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conway - Conway Notation transformations

Usage    |    Examples    |    Notes

Usage



Usage: conway [options] [Conway Notation string] [input_file]

Conway Notation uses algorithms by George W. Hart (http://www.georgehart.com)
http://www.georgehart.com/virtual-polyhedra/conway_notation.html

Antiprism Extensions: Further operations added. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway_polyhedron_notation
and
http://antitile.readthedocs.io/en/latest/conway.html

Read a polyhedron from a file in OFF format.
If input_file is not given and no seed polyhedron is given in the notation
string then the program reads from standard input.

Options
  -h,--help this help message (run 'off_util -H help' for general help)
  --version version information
  -H        Conway Notation detailed help. seeds and operator descriptions
  -v        verbose output
  -z <nums> number of iterations between status reports (implies termination
            check) (0 for final report only, -1 for no report), optionally
            followed by a comma and the number of iterations between
            termination checks (0 for report checks only) (default: -1,1)
  -l <lim>  minimum distance change to terminate planarization, as negative
              exponent (default: 12 giving 1e-12)
            WARNING: high values can cause non-terminal behaviour. Use -i
  -o <file> write output to file (default: write to standard output)

Conway Notation Options
  -s        apply Conway Notation string substitutions
  -g        use George Hart algorithms (sets -s)
  -c <op=s> user defined operation strings in the form of op,string
              op can be any operation letter not currently in use
              two character operations can be as alpha# e.g z#
              string can be any operations. More than one <op=s> can be used
              Examples: -c x=kt,y=tk,a#=dwd or -c x=kt -c y=tk -c a#=dwd
  -t        tile mode. when input is a 2D tiling. unsets -g
              set if seed of Z is detected
  -r        execute operations in reverse order (left to right)
  -u        make final product be of averge unit edge length
  -p <opt>  planarize method (default: c, forced to x for open geometry)
              b - base/dual (reciprocate on face centroids magnitude squared)
              c - canonicalize
              x - none
  -i <itrs> maximum planarize iterations. -1 for unlimited (default: 1000)
            WARNING: unstable models may not finish unless -i is set

Coloring Options (run 'off_util -H color' for help on color formats)
keyword: none - sets no color
  -F <col>  color the faces according to: (default: n)
              a color value - apply to all faces
              n - color by number of sides
              u - unique color
              v - color with average adjacent vertex color
              s - symmetric coloring [,sub_group,conj_type]
              b - color faces by convexity using all dihedral angles
              o - newly created faces by operation
              w - use wythoff colors (overrides -V and -E)
  -E <col>  color the edges according to: (default: lightgray)
              a color value - apply to all edges
              s - symmetric coloring [,sub_group,conj_type]
              b - color edges by convexity of dihedral angle
  -V <col>  color the vertices according to: (default: gold)
              a color value - apply to all vertices
              n - color by order of vertex
              u - unique color
              s - symmetric coloring [,sub_group,conj_type]
  -C <mthd> tile colouring method, optionally followed by ':' and
            point colouring method.
               Tile colouring methods
                 none - do not colour tiles
                 index - use the path index, and apply colormap (default)
                 association - colour tiles using corresponding base element
                   colour, optionally followed by a comma and a letter from V,
                   E, F, or a colour, to use for all local tiles (default: F)
               Point colouring methods (default: use tile coloring method)
                 none - do not colour points
                 index - use the point index, and apply colormap
                 association - colour points using corresponding base element
                   colour, optionally followed by a comma and a letter from V,
                   E, F, or a colour, to use for all local points (default: F)
                 component - colour by non-zero components, V=1, E=2, F=4,
                   V&E=3, E&F=6, V&F=5, V&E&F=7, and apply colormap
                 weight - colour using barycentric coordinates as RGB
  -T <t,e>  transparency. from 0 (invisible) to 255 (opaque). element is any
            or all of, v - vertices, e - edges, f - faces, a - all (default: f)
  -m <maps> a comma separated list of color maps used to transform color
            indexes (default: colorful), a part consisting of letters from
            v, e, f, selects the element types to apply the map list to
            (default 'vef'). use map name of 'index' to output index numbers
              colorful:   red,darkorange1,yellow,darkgreen,cyan,blue,magenta,
                          white,gray50,black
              ghart:      red,blue,green,yellow,brown,magenta,purple,grue,
                          gray,orange (from George Hart's original applet)
              convexity:  white,gray50,gray25 (for -F b, -E b)
              (maps are shifted '+-3' when -F n)
              (no effect when using -F w which uses internal wythoff maps)

