JACK-G(1)

NAME

jack-g - convert a Jack Psurf file to a BRL-CAD database

On this page

SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
EXAMPLES
SEE ALSO
AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT
BUG REPORTS

SYNOPSIS

jack-g [-r region] [-g group] [jack_db] [brlcad_db]

jack-g converts a Jack Psurf (.pss) file into a BRL-CAD database (.g). The polygonal surface geometry in the Psurf file is read into an n-Manifold Geometry (NMG) model, which is then written out as a BOT (Bag of Triangles) object wrapped in a region. Coordinates are scaled from centimeters to millimeters during conversion.

Jack, originally from the University of Pennsylvania’s Computer Graphics Research Laboratory, is a package for human figure animation and ergonomic analysis (later developed commercially as Tecnomatix Jack).

The Jack Psurf file is read from jack_db, or from standard input if no input file is given (or if jack_db is given as -). The resulting geometry is written to the BRL-CAD database named brlcad_db, which is required. For each surface a solid named `s.`region, a region named `r.`region, and optionally a group are created.

OPTIONS

-r region: Name the BRL-CAD region created for the converted surface. If not specified, the region name is derived from the input file name (with any leading path and trailing .pss extension removed).
-g group: Add the converted region to a BRL-CAD group of this name, creating the group if necessary.
-h, -?: Print a usage message and exit.

EXAMPLES

Example 1. Convert a Jack human figure into a named region and group

jack-g -r torso -g body torso.pss model.g

Reads the Jack Psurf file torso.pss, writes a BOT solid s.torso inside region r.torso into model.g, and adds that region to the group body. The resulting model.g can then be raytraced with rt(1) or inspected interactively with mged(1).

Example 2. Convert geometry piped from standard input

cat figure.pss | jack-g -r figure model.g

Reads the Psurf data from standard input, which is useful when the geometry is produced by another tool in a pipeline rather than stored on disk.