[Plugin] Superellipse 1.2
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Hey, thanks everyone for the big welcome, and your show of support, for this first -- albeit simple -- plugin.
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Really nice... but it reminds me... I used to use POV-Ray some years ago, in which it was possible to create a 3d-superellipsoid.
Could you make that???
would be so awesome, I used to use it a lot!
Perhaps in SU it would need a variable for level of detail, though...@unknownuser said:
The superellipsoid object creates a shape known as a superquadric ellipsoid object. It is an extension of the quadric ellipsoid. It can be used to create boxes and cylinders with round edges and other interesting shapes. Mathematically it is given by the equation:
The values of e and n, called the east-west and north-south exponent, determine the shape of the superquadric ellipsoid. Both have to be greater than zero. The sphere is given by e = 1 and n = 1.The syntax of the superquadric ellipsoid is:
SUPERELLIPSOID:
superellipsoid
{
<Value_E, Value_N>
[OBJECT_MODIFIERS...]
}The 2-D vector specifies the e and n values in the equation above. The object sits at the origin and occupies a space about the size of a box{<-1,-1,-1>,<1,1,1>}.
Two useful objects are the rounded box and the rounded cylinder. These are declared in the following way.
#declare Rounded_Box = superellipsoid { <Round, Round> }
#declare Rounded_Cylinder = superellipsoid { <1, Round> }The roundedness value Round determines the roundedness of the edges and has to be greater than zero and smaller than one. The smaller you choose the values, the smaller and sharper the edges will get.
Very small values of e and n might cause problems with the root solver (the Sturmian root solver cannot be used).
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@unknownuser said:
Really nice... but it reminds me... I used to use POV-Ray some years ago, in which it was possible to create a 3d-superellipsoid.
Could you make that??? would be so awesome, I used to use it a lot!
Perhaps in SU it would need a variable for level of detail, though...Thanks, glad you like it. Funny you should ask because, in fact, I do have a superellipsoid plugin. It lets the user enter the number of lines of latitude and longitude to control the level of detail.
It was interesting to see how POV-Ray is dealing with the exponents in the formula. They let the user specify a Roundedness value, whereas I came up with a Squareness value. I'll have to try out both approaches to see which I like better.
Anyway, I should get the superellipsoid plugin polished up, and posted on my blog, sometime next week. Stay tuned!
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Looking good! Definitely works better, will update the review.
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@su reviewer said:
Looking good! Definitely works better, will update the review.
That is +1 vote for the new squareness scale in version 1.1. I think it improved the plugin, thanks for the suggestion.
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Update to version 1.2
Previous versions started off each session with arbitrary default values in the dialog box for the Superellipse parameters. This version remembers your last dialog box values between sessions.
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