POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.beta-test : SUGGESTION: Hollow 0.05 : Re: SUGGESTION: Hollow 0.05 Server Time
26 Apr 2024 05:03:59 EDT (-0400)
  Re: SUGGESTION: Hollow 0.05  
From: Bald Eagle
Date: 1 Dec 2017 07:50:00
Message: <web.5a214f0b627182d0c437ac910@news.povray.org>
clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:

> > This would make the sphere hollow but keeps an inner wall thickness of
> > 0.05 units.
>
> That's technically impossible.
>
> (Well, strictly speaking something along the lines may be possible for
> spheres, but it can't be generalized to arbitrary primitives.)

Well, technically it's possible, and practically it's done.
This is a type of thing called an "offset curve" - such as what Dave Blandston
does with his fancy text.  This is a feature available in graphics programs,
probably Mathematica, CAD software, and Silhouette / Cricut type design
programs.

The problem of course is writing a robust algorithm that does what you expect it
to do given some general, unknown input.
Doing this with a convex hull of points like "O" is fairly easy, the real
problems of course come with concave shapes like "C" where things start to
collide --- and then what?

It would be a NICE feature - but it's anything but trivial to code, which is why
it's usually only seen in commercial software packages, and you almost always
have to pay extra for a "pro" or "plus" version to have that functionality.


Post a reply to this message

Copyright 2003-2023 Persistence of Vision Raytracer Pty. Ltd.