ADC Home > Reference Library > Technical Q&As > Legacy Documents > Graphics & Imaging >

Legacy Documentclose button

Important: This document is part of the Legacy section of the ADC Reference Library. This information should not be used for new development.

Current information on this Reference Library topic can be found here:

NOTE: This Technical Q&A has been retired. Please see the Technical Q&As page for current documentation.

Determining 3DMF Endian-ness

Q: How does QuickDraw 3D determine if a 3DMF file was stored in little endian or big endian format?

A: If the 3DMF text format file is read, the "endian-ness" doesn't matter, because numbers are stored as ASCII strings which will be translated correctly for the host system. When QuickDraw 3D reads a 3DMF file that was stored in binary format, it looks at the first four bytes. If they are in the order "3" "D" "M" "F", the file was stored with big endian values. If the first four bytes are "F" "M" "D" "3", the numeric values in the file are interpreted as stored in little endian format.

[Apr 08 1996]

Did this document help you?
Yes: Tell us what works for you.
It’s good, but: Report typos, inaccuracies, and so forth.
It wasn’t helpful: Tell us what would have helped.