An n by 3 matrix whose columns are the x, y and z coordinates of the space curve.
radius
The radius of the cross-section of the tube at each point in the center.
twist
The amount by which the polygon forming the tube is twisted at each point.
e1, e2, e3
The Frenet coordinates to use at each point on the space curve.
sides
The number of sides in the polygon cross section.
section
The polygon cross section as a two-column matrix, or NULL.
closed
Whether to treat the first and last points of the space curve as identical,
and close the curve, or put caps on the ends. See the Details.
debug
If TRUE, plot the local Frenet coordinates at each point.
keepVars
If TRUE, return the local variables in attribute "vars".
Details
The number of points in the space curve is determined by the vector lengths in center,
after using xyz.coords to convert it to a list. The other arguments
radius, twist, e1, e2, and e3 are extended to the same
length.
The closed argument controls how the ends of the cylinder are
handled. If closed > 0, it represents the number of points of
overlap in the coordinates. closed == TRUE is the same as
closed = 1. Negative values indicate that caps should be put on the
ends of the cylinder. If closed == -1, a cap will be put on the
end corresponding to center[1, ]. If closed == -2, caps
will be put on both ends.
If section is NULL (the default), a regular
sides-sided polygon is used, and radius measures the
distance from the center of the cylinder to each vertex. If not
NULL, sides is ignored (and set internally to
nrow(section)), and radius is used as a multiplier to
the vertex coordinates. twist specifies the rotation of the
polygon. Both radius and twist may be vectors, with
values recycled to the number of rows in center, while
sides and section are the same at every point along the
curve.
The three optional arguments e1, e2, and e3
determine the local coordinate system used to create the vertices at
each point in center. If missing, they are computed by simple
numerical approximations. e1 should be the tangent coordinate,
giving the direction of the curve at the point. The cross-section of
the polygon will be orthogonal to e1. e2 defaults to an
approximation to the normal or curvature vector; it is used as the
image of the y axis of the polygon cross-section. e3
defaults to an approximation to the binormal vector, to which the
x axis of the polygon maps. The vectors are orthogonalized and
normalized at each point.
Value
A "mesh3d" object holding the cylinder, possibly with
attribute "vars" containing the local environment of the function.