scallop dome pyformex logo

Previous topic

11. mesh — Finite element meshes in pyFormex.

Next topic

13. project — project.py

[FSF Associate Member]

Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional

12. simple — Predefined geometries with a simple shape.

This module contains some functions, data and classes for generating Formex structures representing simple geometric shapes. You need to import this module in your scripts to have access to its contents.

Classes defined in module simple

Functions defined in module simple

simple.shape(name)

Return a Formex with one of the predefined named shapes.

This is a convenience function returning a plex-2 Formex constructed from one of the patterns defined in the simple.Pattern dictionary. Currently, the following pattern names are defined: ‘line’, ‘angle’, ‘square’, ‘plus’, ‘cross’, ‘diamond’, ‘rtriangle’, ‘cube’, ‘star’, ‘star3d’. See the Pattern example.

simple.regularGrid(x0, x1, nx)

Create a regular grid between points x0 and x1.

x0 and x1 are n-dimensional points (usually 1D, 2D or 3D). The space between x0 and x1 is divided in nx equal parts. nx should have the same dimension as x0 and x1. The result is a rectangular grid of coordinates in an array with shape ( nx[0]+1, nx[1]+1, ..., n ).

simple.point(x=0.0, y=0.0, z=0.0)

Return a Formex which is a point, by default at the origin.

Each of the coordinates can be specified and is zero by default.

simple.line(p1=[0.0, 0.0, 0.0], p2=[1.0, 0.0, 0.0], n=1)

Return a Formex which is a line between two specified points.

p1: first point, p2: second point The line is split up in n segments.

simple.rect(p1=[0.0, 0.0, 0.0], p2=[1.0, 0.0, 0.0], nx=1, ny=1)

Return a Formex which is a the circumference of a rectangle.

p1 and p2 are two opposite corner points of the rectangle. The edges of the rectangle are in planes parallel to the z-axis. There will always be two opposite edges that are parallel with the x-axis. The other two will only be parallel with the y-axis if both points have the same z-value, but in any case they will be parallel with the y-z plane.

The edges parallel with the x-axis are divide in nx parts, the other ones in ny parts.

simple.rectangle(nx=1, ny=1, b=None, h=None, bias=0.0, diag=None)

Return a Formex representing a rectangluar surface.

The rectangle has a size(b,h) divided into (nx,ny) cells.

The default b/h values are equal to nx/ny, resulting in a modular grid. The rectangle lies in the (x,y) plane, with one corner at [0,0,0]. By default, the elements are quads. By setting diag=’u’,’d’ of ‘x’, diagonals are added in /, resp. and both directions, to form triangles.

simple.circle(a1=2.0, a2=0.0, a3=360.0, r=None, n=None, c=None, eltype='line2')

A polygonal approximation of a circle or arc.

All points generated by this function lie on a circle with unit radius at the origin in the x-y-plane.

  • a1: the angle enclosed between the start and end points of each line segment (dash angle).
  • a2: the angle enclosed between the start points of two subsequent line segments (module angle). If a2==0.0, a2 will be taken equal to a1.
  • a3: the total angle enclosed between the first point of the first segment and the end point of the last segment (arc angle).

All angles are given in degrees and are measured in the direction from x- to y-axis. The first point of the first segment is always on the x-axis.

The default values produce a full circle (approximately). If $a3 < 360$, the result is an arc. Large values of a1 and a2 result in polygones. Thus circle(120.) is an equilateral triangle and circle(60.) is regular hexagon.

Remark that the default a2 == a1 produces a continuous line, while a2 > a1 results in a dashed line.

Three optional arguments can be added to scale and position the circle in 3D space:

  • r: the radius of the circle
  • n: the normal on the plane of the circle
  • c: the center of the circle
simple.polygon(n)

A regular polygon with n sides.

Creates the circumference of a regular polygon with $n$ sides, inscribed in a circle with radius 1 and center at the origin. The first point lies on the axis 0. All points are in the (0,1) plane. The return value is a plex-2 Formex. This function is equivalent to circle(360./n).

simple.triangle()

An equilateral triangle with base [0,1] on axis 0.

