += IO::Options::VertexNormal;

Finally we can write the data to the file

if ( !IO::write_mesh( mesh, argv[optind+1], wopt ) )

The method returns false on error, which might have three different reasons:

1. the option is not supported by the choosen format
2. a selected standard property is not available
3. a 'system' error like
   - could not open the file due to access rights
   - disk space exhausted during write
   - ...

The complete source looks like this:

#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
// -------------------- OpenMesh
#include <OpenMesh/Core/IO/MeshIO.hh>
#include <OpenMesh/Core/Mesh/TriMesh_ArrayKernelT.hh>
#include <OpenMesh/Tools/Utils/getopt.h>
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
using namespace OpenMesh;
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
typedef TriMesh_ArrayKernelT<> MyMesh;
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#define CHKROPT( Option ) \
std::cout << " provides " << #Option \
<< (ropt.check(IO::Options:: Option)?": yes\n":": no\n")
#define CHKWOPT( Option ) \
std::cout << " write " << #Option \
<< (wopt.check(IO::Options:: Option)?": yes\n":": no\n")
#define MESHOPT( msg, tf ) \
std::cout << " " << msg << ": " << ((tf)?"yes\n":"no\n")
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
void parse_commandline( int _argc, char **_argv, MyMesh& _mesh,
IO::Options &ropt, IO::Options &wopt );
void usage_and_exit(int xcode);
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
MyMesh mesh;
IO::Options ropt, wopt;
// -------------------- evaluate commandline
parse_commandline( argc, argv, mesh, ropt, wopt );
// -------------------- read mesh
if ( ! IO::read_mesh(mesh,argv[optind], ropt))
{
std::cerr << "Error loading mesh from file " << argv[optind] << std::endl;
return 1;
}
// -------------------- show options
std::cout << "File " << argv[optind] << std::endl;
std::cout << " is binary: "
<< (ropt.check(IO::Options::Binary) ? " yes\n" : " no\n");
std::cout << " byte order: ";
if (ropt.check(IO::Options::Swap))
std::cout << "swapped\n";
else if (ropt.check(IO::Options::LSB))
std::cout << "little endian\n";
else if (ropt.check(IO::Options::MSB))
std::cout << "big endian\n";
else
std::cout << "don't care\n";
std::cout << " provides VertexNormal"
<< ( // strange layout for doxygen
ropt.check(IO::Options::VertexNormal)
? ": yes\n":": no\n");
CHKROPT( VertexColor );
CHKROPT( VertexTexCoord );
CHKROPT( FaceNormal );
CHKROPT( FaceColor );
// -------------------- mesh stats
std::cout << "# Vertices: " << mesh.n_vertices() << std::endl;
std::cout << "# Edges : " << mesh.n_faces() << std::endl;
std::cout << "# Faces : " << mesh.n_faces() << std::endl;
// -------------------- show write options
std::cout << "Selected write options:\n";
std::cout << " use binary: "
<< (wopt.check(IO::Options::Binary) ? " yes\n" : " no\n");
std::cout << " byte order: ";
if (wopt.check(IO::Options::Swap))
std::cout << "swapped\n";
else if (wopt.check(IO::Options::LSB))
std::cout << "little endian\n";
else if (wopt.check(IO::Options::MSB))
std::cout << "big endian\n";
else
std::cout << "don't care\n";
std::cout << " write VertexNormal"
<< (wopt.check(IO::Options::VertexNormal) ? ": yes\n":": no\n");
CHKWOPT( VertexColor );
CHKWOPT( VertexTexCoord );
CHKWOPT( FaceNormal );
CHKWOPT( FaceColor );
// -------------------- show mesh capabilities
std::cout << "Mesh supports\n";
MESHOPT("vertex normals", mesh.has_vertex_normals());
MESHOPT("vertex colors", mesh.has_vertex_colors());
MESHOPT("texcoords", mesh.has_vertex_texcoords2D());
MESHOPT("face normals", mesh.has_face_normals());
MESHOPT("face colors", mesh.has_face_colors());
