coin_nodekits(3)

💖 coin_nodekits 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because we're talking about NodeKit Classes and honestly? they're lowkey iconic.

• Nodekits modularize sub-structures of a scene graph.

periodt. that's the whole vibe. now let's get into it 🫶

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

🎀 Classes 🎀

• class SoNodeKit — the one that sets everything up. it's used to initialize the nodekit classes, like the mom friend of the group chat 👑
• class SoNodeKitPath — a path, but make it exclusive: it contains only nodekit nodes. no randoms allowed 💅
• class SoNodeKitListPart — a container node. that's it, that's the whole job, and it does it slayfully ✨
• class SoNodekitCatalog — a container for nodekit layouts. it's giving filing cabinet but cute 🎀
• class SoBaseKit — the top level superclass for nodekits. the main character that all the other kits look up to 😭
• class SoAppearanceKit — a node kit catalog that collects miscellaneous appearance node types. a little grab-bag of aesthetics 🌸
• class SoCameraKit — a node kit with a transform and a camera. say cheese 📸
• class SoInteractionKit — a base class for draggers. yes queen, drag 🫶
• class SoLightKit — provides a kit with a transform, a light and a shape or subgraph. let there be light, fr fr ⭐
• class SoSceneKit — collects node kits needed to set up a scene: camera, light and shapes. the whole ensemble cast, together at last 🌈
• class SoSeparatorKit — provides a typical set of nodes to influence a shape subgraph. classic, dependable, iconic 💜
• class SoShapeKit — provides templates to insert what is usually needed for shape nodes. template era, we love to see it 🦋
• class SoWrapperKit — a simple kit for wrapping a transform and a subgraph. simple! unbothered! wrapped! 🎁

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🧚 Detailed Description 🧚

Nodekits modularize sub-structures of a scene graph.

Wrapping ones head around when, how, and why to create nodekits can be difficult in the beginning. ngl, it really can be. When do you write a nodekit, and when do you write a custom node? It is easy to think in those terms in the beginning, but it is often not an either/or situation. like, it's not a this-or-that, bestie, it's a whole spectrum 😌

The concept of nodekits is to modularize useful, potentially repeated sub-structures you have in your scene graph as it approaches some level of complexity. They are especially useful if you might need to rearrange the structure of the sub-structure in the future, which you probably will. yes, you. you will. sorry, that's just how it goes 🙈

On file, a nodekit is like a macro for the scene graph. The nodekit will not expose its internal structure, but when read in it will create the node structure internally. The node structure can even have optional parts that are only expanded if necessary. it's giving mysterious, it's giving private, and honestly? respect 💅

A nodekit will give you access to its "slots" in the internal structure through its fields. Only those fields should be the user interface for the nodekit, the rest of the substructure should be completely automatic, derived from those slot fields. so don't go poking around in the guts, okay? the fields are the interface. the rest is ✨automatic✨

To return to the question on whether to implement a custom node or a nodekit, the answer is to think of what exactly is really custom about what you need to implement, and trim that down to the atomic level (but please stop trimming before you trim away all meaning). okay this part is important: do NOT trim past the point of meaning 😭 If there is nothing really custom in what you want to implement, then it is likely that implementing it as a nodekit is what you ought to do. However, if you do have to do something custom that Coin doesn't support, then implement that part as a custom node, and then, if it seems worthwhile, implement the nodekit you need to bundle up this custom part with an auxiliary support structure to achieve what you set out to achieve. so: custom bit → custom node, then bundle it up in a nodekit if it's worth it. literally the whole strategy right there 🧠✨

For VRML97, you have something called PROTOs, which is something similar to nodekits, except they are not very accessible from C++, as opposed to nodekits. iykyk 💀

heads up bestie: PROTOs are the VRML97 cousin of nodekits, but they're not very accessible from C++ — unlike nodekits. so don't expect the same energy from them 🙈

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👑 Author 👑

Generated automatically by Doxygen for Coin from the source code. yes, a robot wrote this, and it ate, no notes 🤖💖

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🎀 this was Coin documentation, Version 4.0.10, dated Thu Jun 25 2026 00:00:00 — mwah, go forth and modularize your scene graphs, you've got this 🌈🫶💅