+1
Under review

HelixVisual3d not updating after created

Rodrigo Basniak 11 years ago updated by Kong Lee 3 years ago 212
Hi,

I'm need to show a circular torus on the viewport. The closest option I found was the HelixVisual3D, but it has open ends. So I tried to create my own class to draw this, with a HelixVisual3D and two thin cones to close the ends. I used the classes from the Building Demo as reference, so I came up with this:

public class TorusVisual3D : UIElement3D
{
    public static readonly DependencyProperty AngleProperty = DependencyPropertyEx.Register("Angle", 90, (s, e) => s.AppearanceChanged());
    public static readonly DependencyProperty RadiusProperty = DependencyPropertyEx.Register("Radius", 0.35, (s, e) => s.AppearanceChanged());
    public static readonly DependencyProperty DiameterProperty = DependencyPropertyEx.Register("Diameter", 0.1, (s, e) => s.AppearanceChanged());

    private GeometryModel3D torus = new GeometryModel3D();
    private GeometryModel3D cap1 = new GeometryModel3D();
    private GeometryModel3D cap2 = new GeometryModel3D();

    public TorusVisual3D()
    {
        AppearanceChanged();

        Model3DGroup model = new Model3DGroup();

        model.Children.Add(this.torus);
        model.Children.Add(this.cap1);
        model.Children.Add(this.cap2);

        this.Visual3DModel = model;
    }


    public double Angle
    {
        get
        {
            return (double)this.GetValue(AngleProperty);
        }
        set
       {
           this.SetValue(AngleProperty, value);
       }
    }

    public double Radius
    {
        get
        {
            return (double)this.GetValue(RadiusProperty);
        }
        set
        {
            this.SetValue(RadiusProperty, value);
        }
    }

    public double Diameter
    {
        get
        {
            return (double)this.GetValue(DiameterProperty);
        }
        set
        {
            this.SetValue(DiameterProperty, value);
        }
    }

    private void AppearanceChanged()
    {
        Material mat = MaterialHelper.CreateMaterial(Utils.GetRandomColor());

        HelixVisual3D h = new HelixVisual3D();
        h.Origin = new Point3D(0, 0, 0);
        h.Diameter = Diameter;
        h.Turns = Angle / 360.0;
        h.Radius = Radius;
        h.Length = 0;
        h.BackMaterial = mat;
        h.Material = mat;
        h.UpdateModel();
        this.torus = h.Model;

        MeshBuilder cap1Builder = new MeshBuilder(false, false);
        Point3D p1 = new Point3D(0, Radius, 0);
        cap1Builder.AddCone(p1, new Vector3D(0, 1, 0), h.Diameter / 2, h.Diameter / 2, 0.0001, true, true, 40);
        this.cap1.Material = MaterialHelper.CreateMaterial(Colors.Yellow);
        this.cap1.Geometry = cap1Builder.ToMesh();


        MeshBuilder cap2Builder = new MeshBuilder(false, false);
        Point3D p2 = new Point3D(-1, 0, 0);
        cap2Builder.AddCone(p2, new Vector3D(1, 0, 0), h.Diameter / 2, h.Diameter / 2, 0.0001, true, true, 40);
        this.cap2.Material = MaterialHelper.CreateMaterial(Colors.Red);
        this.cap2.Geometry = cap2Builder.ToMesh();
    }
}

To draw it I'm using the following code: 

    TorusVisual3D t = new TorusVisual3D();
    t.Angle = m_angle;
    t.Radius = m_radius1;
    t.Diameter = m_radius2 * 2.0;
    t.Transform = new TranslateTransform3D(0, 0, 0);
    ModelVisual3D model = new ModelVisual3D();
    model.Children.Add(t);
    var container = new ContainerUIElement3D();
    container.Children.Add(model);
    viewport.Children.Add(container);

The problem is that the Helix is drawn with the default values (Radius=0.35, Diameter=0.1 and Angle=90) and is never updated again. No matter what values I set on the Properties, it stays the same. The both cylinder are updated correctly, just the Helix isn't.

What am I'm doing wrong?

Thanks in advance,
Rodrigo
Under review
this is creative use of the HelixVisual3D :-)
Sorry I don't see what is wrong, debugging may be required.
Should the end caps have different colours? If not, a better implementation would be to create a single mesh including everything.
No, they have to be the same colors. Do you have some advice on how to do this as a single mesh? 
I also tried to create an inherited class from HelixVisual3D to just add the caps but it's too much for my limited wpf knowledge. :-( I couldn't even discover where the class create the surface.
If you want a partial torus you should base it on the MeshElement3D and override the Tesselate method.
To implement a complete torus the easiest way is to override ParametricSurface3D and just override the evaluation method.
Some math required for both options, but should not be very difficult.
+1

I wrote a new TorusVisual3D to generate those objects with only one mesh. Please have a look at my pull request #318. I think it works fine.