Importing SVG and converting points/lines to 3d objects

[ibzero]

Hi,
I'm new to cheetah but so far i'm impressed with the ease of use. I'm having a little trouble understanding how best to accomplish the following.

I have SVG file of a graph (sample attached) and I want to import it and then have the lines converted to tubes/cylinders and the nodes converted to disks.

Since the lines are imported as bezier splines, is there a way to take an instance of an object and then do a copy parameterized instance to splines? If so any pointers would be appreciated. (Basically hoping I don't have to manually extrude each spline/line and add the points.

Thanks,
IB

[frank beckmann]

Hi and welcome.
Are you expecting a scriptable solution as we are in the scripting area of the forum? If not - have a closer look into the attached file and let´s hope it might help you start with your project.
Your SVG is quite scary and I don´t know what you´re after right now.
I made a simple file from 2 splines and Cheetah3d´s instancing system. That means I have a ball per control point and a sweep object from the same spline plus a six-sided edge spline as a diameter.

Have fun.

Cheers
Frank

[ibzero]

Frank,
Thanks for the quick turn around. Your example helps, but I was hoping for a scriptable solution (programmer/designer by trade). The SVG is a social network graph and I need to be able to import several of these and turn them into 3D objects (although really they'll be 2d planes extruded and overlaid onto of some 3D environment scenery.

I would like the lines to act as springs for animation purposes (e.g. one of the visualizations involves introducing an impulse on a node and watching the waveform propagate through the network. I did find another post where you mention importing as pdf (this worked better for me and I was able to extrude) but when importing as a pdf it treats the entire network as one object which is problematic as i need to be able to color nodes and edges as part of the animation.

I'll take a deeper look at the example you sent and see if I can get where i need to go. If I haven't made things clearer in the above, please disregard and i'll wait till i can ask a better question.

Thanks,
IB

[tg_jp]

Hello

here is script's approach. please check it.

it's a Tool script, so place it into ~/Library/Application Support/Cheetah3D/scripts/Tool folder.

I tested with your file, and some my svg file.

regards.

tg_jp, Hiroto.

[ibzero]

This is awesome, I had to resort to manually doing this for a short term deadline, but this is exactly what I was looking for to start diving into the scripting capabilities of C3D.

Thanks again, its refreshing to find a true community around a tool and with such helpful guru's.

IB

[ibzero]

Oh and for the search engines: This is a possible solution/pipeline for visualizing network graphs in 3D with gephi and cheetah3d