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Subject: 
Re: TrueType font converter?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.cad.dev
Date: 
Sat, 26 Feb 2005 21:49:50 GMT
Viewed: 
5663 times
  
In lugnet.cad.dev, Stefan Gustavson wrote:
> In lugnet.cad.dev, Ross Crawford wrote:
> > Does anyone know of a utility to convert TT font glyphs to LDraw DATs? I would
> > be interested in looking at writing such a beast, if it hasn't already been
> > done. I'm looking at this to be able to create LDraw representations of custom
> > stickers.
> 
> Your best bet to get a quick result would probably be to look in
> some 3D graphics libraries for OpenGL and find working code to
> get a TT glyph out into a mesh model. Exporting a flat mesh model
> to LDraw format yourself is not very difficult, but if you happen
> to find a utility that writes 3DS files, I have a freshly written
> converter from 3DS to LDR format that also handles optional lines
> and outline edges correctly, if yo need that:

Thanks Stefan, I have already written the basic code to export the glyph using
the FreeType library.

> > 1. An algorithm to approximate 2-d bezier curves with line segments
> 
> Two methods are commonly used: either you just use a fixed amount
> of steps and eveluate the curve at N points along each segment, or
> you apply some error metric and state that the straight line segments
> should nveer deviate more than some distance from the smooth curve.
> Most 3D modeling software uses the fixed amount of steps method
> for simplicity and polygon count consistency during deformations.
> Good 2D rendering software like PostScript uses the adaptive method.
> The fixed steps method creates many unnecessary line segments, but
> is very simple to implement using only the definition of the Bezier
> curve polynomials.

Thanks for that info too - I have now found some refs on the net.

> > 2. An algorithm for filling a closed curve with tris/quads
> 
> This is far from trivial, but a number of methods exist and can be found
> in good computer graphics textbooks, or occasionally on the Internet:
> 
> http://www.cosy.sbg.ac.at/~held/projects/triang/triang.html
> http://web.informatik.uni-bonn.de/I/GeomLab/Triangulation/index.html.en
> 
> A very good summary of the theory behind triangulation,
> and a few pracitical algorithms (no code, but lots of good
> information) is on:
> 
> http://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~suri/cs235/Triangulation.pdf

Thanks again for all the info! I worked out fairly quickly that this would be
the hardest part of the problem, your references will help enormously!

ROSCO



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: TrueType font converter?
 
(...) Your best bet to get a quick result would probably be to look in some 3D graphics libraries for OpenGL and find working code to get a TT glyph out into a mesh model. Exporting a flat mesh model to LDraw format yourself is not very difficult, (...) (22 years ago, 26-Feb-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)

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