LuaJIT API
The LuaJIT wrappers over the two libraries: cadaclysm_capi reads, meshes and writes; cadaclysm_blacksmith builds exact solids. Every type and call, with the signature as the wrapper declares it — read from its source when this page is built.
Install and load
luajit/cadaclysm.lua (the reader) and luajit/cadaclysm_blacksmith.lua (the kernel), each with its generated FFI declarations beside it (cadaclysm_cdef.lua, cadaclysm_blacksmith_cdef.lua), over LuaJIT's FFI — nothing to compile. Any LuaJIT 2.1 with its FFI: a plain luajit, LÖVE 11.3 or later, LÖVR. cadaclysm_love.lua and cadaclysm_lovr.lua turn meshes and edges into those engines' own meshes. What Python spells as a property is a field here (node.name, solid.faces), what Python calls is a method (scene:query(filter)); indices the library counts count from zero.
Get the libraries with the SDK's fetch.py (or unpack a release archive's lib/ and include/); keep the wrapper files and the libraries from the same release. Details on the start page.
-- put the luajit/ folder on the module path, or copy its files beside main.lua
package.path = "path/to/cadaclysm-sdk/luajit/?.lua;" .. package.path
local cadaclysm = require("cadaclysm")
local blacksmith = require("cadaclysm_blacksmith")
print(cadaclysm.version())
Where the library is found
CADACLYSM_LIBRARY for the reader and CADACLYSM_BLACKSMITH_LIBRARY for the kernel, each a file or a directory; else beside the Lua file; else, in LÖVE, beside the fused game's executable; else a lib/ directory — where fetch.py puts it — or a target/release in any parent. cadaclysm.library_path() says which was used, and load(path) names one outright: a library a game unpacks to its save directory, say.
The licence
Unlicensed, everything works and a notice is printed on every open and export. A licence file removes it: set CADACLYSM_LICENSE, or put cadaclysm.lic beside the executable or in the working directory, or load it from code — once per library:
require("cadaclysm").license("cadaclysm.lic")
require("cadaclysm_blacksmith").license("cadaclysm.lic")
Build a part, then read it back
The kernel builds a plate with a boss, bores it and rounds its corners, then writes STEP — the Examples page's first part:
local bs = require("cadaclysm_blacksmith")
local Axis, Profile, Selector, Workplane = bs.Axis, bs.Profile, bs.Selector, bs.Workplane
local plate = Workplane.xy():extrude(Profile.rect(120, 80), 14):solid()
local boss = Workplane.from_solid(plate)
:faces(Selector.max(Axis.Z)):workplane()
:extrude(Profile.circle(22), 26):solid()
local part = plate:join(boss)
local bore = Workplane.xy():extrude(Profile.circle(11), 60):solid():translate(0, 0, -10)
part = part:cut(bore)
-- The plate's four vertical corners: the lines along Z between two planes
-- (the boss has vertical seams too, but those lie on its cylinder).
local function between_planes(edge)
for _, f in ipairs(edge.faces) do
if part:face_kind(f) ~= "plane" then return false end
end
return true
end
local corners = {}
for _, e in ipairs(part.edges) do
if e.is_line and math.abs(e.direction[3]) > 0.99 and between_planes(e) then
corners[#corners + 1] = e
end
end
part = part:fillet(corners, 12)
part:step("plate.stp")
The reader opens that file, walks its tree, meshes what it draws and writes glTF:
local cadaclysm = require("cadaclysm")
local scene = cadaclysm.open("plate.stp")
print(scene.schema, scene.metres_per_unit, "m per unit")
-- The tree: assemblies, parts and bodies, parents before children.
for node in scene:walk() do
print((" "):rep(node.depth) .. node.label, "[" .. node.kind .. "]")
end
-- What to draw: every placement of every shape, meshed on first ask.
for _, placement in ipairs(scene.placements) do
local mesh = placement.geometry.mesh
print(placement.geometry.label, mesh.triangle_count, "triangles")
end
scene:save("plate.glb")
scene:close()
Reading, meshing, writing
Module functions
Loading the library, the licence, and opening a file — from disk or from bytes already in memory. Every other object on this page comes out of cadaclysm.open() or cadaclysm.open_memory().
cadaclysm.open()
function open(path, schema, convention, colors)
Open a CAD file and read its tree. The format comes from the extension (a .zip opens its first readable member — Scene.source_name says which). The tree is read now and the geometry is built lazily, node by node, when it is first asked for.
convention is the space to read into — a Convention, optionally with the file-units and world-UV flags — and the library converts everything it hands back into it. schema names an extra EXPRESS schema (.exp, or a directory of them); every schema the SDK ships is already built in, so it is needed only for one the library does not carry. colours asks for per-vertex colours on bodies the file painted in more than one colour.
Never returns an empty handle: on failure it raises a CadaclysmError (catch it with pcall) carrying the library's reason.
cadaclysm.open_memory()
function open_memory(data, format, schema, name, convention, colors)
Open a file already in bytes — a download, a database blob, an archive member. With no file name to take the format from, it is named as an extension would name it: step, ifc, igs, 3dm, brep, scad (a leading dot is fine). The bytes are copied; the buffer can be reused as soon as this returns. Otherwise as cadaclysm.open().
cadaclysm.version()
function version()
The version of the library actually loaded — the one worth reporting in a bug.
cadaclysm.build_date()
function build_date()
When the loaded library was built, YYYY-MM-DD. A licence covers every build dated on or before its expiry.
cadaclysm.license()
function license(text_or_path)
Load a licence: the certificate text, or the path of a file holding it. Without this call the library looks in the CADACLYSM_LICENSE environment variable, then for cadaclysm.lic beside the executable and in the working directory. On a licence that does not verify it raises a CadaclysmError (catch it with pcall) with the reason, and the previous licence (if any) stays in use.
cadaclysm.license_info()
function license_info()
One line about the licence in use — customer=… expiry=… entitlements=… — or unlicensed (unlicensed -- <reason> when a licence was found but did not verify). Never nil.
cadaclysm.license_notice_count()
function license_notice_count()
How many unlicensed notices the library has printed to stderr in this process. An application with no console to watch (a GUI, a game) can poll this and show its own banner.
cadaclysm.mesh_formats()
function mesh_formats()
Every mesh format Node:save_mesh() writes, with its file extension: stl, stl-ascii, msh (Gmsh), glb, gltf and obj in this release. Build a save menu from this list rather than hard-coding it, and a format added to the library appears without a code change.
cadaclysm.pick_file()
function pick_file()
Ask the user for a file through the platform's own open dialog, filtered to what this build can read. nil when they cancel or no dialog is available (on Linux, neither an XDG portal nor zenity). Blocks until the user acts; on macOS call it from the main thread.
cadaclysm.declared_schema()
function declared_schema(model)
The schema a STEP or IFC file says it speaks (its FILE_SCHEMA line), read from the first few kilobytes — cheap even on a very large file. Empty when it names none.
cadaclysm.resolve_schema()
function resolve_schema(model, schema)
Which .exp of a schema directory matches a model: the chosen file, or — when the file's declared name resembles none of them — the whole list as fallbacks to try in turn. cadaclysm.open() does this itself when given a directory; this is for a caller that wants to report the choice.
cadaclysm.library_path()
function library_path()
Where the shared library was found: CADACLYSM_LIBRARY (a file or a directory) first, then beside the wrapper, then a lib/ directory in any parent (the SDK's layout).
cadaclysm.NONE
NONE -- constant
The node index the C API uses for "no such node" (CADACLYSM_NONE, 0xFFFFFFFF). The wrappers turn it into nil where a node may be missing (Node.parent, Node.instance_of), so it matters only when reading raw indices.
