# Data from Ellipses

This guide discusses ellipses and their representation in openNURBS.

## Problem

You have drawn an ellipse in Rhino, using the Ellipse command. While reading the .3dm file, using openNURBS, the ellipse is classified as as ON::curve_object. How does one get the ellipse’s construction data, such as center point, major and minor axes, etc?

## Solution

Unlike some curve types (e.g. Lines, Arcs, Polylines, etc.) which have their own ON_Curve-derived classes, there is no special class that is used to represent elliptical curves. Ellipses and elliptical arcs are simply NURBS, or ON_NurbsCurve, curves.

To test to see if a curve is an ellipse or an elliptical arc, first try to cast the ON_Curve object as an ON_NurbsCurve object. If successful, then use ON_NurbsCurve::IsEllipse() to verify the NURBS curve is an ellipse and to obtain its construction data.

## Sample

ONX_Model model;

//...

const ON_Curve* curve = //...;

//...

const ON_NurbsCurve* nurb = ON_NurbsCurve::Cast( curve );
if( nurb )
{
ON_Ellipse ellipse;
double tolerance = model.m_settings.m_ModelUnitsAndTolerances.m_absolute_tolerance;
bool rc = nurb->IsEllipse( 0, &ellipse, tolerance );
if( rc )
{
// Center
ON_3dPoint origin = ellipse.plane.origin;

// Major and minor axes
ON_3dVector xaxis = ellipse.radius[0] * ellipse.plane.xaxis;
ON_3dVector yaxis = ellipse.radius[1] * ellipse.plane.yaxis;