---
name: "ivcat"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "inventor-clients"
version: "2.1.6+ds-2"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/ivcat"
---

# ivcat(1)

concatenates and converts Inventor files

## NAME

ivcat - concatenates and converts Inventor files

## SYNOPSIS

**ivcat** \[**-bfht**\] \[**-o** file\] \[file ...\]

## DESCRIPTION

*ivcat* reads each *file* in sequence and then writes each out.  If no input file is given, or a filename of "-" is specified, *ivcat* reads from the standard input file.  The input files must be valid Open Inventor 3D Interchange Format files (1.0 or 2.0).

The following command line options are allowed:

- **-b**

  Write out the files in binary Inventor format.  The default is to write out the files in Inventor's ASCII format.

- **-f**

  Remove all  *SoFile* nodes.  This has the effect of condensing hierarchical files into a single file.

- **-h**

  Print usage message.

- **-o** *file*

  Send the output to the given file, instead of to the standard output.

- **-t**

  Expand SoTexture2 nodes to explictly include the texture data rather than a file name.

## EXAMPLES

To convert from binary to ASCII Inventor

-

  **ivcat \< binaryfile.iv \> asciifile.iv**

To convert from ASCII to binary Inventor:

-

  **ivcat -b \< asciifile.iv \> binaryfile.iv**

## SOURCE CODE

Note that the source code to  *ivcat* comes with the *Open Inventor 3d Toolkit.*

## FILES

/usr/share/data/models/\* - Sample Inventor data files /usr/share/src/Inventor/tools/ivcat/\* - Source to ivcat

## SEE ALSO

inventor, ivview, noodle, SceneViewer, gview