Convert 3D mesh to 3D polylines

[ger21]

I wrote a little macro today that takes a polygon mesh created with AutoCAD's surface commands (rulesurf, revsurf...), and creates 3D polylines that run through the vertices of the mesh. These 3D polylines can be turned into toolpaths with my g-code macro. Attached is the macro and some sample meshes, all in the zip file.

[Nmbmxer]

Would it be possible to make it so you could choose which vertices to connect, ie, on a sphere machine a waterline instead of a gradient?

[ger21]

Probably, but I don't have time to do it right now. Right now it just reads the vertices in the order thay are stored in the database. To do waterline, I have to go around the perimeter and read each point. I'm assuming you'd want to start at the top and work down, right? Or would you want the option to go from the bottom up? Either way, it would be hard to figure out on meshes that aren't revolved.

[FLUTE HEAD]

I'm not sure if this has been covered but, is the mesh macro supposed to delete the latitude segments on a dish? When running the macro on a dish the latitude dissapears. I've been drawing 3dpoly's converted to splines in its place. I'm running cad 04

[ger21]

Can you post a sample file of your dish? I don't see why anything should be getting deleted.

[FLUTE HEAD]

Here it is. Its in land desktop 2004, its still autocad though.

[ger21]

Yes, that's what it does. Not very useful for revolved meshes. Works much better on the other types.

[ger21]

Actually, it shouldn't delete anything. It will just draw 3D polylines over the longitudinal edges. I'll look again tonight.