Cristina,
Right now, Java 3D is very much a surface-oriented thing. You, I'm betting,
need volumetric tools, first to do the constructive geometries that you
describe, then to analyze and display them. I'm no expert on volumetric
modeling programs, but there are many of them out there. Some have
inexpensive student versions, and some (they say) generate model data sets
that are transportable to Java 3D, so once you've built models, you may be
able to deploy them that way.
Cheers,
Fred Klingener
Brock Engineering
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cristina S. Luis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2001 7:10 PM
Subject: [JAVA3D] The right tool?
> Hello,
>
> I am working on my senior project in the geology department of my
university, an investigation of fracture networks in rocks. I'm trying to
write a Java3D program to help visualize these fracture networks and (more
importantly) give a quantitative analysis of the shapes produced (such as
surface area to volume ratio). I'm new to Java and to working with 3d, but
even so I feel that I may be using the wrong tool to tackle this problem.
I'm hoping members of this list can tell whether what I want to do is
possible with Java3d, and if it's the best (or close to best) tool for the
task. And if so, where I should look to get started. I think it is likely
that there is perhaps some mathematical package out there which could handle
this stuff just as well, but Java3D has obvious distribution advantages.
>
> So, for instance, given two planes (flat, 2-dimensional, defined by 4
points), I would like to find the intersection, defined as a line (2
points?) between those two. Then, by collecting a series of intersections
between planes, use those points to form a new, trimmed shape3d. I guess
it's kind of culling a shape? Getting rid of the excess pieces of my planes,
for viewing purposes. I don't really care how I do this, as long as it's
done.
>
> More importantly, I would just like to be able to find these values so
that I can determine the shape. If I can define these shapes without using
any of the visual aspects of Java3D, the least I'd like to be able to do is
show the end result. In other words, it would be neat for the user to be
able to move around the planes, adjusting their actual positions, and then
specifying which planes to use for making the new 3d object, but that's not
necessary.
>
> Also, my first stumbling block was actually trying to get the "new"
geometry (location information, I guess is what I want) from a Shape3D once
it has been added to a scene graph and moved around (I did get that far, at
least).
>
> Any insight or advice would be very, very much appreciated!
>
> Please reply to [EMAIL PROTECTED], else you might be lost.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Cristina
>
>
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