Minimal Surface from Curve

Dependencies

This node requires SciPy library to work.

Functionality

This node generates a Surface, based on the provided Curve, by use of RBF method. To do so, the node evaluates the curve in many points, and then generates an RBF surface for these points. Depending on node parameters, the curve can be either interpolating (go through all points) or only approximating.

The generated surface is not, strictly speaking, guaranteed to be minimal; but in many simple cases it is close enough to the minimal.

• Scene-> Bezier Input

• Surfaces-> Evaluate Surface

• Viz-> Viewer Draw

Inputs

This node has the following inputs:

• Curve. The curve to generate surface from. This input is mandatory.

• Samples. Number of samples to evaluate the curve in. Theoretically, greater number of samples will give the surface which follows the curve more precisely. However, for some RBF functions too high values generate weird results. The default value is 50.

  

• Epsilon. Epsilon parameter of used RBF function; it affects the shape of generated surface. The default value is 1.0.

  

• Smooth. Smoothness parameter of used RBF function. If this is zero, then the surface will go through all provided points; otherwise, it will be only an approximating surface. The default value is 0.0.

  

Parameters

This node has the following parameter:

• Function. The specific function used by the node. The available values are:

  • Multi Quadric

  • Inverse

  • Gaussian

  • Cubic

  • Quintic

  • Thin Plate

  The default function is Multi Quadric. Scipy RBF Functions :

  

Outputs

This node has the following outputs:

• Surface. The generated surface object.

• TrimCurve. The curve in surface’s U/V space, which corresponds to the provided input Curve. This output can be used with “Trim & Tessellate” or “Adaptive tessellate” nodes to trim the surface.

  

  • Curves-> Evaluate Curve

  • Surfaces-> Evaluate Surface

  • Surfaces-> Tesselate & Trim Surface

  • Viz-> Viewer Draw

  • Scene-> Bezier Input

• Curve. The curve from TrimCurve output mapped to the surface.

  

  • Surfaces-> Evaluate Surface

  • Viz-> Viewer Draw

  • Scene-> Bezier Input

Example of usage

• Generator-> NGon

• Curves->Curve Primitives-> Fillet Polyline

• Surfaces-> Tesselate & Trim Surface

• Transform-> Randomize

• Viz-> Viewer Draw