Scene
Scene -- class
An open document. Close it when done — Scene:close(), or let the language's scope do it (with, using, defer, try-with-resources). Everything it hands back borrows from it: node handles, meshes, polylines. See Lifetimes for what survives a close.
Scene:close()
function Scene:close()
Give the document back. Idempotent. Every mesh and polyline view still held reads freed memory afterwards (the wrappers that can tell refuse to read them).
Scene.path
Scene.path: string -- field
The file it was read from, or the name given to cadaclysm.open_memory().
Scene.schema_path
Scene.schema_path: string|nil -- field
The .exp actually used, or nil — worth reporting when a directory was passed.
Scene.convention
Scene.convention: integer -- field
The convention it was opened with. Nothing the library hands back says what space it is in, and every array out of this scene is in this one.
Scene.schema
scene.schema -- field
The schema the file named, or empty for a format that names none.
Scene.schema_read
scene.schema_read -- field
The schema that actually read it. A file declaring a release candidate reads under the finished schema of the same version where that is what is built in; a file whose schema is unknown reads under the one that defines its entity types.
Scene.substituted
scene.substituted -- field
Whether something other than the file's own schema read it — Scene.schema and Scene.schema_read differ.
Scene.metres_per_unit
scene.metres_per_unit -- field
What one length unit in the file is worth in metres; 1 where the file did not say.
Scene.bounds
scene.bounds -- field
Everything the model covers, in world coordinates — the one figure not in a node's own frame. This meshes the whole model, being the only way to know how far it reaches; to frame a view quickly, use the bounds of the nodes already built.
Scene.diagnostics
scene.diagnostics -- field
What the file held that the reader could not build, one line each.
Scene.source_name
scene.source_name -- field
The archive member this was read from, or nil for a plain file.
Scene.nodes
scene.nodes -- field
Every node, in index order: assemblies, shapes, layers, storeys — structure as well as geometry. To draw, iterate Scene.placements instead.
Scene:query()
function Scene:query(filter)
The indices of the nodes a filter matches, in document order. The filter is one boolean expression in the query language — class == ON_Brep and within(name == Walls). A filter that does not parse raises a CadaclysmError (catch it with pcall) with the parser's message and position; one that matches nothing is an empty result, not an error.
Scene.placements
scene.placements -- field
What the document draws, and where. Not the nodes: a block or an instanced part is one node of geometry drawn at several places, and a node walk draws it once at its definition's frame. Iterate this to draw, and the nodes to build a tree. See Placement.
Scene:realize_all()
function Scene:realize_all()
Build every mesh now, across all cores, and return how many were built. Reading is lazy so a tree can be on screen while the shapes are still coming; asking node by node meshes on one core, this uses them all. Watch it from another thread with Scene.realized and Scene.realize_total; stop it with Scene:cancel().
Scene.realized
scene.realized -- field
How many nodes Scene:realize_all() has finished. Safe to read from another thread.
Scene.realize_total
scene.realize_total -- field
How many it will build in all; zero until it starts.
Scene:cancel()
function Scene:cancel()
Ask a running Scene:realize_all() to stop. One-way for the life of the scene: later calls return at once, and meshes are still built one node at a time on request.
Scene:save()
function Scene:save(path, fmt)
Write the whole scene: glb (binary glTF), gltf (text glTF, one file) or obj (every placement baked to its own named object, with a .mtl beside it when anything has a colour). Every placement of every shape, named and placed as the tree is, one material per colour; in the scene's convention (use Y-up metres for the space glTF specifies). A format outside these three, or a failed write, raises a CadaclysmError (catch it with pcall).
Scene.surface_matrix
scene.surface_matrix -- field
The 4×4 that puts Node.surfaces into the space everything else is already in. Meshes and polylines arrive in the scene's convention; surfaces arrive in the file's own frame, because converting a surface means converting its parameter space too. Identity for a document opened in its native convention and units.
Scene.show
Draw every visible placement — each block instance where the file puts it — with the viewer in use. Keywords: view= (front, back, left, right, top, bottom, iso), az=, el=, zoom=, up= (default from the convention the scene was opened with), edges= (the B-rep edges over the shapes; free curves are drawn either way), width=, height=, hint=. No tolerance=: a document is drawn at the tolerance it was read with.
Comes with the viewers follow-up.
Scene.view
Orbit the model with the viewer in use; returns (azimuth, elevation, zoom) where it was left.
Comes with the viewers follow-up.
Node
Node -- class
One node of the document — an assembly, a part, a body, a layer, a placement. A handle, not a snapshot: each property asks the scene when read, so nothing goes stale and nothing is built that is never looked at. Names and attributes are cheap; Node.bounds and Node.mesh build the geometry.
Node.index
Node.index: integer -- field
Its index in the scene, stable while the scene is open: a key for a map of what has been uploaded.
Node.kind
node.kind -- field
Its type in the file: an IFC class, an openNURBS class, a STEP shape kind.
Node.label
node.label -- field
Something to put in a tree row: the name, else the kind, else #index.
Node.generator
node.generator -- field
What its geometry was before it was triangles — brep, mesh, csg — or empty for a node that draws nothing.
Node.visible
node.visible -- field
Whether the file says to show it when opened. The node's own switch, not inherited; true where the format has no such switch.
Node.visible_now
node.visible_now -- field
Node.visible with every ancestor consulted: a layer switched off hides what hangs under it.
Node.locked
node.locked -- field
Whether the file says it cannot be selected or edited (Rhino's lock, own or by layer). A locked node is still drawn.
Node.instance_of
node.instance_of -- field
The node whose geometry this one places, or nil. A part placed seventy times is one mesh and seventy transforms; this is how a caller knows to upload it once.
Node.select_as
node.select_as -- field
What a click on this node's geometry should select — usually itself. Formats that hang geometry under the object it belongs to (an IFC representation under its product) point back at the object.
Node.attributes
node.attributes -- field
Everything the file said about the node, as Attribute values.
Node.can_mesh
node.can_mesh -- field
Whether the node has geometry of its own to draw. Builds nothing; most nodes are structure and answer false.
Node.colour
node.colour -- field
The colour the file gave it as RGBA in 0–1, or nil — most STEP files carry none, and the caller's default is the right answer.
Node.transform
node.transform -- field
Where the node's geometry sits: a 4×4 in double precision, composed through every frame above it. Meshes stay single precision in their own frame under a double transform, so a model at survey coordinates keeps its millimetres.
