LIBDM(3)

Link with -ldm.

The public interface is organized across the headers included by dm.h, namely dm/defines.h, dm/fbserv.h, dm/util.h, and dm/view.h.

LIBDM provides BRL-CAD’s display manager API. A display manager can be thought of as a configurable drawing machine: it consumes generic, device-independent drawing commands — primarily vector lists (vlists) that describe points, lines, and polygons in three dimensions, along with two-dimensional points, lines, and text — and translates them into the drawing operations of a specific output device or window system.

The library abstracts the underlying rendering target behind a common struct dm interface, so that applications can draw the same geometry to any supported backend without change. Backends provided with BRL-CAD include X11, OpenGL (via GLX on X11 and WGL on Windows), a Qt/OpenGL target, a software rasterizer, PostScript output, UNIX plot output, a text backend, and a null device. LIBDM also integrates with the BRL-CAD framebuffer facilities, including the framebuffer server support in dm/fbserv.h.

The complete API, including data structures and function signatures, is documented in the headers noted above and in the Doxygen-generated reference for the LIBDM module.

brlcad(1), mged(1), archer(1), libbv(3), libged(3), libicv(3)

The BRL-CAD Doxygen API reference provides the authoritative, up-to-date description of all public LIBDM routines.

BRL-CAD Team

This software is Copyright (c) 1993-2026 United States Government as represented by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

Reports of bugs or problems should be submitted via electronic mail to devs@brlcad.org