Geodesic Dome Design DOME Version 4.60 September 22, 1996 ============= What is DOME?

============= DOME is a program which calculates the properties of a geodesic dome symmetry triangle. DOME calculates spherical vertex coordinates, symmetry triangle topolo gical abundance, and chord factors. DOME supports class I (alternate) and class II (tr iacon) breakdowns for Icosahedron, Octahedron and Tetrahedron polyhedron types. DOME al so supports "Buckyball" formations as well as elliptical geodesics. ============= Why DOME? ============= DOME began as a set of geodesic math test algorithims for use in investigating properties of generalized geodesic structures. This continues to be the main pur pose of my development of the DOME code. DOME should serve as a basic tool for those interested in geodesic dome design and modeling. All source code is also included in this p ackage and is freely modifiable under the conditions of the GNU General Public License. ==================== System Requirements ==================== DOME has been complied using Borland C++ 4.52 and should run on any PC class sys tem. Dome frequency is limited by the amount of memory available. Full spheres use mo re memory so the frequency should be reduced accordingly. ========================================= Changes From Previous Release Version 4.2 ========================================= -Full support for class II spheres! -Split the POV output into two files. The .POV file contains the scene descripti on while the dome.inc file contains the geometry. This provides better flexability in rendering scene changes. -Defined a wire-frame type for VRML & DXF output. -Added wire-frame vrml support for buckyballs. -Placed comments in output files specifying the polyface associated with the dat a. This makes editing out certain faces easy. -DAT file output now displays Axial & Face angles for spherical symmetry triangl es. ====== Usage ====== DOME is run from the DOS command line. 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, re-run DOME and request a smaller subdivision frequency. Only ev en frequencies are allowed when using class II. Usage: dome [-fnnn] [-cn] [-px] [-s or -sb] [-en] [-v] [-w] [-h] [filename.xxx]< BR> 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 enable elliptical formation (default: n=1 circle) 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 filename where xxx is: DXF, DAT, WRL, POV or PRN ================= Examples of Usage ================= -A 5 frequency, class I, icosahedron sphere in DXF format (note class I & 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 ============ File Formats ============ DOME currently supports five file formats: 1.) DXF - DXF face data which can be input into most computer aided design packa ges. Each polyhedron face is saved on a seperate level if spherical data generati on 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 w ith the -w option. Note that not all applications support DXF line data. In thes e cases, use polyface instead. There are also applications that do not like DXF comme nt groups. Use and ASCII test editor to remove the lines containing only a "999" and th e following line which indicates which polyface the data references. 2.) DAT - An ASCII report format. Shows only symmetry triangle parameters. This format displays chord factors, face angles and axial angles. Not available for Buck yballs. 3.) 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. 4.) POV - POV-ray script file. Generates spheres for vertexia, cylinders for cho rds 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 descr iption while the dome.inc file contains the dome geometry. Note that DOME reference s "up" as the z-axis while POV references the y-axis. The Sky statement in the came ra definition compensates for this. 5.) 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 ===================== DOME allows the creation of elliptical geodesic structures. The -en switch enabl es this feature. The "n" parameter is the elliptical eccentricity. This value is si mply the ratio of the ellipse major axis to ellipse minor axis. A circle has an eccentricity of 1.0. Dome allows eccentricity ity less than 1.0 results in ong the x-axis. Likewise, an a semiminor axis = 1.0 and values greater than 0.0 but less than 2.0. An eccentric an ellipse having a semimajor axis = 1.0 and aligned al eccentricity greater than results in an ellipse having major axis aligned along the z-axis.

============= Other Goodies ============= See the Applied Synergetics Homepage for image samples and links to other Synergetics Web sites. The latest DOME info can be found at http://www.cris.com/~rjbono/html/domes.html DOME is also available via ftp from Kirby Urner's Synergetics on the Web site at ftp.teleport.com/pub/users/pdx4d/bin/dome46.zip. DXFtoPOV is a short utility which converts DXF line entities to POV-ray script. This is useful when using a CAD program to modify a DXF file. The modified DXF file can then be rendered using POV-ray. See the source code for more implementa tion comments. ================== Recommended Extras ================== Visit the following sites for freeware that will come in handy using DOME: 1.) http://www.pov.org/ for POVray 3.0 is now available for several different platforms. Lots of enhancements on the previous version. A 32-bit windows version is now available. This is a great program! 2.) Try a copy of WCVT2POV V2.6. It can be found at http://www.europa.com/~keithr/free.htm</A>. This is a pretty good windows-based format converter/viewer for VRML, DXF, POV and other formats.

3.) Those interested in Tensegrities should download a copy of Gerald de Jong's Struck program at http://www.xs4all.nl/~gdj/. It is available in both a windows and Java version. Also try my Struck Utilities which will convert Struck's RBF file format to VRML, POVray & DXF. It's at http://www.cris.com/~rjbono/html/utility.html. 4.) Though not freeware, Paint Shop Pro (http://www.jasc.com/) comes in real han dy for manipulating graphics images created by POVray. A shareware version is avail able. Note: I can recommend these programs but I cannot support (with the exception of the Struck Utilities) them or guarantee their availablity. ================ UNIX Portability ================ Several defines have now been added to the DOME & DXFtoPOV source code to allow porting to UNIX machines. A Unix/LINUX makefile developed by Chris Fearnley has now been included to improve g++ compilation. ==================== Source Code Comments ==================== Releases of DOME prior to 4.0 had all the source code in one file. DOME 4.60 has the source code split across several files: dome.cpp - Source code for main program loop. geodesic.hpp - Header file containing variables, structures and class member function prototypes. geodesic.cpp - Source code for geodesic class member functions. Most of the work is done by these routines. dxfsave.cpp - Geodesic class DXF save routines. povsave.cpp - Geodesic class POV save routines. wrlsave.cpp - Geodesic class WRL (VRML) save routines. dxftopov.cpp - source code for dxf to pov conversion utility domegcc.mak - GNU make file for DOME and DXFtoPOV readme.html - This file in HTML format ============= DOME Updates ============= The next major release of DOME will include: -Provide Buckyball topological abundance in reports -Buckyball face data -Dihedral Face Angles -INI file input for customizing POV-ray and other settings. -Enhanced non-spherical support -Space frame support -Enhanced VRML Support Feel free to contact me at rjbono@hiline.net for suggestions, bug reports or questions. ===================== Copyright Information ===================== DOME 4.60, Copyright (C) 1995, 1996 Richard J. Bono

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify 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. Please direct inquiries, comments and modifications to: Richard J. Bono 44 Augusta Rd. Brownsville, TX 78521 email: rjbono@hiline.net ============================= Acknowledgements & References ============================= The main reference used in the creation of this code was: "Geodesic Math & How to Use It" by Hugh Kenner, 1976, University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-02924-0; Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-27292. Many thanks to Hugh for putting this data in an accessible format. Also, many thanks to: -J. F. (Jym) Nystrom for turning me on to Bucky back in the summer of 1984. -My wife Sonia and my daughter Kathy for their de-finite patience. -Chris Fearnley for pushing me to release this code, providing uploading tips, general comments, GNU POV scripts and UNIX/LINUX make files. -Kirby Urner for introducing me to POV-ray and for providing DOME with a home in cyberspace. -R. Buckminster Fuller for changing the way I view Universe.