Node.raw_transform
node.raw_transform -- field
The same matrix as 16 numbers in the C API's column-major order, ready for a GPU uniform.
Node.bounds
node.bounds -- field
The extent of the node's geometry in that geometry's own frame. Builds the geometry if needed; carry it through Node.transform for world coordinates.
Node.mesh
node.mesh -- field
Its triangles in their own frame, built now if they have not been. A node that instances another hands back the instanced node's arrays — the same memory for every placement. The arrays are views into the scene; see Lifetimes.
Node.surfaces
node.surfaces -- field
Its faces as exact surfaces plus the trim loops that cut them, each in the surface's own (u, v). Nothing is meshed to produce it, and reading it costs Node.mesh nothing. Empty where the reader has no parametric description (a tessellated body, a mesh format). In the file's frame — see Scene.surface_matrix.
Node.edges
node.edges -- field
Its feature edges as polylines, for an outline overlay. Builds the geometry if needed.
Node.brep
node.brep -- field
Its exact B-rep, as a Brep, for the kernel's Solid.from_node to operate on — or nil where it has none (a mesh, a curve, a CSG body, a JT or OpenSCAD part). Shared with the scene, not copied.
Node.isocurves
node.isocurves -- field
Lines ruled across its surfaces, so a curved face reads as curved in a wireframe. A flat face yields its outline, so these can overlap Node.edges.
Node:save_mesh()
function Node:save_mesh(path, fmt)
Write this node's own mesh — where it is defined, without its placement — in one of cadaclysm.mesh_formats(). A node that draws nothing, or an unknown format, raises a CadaclysmError (catch it with pcall); ask Node.can_mesh first to grey out a menu entry. To write the whole model, see Scene:save().
Node.show
Draw what this node and everything under it places with the viewer in use. Keywords as Scene.show.
Comes with the viewers follow-up.
Node.view
Orbit this node and everything under it; returns (azimuth, elevation, zoom) where it was left.
Comes with the viewers follow-up.
Brep
Brep -- class
A body's exact B-rep — the trimmed surfaces its mesh is cut from — shared with the scene rather than copied, and held by this object until it is released. It is what Node.brep hands the kernel's Solid.from_node, which operates on it without a copy, and it can say whether it is a Manifold. It outlives the scene it came from for as long as anything holds it. In the node's own frame and the file's own units and axes; the kernel library must come from the same release as the reader.
Brep.pointer
brep.pointer -- field
The brep's C pointer, which the kernel's wrapper hands across. raises a CadaclysmError (catch it with pcall) once released.
Brep.layout_id
function Brep.layout_id()
How this library lays a brep out in memory: its compiler, target and source. The kernel shares a brep only with a reader whose id equals its own.
Brep.manifold
brep.manifold -- field
Whether its faces make a manifold — every edge bordered by one face or two, the faces round every vertex one fan — and whether it is closed, as a Manifold. Read off the topology the file wrote, not a mesh. raises a CadaclysmError (catch it with pcall) once released.
Brep:release()
function Brep:release()
Give the reference back now. Leaving a with block, or the garbage collector, does it otherwise.
Placement
Placement -- class
One drawing of one node's geometry at one place: what Scene.placements lists. Two drawings of the same shape name the same geometry node, and so the same arrays — upload once, draw twice.
Placement.select
placement.select -- field
What a click on this drawing selects: the placement's own node rather than the shared shape, which would light up every copy.
Placement.transform
placement.transform -- field
Where to draw it: a 4×4, already composed through every frame from the root.
Placement.raw_transform
placement.raw_transform -- field
The same matrix as 16 numbers, column-major.
Mesh
Mesh -- class
A node's triangles, in the node's own frame: what Node.mesh returns. The arrays are read-only views into the scene's memory, not copies — a large assembly is tens of millions of triangles, and most of them go straight to a GPU. Mesh:copy() makes arrays of your own.
Mesh.normals
Mesh.normals: ffi.cdata*|nil -- field
Three floats a vertex, or nil for a mesh that carries none.
Mesh.uvs
Mesh.uvs: ffi.cdata*|nil -- field
Two floats a vertex, or nil: only readers asked for world-scale UVs fill them. One unit of u or v is one world unit, so faces overlap in UV space — a tiling material, not a lightmap.
Mesh.colors
Mesh.colors: ffi.cdata*|nil -- field
Four floats (RGBA) a vertex, or nil — the common case. Only a body painted in several colours, opened with colours on, carries them.
Mesh:copy()
function Mesh:copy()
The same arrays in memory of your own, safe to keep after Scene:close(). Deliberately visible: on a large model this is where the gigabytes go.
Polylines
Polylines -- class
Edges or curves already flattened to points, in the node's own frame: what Node.edges, Node.curves and Node.isocurves return. Views into the scene, like Mesh.
Polylines.positions
Polylines.positions: ffi.cdata* -- field
Three floats a point, the runs end to end.
Polylines:segment_indices()
function Polylines:segment_indices()
Index pairs into the positions, two per line segment — what GL_LINES and every pair-taking API want. Indices rather than points, so a caller can transform the points once and expand afterwards.
Polylines:segments()
function Polylines:segments()
The segment endpoints themselves, two points per segment.
Surfaces and Face
Surfaces -- class
A node's faces as exact surfaces and trims: what Node.surfaces returns. Iterate it for Face values. In the file's own frame; Scene.surface_matrix brings it into the scene's.
Face
Face -- class
Face.kind: integer -- field
Face.origin: number[] -- field
Face.domain: number[] -- field
Face.scalars: number[] -- field
Face.loops: table[] -- field
Face.nurbs: table -- field
One trimmed face. kind is the surface: 0 plane, 1 cylinder, 2 cone, 3 sphere, 4 torus, 5 revolution, 6 extrusion, 7 NURBS, 8 sum. origin, ax, ay, az are its frame, scalars its kind-dependent sizes (radius, angle…) and domain its (u min, v min, u max, v max). loops holds the trim loops as (u, v) points, each closing implicitly; profile, profile2 and nurbs carry what a swept or NURBS surface needs. reversed flips the normal; transposed swaps u and v. The C header's CadaclysmFace is the full description.
Bounds
Bounds -- class
An axis-aligned box: what Node.bounds and Scene.bounds return. All zeros means "nothing here".
Attribute
Attribute -- class
One thing the file said about a node: what Node.attributes lists.
Attribute.kind
Attribute.kind: integer -- field
Which kind of value it holds — a ValueKind. Lets a caller tell a reference from prose, or total the numbers.
Attribute.value
Attribute.value: string|number|boolean|nil -- field
The value, in the language's own type where it has one for the kind.
Attribute.text
attribute.text -- field
The value rendered for display, identically in every wrapper: true/false, reals in their shortest exact form, lists as [a, b, c].
Convention
Convention -- class
The coordinate space to open a file into. The library converts on the way out, so a caller names the space it draws in and reads geometry already in it — nothing to rotate or scale afterwards.
