Is there a program available that allows you to place points for a 3d
spline, showing what the spline path looks like, and allowing you to move
points to see how that changes it? I've done a lot of searching, and have
come up with nothing, except for people discussing the possibilities.
Steve Shelby

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"Steve Shelby" <ssh### [at] shelbyvisioncom> wrote:
> Is there a program available that allows you to place points for a 3d
> spline, showing what the spline path looks like, and allowing you to move
> points to see how that changes it? I've done a lot of searching, and have
> come up with nothing, except for people discussing the possibilities.
> Steve Shelby

Not a program that export splines to pov-ray but u can use Hamapatch to see
how splines are.

             Manuel Mata
             http://es.geocities.com/manuel_mata_rueda

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Steve Shelby nous apporta ses lumieres ainsi en ce 2004-09-19 09:34... :

>Is there a program available that allows you to place points for a 3d
>spline, showing what the spline path looks like, and allowing you to move
>points to see how that changes it? I've done a lot of searching, and have
>come up with nothing, except for people discussing the possibilities.
>Steve Shelby
>
>
>  
>
#local SplineLowBound=0;//Change to suit you scene
#local SplineHighBound=10;//Same
#declare MySpline=[spline deffinition]
#local I=SplineLowBound;
union{
    #while(i<=SplineHighBound)// this loop make you travel along the spline
        sphere{MySpline[I],0.1}
       #local I=I+1;//Change to adjust the number of steps shown
    #end
pigment{rgb 1}
}

This will place 10 small white spheres along your spline.

Alain

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Steve Shelby wrote:
> Is there a program available that allows you to place points for a 3d
> spline, showing what the spline path looks like, and allowing you to move
> points to see how that changes it? I've done a lot of searching, and have
> come up with nothing, except for people discussing the possibilities.
> Steve Shelby
> 
> 
you might try jpatch, needs java, and exports to povray

has a very useful birds eye mode

www.jpatch.com, browse forums for the latest beta release

a new release is being readied according to recent posts

stephen

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Thanks for the replies. None of these suggestions are really what I'm
looking for, though.
I'll explain a little further what I'm trying to do. Chris Colefax's Spline
macro has an option called Pipe Spline, which allows you to make a smooth
worm-like object using a spline. The problem is it has to be either a cubic,
bezier, or hermite spline, all of which use "control points", so the spline
doesn't simply follow a path from point to point. It is very difficult and
tedious to try to get a specific shape this way. I spent a couple hours with
it and never did get it shaped the way I wanted it. I thought maybe if there
were a program that, for instance, you could create a hermite spline, see it
in 3d, move a control point with the mouse, and see the result. Dream on?
Steve Shelby

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Hash: SHA1

Steve Shelby wrote:
| Is there a program available that allows you to place points for a 3d
| spline, showing what the spline path looks like, and allowing you
to move
| points to see how that changes it? I've done a lot of searching,
and have
| come up with nothing, except for people discussing the possibilities.

	I've never used it, but you can try spilineditor:

http://www.flashnet.it/users/fn027571/spil/main.html

		Jerome
- --
******************************
*      Jerome M. Berger      *
* mailto:jbe### [at] ifrancecom *
*  http://jeberger.free.fr/  *
******************************
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On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 08:51:33 -0500, "Steve Shelby" <ssh### [at] shelbyvisioncom>
wrote:
> It is very difficult and
> tedious to try to get a specific shape this way.

If you are able to find any editor which use tcb splines (aka kochanek
bartels) then you can use it and take it's parameters into script for MegaPOV
1.1. TCB splines allows more parameters than just control points. Each end of
the segment has also tension continuity and bias parameters which could make
your live easier. 

Also in MegaPOV there is akima spline type which is known to be "nice" like
handdrawn spline between control points. Perhaps this could be also helpful.

The last is family of x_splines in MegaPOV. general_x_spline is very special
type of spline which allows you to mix interpolation with aproxymation in one
spline. In other words some control points can be used as points crossed by
spline, and some points can be used as magnes but are not within spline.

See: http://megapov.inetart.net/demo/splines.png

ABX

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"ABX" <abx### [at] abxartpl> wrote in message

> If you are able to find any editor which use tcb splines (aka kochanek
 <snip>
> See: http://megapov.inetart.net/demo/splines.png
>
> ABX

Thank you for the information. It turns out, though, that I made a
mis-judgement, due to a mistake I made early on. In the Spline Macro the
option "default spline" is actually the type that is a simple
connect-the-dots type of spline. So, I don't have the problem I thought I
had.
Steve Shelby

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"Steve Shelby" <ssh### [at] shelbyvisioncom> wrote in message
news:414d8ae5@news.povray.org...
> Is there a program available that allows you to place points for a 3d
> spline, showing what the spline path looks like, and allowing you to move
> points to see how that changes it? I've done a lot of searching, and have
> come up with nothing, except for people discussing the possibilities.
> Steve Shelby
>
>

I've been working on a 2D spline editor for linux, though i was going to use
libsdl and it would be more or less platform independent. I could be
convinced to make it a 3d editor with openGL, but I already know far to
little about what i'm doing in a 2D environment that most likely it will be
a 2D editor and some time down the line a 3D editor. I had thought about the
3D editor situation a little bit. It could be very usefull for a variety of
things. One thing I had thought about was having some kind of primitive
version of your scene, maybe with just major objects represented as
cylinders or something, so you could define a spline around them using them
as a visual reference. It could get all freaky and read a pov file to
determine where to place and how much to scale a cylinder for preview, but
that's just crazy talk right now.

I also know nothing about computing the path of splines yet, so it will be a
simple connect the dots type of preview view, but with the ability to
save/export it as whatever type pov supports. So i've got quite a bit to
learn, and this has interrupted my pov-comp entry which won't get finished.
It was going to be a classic still life of glassware, dinner plates, and
maybe some fruit with a nice mediteranean style view out a window. Ah well.
None of this helps anyone now.

i also never released my tga2df3 implementation. maybe i'll do that this
weekend (i've said that before) as long as i left it in a working state. I
jump between personal projects like there's no tommorow. just thought of
something off-topic. see you there :)

-ross

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"Ross" <rli### [at] everestkcnet> wrote in message
news:4151d444$1@news.povray.org...
> I could be convinced to make it a 3d editor with openGL.....

That's exactly what I had in mind.
Steve Shelby

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