Forgive me if I have misunderstood your problem.

Here are some more thoughts:

Tor Olav Kristensen wrote:

> ...
> (The problem here would be to find a way to calculate the centre and
> plane and radius for this circle segment in such a way that it comes
> near enough as many as possible points around the given point.)
> The results of this "walk" along the spline could be stored in another
> array.
> ...

I think that maybe a "good" starting point for each of these circle
segments could be calculated by using 1 point on each side of the
given point. This would give 3 points which is could be used to
define a circle that touch each of them (ex-circle ?).

(I have posted an image to p.b.i that shows these circles.
The white spheres the path of the spline and the coloured ones shows
the path of the centres of the ex-circles.)

One could then start to check points further and further away on
each side of the given point and until the "error" limit is reached.
(The middle point could also be adjusted in some way while doing
this.)

And then one could move on to do the same around the next point
in the array of spline points.

> ...
> And at last my algorithm would have to patch together all the circle
> (or torii ?) segments taking care that every two joined circle segments
> have their centres in the same plane and that their "joining" also take
> place in the same plane.
> ...

I have connected some torii segments (to approximate the Bezier path)
to the left in my image, but as you see I have not applied this
correction to them.

Tor Olav
--
mailto:tor### [at] hotmailcom
http://www.crosswinds.net/~tok/tokrays.html

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