CAD_BOUNDP(1)

NAME
cad_boundp - find bounding polygon of two-dimensional view

SYNOPSIS
cad_boundp [ -i input ] [ -o output ] [ -t tolerance ] [ -v ]

DESCRIPTION
cad_boundp reads from input (standard input if not specified) a series of line segment endpoint (x,y) coordinate values describing a two-dimensional view of the edges of a (possibly transparent) three-dimensional object and writes to output (standard output if not specified) the (x,y) coordinates of vertices of the bounding polygon in counter-clockwise order, starting with the vertex having the smallest y coordinate. If the -v argument is used, instead of points the output will consist of line segment data suitable for input into another invocation of cad_boundp.

Input lines not beginning with a number are silently skipped. This feature can be used to accommodate comments or additional control information in the data stream.

When a tolerance is specified, a point is considered to be identical to a previously-input point if its x and y coordinates are both within tolerance of the first point encountered within a group passing the tolerance test. Otherwise, point coordinates must match precisely or the algorithm will produce erroneous results.

RESTRICTIONS
cad_boundp may output a polygon smaller than desired or produce a ``degenerate input'' message if the tolerance is too tight or if input is incomplete. It may be wise to specify double the expected tolerance.

Holes within the view cannot be recognized.

Silhouette thickness must everywhere exceed tolerance (no narrow necking-down) or a portion of the silhouette will be ``lost''; in particular, the view should not consist of disjoint parts.

EXAMPLE
    $ cad_boundp -t 0.1
    # comment
    0 2 0 1
    3 2 3 1
    2 0 1 0
    0 2 3 2
    0 2 3 1
    0 1 3 2
    2 2 2 0
    1 0 1 2
    2 2 1 2
    0 1 3 1
    ^D
    1 0
    2 0
    2 1
    3 1
    3 2
    2 2
    1 2
    0 2
    0 1
    1 1

SEE ALSO
cad_parea(1).

DIAGNOSTICS
Any error condition causes cad_boundp to terminate with non-zero exit status after it prints an error message on the standard error output.

An illegal argument or improperly formatted input produces an appropriate message.

If a vertex having only one line segment connected to it is found on the perimeter, cad_boundp produces the message ``degenerate input''.

If there is too much data for cad_boundp to handle, the message ``out of memory'' is produced.

AUTHOR
Douglas A. Gwyn, BRL/VLD-VMB