Convention
Convention -- class
Convention.NATIVE: integer -- field
Convention.UNREAL: integer -- field
Convention.UNITY: integer -- field
Convention.Y_UP: integer -- field
Convention.BLENDER: integer -- field
The presets: NATIVE keeps the file's own axes and units; UNREAL is Z up, left-handed, centimetres; UNITY Y up, left-handed, metres; Y_UP Y up, right-handed, metres (glTF, three.js, most real-time engines); BLENDER Z up, right-handed, metres.
Convention.FILE_UNITS
Convention.FILE_UNITS: integer -- field
Combine with a preset to keep its axes but the file's own units.
Convention.UV_WORLD
Convention.UV_WORLD: integer -- field
Combine with a preset to ask for world-scale texture coordinates in Mesh.uvs. Off by default: eight bytes a vertex nobody asked for.
Convention.parse
function Convention.parse(text)
A convention from a name a user typed: unreal, or unreal+file-units. An unknown name raises a CadaclysmError (catch it with pcall) listing the accepted ones, rather than silently reading as native.
ValueKind
ValueKind -- class
Which kind of value an Attribute holds.
ValueKind
ValueKind -- class
ValueKind.NONE: integer -- field
ValueKind.TEXT: integer -- field
ValueKind.INTEGER: integer -- field
ValueKind.REAL: integer -- field
ValueKind.BOOLEAN: integer -- field
ValueKind.LIST: integer -- field
ValueKind.REFERENCE: integer -- field
TEXT, INTEGER, REAL, BOOLEAN; LIST (the elements rendered as [a, b, c]); REFERENCE (another entity, by the id the file gave it, so it can be followed rather than shown as prose); NONE for an attribute that had no value.
Manifold
Manifold -- class
Whether a body's faces make a manifold — every edge bordered by one face or two, the faces round every vertex one fan — told from its topology rather than a mesh: what a brep's manifold and the kernel's Solid.manifold return. Orientation is not asked. The topology is the file's: faces that name no shared edge (IGES, each surface its own sheet; an IFC face written as one polygon) read as open however well they meet in space.
Manifold.edges
Manifold.edges: integer -- field
How many distinct edges: one shared by two faces counts once.
Manifold.boundary_edges
Manifold.boundary_edges: integer -- field
Edges only one face borders: a sheet's rim, a hole in a shell.
Manifold.non_manifold_edges
Manifold.non_manifold_edges: integer -- field
Edges three or more faces border: a fin, or two solids meeting along a line.
Manifold.non_manifold_vertices
Manifold.non_manifold_vertices: integer -- field
Vertices whose faces make more than one fan: two solids touching at a corner.
Manifold.is_manifold
Manifold.is_manifold: boolean -- field
No non-manifold edge or vertex: a manifold, possibly with a boundary.
Manifold.is_closed
Manifold.is_closed: boolean -- field
A manifold with no boundary edge either: it encloses a solid.
Errors
CadaclysmError -- class
A call into the library failed; the message is the library's own reason. One type for every reader failure.
Building solids
Frames and axes
A frame is twelve numbers: an origin, then the x, y and z axes, each three numbers (0,0,0, 1,0,0, 0,1,0, 0,0,1 is the world). A profile is drawn in its frame's x/y and extruded along its z. An axis is six numbers: a point and a direction, which need not be unit. Workplane.xy and friends start on the three world planes; Solid:face_frame() gives the frame on a face. A Frame builds one for you — Frame.xy at any origin, Frame.at from a point and a normal — and checks that its axes are square and right-handed, which a bare twelve numbers are not.
Pass a Frame, twelve numbers or four {x, y, z} triples; an axis is six numbers or two triples.
Module functions
The kernel's own library, licence and STEP writer. It is a separate shared library (cadaclysm_blacksmith) from the reader, with its own licence call; one licence file serves both.
cadaclysm_blacksmith.write_step()
function write_step(path, solids, schema, unit)
Write several solids as one STEP file, each its own body. unit is mm, m or in. schema is left out for AP203 (built in — no file needed), the name of another built-in schema such as AP242's AP242_MANAGED_MODEL_BASED_3D_ENGINEERING_MIM_LF (AP214's AUTOMOTIVE_DESIGN cannot carry the writer's mechanical_context), or a custom EXPRESS schema: a path to its .exp or its text.
cadaclysm_blacksmith.write_step_text()
function write_step_text(solids, schema, unit)
The same STEP file as text, for a caller that stores or sends it rather than writing a file.
cadaclysm_blacksmith.default_schema()
function default_schema()
Where an ap203.exp file is found (CADACLYSM_SCHEMAS, else schemas/ in a parent). No longer needed to write STEP: the kernel's AP203 is built in.
cadaclysm_blacksmith.version()
function version()
The version of the kernel library actually loaded.
cadaclysm_blacksmith.build_date()
function build_date()
When the loaded kernel was built, YYYY-MM-DD.
cadaclysm_blacksmith.license()
function license(text_or_path)
Load a licence into the kernel — the text, or a file's path. The reader has its own call; the same file works for both.
cadaclysm_blacksmith.license_info()
function license_info()
One line about the kernel's licence, or unlicensed. Never nil.
cadaclysm_blacksmith.license_notice_count()
function license_notice_count()
How many unlicensed notices the kernel has printed to stderr in this process.
cadaclysm_blacksmith.brep_layout_id()
function brep_layout_id()
How the loaded kernel lays a brep out in memory: its compiler, target and source. Solid.from_node works only where this equals the reader's Brep.layout_id — the two libraries from the same release.
cadaclysm_blacksmith.library_path()
function library_path()
Where the kernel library was found: CADACLYSM_BLACKSMITH_LIBRARY first, then as the reader's.
Profile
Profile -- class
A closed outline with holes, in its own x/y — what gets extruded, revolved, lofted or swept. Immutable: every method returns a new one.
Its loops must be simple: an outline that crosses or touches itself (a figure-eight, a vertex landing on another side), a hole that runs into the boundary, or two holes that overlap are refused by every call that builds a face or a closed solid, naming the loops — extrude: hole 0 crosses the boundary. The open calls (extrude_open, revolve_open, sweep_open, loft_open) build sheets, and take such a profile as it is.
Profile.slot
function Profile.slot(centre, length, r)
A slot (stadium) length long overall, with end radius r, centred on centre and running along x. length must exceed 2 * r.
Profile.polygon
function Profile.polygon(points)
A closed polygon through the points, in order, its side back to the first point a segment of its own. At least three points.
Profile.regular_polygon
function Profile.regular_polygon(centre, radius, sides, angle)
A regular polygon of sides sides (at least 3) on the circle of radius about centre, its first corner at angle radians from the sketch's x axis (0 by default), the rest counter-clockwise.
Profile.spline
function Profile.spline(points, degree, weights, closed)
A spline of degree (3 by default) through the control polygon points, weights one per point or nil. Open, it starts on the first point and ends on the last: an open chain, for Solid.extrude_open or Profile.chain. Closed, it is periodic — smooth through its own start, no corner there — and a closed profile. The degree is lowered to fit the points; a degree of zero, too few points (two open, three closed) or a weight not positive raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall).
