NEWDOME

Download NEWDOME

What is NEWDOME for the Macintosh?

NEWDOME is a program which calculates the properties of a geodesic dome symmetry triangle. NEWDOME calculates spherical vertex coordinates, symmetry triangle topological abundance, and chord factors. NEWDOME supports class I (alternate) and class II (triacon) breakdowns for Icosahedron, Octahedron and Tetrahedron polyhedron types. NEWDOME also supports "Buckyball" formations as well as elliptical geodesics.

Why NEWDOME?

NEWDOME should serve as a basic tool for those interested in geodesic geometry and is free under the conditions of the GNU General Public License.

System Requirements

NEWDOME has been complied using CodeWarrior and should run on any PPC Macintosh. Dome frequency is limited by the amount of memory available. Full spheres use more memory so the frequency should be reduced accordingly.

Usage

NEWDOME has a Command Line Interface. The program will terminate with an error message if there is not enough memory to allocate array space for the coordinate matrix. If this occurs, allocate more memory with 'Get Info' or request a smaller subdivision frequency and re-run NEWDOME. Only even frequencies are allowed when using class II.

Usage: dome [-fnnn] [-cn] [-px] [-s or -sb] [-en] [-v] [-w] [-h] [filename.xxx]
Where:
-fnnn is geodesic frequency (default nnn = 2)
-cn is class type (n = 1 or 2; default n = 1)
-px sets the polyhedron type where x is:
i for icosahedron (default)
o for octahedron
t for tetrahedron
-s generate full sphere data (default: symmetry triangle)
-sb generate a buckyball. Must use class I with frequency equal to a multiple of three.
-en elliptical formation (default: n = 1 circle) where n = elliptical eccentricity (n > 0.0 and n < 2.0)
-v verbose data display at run-time
-w enable wire-frame VRML or DXF output (default: face data)
-h displays a help screen filename.xxx is a standard DOS-like filename extension where xxx is: DXF, DAT, WRL, POV or PRN

Examples of Usage to enter into the Command Line

A 5 frequency, class I, icosahedron sphere in DXF format (note class I and icosa are the defaults): dome -f5 myfile.dxf
A 3 frequency buckyball in POV format: dome -f3 -sb myfile.pov
A 10 frequency, class II, octahedron symmetry triangle in DXF format: dome -f10 -c2 -po myfile.dxf
A 6 frequency elliptical, class I, icosahedron full sphere in DXF format: dome -f6 -s -e.8 myfile.dxf

File Formats

DOME currently supports five file formats:

DXF - DXF face data which can be input into most computer aided design packages. Each polyhedron face is saved on a seperate level if spherical data generation is requested. DXF data for Buckyballs are saved as LINE data. The default DXF data for all other structures is 3D POLYFACE data. This can be changed to LINE data with the -w option. Note that not all applications support DXF line data. In these cases, use polyface instead. There are also applications that do not like DXF comment groups. Use and ASCII test editor to remove the lines containing only a "999" and the following line which indicates which polyface the data references.
DAT - An ASCII report format. Shows only symmetry triangle parameters. This format displays chord factors, face angles and axial angles. Not available for Buckyballs.
PRN - An ASCII comma delimited format. Contains vertex coordinate and chord coordinate data. Suitable for parsing into custom routines and spreadsheets. Only data for the symmetry triangle is saved. Not available for Buckyballs.
POV - POV-ray script file. Generates spheres for vertexia, cylinders for chords and triangles for faces. Faces are not saved when using the Buckyball option. The POV script consists of two files. The .POV file contains the scene description while the dome.inc file contains the dome geometry. Note that DOME references "up" as the z-axis while POV references the y-axis. The Sky statement in the camera definition compensates for this.
WRL - VRML file for use with a VRML browser such as Worldview or Live3D. Only wire-frame output is available with Buckyball option.

Elliptical Structures

NEWDOME allows the creation of elliptical geodesic structures. The -en switch enables this feature. The "n" parameter is the elliptical eccentricity. This value is simply the ratio of the ellipse major axis to ellipse minor axis. A circle has an eccentricity of 1.0.

NEWDOME allows eccentricity values greater than 0.0 but less than 2.0. An eccentricity less than 1.0 results in an ellipse having a semimajor axis = 1.0 and aligned along the x-axis. Likewise, an eccentricity greater than 1.0 results in an ellipse having a semiminor axis = 1.0 and major axis aligned along the z-axis.

Copyright Information

Adapted from DOME 4.60, Copyright (C) 1995, 1996 Richard J. Bono

This program is free software; you can redistribute it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

E-mail: (select and delete the "no spam")
nospamjay@salsburg.com