Hot & Cold Colors
Windows only
Problem
It is often useful to show curvature with a color index. For example, if you divide a curve into 500 points and measure the curvature at each point, you can assign a “curvature radius” color to each of the points using RhinoScript. Let’s take a look at how this is done.
Solution
One solution you might consider is to determine the minimum and maximum curvature values for your samples. Then, you can use this function to calculate a color value for each point.
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' Return a RGB color given a scalar v in the range [vmin, vmax].
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Function GetHotColdColor(v, vmin, vmax)
Dim r, g, b, dv
r = 1.0 : g = 1.0 : b = 1.0 'white
If (v < vmin) Then v = vmin
If (v > vmax) Then v = vmax
dv = vmax - vmin
If (v < (vmin + 0.25 * dv)) Then
r = 0
g = 4 * (v - vmin) / dv
ElseIf (v < (vmin + 0.5 * dv)) Then
r = 0
b = 1 + 4 * (vmin + 0.25 * dv - v) / dv
ElseIf (v < (vmin + 0.75 * dv)) Then
r = 4 * (v - vmin - 0.5 * dv) / dv
b = 0
Else
g = 1 + 4 * (vmin + 0.75 * dv - v) / dv
b = 0
End If
GetHotColdColor = RGB(Int(r*255), Int(g*255), Int(b*255))
End Function
Here is a sample script that you can use to test the above function…
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' Test procedure creates a "hot-to-cold" color ramp mesh.
' To see the results, set a viewport to "rendered" display.
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Sub TestGetHotColdColor()
' Mesh with 200 vertices and 100 faces
Dim v(199), f(99), c(199), ub, i
' Fill in arrays
ub = UBound(v)
For i = 0 To UBound(v) Step 2
v(i) = Array(i/2,0,0)
v(i+1) = Array(i/2,10,0)
c(i) = GetHotColdColor(i,0,ub)
c(i+1) = c(i)
f(i/2) = Array(i,i+2,i+3,i+1)
Next
' Create the mesh object
Call Rhino.AddMesh(v,f,,,c)
End Sub
