Ribbon

Category

Annotation

Function

Produces a ribbon of specified width from a specified line.

Syntax ribbon = Ribbon(line, width);

Inputs

Name	Type	Default	Description
line	field	none	line to be drawn as a ribbon
width	scalar	input dependent	ribbon width

Outputs

Name	Type	Description
ribbon	field	the line turned into a ribbon

Functional Details

This module is intended for use with any module that creates lines.

line

specifies a line to be turned into a ribbon. If this line has a "normals" component (as would occur, for example, if the input field curl were used with Streamline), the resulting ribbon shows a twist corresponding to this component (at each point of the input line, the ribbon is oriented in the direction pointed to by the normal). If a "normals" component is not found but the input contains a "binormals" component, normals are derived by crossing the binormals with the approximated tangents. If no "normals" component is present, the ribbon's orientation is based on the path of the line.

width

specifies the width of the ribbon in the same units as those of the original space. If this parameter is not specified, the system provides an appropriate value (1/50 of the diagonal of the bounding box of line). The value used is attached to the output object as a "Ribbon width" attribute (which can be extracted with the Attribute module).

Note: Different colors can be specified for the two sides of the ribbon. Use the Color module and specify "front colors" and "back colors."

Any transformation matrix applied to Ribbon, such as those created by the Scale module, may produce an unwanted effect of tranforming the Ribbon's geometry. To just transform the line but not the Ribbon, insert an Inquire module immediately before the Ribbon module, and set the inquiry option to "apply transform". This operation applies all transformation matrices changing the line's geometry, but prevents the transform from being carried forward onto the Ribbon geometry.

Components

Creates new "positions," "connections," and "normals" components. All other components are propagated to the output.

Example Visual Programs

ThunderStreamlines.net
UsingStreakline.net

See Also

 Color,  Streakline,  Streamline,  Tube