Profile.path
function Profile.path(start)
Start drawing an outline segment by segment at start; see Path.
Profile.chain
function Profile.chain(pieces, tolerance)
Open profiles — paths ended open — joined end to end into one: the forge's merge. They may come in any order and either way round: each next piece is the first of the rest with an end within tolerance (1e-6 by default) of either end of the chain so far, reversed where that makes it meet. Every segment is kept exactly — a line a line, an arc an arc, a spline the same spline. Closed where the chain's two ends meet, otherwise an open chain. A piece that is empty, has holes, is closed on its own or meets none of the others raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall) naming it by its index.
Profile.from_loops
function Profile.from_loops(loops)
Closed loops, in any order, as one profile: the loop enclosing the most area is the boundary and every other a hole in it, in the order given — a sketch's rectangle and the circles drawn inside it. Each loop is a closed profile with no holes of its own, wound either way; one that closes within rounding is closed exactly. A loop that is open, empty or encloses no area, loops that cross or touch, a hole outside the boundary, or one inside another hole (an island) raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall), naming the loops by their index.
Profile:close_loop()
function Profile:close_loop()
This profile closed — the forge's sketch "close": where its last segment stops short of its start (a path ended open), a straight segment back to it; where it already comes back within 1e-9 of its extent, its last segment made to land on the start exactly. A closed profile comes back as it is, and holes are closed the same way.
Profile:round()
function Profile:round(radius, corners, open)
This outline with its corners rounded by radius: where two straight segments meet, both are cut back and an exact arc tangent to both goes between them; a corner next to an arc or a spline is left as it is. With no corners every such corner is rounded, the holes' too; a list picks corners of the outline — corner k is where segment k ends. open reads the profile as an open chain whose two ends stay square. A radius that does not fit raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall) naming the corner.
Profile.polylines
The outline, then each hole, as polylines at z = 0 within tolerance of its arcs and splines — what a viewer draws it with. A closed loop repeats its first point at the end; an open chain (a profile ended open) stays open. Views, like Solid:mesh().
Declared; the method comes with the viewers.
Profile.show
Draw the outline and holes with the viewer in use, from the top by default. Keywords as Solid.show; edges= is ignored, the lines being the whole picture.
Comes with the viewers follow-up.
Profile.view
Orbit the outline with the viewer in use; returns (azimuth, elevation, zoom) where it was left.
Comes with the viewers follow-up.
Path
Path -- class
An outline drawn a segment at a time — lines, arcs, Béziers, NURBS — then closed into a Profile. Ending it consumes the builder.
Path:arc_to()
function Path:arc_to(x, y, centre, ccw)
A circular arc to (x, y) about centre, counter-clockwise unless ccw is false.
Path:bezier_to()
function Path:bezier_to(c1, c2, to)
A cubic Bézier through control points c1, c2 to to.
Path:nurbs_to()
function Path:nurbs_to(control, knots, degree, weights)
A NURBS segment: control is every control point after the current one, the endpoint last; knots the full knot vector; weights one per control point including the current one, or nil for a non-rational curve.
Path:end_()
function Path:end_() -- `end` is a Lua keyword
Close the outline back to its start and return the Profile.
end is a Lua keyword, so the method is called end_; path["end"](path) is the same call.
Path:end_open()
function Path:end_open()
The path as it stands, not closed: an open chain for Solid.extrude_open, Solid.sweep_open or Solid.loft_open.
SweepPath
SweepPath -- class
The 3D path a profile is carried along by Solid.sweep: lines and circular arcs. Sweeping only borrows it, so one path can be swept many times; close it when done.
SweepPath.along
function SweepPath.along(curve, frame, tolerance, open)
The path a 2D chain (usually from Path:end_open()) draws on frame: a line a straight piece, an arc a circular one, a Bézier or spline fitted with biarcs — arcs tangent to each other and to the curve — within tolerance, so the path is tangent throughout and the sweep exact along it. open false closes the path back to its start.
SweepPath:arc()
function SweepPath:arc(centre, axis, angle)
Turn angle radians (in (0, 2π]) about the axis through centre along axis.
Slant
Slant -- class
A plane a Solid.extrude_between starts or ends on, read as a height over the sketch plane at each point: at + grad · (x, y). Flat for an ordinary cap; sloped for a mitre.
Slant.of_plane
function Slant.of_plane(frame, point, normal)
The plane through point square to normal, as heights over frame. A plane that contains the extrusion direction has no height and raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall).
Frame
Frame -- class
A frame built for you instead of twelve numbers typed out: an origin and three unit axes, square to each other and right-handed (z = x × y). It goes wherever a frame does. Immutable. The constructor takes the origin and the three axes, normalises them, and raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall) when they are not square or not right-handed.
Frame.xz
function Frame.xz(origin)
The world XZ plane through origin: x along X, y along Z, so z is -Y, as Workplane.xz.
Frame.yz
function Frame.yz(origin)
The world YZ plane through origin: x along Y, y along Z, so z is +X, as Workplane.yz.
Frame.at
function Frame.at(origin, normal, x)
The plane through origin square to normal, which becomes the frame's z (it need not be unit). Its x axis is x laid onto that plane; with none, world X laid onto it, or world Y when the normal is within about 25° of X — the axes Solid:face_frame() gives a face facing normal. So a normal along +Z, -Y or +X gives exactly Frame.xy, Frame.xz or Frame.yz. A zero normal, or an x along the normal, raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall).
Frame.of
function Frame.of(frame)
Twelve numbers — what Solid:face_frame() and Workplane.frame hand back — as a checked frame, to read its axes or move it.
Frame.midplane
function Frame.midplane(a, b)
The plane midway between the planes of frames a and b — Fusion's midplane: for parallel planes the one halfway between, on a's axes; for planes that meet, the plane bisecting them through the line they meet on, its x along that line.
Frame.through
function Frame.through(p, q, r)
The plane through the points p, q and r: its origin p, its x towards q, its z the normal the three turn about counter-clockwise. Three points on one line raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall).
Frame.origin
frame.origin -- field
frame.x -- field
frame.y -- field
frame.z -- field
The origin and the three axes, each three numbers.
Frame:translate()
function Frame:translate(dx, dy, dz)
This frame moved by (dx, dy, dz) in world coordinates.
Frame:offset()
function Frame:offset(distance)
This frame moved distance along its own z: Frame.xy().offset(5) is the XY plane at z = 5.
Workplane
Workplane -- class
The fluent chain: a frame, the solid built so far, and the face last picked. A build step replaces the solid rather than adding to it — combine solids explicitly with Solid:join(). Every step raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall) at once rather than holding the error for later.
Workplane.xy
function Workplane.xy()
Start on the XY plane at the origin (Z up). Workplane.xz and Workplane.yz start on the other two.
Workplane.from_solid
function Workplane.from_solid(solid)
Start from an existing solid, on the XY plane — the usual way to pick one of its faces and build on it.
