What is the difference between the major axis and normal vectors in the *solidcone command?

Altair Forum User
Altair Forum User
Altair Employee
edited October 2020 in Community Q&A

The help documentation for *solidcone (link) defines the two vectors as:

 

mvec_x, mvec_y, mvec_z
The x, y and z coordinates specifying the major axis vector direction from the base location.
nvec_x, nvec_y, nvec_z
The x, y and z coordinates specifying the normal vector (along the length) from the base location.

 

The definition of the normal vector is fairly straightforward to me. However, the major axis vector is not quite so straightforward. Looking at the output to the command.tcl file after creating a cylinder manually, it looks like one of the components gets set to zero and the other components are calculated based on the coordinates of the selected bottom center and normal vector nodes that were selected. However, it isn't clear to me how these decisions are made or how the calculated are done. If someone could explain it to me, I'd greatly appreciate it.

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Answers

  • vipin_22401
    vipin_22401 Altair Community Member
    edited June 2018

    Hi tlewis,

     

    I think mvec will only matter if you are creating an elliptical cylinder(direction b in this image).

    Create a node using the mvec coordinates you got from command.tcl, it will give you some idea.

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>line_nu_cylinder_intersection.png

  • Altair Forum User
    Altair Forum User
    Altair Employee
    edited June 2018
    Altair Forum User said:

    Hi tlewis,

     

    I think mvec will only matter if you are creating an elliptical cylinder(direction b in this image).

    Create a node using the mvec coordinates you got from command.tcl, it will give you some idea.

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>line_nu_cylinder_intersection.png

     

    That helped a lot. Thanks!

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