Lofting Surfaces that Maintain Tangency
Windows only

by Dale Fugier (Last updated:  Wednesday, December 5, 2018)

Overview

When trying to loft a surface with starting or ending tangency, it is not enough just to set CArgsRhinoLoft object’s m_start_condition and m_end_condition members to CArgsRhinoLoft::leTangent. You also need to tell Rhino’s lofter what it is that this lofted surface need to be tangent to. You do this by setting the m_trim parameter of the starting and ending CRhinoLoftCurve objects. This is a constant ON_BrepTrim pointer. If you are lofting curves that you have picked using a CRhinoGetObject object, you can retrieve this pointer by simply calling CRhinoObjRef::Trim().

Sample

The following sample code demonstrates how to loft surfaces that maintain tangency with adjacent surfaces using the CArgsRhinoLoft class and the RhinoSdkLoftSurface function. The definitions of these are in rhinoSdkLoft.h.

NOTE: This sample does not perform any curve sorting or direction matching. This is the responsibility of the plugin developer.

CRhinoCommand::result CCommandTest::RunCommand( const CRhinoCommandContext& context )
{
  // Select curves to loft
  CRhinoGetObject go;
  go.SetCommandPrompt( L"Select curves to loft" );
  go.SetGeometryFilter( CRhinoGetObject::curve_object | CRhinoGetObject::edge_object);
  go.SetGeometryAttributeFilter( CRhinoGetObject::open_curve );
  go.EnablePreSelect( false );
  go.GetObjects( 2, 0 );
  if( go.CommandResult() != CRhinoCommand::success )
    return go.CommandResult();

  // Create loft arguments object
  const int obj_count = go.ObjectCount();
  CArgsRhinoLoft args;
  args.m_loftcurves.SetCapacity( obj_count );

  // Add curves to loft arguments object
  int i;
  for( i = 0; i < obj_count; i++ )
  {
    const CRhinoObjRef& ref = go.Object(i);
    const ON_Curve* crv = ref.Curve();
    if( crv )
    {
      // New loft curve
      CRhinoLoftCurve* lc = new CRhinoLoftCurve;

      // Duplicate the selected curve. Note,
      // the loft curve will delete this curve.
      lc->m_curve = crv->DuplicateCurve();
      lc->m_curve->RemoveShortSegments( ON_ZERO_TOLERANCE );

      // Set other loft curve parameters
      lc->m_bPlanar = ( lc->m_curve->IsPlanar(&lc->m_plane) ? true : false );

      // If referenced geometry is a surface edge,
      // assign associated brep trim.
      lc->m_trim = ref.Trim();

      // Append loft curve to loft argument
      args.m_loftcurves.Append( lc );
    }
  }

  // If we do not have enough loft curves,
  // clean up and bail.
  const int lc_count = args.m_loftcurves.Count();
  if( lc_count < 2 )
  {
    for( i = 0; i < lc_count; i++ )
      delete args.m_loftcurves[i];
    return failure;
  }

  // If the starting loft curve has a trim,
  // set the start condition to tangent.
  if( args.m_loftcurves[0] && args.m_loftcurves[0]->m_trim )
  {
    args.m_start_condition = CArgsRhinoLoft::leTangent;
    args.m_bAllowStartTangent = TRUE;
  }

  // If the ending loft curve has a trim,
  // set the end condition to tangent.
  if( args.m_loftcurves[lc_count-1] && args.m_loftcurves[lc_count-1]->m_trim )
  {
    args.m_end_condition = CArgsRhinoLoft::leTangent;
    args.m_bAllowEndTangent = TRUE;
  }

  // Do the loft calculation
  ON_SimpleArray<ON_NurbsSurface*> srf_list;
  bool rc = RhinoSdkLoftSurface( args, srf_list );

  // Delete the loft curves so we do not leak memory.
  for( i = 0; i < args.m_loftcurves.Count(); i++ )
    delete args.m_loftcurves[i];
  args.m_loftcurves.Empty();

  // If the loft operation failed, bail.
  if( !rc )
    return failure;

  // If only one surface was calculated, add it to Rhino
  if( srf_list.Count() == 1 )
  {
    context.m_doc.AddSurfaceObject( *srf_list[0] );

    // CRhinoDoc::AddSurfaceObject() make a copy.
    // So, delete original so memory is not leaked.
    delete srf_list[0];
  }
  else
  {
    // If more than one surface was calculated,
    // create a list of breps.
    ON_SimpleArray<ON_Brep*> brep_list;
    for( i = 0; i < srf_list.Count(); i++)
    {
      if( srf_list[i]->IsValid() )
      {
        ON_Brep* brep = ON_Brep::New();
        brep->NewFace( *srf_list[i] );

        // ON_Brep::NewFace() make a copy.
        // So, delete original so memory is not leaked.
        delete srf_list[i];

        brep_list.Append( brep );
      }
    }

    // Try joining all breps
    double tol = context.m_doc.AbsoluteTolerance();
    ON_Brep* brep = RhinoJoinBreps( brep_list, tol );
    if( brep )
    {
      context.m_doc.AddBrepObject( *brep );

      // CRhinoDoc::AddBrepObject() make a copy.
      // So, delete original so memory is not leaked.
      delete brep;
    }
    else
    {
      // Othewise just add the individual breps to Rhino.
      for( i = 0; i < brep_list.Count(); i++ )
      {
        if( brep_list[i] )
        {
          context.m_doc.AddBrepObject( *brep_list[i] );

          // CRhinoDoc::AddBrepObject() make a copy.
          // So, delete original so memory is not leaked.
          delete brep_list[i];
        }
      }
    }
  }

  context.m_doc.Redraw();

  return success;
}