Returns an equilateral triangle with side length 1. The first point is the origin, the second points is on the axis 0. The return value is a plex-3 Formex.

simple.quadraticCurve(x=None, n=8)

Create a collection of curves.

x is a (3,3) shaped array of coordinates, specifying 3 points.

Return an array with 2*n+1 points lying on the quadratic curve through the points x. Each of the intervals [x0,x1] and [x1,x2] will be divided in n segments.

simple.sphere(ndiv=6)

Create a triangulated spherical surface.

A high quality approximation of a spherical surface is constructed as follows. First an icosahedron is constructed. Its triangular facets are subdivided by dividing all edges in ndiv parts. The resulting mesh is then projected on a sphere with unit radius. The higher ndiv is taken, the better the approximation. ndiv=1 results in an icosahedron.

Returns:

A TriSurface, representing a triangulated approximation of a spherical surface with radius 1 and center at the origin.
simple.sphere3(nx, ny, r=1, bot=-90, top=90)

Return a sphere consisting of surface triangles

A sphere with radius r is modeled by the triangles fromed by a regular grid of nx longitude circles, ny latitude circles and their diagonals.

The two sets of triangles can be distinguished by their property number: 1: horizontal at the bottom, 2: horizontal at the top.

The sphere caps can be cut off by specifying top and bottom latitude angles (measured in degrees from 0 at north pole to 180 at south pole.

simple.sphere2(nx, ny, r=1, bot=-90, top=90)

Return a sphere consisting of line elements.

A sphere with radius r is modeled by a regular grid of nx longitude circles, ny latitude circles and their diagonals.

The 3 sets of lines can be distinguished by their property number: 1: diagonals, 2: meridionals, 3: horizontals.

The sphere caps can be cut off by specifying top and bottom latitude angles (measured in degrees from 0 at north pole to 180 at south pole.

simple.connectCurves(curve1, curve2, n)

Connect two curves to form a surface.

curve1, curve2 are plex-2 Formices with the same number of elements. The two curves are connected by a surface of quadrilaterals, with n elements in the direction between the curves.

simple.sector(r, t, nr, nt, h=0.0, diag=None)

Constructs a Formex which is a sector of a circle/cone.

A sector with radius r and angle t is modeled by dividing the radius in nr parts and the angle in nt parts and then creating straight line segments. If a nonzero value of h is given, a conical surface results with its top at the origin and the base circle of the cone at z=h. The default is for all points to be in the (x,y) plane.

By default, a plex-4 Formex results. The central quads will collapse into triangles. If diag=’up’ or diag = ‘down’, all quads are divided by an up directed diagonal and a plex-3 Formex results.

simple.cylinder(D, L, nt, nl, D1=None, angle=360.0, bias=0.0, diag=None)

Create a cylindrical, conical or truncated conical surface.

Returns a Formex representing (an approximation of) a cylindrical or (possibly truncated) conical surface with its axis along the z-axis. The resulting surface is actually a prism or pyramid, and only becomes a good approximation of a cylinder or cone for high values of nt.

Parameters:

  • D: base diameter (at z=0) of the cylinder/cone,
  • L: length (along z-axis) of the cylinder/cone,
  • nt: number of elements along the circumference,
  • nl: number of elements along the length,
  • D1: diameter at the top (z=L) of the cylinder/cone: if unspecified, it is taken equal to D and a cylinder results. Setting either D1 or D to zero results in a cone, other values will create a truncated cone.
  • diag: by default, the elements are quads. Setting diag to ‘u’ or ‘d’ will put in an ‘up’ or ‘down’ diagonal to create triangles.
simple.boxes(x)

Create a set of rectangular boxes.

x: Coords with shape (nelems,2,3), usually with x[:,0,:] < x[:,1,:]

Returns a Formex with shape (nelems,8,3) and of type ‘hex8’, where each element is the rectangular box which has x[:,0,:] as its minimum coordinates and x[:,1,:] as the maximum ones. Note that the elements may be degenerate or reverted if the minimum coordinates are not smaller than the maximum ones.

This function can be used to visualize the bboxes() of a geometry.

simple.cuboid(xmin=[0.0, 0.0, 0.0], xmax=[1.0, 1.0, 1.0])

Create a rectangular prism

Creates a rectangular prism with faces parallel to the global axes through the points xmin and xmax.

Returns a single element Formex with eltype ‘hex8’.