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I need to create a set of smooth curves (several thousand curves, in fact) from raw data that is in plain text files (i.e. not 3d objects). Each curve is made up of about 100-200 data points in the format (x, y, z).

I am aware, of course, that blender objects and curves can be generated via scripting in python, so this should be doable.

I was wondering if somebody could give me a pointer regarding a good starting point to get this done: any help (snippet, example, etc) would be super appreciated! Thank you!

quellenform
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David Chinellato
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1 Answers1

4

Just for completeness, I actually did some digging and found a solution that accepts a text file containing multiple lists of coordinates in the 'x y z' format, with different curves separated by a blank line. I have copy-pasted the example below in case it helps others!

import bpy  
import csv
from mathutils import Vector

we don't have to use the Vector() notation.


listOfVectors = [(0,0,0),(1,0,0),(2,0,0),(2,3,0),(0,2,1)]


def MakePolyLine(objname, curvename, cList): 
    #let's first start by opening the filename with data points.
    trackpoints = "/Users/daviddc/Dropbox/archive/listofpoints.txt"
    with open('/Users/daviddc/Dropbox/archive/listofpoints.txt') as csv_file:
        csv_reader = csv.reader(csv_file, delimiter=' ')
        line_count = 0
        singleTrack = []
        for row in csv_reader:
            width = len(row)
            if width > 0: 
                thisVec = (float(row[0]), float(row[1]), float(row[2]))
                singleTrack.append(thisVec)
            if width == 0:
                #ah but wait, this means the track is now finished! create curve with it
                print("Now drawing curve "+str(line_count))
                curvedata = bpy.data.curves.new(name=curvename+str(line_count), type='CURVE')

                curvedata.dimensions = '3D'


            objectdata = bpy.data.objects.new(objname+str(line_count), curvedata)  
            objectdata.location = (0,0,0) #object origin  
            bpy.context.collection.objects.link(objectdata)

            polyline = curvedata.splines.new('NURBS')  
            polyline.points.add(len(singleTrack)-1)  
            for num in range(len(singleTrack)):  
                polyline.points[num].co = (singleTrack[num])+(1,)  

            polyline.order_u = len(polyline.points)-1
            polyline.use_endpoint_u = True
            line_count = line_count + 1
            singleTrack = []





MakePolyLine("NameOfMyCurveObject", "NameOfMyCurve", listOfVectors)
```
David Chinellato
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