// -------------------- write mesh
std::cout << "Write mesh to " << argv[optind+1] << "..";
if ( !IO::write_mesh( mesh, argv[optind+1], wopt ) )
{
std::cerr << "Error" << std::endl;
std::cerr << "Possible reasons:\n";
std::cerr << "1. Chosen format cannot handle an option!\n";
std::cerr << "2. Mesh does not provide necessary information!\n";
std::cerr << "3. Or simply cannot open file for writing!\n";
return 1;
}
else
std::cout << "Ok.\n";
return 0;
}
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
void parse_commandline( int _argc, char **_argv, MyMesh& _mesh,
IO::Options &ropt, IO::Options &wopt )
{
int c;
while ((c=getopt(_argc, _argv, "bhsBF:LMSV:X:"))!=-1)
{
switch(c)
{
// -------------------- read options
// force binary input
case 'b':
ropt += IO::Options::Binary;
break;
// force swapping the byte order, when reading a binary file
case 's':
ropt += IO::Options::Swap;
break;
// -------------------- write options
// Write binary variant of format if possible
case 'B':
wopt += IO::Options::Binary;
break;
//
case 'F':
for(size_t i=0; optarg[i]; ++i)
switch(optarg[i]) {
case 'n' : wopt += IO::Options::FaceNormal; break;
case 'c' : wopt += IO::Options::FaceColor; break;
}
break;
// Use little endian when writing binary data
case 'L':
wopt += IO::Options::LSB;
break;
// Use big endian when writing binary data
case 'M':
wopt += IO::Options::MSB;
break;
// Swap byte order when writing binary data
case 'S':
wopt += IO::Options::Swap;
break;
//
case 'V':
{
for(size_t i=0; optarg[i]; ++i)
switch(optarg[i]) {
case 'n' : // dont't change layout!!
wopt += IO::Options::VertexNormal;
break;
case 't' : wopt += IO::Options::VertexTexCoord; break;
case 'c' : wopt += IO::Options::VertexColor; break;
}
break;
}
// -------------------- request mesh' standard properties
case 'X':
{
char entity='\0';
for(size_t i=0; optarg[i]; ++i)
switch(optarg[i]) {
case 'v':
case 'f': entity = optarg[i]; break;
case 'n':
switch(entity) {
case 'v': _mesh.request_vertex_normals(); break;
case 'f': _mesh.request_face_normals(); break;
}
break;
case 'c':
switch(entity) {
case 'v': _mesh.request_vertex_colors(); break;
case 'f': _mesh.request_face_colors(); break;
}
break;
case 't':
switch(entity) {
case 'v': _mesh.request_vertex_texcoords2D(); break;
}
break;
}
break;
}
// -------------------- help
case 'h':
usage_and_exit(0);
default:
usage_and_exit(1);
}
}
if ( _argc-optind != 2)
usage_and_exit(1);
}
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
void usage_and_exit(int xcode)
{
std::ostream &os = xcode ? std::cerr : std::cout;
os << "Usage: io_options [Options] <input> <output>\n"
<< std::endl;
os << " Read and write a mesh, using OpenMesh::IO::Options\n"
<< std::endl;
os << "Options:\n"
<< std::endl;
os << "a) read options\n"
<< std::endl
<< " -b\n"
<< "\tAssume input file is a binary file\n"
<< std::endl
<< " -s\n"
<< "\tSwap byte order when reading a binary file!\n"
<< std::endl;
os << "b) write options\n"
<< std::endl
<< " -B\n"
<< "\tWrite binary data\n"
<< std::endl
<< " -S\n"
<< "\tSwap byte order, when writing binary data\n"
<< std::endl
<< " -M/-L\n"
<< "\tUse MSB/LSB byte ordering, when writing binary data\n"
<< std::endl
<< " -V{n|t|c}\n"
<< "\tWrite vertex normals, texcoords, and/or colors\n"
<< std::endl
<< " -F{n|c}\n"
<< "\tWrite face normals, and/or colors\n"
<< std::endl;
os << "c) Mesh properties\n"
<< std::endl
<< " -Xv{n|c|t}\n"
<< "\tRequest vertex property normals|colors|texcoords\n"
<< std::endl
<< " -Xf{n|c}\n"
<< "\tRequest face property normals|colors\n"
<< std::endl;
exit(xcode);
}
// end of file
// ============================================================================