Workplane:cuboid()
function Workplane:cuboid(x, y, z)
A box on the current frame; replaces the solid.
Workplane:cylinder()
function Workplane:cylinder(r, h)
A cylinder of radius r and height h standing on the current frame; replaces the solid.
Workplane:face()
function Workplane:face(profile)
The planar sheet the profile bounds on this frame — see Solid.face; replaces the solid.
Workplane:extrude()
function Workplane:extrude(profile, height)
The profile extruded height along the frame's z; replaces the solid.
Workplane:revolve()
function Workplane:revolve(profile, angle)
The profile revolved angle radians about the frame's y axis; replaces the solid.
Workplane:translate()
function Workplane:translate(dx, dy, dz)
Slide the current solid. Keeps the face selection — a rigid move keeps every face's index.
Workplane:faces()
function Workplane:faces(selector)
Pick a face of the current solid with a Selector.
Workplane:workplane()
function Workplane:workplane()
Move the frame onto the face last picked (outward normal as z), so the next step builds on it.
Workplane:solid()
function Workplane:solid()
The solid built so far. On an empty chain it raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall).
Selector and Axis
Selector -- class
Which face to pick: the one furthest along an axis, furthest against it, the one facing a direction, or by index. Used by Workplane:faces() and Solid:select_face().
Selector.normal
function Selector.normal(direction)
The face whose outward normal is nearest direction (need not be unit).
Axis
Axis -- class
Axis.X: integer -- field
Axis.Y: integer -- field
Axis.Z: integer -- field
X, Y, Z: the axes Selector.max and Selector.min take.
Solid
Solid -- class
An exact B-rep solid (or an open sheet): planes, cylinders, cones, spheres, tori and NURBS, trimmed and joined, never approximated by triangles. Immutable — every operation returns a new one. Close it when done, or let the language's scope do it; see Lifetimes.
Primitives
Solid.torus
function Solid.torus(major, minor)
A torus about the z axis: major to the tube's centre, minor the tube's radius.
Solid.wedge
function Solid.wedge(x, y, z, top_x)
A box whose top face is top_x long instead of x: a ramp.
From a profile
Solid.extrude
function Solid.extrude(profile, frame, height)
The profile on frame, extruded height along the frame's z.
Solid.extrude_open
function Solid.extrude_open(profile, frame, height)
The walls only, no caps: an open sheet. Takes an open Path:end_open() chain as well as a closed profile.
Solid.extrude_tapered
function Solid.extrude_tapered(profile, frame, height, taper)
Extrude with a draft: the walls lean out by taper radians as they rise (in, when negative). Every wall stays exact — a plane off a line, a cone off an arc.
Solid.extrude_open_tapered
function Solid.extrude_open_tapered(profile, frame, height, taper)
The tapered walls without caps.
Solid.extrude_between
function Solid.extrude_between(profile, frame, bottom, top)
Extrude between two planes rather than two heights: bottom and top are each a Slant (a bare number is a flat one). With both flat this is Solid.extrude; with a slope it is the mitred end of a frame member. A top that comes down to or through the bottom raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall).
Solid.extrude_open_between
function Solid.extrude_open_between(profile, frame, bottom, top)
Solid.extrude_between without the caps.
Solid.revolve
function Solid.revolve(profile, axis, angle)
The profile swung angle radians about axis (a point and a direction — see Frames). The profile's x is read as the radius and its y as the height along the axis, so it must lie to one side of it.
Solid.revolve_open
function Solid.revolve_open(profile, axis, angle)
The revolved surface of an open profile: a sheet.
Solid.revolve_in_plane
function Solid.revolve_in_plane(profile, frame, a, b, angle)
The profile on frame swung angle radians about the axis through the sketch points a and b (each (x, y) on the frame) — the profile and its axis drawn together, as a sketch draws them, where Solid.revolve reads the profile as (radius, height). The profile may lie on either side of the axis and touch it (a half-disc with its diameter on the axis turns into a ball), but not cross it. The sweep starts where the profile is drawn and turns right-handed about b - a, so a partial turn leaves one end of the solid over the profile itself.
Solid.revolve_open_in_plane
function Solid.revolve_open_in_plane(profile, frame, a, b, angle)
Solid.revolve_in_plane for a curve: its segments swung into a sheet, no caps.
Solid.coil
function Solid.coil(profile, axis, pitch, turns)
The profile coiled about axis (a point and a direction): read as Solid.revolve reads it — x the distance from the axis, y along it — and turned turns times while climbing pitch along the axis each turn: a spring, a thread, Fusion's Coil. The walls follow the helix to a few millionths of the radius (a helix is not a NURBS curve, so they are a close fit, exact at both ends); the two ends are the profile itself, flat. A profile reaching the axis, one with holes, or — from a full turn up — a pitch no taller than the profile raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall).
Solid.loft
function Solid.loft(a, frame_a, b, frame_b)
The solid between profile a on one frame and b on another: ruled walls between matching sides (both profiles need the same number of sides, and no holes), capped by the two.
Solid.loft_through
function Solid.loft_through(sections)
The solid smooth through every section — a profile on its frame, in order: each wall interpolates its side across all the profiles (cubic through four or more, quadratic through three, Solid.loft through two), capped by the first and the last. Every section of the result is its profile exactly, arcs and all. The profiles must have the same number of sides and no holes; otherwise raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall).
Solid.loft_through_open
function Solid.loft_through_open(sections)
The walls through the curves without the caps: an open sheet.
Solid.sweep
function Solid.sweep(profile, frame, path)
The profile on frame, carried along a SweepPath. A straight piece is an extrusion and an arc a revolution about the arc's axis, so nothing is approximated — a circle along an arc is an exact torus wall.
Solid.sweep_open
function Solid.sweep_open(profile, frame, path)
The swept walls without caps: an open sheet.
Solid.pipe
function Solid.pipe(path, radius, thickness)
A circle of radius carried along a SweepPath, square to where it starts — Fusion's Pipe: a solid rod, or with a positive thickness a tube whose walls are that thick. The path is only borrowed, as by Solid.sweep, and refused the same way.
Solid:extrude_faces()
function Solid:extrude_faces(height)
Every face of a sheet pushed height along its own normal, walled and closed: the sheet as a solid of that thickness.
Solid.face
function Solid.face(profile, frame)
The flat sheet a profile bounds on frame: one planar face, each hole a hole through it, its normal the frame's z however the profile winds, every edge the exact line, arc or spline its segment is. An open sheet — raise it with Solid:extrude_faces(), cut it with Solid:trim().
Placing
Solid:place()
function Solid:place(frame)
A solid built about the origin moved onto frame: its origin to the frame's origin, its axes to the frame's (see Frames).
Solid:rotate()
function Solid:rotate(axis, radians)
Turned radians about axis (a point and a direction).
Solid:mirror()
function Solid:mirror(plane)
Reflected across plane: a frame whose z is the mirror plane's normal.
