Anim8or Community

Please see the response to your other similar post:

http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php?topic=951.msg6950#msg6950

Anim8or uses regular quaternions.  One can convert quaternions to Euler angles readily.  The formulas shown on the Wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_between_quaternions_and_Euler_angles work.  In the nomenclature of the Wikipedia, the q0 is the same as w, q1 is x, etc.

If you need help writing a script to do the conversion, let me know.

Attached is an updated and expanded version of the script.  Following Steve's wishes, there is only a command version of the script.  To use the script, you must edit it with a text editor to change the parameters.  First, create a mesh named "target" to be the template where the "source" will be copied.  Create a mesh called "source" to be copied onto the "target" mesh.  The script is very highly documented, so you can always look at it in a text editor to see how it is constructed as well as the parameter explanations below.

Parameters:
1) Fixed rotations of the copies around the x, y, and z axes [xabsrot,yabsrot,zabsrot]
2) Variable rotations of the copies around the x, y, and z axes.  The variable rotations are random up to half the amount entered plus or minus the Fixed rotations in (1) above.[xrot,yrot,zrot]
3) Fraction of available copy positions to be used.  If you enter 1.0, all available copy positions are populated.  If you enter less than 1.0, that fraction of the points will be randomly distributed. [meshptfraction]
4) Number of copies per available copy position.  This can be a random number between a minimum and the maximum per copy position or it can always be the maximum number. [minusemesh,maxusemesh,usemeshrand]
5) Scale of each copy.  This can be fixed at some value or random between a minimum and maximum.[minscale,maxscale,scalerand]
6) An offset to allow you to "sink" the copy into the surface of the target.  It is entered as a fraction of the total y-axis length of the "source".[yoffsetfraction]
7) Set the original orientation of the copies to be either straight up and down along the y-axis or normal to the surface of the mesh at the copy position.[usenormals]
8) Set whether to use the unrotate "source" y minimum point as the attachment point to the "target" mesh or to use the new calculated y minimum point after all the rotations.[useorigmin]
9) Set the copy positions to be the vertices (mesh points) of the "target" mesh.[useverts]
10) Set the copy positions to be on the faces of the "target" mesh.  If this is set, there will the number of sides of the face of the "target" mesh plus one: one in the center, and one each between the center and the vertices of the face.[usefaces]
11) A random seed to alter the random elements above.  If you leave this the same, each time you run script you will get the same distribution of random numbers.[the integer in parenthesis of randseed]

To achieve the highest density for fur, hair, or grass, set the variable rotation, a relatively high number for maxusemesh, use the vertices and the faces.  If you have a curved surface for the "target", use normals to have the copies point directly away from the faces and vertices instead of straight "up".

Enjoy!

I'd love to hear your feedback and suggestions.

Steve and everyone,
I will always write a command version and a parametric version, knowing that the parametric version will probably stop working at some point. With only ten parameters to work with, and larding all the points into a single shape, you are limited in what you can do in a parametric script.

I have already started trying to figure out how to orient the copies along the normals of the mesh point.  Hopefully, I will have that figured out soon.  It should be fairly straightforward to scatter objects across the faces.  I'll look into it.

csf,

Attached is the requested script.  I have simply converted Steve's spline.txt script to a parametric script.  It creates a tube along a spline that must be named "tubepath".  You can adjust the number of sides, the diameter, and the number of divisions.

*** Remember to convert the parametric shape to a mesh before using it
      in any other objects, in figures, or scenes.  It is totally dependent
      on the original "tubepath" spline while it remains
      a parametric shape.  As Steve stated: parametric scripts were never
      intended to work this way. ***

Any script I post here is in the public domain.  It is not copyrighted or restricted in any way.  I do it because I love it and appreciate the opportunities and community that Steve has created with his very hard work.

If you have other script requests or ideas, I am happy to give it a try.

Steve, if you ever want help in developing the ASL (or any other part of Anim8or), I would love to help.

Attached is the requested script.  It copies a mesh along a spline.  To use it, you must have a mesh called "copytarget" that will be copied.  You must also have a spline called "copypath".  After selecting the icon, click in the editor window to make the parametric shape of the copytarget copied along the copypath appear.  If you double-click on the parametric shape, the parameters will show:

Center parameter: 1=mesh's centroid follows spline and is the origin of rotation, 0=mesh's own coordinate system's origin follows the spline and is the origin of rotation.

X-Rotate, Y-Rotate, Z-Rotate: degrees of rotation to apply to the mesh before it follows the spline (0 to 360 degrees).

Spacing %:  Amount of spacing between copies of the mesh expressed as a multiple of the z-width of the mesh after rotation (0.001 to 10)

Note that the coordinate system of the spline has the z-axis along the spline so the mesh copies are spaced according to the z-width of the mesh after rotations are applied.

Also note that the mesh has its own coordinate system based on the values of its points regardless of how it is displayed in the editor window.  Even if you change the orientation and origin of the mesh, it retains its original point values.

*** Remember to convert the parametric shape to a mesh before using it in any other objects, in figures, or scenes.  It is totally dependent on the original "copytarget" mesh and "copypath" spline while it remains a parametric shape.  As Steve stated:  parametric scripts were never intended to work this way.  ***

One final note:  this script only works with Anim8or 0.97b (or later, when they arrive).

Please try it out and please let me know your feedback.