Node:Aligning Paths with an Axis, Next:, Previous:Affine Transformations for Paths, Up:Path Reference



Aligning with an Axis

Transform align_with_axis ([const char axis = 'z']) const function
Transform align_with_axis (bool assign, [const char axis = 'z']) Function
Transform align_with_axis (const Point& p0, const Point& p1, const char axis) Function
These functions return the Transform which, if applied to the Path, would align it with the major axis indicated by the axis argument.

The first and second versions can only be called for Paths where line_switch is true. The first version is const, so the Path remains unchanged. The second version should only be called with assign = true, so that the Transform is applied to the Path, actually aligning it with the axis indicated. If the second version is called with assign = false, a warning message is issued to the standard error output (stderr), since one might as well use the first version in this case, but it won't do any harm. The third version creates a Transform t locally that would align the line from p0 to p1 with the axis indicated, and applies t to the Path.

          Point A(2, 3, 2);
          Point B(-1, 1, 3);
          Path p(A, B);
          Transform t = p.align_with_axis(true, 'z');
          t.show("t:");
          -| t:
              -0.316   0.507  -0.802       0
                   0  -0.845  -0.535       0
              -0.949  -0.169   0.267       0
                2.53    1.86    2.67       1
          p *= t;
          p.show("p:");
          -| p:
             (2.53, 1.86, 2.67) -- (-1.02, 1.23, 3.67);
          
          Point C(1);
          C *= t.inverse();
          
          Path q;
          q += "..";
          q += C;
          
          for (int i = 0; i < 15; ++i)
            {
              C.rotate(A, B, 360.0/16);
              q += C;
            }
          q.set_cycle(true);
          q.show("q:");
          -| q:
             (1.68, 3, 1.05) .. (1.9, 2.68, 1.06) ..
             (2.13, 2.4, 1.21) .. (2.35, 2.22, 1.48) ..
             (2.51, 2.15, 1.83) .. (2.59, 2.22, 2.21) ..
             (2.58, 2.4, 2.55) .. (2.49, 2.68, 2.81) ..
             (2.32, 3, 2.95) .. (2.1, 3.32, 2.94) ..
             (1.87, 3.6, 2.79) .. (1.65, 3.78, 2.52) ..
             (1.49, 3.85, 2.17) .. (1.41, 3.78, 1.79) ..
             (1.42, 3.6, 1.45) .. (1.51, 3.32, 1.19) .. cycle;
          q.align_with_axis(A, B, 'z');
          q.show("q:");
          -| q:
             (1, 0, 0) .. (0.924, 0.383, 0) ..
             (0.707, 0.707, 0) .. (0.383, 0.924, 0) ..
             (0, 1, 0) .. (-0.383, 0.924, 0) ..
             (-0.707, 0.707, 0) .. (-0.924, 0.383, 0) ..
             (-1, 0, 0) .. (-0.924, -0.383, 0) ..
             (-0.707, -0.707, 0) .. (-0.383, -0.924, 0) ..
             (0, -1, 0) .. (0.383, -0.924, 0) ..
             (0.707, -0.707, 0) .. (0.924, -0.383, 0) .. cycle;
          


[Figure 119. Not displayed.]

Fig. 119.