Booleans
Solid:join()
function Solid:join(other, tolerance, progress, merge)
The union with other, as an exact B-rep. merge (off by default, so face and edge numbers stay as they were) merges the flush faces the join leaves, as Solid:merge_flush() does — Go takes it as a trailing true, Java as an overload; Solid:cut() and Solid:common() take it too. tolerance (0.05 by default) is the mesh tolerance the boolean decides at: both solids are meshed at it, so a tighter one is as correct and slower. progress, where the wrapper takes one, is called with a phase name and a done/total count.
Solid:common()
function Solid:common(other, tolerance, progress, merge)
What this solid and other share.
Solid:split_sheet()
function Solid:split_sheet(tool, tolerance, progress)
This solid or sheet cut along tool's boundary with nothing removed: each face comes back as its pieces outside tool and then its pieces inside, in the original face order — the start of a surface trim. tool must be a closed solid. Keep the pieces you want with Solid:drop_faces(), or split and drop in one call with Solid:trim().
Faces and sheets
Solid:face_sheet()
function Solid:face_sheet(face)
One face alone, as an open sheet: its surface, its loops and the exact curves on its edges, the rest of the solid left behind — raised by Solid:extrude_faces() it is the prism over that face. Keeps the face's colour.
Solid:drop_faces()
function Solid:drop_faces(faces)
This solid without the faces listed: the rest keep their surfaces, curves and colours in their order, so an index into the result is this one's with the dropped ones closed up. Dropping every face raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall).
Solid:trim()
function Solid:trim(tool, keep, tolerance, progress)
This sheet (or solid) cut along the closed tool's boundary and the pieces on one side thrown away: keep "outside" (the default) keeps what lies outside the tool — a hole punched through — and "inside" what lies within it. Nothing on the kept side raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall). tolerance and progress as for Solid:join().
Solid:push_pull()
function Solid:push_pull(face, distance, tolerance, progress)
Face face pushed out by distance along its outward normal — pulled in, negative — the way Fusion and Rhino extrude a face: the prism over it joined on (cut out) at tolerance, and the flush faces merged, so a box's top raised is one taller box of six faces rather than a box and a prism with every side wall split at the seam. A face on a cylinder, a cone, a sphere or a torus moves out along its normal instead, as Fusion's press-pull does: the surface a step out — a boss fatter, a bore or a countersink narrower, a dome fuller — with the flat faces beside it carried along in their own planes. Any other curved face is refused, as is a curved face with anything but a plane it can follow beside it, reaching a cone's apex, pushed to its axis or centre, off a plane beside it or run into another edge. A flat face keeps its own colour where it now lies.
Several faces push together, as Fusion's press-pull on a selection: each by its own rule, one after another in the order given, each found again after the pushes before it renumbered the faces — a box's top and a side pushed 5 is the box 5 taller and 5 wider, a boss's top and wall the boss taller and fatter. A face on the same curved surface as one before it, and joined to it, moved with that one and is not pushed twice. No faces, or a face an earlier push took away, raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall).
Solid:refillet()
function Solid:refillet(face, radius, tolerance)
The round face belongs to — a fillet's bands, balls and rim bands joined to that face — made again at radius, as Fusion's press-pull on a fillet face: taken back to the sharp edges it replaced, and those rounded again, so the round is the one Solid:fillet() makes at that radius. Rounds of straight edges between planes (their ends square corners, mitres, balls, or a cylinder, cone or sphere the edge runs into — a D-cut shaft's top edge, a rib's into a boss) and of circular rims between a plane and a cylinder or cone (a boss's foot, a bore's mouth, a counterbore's step); a face that is not one, or a radius that does not fit, raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall).
Solid:unfillet()
function Solid:unfillet(face)
The round face belongs to taken off, the faces beside it made sharp again, meeting on the edges the round replaced — Fusion's delete of a fillet face. The same rounds as Solid:refillet().
Solid:rechamfer()
function Solid:rechamfer(face, distance, tolerance)
The chamfer face belongs to — its bevels (flat between two planes, cones round rims) and the corner triangles joined to that face — cut again at distance, as Fusion's press-pull on a chamfer face: taken back to the sharp edges it cut, and those bevelled again, so the chamfer is the one Solid:chamfer() cuts at that distance. A flat bevel's ends may run into a cylinder, cone or sphere, as a round's may. A face that is not a chamfer's bevel, or a distance that does not fit, raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall).
Solid:unchamfer()
function Solid:unchamfer(face)
The chamfer face belongs to taken off, the faces beside it made sharp again — Fusion's delete of a chamfer face. The same chamfers as Solid:rechamfer().
Solid:merge_flush()
function Solid:merge_flush()
This solid with its flush faces merged: flat faces on one plane, facing one way and meeting along their edges — the seams Solid:join() leaves where two parts are flush — made one face, and the vertices left mid-way along a straight edge taken out.
Solid:split()
function Solid:split(tool, tolerance, progress)
This solid split by tool into bodies — Fusion's Split Body — returned as a list: a closed tool gives the parts outside it, then the parts inside; a flat sheet (a Solid.face) splits by the whole plane it lies on. Each connected part is a body of its own, so a U cut across both arms is three. The new faces are pieces of the tool's, the colours carried over. A tool that does not cross the solid, or a curved sheet, raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall). tolerance and progress as for Solid:join().
Solid:split_by_plane()
function Solid:split_by_plane(plane, tolerance, progress)
This solid split by the plane through plane's origin, square to its z (a frame): the bodies in front of it first, then those behind.
Solid:lumps()
function Solid:lumps()
This solid's connected bodies, each a solid of its own — faces sharing an edge are one body — in the order of their first faces. One body comes back as itself; a boolean that leaves two parts gives two.
Finishing
Solid.edges
solid.edges -- field
The solid's edges as Edge values — what Solid:fillet() and Solid:chamfer() take. Copied; safe to keep.
Solid:fillet()
function Solid:fillet(edges, radius, tolerance, progress)
Round the given edges (Edge values or their indices) with radius. Exact: the blend faces are cylinders, tori and NURBS, and the neighbours are trimmed back onto them.
Solid:chamfer()
function Solid:chamfer(edges, distance, tolerance)
A flat bevel instead of a round: each edge cut back distance along both its faces.
Solid:shell()
function Solid:shell(thickness, open, tolerance, progress)
Hollow the solid to walls thickness thick — inward for a positive thickness, outward (the solid becoming the cavity) for a negative one. The faces listed in open are removed so the hollow is reachable.
Solid:thicken()
function Solid:thicken(thickness, tolerance, progress)
A sheet made a solid thickness thick — Fusion's Thicken: its faces, their twins moved thickness along the faces' normals (against them for a negative thickness), and a wall round every open edge. Two faces of a folded sheet meet on their offsets' mitre; a closed sheet thickens to a hollow. Free-form (NURBS) faces offset by a fit held to tolerance. A thickness a face cannot take — a radius used up, a free-form offset folding over — raises a BuildError (catch it with pcall).
Asking
Solid:face_kind()
function Solid:face_kind(face)
A face's surface: plane, cylinder, cone, sphere, torus, nurbs, revolution, extrusion or other.
