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 | The first tool I used to create VRML objects with was a text editor on UNIX called vi.
The PC "equivalent" of vi is NotePad. I read about VRML commands in a tutorial
at Netscape (3DLive) and used this knowledge to build a Greek Temple like structure
composed of columns and slabs. Using a text editor to create VRML gives you the ultimate
control over all aspects of the building process. Learning how to build worlds "by
hand" is good to gain a better knowledge of VRML that can be applied later when
tweaking worlds built using modelers. Some people swear that hand editing is the only way
to go. It will make your worlds "sleeker" because nobody likes to type
"fat". Notepad is of course FREE,
it is part of every Windows® system.
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| NoteTab is a FREE text editor that you can add VRML
"clipbook" to. This clipbook contains all the VRML nodes (and options that go
with them), it will save you a lot of typing and mistakes. It was love at first site for
me!
NoteTab is a top-rated text and HTML editor for Windows
95, 98, and NT4. It is user friendly and feature rich with many innovative productivity
tools. Whether you create web pages, write source code, send E-mail, take notes, analyze
text, read files, or do anything related to text, you will certainly find NoteTab a worthy
tool and a great time saver.
Download both NoteTab and the VRML library/clipbook, unzip and install NoteTab, then unzip
the clipbook. When the unzip tool asks you where to put the unzipped results, use the
browse button to find C:\Program Files\NoteTab\Libraries and put the results there. When
you run NoteTab, you will see a VRML button. Click it and you will see a list of all the
VRML nodes. Play around with it and you will figure out how to add syntactically correct
VRML to the editor. It does bracket matching, and that is essential for me.
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| There is a text editor called SitePad
by ModelWorks which has been called "notepad on steroids" by some. It
is tailored for VRML editing and has the syntax of all the VRML nodes embedded in the
program. It also does bracket matching and this can be invaluable in VRML hand coding. It
also color codes the VRML syntax for you, this makes it easier to read. The free demo
edition allows saving of files only less than 2500 bytes. ($39.00 US, Professional Edition
$69.00 US). Sitepad is better than NoteTab, but it costs money. I use sitepad on nearly
every project I make.
SitePad is an Integrated Development
Environment (IDE) for HTML and VRML.
Features include:
 | insert scripts for all VRML 2.0 nodes |
| custom template for creating new HTML and VRML files |
| syntax Check tool for HTML, VBScript and JavaScript |
| custom menus, toolbars, hotkeys, and bookmarks |
| syntax coloring for HTML and VRML files |
| block indent and unindent |
| multilevel undo/redo |
| search and replace |
| multifile search |
| split windows |
| line and column number indicator |
| line numbers in the edit view |
| custom scripting using JavaScript or VBScript
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| VrmlPad is a professional
editor for VRML programming.
(http://www.parallelgraphics.com)
Key time-saving features include powerful editorial abilities and visual support for the
scene tree and resource operations. It has too many features to list but a few of them
are...
| Smart AutoComplete. |
| Dynamic errors detection. |
| Syntax highlighting. |
| Advanced find and replace. |
| Visual support for the scene tree operations. |
| Operations on resources. |
| Ability to preview the VRML scene. |
| Publishing wizard. |
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| Programmer's File Editor is a powerful text editing program and
although it is not tailored to VRML, it is Free
and it is better than notepad.
Programmer's File Editor (PFE) is a
large-capacity text file editor, oriented towards those who use Windows as their program
development environment, and so incorporates many features that make it a convenient work
management system. Although it's primarily oriented to program development, it makes a
very powerful general editor for any purpose at all. The definitive source of releases and
up-to-date information about PFE is the PFE Home Page on the World Wide Web.
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| VIM is an improved version of the
editor "vi", one of the standard text editors on UNIX systems. VIM adds many
of the features that you would expect in an editor: Unlimited undo, syntax coloring, split
windows, visual selection, GUI support, and much much more (please read the text on reasons to use a vi clone).
VIM runs on many operating systems:
AmigaOS, AtariMiNT, BeOS, DOS, MacOS,
OS/2, RiscOS, VMS, and Windows (CE/95/98/NT4/NT5)
and, of course, on UNIX in a lot of flavours:
A/UX, AIX, BSDI, Convex, DYNIX/ptx, DG/UX, DEC Unix, FreeBSD, HPUX, Irix,
Linux [Debian, RedHat, SuSE], MacOSX, NetBSD, NEXTSTEP, OpenBSD, OSF,
QNX, SCO, Sinix, Solaris, SunOS, SUPER-UX, Ultrix, Unixware, Unisys.
And the best of all: VIM is FREE! :-)
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