[x3d-public] Mantis 1530: Avoiding exhaustive EXPORT statements within HAnimHumanoid skeleton

[Don Brutzman]

This is a request for X3D browser implementers.

Joe and I are making good progress on building models that add additional
bones/teeth/cartilage, providing a new LOA-5 for HAnim.  LOA-5 keeps
building on progressive Level of Articulation (LOA) 0..4 ranging from
simple to sophisticated HAnim models.

We will soon be able to test EXPORT and IMPORT of HAnimHumanoid models in
full detail for use with multiple interpolator sets.  Our goal is to
demonstrate simplified sharing and composition of HAnim models in X3D.

A recent improvement to X3D4 v4.1 draft was to deprecate USE nodes at the
top level of an HAnimHumanoid since they are superfluous, verbose, and
potentially error prone if defined incorrectly.

Based on current efforts, we'd like to recommend something similar.  If a
HAnimHumanoid model is EXPORTed and then IMPORTed, the corresponding EXPORT
and IMPORT of every contained joint, segment and site is similarly
superfluous since such nodes are detectable automatically without
ambiguity.  HAnim naming conventions for matching prefixed DEF labels with
the corresponding name field in each given node are quite strict.  Thus
manually redefining hundreds of predictable EXPORT and IMPORT statements
for each re-use seems unnecessary.

Thanks for considering this coding task.  It will have a notable
improvement on authoring simplicity, humanoid portability and model
robustness.

The Mantis issue describing this proposal follows.

   - Mantis 1530: Avoiding exhaustive EXPORT statements within
   HAnimHumanoid skeleton
   - https://mantis.web3d.org/view.php?id=1530

Description Any HAnimHumanoid skeleton can have a lot of HAnimJoint and
HAnimSegment and HAnimSite children. For LOA-5, it is hundreds of such
children.

These child nodes are always carefully identified, with pairwise DEF and
name fields that match exactly according to HAnim requirements.

If an X3D model with an HAnimHumanoid includes an EXPORT statement allowing
re-use by other X3D scenes, then browsers need to automatically EXPORT all
of the subordinate HAnim nodes.

Similarly, if a HAnimHumanoid is IMPORTed for animation re-use in a
different X3D scene, browsers need to automatically IMPORT all of the
subordinate HAnim nodes.
Additional Information Example:
- X3D Example Archives: Humanoid Animation, Bones, All Bones LOA 5 Skeletons
-
https://www.web3d.org/x3d/content/examples/HumanoidAnimation/Bones/AllBonesLOA5SkeletonsIndex.html

see the EXPORT statements beginning at line 3286:
https://www.web3d.org/x3d/content/examples/HumanoidAnimation/Bones/AllBonesLOA5Skeletons.html#3286

3286 <!-- right-side HAnimHumanoid -->
3287 <EXPORT localDEF='hanimMesh_AllBonesSkeleton'
AS='AllBonesSkeletonMesh'/>

3288 <!-- left-side HAnimHumanoid -->
3289 <EXPORT localDEF='hanim_AllBonesSkeleton' AS='AllBonesSkeleton'/>

3290 <!-- propose eliminating requirement for EXPORT statements
corresponding to child HAnimJoint HAnimSegment HAnimSite nodes, similar to
removing requirement for definition of USE nodes for HAnimHumanoid children
-->

3291 <EXPORT localDEF='hanim_c1' AS='AllBonesSkeletonMesh_hanim_c1'/>
3292 <EXPORT localDEF='hanim_c1disc'
AS='AllBonesSkeletonMesh_hanim_c1disc'/>
3293 <EXPORT localDEF='hanim_c2' AS='AllBonesSkeletonMesh_hanim_c2'/>
3294 <EXPORT localDEF='hanim_c2disc'
AS='AllBonesSkeletonMesh_hanim_c2disc'/>
(etc. etc. approximately 400 EXPORT statements follow which exactly match
the skeleton example)
Tags  HAnim v2.1,  ,X3D v4.1
Attach Tags (Separate by ",")    Existing tags1356apacheCD Ballot
commentDocument
styleExamplesfileHTML5JSONMantisMetaverseSAISchemasecurityserverspamuploadV3.3
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 Activities
<https://mantis.web3d.org/view.php?id=1530#>

 brutzman <https://mantis.web3d.org/view_user_page.php?id=10>

 2026-04-23 10:55

administrator    ~0003889 <https://mantis.web3d.org/view.php?id=1530#c3889>
This issue is similar to the USE nodes in HAnimHumanoid - duplication by
authors is tedious, error prone, and a superfluous task that a browser can s
















































Have fun with HAnim and X3D! 😁

all the best, Don
-- 
X3D Graphics, Maritime Robotics, Distributed Simulation
Relative Motion Consulting  https://RelativeMotion.info
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