Is this possible: Visualize mesh of a Part + contour?

[sthu]

Hi folks,
before I keep running into the wrong directions for days, could you please give me some advice on what's the best way to accomplish this or if it's possible at all?
If have data as txt file, that describe the x,y and z position of sensors.  Furthermore, I have a damage index for every point where a sensor is.
What I want to do is to create a mesh out of the sensor data and color it regarding to the damage index for that point.

Basicly you could consider that the data in the txt file descripes the shape of a part, like a wing of a plane or a panel or something, that I will have to plot as a 3d visualition. The best thing would be to be able to draw lines with fading colors, so I could make the mesh look like a contour plot. So I would be able to just draw a line form point 1 to point 2 using color from Damage1 to Damage2 - doing that for every point that lie next to each other and I would be good. Is there such a way?
If not, I was thinking about writing for loops for drawing all the points, that sum up the a line, but I didn't find a specific function for drawing point.
I am also open for different approaches hat end up with a usefull result.
Thank you

[Ben]

If I understand you correctly, then yes.

Start by looking at what I did in the postings starting with reply #7 of this thread.

If that is not enough info to get you started, then put together a quick demo that has representative data and post back with your sample code and a quick sketch of what you are after.

With that info one of use here should be able to give the "push" required to get over the hill.

Have fun!

Ben

PS Searching on "Ben" and "3d" will get you other examples I have posted.

[sthu]

Thank you. I've been sitting in front of that example a few hours already, but I have a lot of confusing basic problems. For example if I take the CWPlot3d - Plot3DCurce function and enter a Array of two values for every coordinate:
xVector: 0,0
yVector: 0,0
zVector: 0,1
the result is a line parallel to the x axys.
To my little mathematical understanding a vector [0,0,1] should cause a movement into the z direction, ending with a line parallel to the z axys.. so this is pretty confusion to me at the moment.
Is there any documentation, where I could find more information how the 3dPlot functions behave? I wasn't able to find too much about that until now..

[Ben]

You specify a set of vectors with the triplets formed by the coresponding element of the array you pass.

In your case it sounds like you are specifying two vectors,

(0,0,0) and (0,0,1)

that define a line between those two points,

(0,0,0) is at the blue end and (0,0,1) is at the red end.

I hope that helps,

Ben

Message Edited by Ben on 10-23-2007 04:53 PM

[lmtis]

Ben,
The thread that you reference was some SWEET work.  Very nice!

[sthu]

thank you, that seems to be clear now.
but to me it seems pretty difficult to predict how it behaves when pasing more than 2 vectors. That really gives me a hard time at the moment.
Entering two vectors
0,0,0
1,0,0
displays just a single point, that I am only able to see, when I drag the view. Shouldn't that also end up in a line?

What apraoch would you choose, if you would want to just display a simple mesh.
coordinates might, for example, be like

1,1,1
2,1,1
3,1,1
4,1,1

1,2,1
2,2,1
3,2,1
4,2,1

1,3,1
2,3,1
3,3,1
4,3,1

1,4,1
2,4,1
3,4,1
4,4,1

actually, this would just be a flat 2d mesh in a 3d view. Shouldn't be so difficult, I thought... but, the vectors give me a hard time at moment, when I have to read the coordinates out of a file.

Is there an easy way to just draw a point,not a line at a specific coordinate?

[Ben]

You are not posting code.

Try doing a parametric plot with plot style of "line and point"

Ben

PS Thanks for the kind words Jim!

Message Edited by Ben on 10-24-2007 07:46 AM

[sthu]

Hi Ben,
thank you, that helped me a lot. I've been able to put something together that looks the way we want it to now.
Is there anything where I could find more detailed descriptions of all the methods and properties that are used for plotting than the labview help?

[jrpe]

The labview help is pretty good for explaining functions, two other good resources for that are the example finder and this forum itself, which has a huge number of examples of just about everything, just search through 3D plot posts and take a look at some of the posted examples. There are many elegant solutions (probably the best example is the thread that Ben previously linked with his massive example of a 3D surface), and if you can't find out what something does through the help, example finder or searching the forum, post a question and someone will be sure to explain it quickly.

Hope that helps,

[sthu]

Just another question, for what I haven't been able to find any solution to: Is it possible to adjust the parameters of one single point?
I'm asking because I want one of the points of the mesh to disappear. It would be nice to also have the grid around that point not to show up, but that's not vital. could it be done?

The CWPlot3d - PointSize property changes all so the point sizes of the surface.. is it possible to just select one point and set it's size to zero or color it transparent?