Overview

This module focus on function/operations that work on the MineSight® Grail Embedded Element class (see grail.ms3d.element).

Functions

calc_area(element)

Calculates the area for a given Element. If your data is already in Element format this is a much more efficient call compared to the appropriate grail.ag area calculation function.

If the item does have an area a TypeError [1] will be generated

Warning

It is your responsibility to determine if the Element can have an area. For example, markers and polylines do no have an area.

Arguments:

element : Element

An Element that can have an area (i.e. polygons and surfaces).

Returns:

The area of an Element.

contour(surface, begin, end, step[, iscoincident])

Generates a list of Element objects corresponding to the requested contours around the surface Element. Your contour will be in the range [begin, end).

This function will throw an ArithmeticError [1] if it is unable to compute a contoured surface.

There are some important items to note when using the contour function,

• Your surface is plane-planar. In other words we are generating contours in the z (up) direction.

• Generating exact contours. When contours are generated for the given surface, and a contour falls on an edge exposed in the surface, the general algorithm will bump the contour up a very, very, very small amount to find a location that does not correspond to an edge. However, in some cases you may wish to perform an exact contour of your data. For exact contours ensure the iscoincident keyword is set as 1. When you contour with iscoincident you are saying it is OK to contour along edges.

  The iscoincident keyword is equivalent to using the check box on the Contour dialog. This option may be necessary for triangulations that have been imported from other systems, or if you have created a triangulation, without the new 'Minimize Flat Area' option in the triangulation dialog.

• This is a single precision operation. All calculations will be done in single precision.

• Smoothing contours. To smooth contours use the smooth_spline function (mentioned below) on the resulting contours. For example,

  contours = elementop.contour(surface, 0, 2000, 500)
  smoothed = []
  for contour in contours:
     smooth = elementop.smooth_spline(contour, 5)
     smoothed.append(smooth)

  At this point you will have a list of smoothed contours.

Arguments:

surface : Element

Surface element you wish to contour.

begin: float

Elevation for the first contour.

end : float

The last elevation not to contour, contouring ends when the requested elevation is greater than this value.

step : float

The value to increment by until we reach the ending value.

iscoincident : integer

Specifics if you would like exact contours (see above for a more detailed explanation).

Returns:

A list of Element objects, where each element is a PolygonType or a PolylineType. Each Element is a valid contour for the range specified.s

smooth_average(element, averagecount)

Creates a new smoothed Element by computing an average polyline/polygon for all nodes within the element. The averagecount indicates how many nodes to average across. This function only applies to element.PolygonType and element.PolylineType Element objects.

For this function to work correctly you will require at least three points to perform an average across. to work. If you have less than three points this function will generate a ValueError [1].

Returns:

A new smoothed Element object.

smooth_bezier(element, addnodes, smoothfactor)

Creates a new smoothed Element by applying the Bezier algorithm to the polyline/polygon for all nodes within the element. The Bezier smoothing algorithm will intersect nodes while it smooths the curve. The addnodes specifies how many nodes to add during the smoothing process, and the smoothfactor indicates how smooth to make the curve. The larger the smoothfactor the greater the curve will deviate from the original.

This function only applies to element.PolygonType and element.PolylineType Element objects.

Any element that only contains two points (a line) will be cloned and returned back.

Returns:

A new smoothed Element object.

smooth_spline(element, addnodes)

Creates a new smoothed Element by applying the Spline smoothing algorithm to the polyline/polygon for all nodes within the element. The Spline smoothing algorithm does not respect nodes while it smooths the curve. The addnodes specifies how many nodes to add during the smoothing process.

This function only applies to element.PolygonType and element.PolylineType Element objects.

Any element that only contains two points (a line) will be cloned and returned back.

Returns:

A new smoothed Element object.

triangulate(elements)

Takes a list of Element objects and generates a simple triangulated surface Element.

This function will throw an ArithmeticError [1] if it is unable to compute a triangulated surface.