Yes... looks like quite an effort.  

Looking at the Sphere up close, how do I improve the quality?  sphereDetail() seems to have no effect.

Dear quark,

first of all, thank you very much!

James Carruthers wrote a beautiful function that allows to paint a thin 3D-Box between two points. This is a replacement for a line that wouldn't look good in 3D.

I like the approach that you tell the box the exact Start- and Endpoint. I like to have this in your 3DShapes.

At the moment I wonder whether it's possible to use the approach with your tube to tell it exactly go from x1,y1,z1 to x2,y2,z2. I also asked James about that. It would be cool if you could help with that.

His function is:
void drawLine(float x1, float y1, float z1, float x2, float y2, float z2, float weight, color strokeColour) {

you see it in http://processing.org/discourse/yabb2/num_1262458611.html#4
reply #4

Thanks!

Greetings,

Chrisir

Hello Quark,

I would also appreciate a 3D-arrow as
posted in

http://processing.org/discourse/yabb2/num_1262857665.html#8

Thanks,

Greetings, Chrisir

That's beautiful and could well be part of 3D-Shapes!

What about my other questions about the tubes?...

I am just so interested what you have to say!

Thanks!

Chrisir

Hello,

I am more interested in the question how to put your tube between two defined points x1,y1,z1 and x2,y2,z2.

I just do not know how it's done...

Thanks,

Chrisir

@ ChibiGirl901
Welcome to Processing and I hope you enjoy it. Processing is for everyone from newbies to experienced software developers.
I like it because it supports people being creative and creativity is fun.

@Chrisir
Quote:

It is not easy because inside the Shapes3D library the tube is represented by a position (x/y/z) and 3 angles of rotation (one per axis). To create a tube given a start and end position requires some serious math. This library uses the apache commons math library and I have used that for the math.

To create a '3D line' first create a Tube object and then call the setTubePosition passing the tube object and PVector(s) for the start and end positions.
The code inside the method looks horrendous because I have also used the PeasyCam library and that also uses the Math library so references to Vector3D and Rotation have to state which classes to use. The code inside this method does not need the PeasyCam to be present to work it is solely dependent on the Shapes3D library.

I am working on the next version of the library and I will include this feature in it. If you have problems with this let me know the version of the library I am using is halfway between the one you have and the next one.

It it works I have another example for James which creates a smooth 3D bezier ciurve.

Code:

import shapes3d.utils.*;
import shapes3d.org.apache.commons.math.util.*;
import shapes3d.org.apache.commons.math.*;
import shapes3d.org.apache.commons.math.geometry.*;
import shapes3d.*;

import processing.opengl.*;

import peasy.org.apache.commons.math.*;
import peasy.*;
import peasy.org.apache.commons.math.geometry.*;

// The 3D line
Tube line;
float tubeRad = 2.0f;
PVector start, end;

// End line markers to confirm working
Ellipsoid es, ee;

PeasyCam pcam;

void setup(){
  size(300,300,OPENGL);
  pcam = new PeasyCam(this,0,0,0,240);

  // Create the vectors for the start and end line positions
  start = new PVector(-50,-50,60);
  end = new PVector(-70,-30,-10);

  // Create the tube will be used for the line
  line = new Tube(this,1,20);
  line.fill(color(0,0,128));
  // Set the tube to go from start to end
  setTubePosition(line, start, end);

  // Green start line marker to confirm it works
  es = new Ellipsoid(this,6,6);
  es.fill(color(0,128,0));
  es.setRadius(tubeRad);
  es.moveTo(start);
  // Red end line marker to confirm it works
  ee = new Ellipsoid(this,6,6);
  ee.fill(color(255,0,0));
  ee.setRadius(tubeRad);
  ee.moveTo(end);
  noStroke();
}

// Change the tube attributes so it goes from 
// position vector start to position vector end
void setTubePosition(Tube tube, PVector start, PVector end){
  double[] angles = new double[]{
    0,0,0      };
  PVector pos = PVector.add(start, end);
  pos.div(2);
  tube.moveTo(pos);
  float tubeLength = PVector.dist(start, end);
  tube.setSize(tubeRad, tubeRad, tubeRad, tubeRad, tubeLength);

  //PVector dir = PVector.sub(end, start);
  shapes3d.org.apache.commons.math.geometry.Vector3D dir = VecTransform.p2v(PVector.sub(end, pos));
  shapes3d.org.apache.commons.math.geometry.Vector3D e = 
    new shapes3d.org.apache.commons.math.geometry.Vector3D(0,1,0);

  shapes3d.org.apache.commons.math.geometry.Rotation rot = 
    new shapes3d.org.apache.commons.math.geometry.Rotation(e,dir);
  try{
    angles = rot.getAngles(shapes3d.org.apache.commons.math.geometry.RotationOrder.XYZ);
  }
  catch(Exception excp){
    println("ERROR"); 
  }
  tube.rotateToX((float)angles[0]);
  tube.rotateToY((float)angles[1]);
  tube.rotateToZ((float)angles[2]);
}

void draw(){
  background(64);
  ambientLight(200,200,200);
  directionalLight(120, 120, 120, 0, -1, 0);
  line.draw();
  es.draw();
  ee.draw();
}
 

Quote:


I am using the next version of the library (yet to be released) and have renamed the packages so for the moment remove the "org." i.e.

Code:

shapes3d.apache.commons.math 

The next version of the library will have the 3d line function so no this will not be a problem. I will try and get the next version out by weekend with examples of the 3d line function included.