This section describes how to create an arbitrary 3D contour with a polygonal cross section.
Creating an arbitrary 3D contour
This example uses a large number of polygon objects to create an arbitrary 3D contour. The user defines an arbitrary line contour path in 3 dimensions, and a polygonal cross sectional shape. The structure is created from sections of rotated and extruded polygons. The user can increase the number of sections used by increasing the number of sample points of the contour. The above structure shows the contour structure group from usr_contour.fsp. Only user properties and the first portion of the setup script in the structure group defining the cross section and contour path should be modified. For example, a simpler structure could be created by replacing the lines defining z:
z = matrix(N_sections);
z(1) = 0;
z(N_sections) = 0;
z(2:N_sections-1) = 5e-6*sin(phi)*sin(phi/4);
with
z=0;
The structure is now bound to z=0 as shown below. Contour paths can be defined analytically, or could be read from a text file with the readdata script command.
