>>Minkowski sum, see http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MinkowskiSum.html)  
> 
> Using this mathematical name from begining of this thread could help. I wonder
> why you prefered to deliver some spaghetti-like explanation without this direct
> link :-)
> 

I thought "vector sum" is more familiar.
Sorry for that... :-)



> 
>>Besides I think this would give some nice effects. For example a general 
>>"rounding" by adding a sphere.
> 
> 
> As for adding sphere into objects there is another solution/workaround (but not
> perfect). You can look into my 'rounded' extension to isocsg library
> http://www-public.tu-bs.de:8080/~y0013390/pov/ic/
> If you define some object with rounded version of macros and this object is not
> very complicated you can then use threshold to achive object almost identical to
> adding sphere (http://news.povray.org/povray.binaries.images/23003/).
> 
> I imagine you could write macro to do similiar operation for meshes but it is
> obiously harder task than using already made macros from isocsg library. But
> isosurfaces are usually (always ?) slower than meshes.

Thank you very much for all the hints.

My original idea was to program a CSG "sum", since given two objects 
with an "inside" and an "outside", it should be possible to "describe" 
the "inside" and "outside" of the sum?!?

As I said before, I do not know povray too well. So this might be an 
impossible or even extremly stupid idea?!?




> Except adding sphere, is there any other 3D application where you can add two
> any objects?

Adding an ellipsoid rounds objects in different directions differently 
--- could be useful?

It is hard to imagine (at least for me) what adding of arbitrary objects 
would look like --- but maybe there are some interesting effects possible?



>>I am not familiar with "povray's insides".
> 
> 
> If you are talking about using POV-Ray SDL (scene description language) things
> like macro, pattern, array or object are not "povray's insides". Otherwise I
> hardly see what can be "povray's outsides" ;-)

yepp :-)


Achill

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