[Radiance-general] RE: Translating a grid into an acad file

[Jack de Valpine]

Given a well formated data file such as Martin originally posted, one 
could write an autolisp routine to read in the data file and do 
something with it in Autocad. This could be simple such as calling the 
"3dmesh" command and feeding it points as part of a script. The lisp 
routine could ask for the MxN resolution of the mesh and feed this to 
3dmesh (or these could be written in as the first lines to the data 
file). Then the data file could be opened and successive calls to get 
coordinates to pass to the running 3dmesh command. Alternatively, with a 
little poking about you could determine the underlying format for the 
mesh data structure in Autocad and just build it directly...

-Jack

Randolph Fritz wrote:
> It seems to me that AutoCAD has an MxN mesh operation (3dmesh?) that 
> might be useful here; you could simply create a .scr file and feed it 
> to AutoCAD. If that doesn't work, the "sdxf.py" 
> <http://www.stani.be/python/sdxf> script Python library might be of 
> some use.
>
> Randolph
>
> Bleicher, Thomas wrote:
>> Martin.
>>
>> Creating a DXF file from scratch might be tricky.
>> The reference states that an application can savely
>> skip anything (or nearly anything) it doesn't know
>> about but I guess that's not true for applications
>> that write DXF.
>>
>> If you realy want to use DXF I'd crate a small file
>> with two 3DFace triangles and look at the DXF file
>> that produces. It should be possible to copy the
>> lines of the 3DFace definition and change the values
>> of the x,y and z coordinates. There are some binary
>> issues you have to be aware of, though.
>>
>> You can find DXF specs here:
>>
>> http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=5129239
>>
>> You might have more luck creating an *.obj file
>> (which has been discussed in the last months at least
>> once) or a *.3ds/*.vrml/*.whatever _simple_ format and
>> check if your ACAD installation has an importer for it.
>>
>>
>> Thomas
>>
>>
>>  
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: radiance-general-bounces at radiance-online.org 
>>> [mailto:radiance-general-bounces at radiance-online.org] On Behalf Of 
>>> Martin Moeck
>>> Sent: 04 September 2006 18:53
>>> To: Radiance general discussion
>>> Subject: Translating a grid into an acad file
>>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I would like to translate a grid with dimensions m X n consisting of 
>>> equally spaced cartesian coordinates in x and y, but varying heights 
>>> in z, into a 3D acad file or 3D acad readable format. The file 
>>> format is as follows:
>>>
>>> x1 y1 z
>>> x1 y2 z
>>> x1 y3 z
>>> ...
>>> x1 yn z
>>> x2 y1 z
>>> x2 y2 z
>>> x2 y3 z
>>> ...
>>> x2 yn z
>>> ...
>>> xm y1 z
>>> xm y2 z
>>> xm y3 z
>>> ..
>>> xm yn z
>>>
>>> where z is a variable with different real positve values indicating 
>>> variable different heights. This set could come from a radiance mesh 
>>> primitive, but this is not important here. It is just topography, 
>>> such as the geometry of a landscape. How would you approach this 
>>> problem? Intermediate steps using the obj or other formats might 
>>> possibly help.
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Martin
>>>
>>>     
>>
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