submersible toaster wrote:
> So something like this might be called right after load_file , expires some
> mass objects . It would require either careful use of concat() and str() or
> a shell-out to something that can read a file listing the mass indexes to
> expire. ??

The mechsim data file format can't be read using the SDL file reading 
features so you would need an external tool for this.

>>modifying the data file.  To be more precise: access to simulation data
>>from the scene file is completely read-only.
> 
> Is that by design or simply that it's not a often requested feature?

By design to some extent.  It would not really be difficult to add this 
from side of the mechsim patch but the POV-Ray scene description 
language currently does not offer any comparable feature so it would 
change the nature of the language to have such a function.

For example offering something like

mechsim:mass(Cnt):remove()

would be possible but it would be a function which returns nothing - 
something that currently does not exit in POV-Ray.

Another possibility would be to have the topology{} block and topology 
elements be declarable:

#declare Obj = topology { load_file "test.dat" }

and allow access to its elements via

Obj:mass(i)

this way you would have completely free control over the simulation data 
from the scene file.  But this would also be something completely new in 
terms of language design.

Christoph

-- 
POV-Ray tutorials, include files, Landscape of the week:
http://www.tu-bs.de/~y0013390/ (Last updated 24 Jul. 2005)
MegaPOV with mechanics simulation: http://megapov.inetart.net/

Post a reply to this message