openmesh/Doc/tutorial_05.docu

/** \page tutorial_05 Using standard properties

This example shows:

- How to add and remove a standard property,
- How to get and set the value of a standard property.

As we already have seen, we can bind additional data to the mesh
entities by means of properties. %OpenMesh provides a set of so-called
standard properties. Unlike the custom properties these have some
special features and a different interface, which are the matter in this
tutorial.

The following table lists all available standard properties and the suitable
entity for which it can be used.

<table>
  <tr>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>Vertex</td>
    <td>Face</td>
    <td>Edge</td>
    <td>Halfedge</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Color</td>
    <td>X</td>
    <td>X</td>
    <td>X</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Normal</td>
    <td>X</td>
    <td>X</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>X</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Position <sup> (*) </sup> </td>
    <td>X</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Status</td>
    <td>X</td>
    <td>X</td>
    <td>X</td>
    <td>X</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>TexCoord</td>
    <td>X</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>X</td>
  </tr>
</table>

To add a standard property to an entity simply use the appropriate
request method, e.g. \c request_face_normals(). The only exception is
the position <sup>(*)</sup>. It cannot be added because it is
permanently available, hence it cannot be removed as well.

In this example we 
-# add vertex normals to a mesh object
-# load a file
-# check if the file provides vertex normals and calculate them if not
-# move every vertex one unit length along its normal direction
-# print the resulting positions to std::cout

Let's start with adding vertex normals to the mesh:

\dontinclude 05-std_properties/properties.cc
\skipline request_vertex_normals

In a similar manner we can request the other standard properties. For example
the face normals:

\skipline request_face_normals

We need them to calculate the vertex normals with \c update_normals(), if the
file didn't provide any.

But we can do more with standard properties. We can verify if the mesh
has already the property vertex normals

\dontinclude 05-std_properties/properties.cc
\skipline has_vertex_normals
\until }

And after usage we remove them again

\skipline release_vertex_normals

But, what happens if for example the vertex status property has been
requested twice? Then the first release does nothing, but the second
one will remove it.  The standard properties have a reference counter,
which is incremented by one for each request and decremented by one
for each release. If the counter reaches 0 the property will be
removed from memory.

As we have seen in the table above, we have 9 dynamically requestable properties.
The request functions as defined in OpenMesh::Concepts::KernelT
are:

<ul>
<li>request_edge_status()</li>
<li>request_edge_colors()</li>
<li>request_face_colors()</li>
<li>request_face_normals()</li>
<li>request_face_status()</li>
<li>request_face_texture_index()</li>
<li>request_halfedge_status()</li>
<li>request_halfedge_normals()</li>
<li>request_halfedge_texcoords1D()</li>
<li>request_halfedge_texcoords2D()</li>
<li>request_halfedge_texcoords3D()</li>
<li>request_vertex_colors()</li>
<li>request_vertex_normals()</li>
<li>request_vertex_status()</li>
<li>request_vertex_texcoords1D()</li>
<li>request_vertex_texcoords2D()</li>
<li>request_vertex_texcoords3D()</li>
</ul>

Added properties can be released by the following functions:

<ul>
<li>release_edge_status()</li>
<li>release_edge_colors()</li>
<li>release_face_colors()</li>
<li>release_face_normals()</li>
<li>release_face_status()</li>
<li>release_face_texture_index()</li>
<li>release_halfedge_status()</li>
<li>release_halfedge_normals()</li>
<li>release_halfedge_texcoords1D()</li>
<li>release_halfedge_texcoords2D()</li>
<li>release_halfedge_texcoords3D()</li>
<li>release_vertex_colors()</li>
<li>release_vertex_normals()</li>
<li>release_vertex_status()</li>
<li>release_vertex_texcoords1D()</li>
<li>release_vertex_texcoords2D()</li>
<li>release_vertex_texcoords3D()</li>
</ul>

A property's existance can be tested with

<ul>
<li>has_edge_status()</li>
<li>has_edge_colors()</li>
<li>has_face_colors()</li>
<li>has_face_normals()</li>
<li>has_face_status()</li>
<li>has_face_texture_index()</li>
<li>has_halfedge_status()</li>
<li>has_halfedge_normals()</li>
<li>has_halfedge_texcoords1D()</li>
<li>has_halfedge_texcoords2D()</li>
<li>has_halfedge_texcoords3D()</li>
<li>has_vertex_colors()</li>
<li>has_vertex_normals()</li>
<li>has_vertex_status()</li>
<li>has_vertex_texcoords1D()</li>
<li>has_vertex_texcoords2D()</li>
<li>has_vertex_texcoords3D()</li>
</ul>

which return true if a property has been requested before and is available.

The status property is used for marking geometry elements i.e. as selected or deleted.
See \ref tutorial_07b for further information.

Now we know how to add and remove standard properties, but how do we
access them?  Again we need the mesh object. Unlike the custom
properties, where we accessed one with the mesh member function \c
property(), for each standard property the mesh provides a get and a
set method.  We have used one pair of get/set methods already in the
previous three tutorials, where we computed a new location for the
vertex position. Here we move all vertices a unit length along their
normal direction:

\dontinclude 05-std_properties/properties.cc
\skipline MyMesh::VertexIter
\until {
\skipline mesh.set_point
\skipline }

The get-methods take an entity handle and return the value of
the desired property, and the set-methods require an additional
parameter to pass the new value to the property. According to the
table not every pair of get/set-methods apply to every entity. For
example a face has normally no texture coordinates, hence a call to \c
mesh.texcoord2D( _face_handle ) will result in an error when compiling
the code.

Since we know how to add/remove/access standard properties, one further
question remains. What data types do they have? And are there more hidden
secrets? The next tutorial (\ref tutorial_06) will give the answer.

The complete source looks like this:

\include 05-std_properties/properties.cc

*/