Constructing a Cylinder with Python

Coding Python Support
1

Hey all. I am trying to make a cylinder from two given points. I got it working nicely, by constructing a mesh with NMesh.GetRaw and adding a few verticies in key places. Then I did obj.Blender.Get( “Mesh”) with obj.RotY etc to orient it correctly. Unfortunately the reason I wanted to write this script was to have an array of these cylinders (coords are read from a text file) and I soon found out that when I did more than one Cylinder it would grab the wrong one because of the “Mesh” name above. So… I was thinking of just putting the verticies in their final positions, but quickly found that my powers of linear algebra were not up to the task.

I looked a meta balls, because a tubeX oriented correctly would work also, but I can’t figure out how to actually construct a meta ball purely from python.
So I guess my request is: could some one help me out with the needed linear algebra or tell me how to add an elem to the meta ball list?

Much Appreciated.
SquirrelSNuts

2

Here is the code I have so far:
I pointed out the rogue code.

import Blender
from Blender import *
import math
from math import *
import vecModule
from vecModule import *


class Cylinder:
  def __init__(self,p1=[0.0,0.0,0.0], p2=[0.0,0.0,1.0], name="bob2" ):
    me = NMesh.GetRaw()
 
    vec = makeVec( p1, p2 ) 

    n = 32
    rad = 0.3

    height = vecLen(vec)

    v1 = NMesh.Vert(0,0,height)
    v2 = NMesh.Vert(0,0,0)

    me.verts.append(v1)
    me.verts.append(v2)

    for i in range(0,n):
      x = rad*cos(i*2*pi/(n-1))
      y = rad*sin(i*2*pi/(n-1))

      v1 = NMesh.Vert(x,y,height)
      v2 = NMesh.Vert(x,y,0)
 
      me.verts.append(v1)
      me.verts.append(v2)
    #end loop

    #Faces
    #start with caps
    for i in range(2, 2*n):  #0 and 1 are the centers
      f = NMesh.Face()
  
      f.v.append( me.verts[i%2] )  #0 or 1 is center of cap
      f.v.append( me.verts[i]   )
      f.v.append( me.verts[i+2] )
      me.faces.append(f)
    #end loop

    #patch up the last few
    f = NMesh.Face()
    f.v.append( me.verts[-2] )
    f.v.append( me.verts[0] )
    f.v.append( me.verts[2] )
    me.faces.append(f)

    f = NMesh.Face()
    f.v.append( me.verts[-1] )
    f.v.append( me.verts[3] )
    f.v.append( me.verts[1] )


    
    #now side(s)
    for i in range(2, 2*(n-1), 2):
      f = NMesh.Face()
      f.v.append( me.verts[i])
      f.v.append( me.verts[i+1])
      f.v.append( me.verts[i+3])  #not sure if order matters...
      f.v.append( me.verts[i+2])  #...but just in case
      f.smooth = 1
 
      me.faces.append(f)
    #end loop

    #This is where the material stuff goes

    NMesh.PutRaw(me, name, 1)
    
    obj = Blender.Object.Get("Mesh")   <i><b>#Here is the problem!!</b></i>
    

    Sphvec = makeSph(vec)        #(r,phi,theta)
   
    obj.RotY = pi/2.0 - Sphvec[1]
    obj.RotZ = Sphvec[2] 
    
    obj.LocX = p1[0]
    obj.LocY = p1[1]
    obj.LocZ = p1[2]

  #end constructor