man gleSpiral () - Sweep an arbitrary contour along a helical path.

NAME

gleSpiral - Sweep an arbitrary contour along a helical path.

SYNTAX

void gleSpiral (int ncp,
                gleDouble contour[][2],
                gleDouble cont_normal[][2],
                gleDouble up[3],
                gleDouble startRadius,     /* spiral starts in x-y plane */
                gleDouble drdTheta,        /* change in radius per revolution */
                gleDouble startZ,          /* starting z value */
                gleDouble dzdTheta,        /* change in Z per revolution */
                gleDouble startXform[2][3], /* starting contour affine xform */
                gleDouble dXformdTheta[2][3], /* tangent change xform per revoln */
                gleDouble startTheta,      /* start angle in x-y plane */
                gleDouble sweepTheta);     /* degrees to spiral around */

ARGUMENTS

ncp
number of contour points
contour
2D contour
cont_normal
2D contour normals
up
up vector for contour
startRadius
spiral starts in x-y plane
drdTheta
change in radius per revolution
startZ
starting z value
dzdTheta
change in Z per revolution
startXform
starting contour affine transformation
dXformdTheta
tangent change xform per revolution
startTheta
start angle in x-y plane
sweepTheta
degrees to spiral around

DESCRIPTION

Sweep an arbitrary contour along a helical path.

The axis of the helix lies along the modeling coordinate z-axis.

An affine transform can be applied as the contour is swept. For most ordinary usage, the affines should be given as NULL.

The "startXform[][]" is an affine matrix applied to the contour to deform the contour. Thus, "startXform" of the form

| cos sin 0 | | -sin cos 0 |

will rotate the contour (in the plane of the contour), while

| 1 0 tx | | 0 1 ty |

will translate the contour, and

| sx 0 0 | | 0 sy 0 |

scales along the two axes of the contour. In particular, note that

| 1 0 0 | | 0 1 0 |

is the identity matrix.

The "dXformdTheta[][]" is a differential affine matrix that is integrated while the contour is extruded. Note that this affine matrix lives in the tangent space, and so it should have the form of a generator. Thus, dx/dt's of the form

| 0 r 0 | | -r 0 0 |

rotate the the contour as it is extruded (r == 0 implies no rotation, r == 2*PI implies that the contour is rotated once, etc.), while

| 0 0 tx | | 0 0 ty |

translates the contour, and

| sx 0 0 | | 0 sy 0 |

scales it. In particular, note that

| 0 0 0 | | 0 0 0 |

is the identity matrix -- i.e. the derivatives are zero, and therefore the integral is a constant.

SEE ALSO

gleLathe

AUTHOR

Linas Vepstas (linas@linas.org)