Introduction

gmio provides a coherent set of functions allowing to import/export geometric data in different formats.
These functions work on the closest data model possible of each format.
This way for any format corresponds a specific data model(structures).
The import functions build the geometry step-by-step, ie without storing the whole result but only the useful data for each step.
gmio's functions rest on other functions(callbacks) supplied by the user.
The responsability of these callbacks is to build the result as the geometry gets imported and reciprocally provide the geometry to be written during the export.
Unlike other similar projects gmio does not rely on any "universal" model of the geometry data processed.

Benefits:

• No information loss. A data model is specifically "designed" for each format supported. So it's possible to precisely handle all data being part of a format, which would be difficult with an "universal" model

• Speed and low-memory footprint In most cases, the user haves his own data structures that models a geometry (eg VBO for OpenGL visualization). During import, gmio gives the user the opportunity the directly build the expected result. Similarly, the user can directly export his data without having firstly to convert them all into another modelling.