Solid:face_frame()
function Solid:face_frame(face)
The frame on a face: origin at its centre, z its outward normal, x world X laid onto the face (world Y on a face facing close to X) — Frame.at's rule, so the top of a box gets the XY plane's axes. What Workplane:workplane() moves onto.
Solid:bounds_at()
function Solid:bounds_at(tolerance)
The bounds over the tessellation at tolerance — the same cache Solid:mesh() fills, so asking both costs one mesh.
Solid:leaked_edges()
function Solid:leaked_edges(tolerance)
How many mesh edges at tolerance are bound by anything other than two triangles: zero for a closed solid. A seam two solids share along a line does not count; a hole or a fold does.
Solid:unpaired_edges()
function Solid:unpaired_edges(tolerance)
How many mesh edges have triangle uses that do not cancel out: zero for a closed, consistently oriented solid. Unlike Solid:leaked_edges() this catches a fold — two triangles running the same way.
Solid.manifold
solid.manifold -- field
Whether the faces make a manifold — every edge bordered by one face or two, the faces round every vertex one fan — and whether it is closed, as a Manifold. Read off the solid's topology, not a mesh, so it takes no tolerance; whether the faces all face out is Solid:unpaired_edges()'s question.
Colour
Solid:coloured()
function Solid:coloured(colour, face)
A new solid coloured (r, g, b), each 0..1 — Python and Node.js also take "#rgb" or "#rrggbb" — or, given a face (Go: ColouredFace), just that face, whose colour then wins over the solid's. What is made from a coloured solid inherits: a move keeps every colour; a boolean, fillet, chamfer or shell gives each face the colour of the input face it lies on (a cut's bore takes the tool's), and a new face — a round, a shell's inner wall — the solid's. STEP output carries no colour.
Solid:face_colour()
function Solid:face_colour(face)
A face's colour as drawn: its own, else the solid's, else none.
From files
Solid.open
function Solid.open(path, body)
The body a CAD file holds, as a solid: STEP (AP203/214/242), ACIS .sat, Rhino .3dm, OCCT .brep, IGES or IFC, read where it draws, in the file's own units and axes. A file drawing several bodies needs body (0-based, in drawing order) or Solid.open_all. What such a solid can do is what its geometry allows: fillet and chamfer want line and circle edges; booleans take any surface, but new edges traced on a free-form face are not always writable back to STEP; and every verb meshes its operands first, so its cost grows with the body's face count. Reads through the reader library, which must be from the same release.
Solid.open_all
function Solid.open_all(path)
Every body a CAD file draws, as solids placed where it draws them: one per placement, so a part placed twice is two solids.
Solid.from_node
function Solid.from_node(scene, node, placed)
The body a reader Node draws, as a solid — sharing the reader's brep (Node.brep), not copying it; the scene can be closed first. placed (the default) puts it where the node's transform does, where its mesh draws; otherwise it keeps the node's own frame. The two libraries' layouts (cadaclysm_blacksmith.brep_layout_id()) must agree, or it raises a CadaclysmError (catch it with pcall).
Output
Solid:mesh()
function Solid:mesh(tolerance)
Triangles at tolerance: positions, normals (three floats a vertex) and indices. Views into the solid's own cache — valid until the solid is closed or meshed again at a different tolerance; copy what must outlive either.
Solid.face_triangles
How many triangles each face meshed to at tolerance, one count per face in face order: the triangles of Solid:mesh() at the same tolerance run face by face, so face f's are the counts[f] after the first counts[:f].sum(), and the counts sum to the mesh's triangle count. What a viewer colours a face by. A view, like Solid:mesh().
Declared; the method comes with the viewers.
Solid:edge_polylines()
function Solid:edge_polylines(tolerance)
The feature edges as polylines at tolerance, one run of points per edge. Views, like Solid:mesh().
Solid.show
Draw the solid with the viewer in use — in a terminal, the picture is left in the scrollback. Each face keeps its own colour (Solid:face_colour(): a colour of its own, else the solid's). Keywords: view= (front, back, left, right, top, bottom, iso), az=, el=, zoom=, up=, edges=, width=, height=, hint=, tolerance=.
Comes with the viewers follow-up.
Solid.view
Orbit the solid with the viewer in use until it is closed; returns (azimuth, elevation, zoom) where it was left. Keywords as Solid.show.
Comes with the viewers follow-up.
Solid:step()
function Solid:step(path, schema, unit)
Write this solid as an AP203 STEP file; see cadaclysm_blacksmith.write_step() for schema and unit.
Solid:to_scene()
function Solid:to_scene(schema)
This solid as a reader Scene, through STEP in memory: the door from the kernel to everything the reader does — its tree, meshes, glTF/OBJ/STL export. Needs the reader library as well.
Solid:close()
function Solid:close()
Free the solid now. The garbage collector, or the language's scope, does it otherwise.
Edge
Edge -- class
One edge of a solid as plain data, copied out of it: what Solid.edges lists and Solid:fillet() takes.
Edge.direction
edge.direction -- field
The unit direction of a straight edge, or nil for a curved one. Picking the vertical edges of a plate is a filter on this.
Manifold
Manifold -- class
What Solid.manifold returns: whether the solid's faces make a manifold, and whether it is closed, told from its topology rather than a mesh.
Manifold.edges
Manifold.edges: integer -- field
How many distinct edges: one shared by two faces counts once.
Manifold.boundary_edges
Manifold.boundary_edges: integer -- field
Edges only one face borders: a sheet's rim, a hole in a shell.
Manifold.non_manifold_edges
Manifold.non_manifold_edges: integer -- field
Edges three or more faces border: a fin, or two solids meeting along a line.
Manifold.non_manifold_vertices
Manifold.non_manifold_vertices: integer -- field
Vertices whose faces make more than one fan: two solids touching at a corner.
Manifold.is_manifold
Manifold.is_manifold: boolean -- field
No non-manifold edge or vertex: a manifold, possibly with a boundary.
Manifold.is_closed
Manifold.is_closed: boolean -- field
A manifold with no boundary edge either: it encloses a solid.
Errors
BuildError -- class
What the kernel refused, in its own words: a profile that crosses itself, a fillet too large for its faces, a boolean with nothing left. Raised by the call that failed, at once.
What borrows, what to close
scene:close() and solid:close() free at once; the garbage collector frees what is forgotten. A Node, a Placement or a view keeps its scene alive. A failure raises a CadaclysmError or BuildError value — pcall catches it, tostring(err) is the message — and reading a closed scene or solid raises too, rather than touching freed memory.
Node.mesh hands back the scene's own const float * and const uint32_t * with their counts — FFI pointers straight into its memory, no copy — and holds the scene while it lives. mesh:copy() gives arrays of your own. Solid:mesh() hands back views into the solid's cache (view.pointer, view.size), which raise once the solid is closed or meshed again at another tolerance.
Strings are always copied on the way out. A love.thread or LÖVR thread is its own Lua state: require the modules there too. The library's error text is per OS thread, so a failure is read on the thread that failed.