SDSC wrlgrid

Generate tile or grid geometries in VRML format

Version v1.0
San Diego Supercomputer Center

Description

wrlgrid outputs a geometric grid in the form of "grout" (line segments), or generates a regular grid of "tiles" (filled polygons). An R-G-B color may be specified to color the grid. This has quite a few useful benefits:

Gives 3D spaces a visual scale.
Adds depth queueing to 3D scenes.
Creates large areas of "texture" using a minimal amount of geometry.

The input file can be an ascii text file containing a series of 4 points (one X Y Z triplet per line). The input file can alternatively be an Alias SDL file (Face-Set verticies are extracted).

Example 1

This example was produced using the following command line:

     wrlgrid -l test1.txt test1.wrl

Simple Grout Pattern

This example shows the typical way to generate a simple grout pattern. That is, all four points are co-planar.

test1.txt contains:
-91.439999 0.0 -45.719999
-30.48 0.0 -30.48
-30.48 0.0 30.48
-91.439999 0.0 45.719999

Example 2

This example was produced using the following command line:

     wrlgrid -l test2.txt test2.wrl

Warped Grout Pattern

This example demonstrates the generation of a warped grout pattern. That is, all four points are NOT co-planar.

test2.txt contains:
1 1 1
2 2 2
3 4 7
4 3 8

Example 3

This example was produced using the following command line:

     wrlgrid -a test3.sdl test3.wrl

Complex Alias-generated Grout Pattern

This example demonstrates how to read an Alias SDL file to generate more complex grout patterns.

You may download test2.sdl, the sample Alias SDL file, if you want to play with it.

Example 4

This example was produced using the following command line:

     wrlgrid -n 4 -m 3 test4.wrl

Simple Tile Pattern

This example shows how to generate a simple tile pattern. In this case this pattern is 4 tiles wide by 3 tiles deep.

Notice there is no need for an input file for this example.

Authors

John Moreland
San Diego Supercomputer Center

Downloading

Download wrlgrid.tar.gz (3.4 KBytes) This is the Perl script and man page distribution.