Examples

Make truncated cuboctahedron and pass to poly_form to make unit edges
conway dmO | poly_form -a r | antiview


A truncated octahedron passed to canonical
conway tk4Y4 | canonical | antiview


A nice spiral pattern in Hart mode using operation substitutions
conway eesD -g | antiview -v 0.01


A snub pentagrammic antiprism
conway s ant5/2 | antiview


A snub geodesic sphere
conway s geo_3 | antiview


opposite_lace operation on the dual of a geodesic sphere
conway Gd geo_3 | antiview


whirl operation repeated twice on a dodecahedron seed and colored radially (the operator string is quoted for OSs that treat ^ as a special character)
conway "w^2D" -i 5000 | off_color_radial | antiview -x ve


The lace operation subscript 2 applied to triangular faces of a cuboctahedron
conway L_2:3aC | antiview -v 0.01


An interesting result with what looks like star polygons
conway L_2gC -F w | antiview -v 0.01


Notes

conway was written by Roger Kaufman. It uses algorithms by George W. Hart, http://www.georgehart.com/.

The Conway Notation algorithms were adapted from the Javascript on George Hart's Conway Notation page.

Antiprism Extensions: Further operations added. See Conway polyhedron notation (Wikipedia) and Conway operations (Antitile)

Canonicalization and planarization may not always converge on a convex polyhedron.

The following extended help for the program may be displayed with conway -H



Conway Notation was described by Mathematician John Conway to George Hart in
the late 1990's for a book they planned to coauthor. Due to an illness the book
never came to fruition and John Conway did not think there was enough a for a
separate publication. Conway gave George Hart permission to present it in
"Sculpture Based on Propellerized Polyhedra in the Proceedings of MOSAIC 2000"
The paper can be viewed here: http://www.georgehart.com/propello/propello.html
The project was expected to encourage more operations to be developed which has
happened in various places including here at Antiprism. (www.antiprism.com)

The following is a description of Conway Notation edited from the Conway
Notation web page by George W. Hart (http://www.georgehart.com)

More detailed information and examples can be found at
http://www.georgehart.com/virtual-polyhedra/conway_notation.html
and at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway_polyhedron_notation
and at
http://antitile.readthedocs.io/en/latest/conway.html

Basics: In this notation, one specifies a "seed" polyhedron with a capital
letter. Operations to perform on any polyhedron are specified with lower-case
letters preceding it. This program contains a small set of seeds and operators
from which an infinite number of derived polyhedra can be generated.

Note: This C++ port of Conway Notation can also operate on OFF files from
standard input if the seed polyhedron is not specified. (Antiprism Extension)

Seeds: The platonic solids are denoted T, O, C, I, and D, according to their
first letter. Other polyhedra which are implemented here include prisms, Pn,
antiprisms, An, and pyramids, Yn, where n is a number (3 or greater) which you
specify to indicate the size of the base you want, e.g., Y3=T, P4=C, and A3=O.

(Antiprism Extension: note that more seeds have since been defined)

Operations: Currently, abdegjkmoprst are defined. They are motivated by the
operations needed to create the Archimedean solids and their duals from the
platonic solids.  Try each on a cube:

(Antiprism Extension: note that more operations have since been defined)

a = ambo   The ambo operation can be thought of as truncating to the edge
midpoints.  It produces a polyhedron, aX, with one vertex for each edge of X.
There is one face for each face of X and one face for each vertex of X.
Notice that for any X, the vertices of aX are all 4-fold, and that aX=adX.
If two mutually dual polyhedra are in "dual position", with all edges tangent
to a common sphere, the ambo of either is their intersection.  For example
aC=aO is the cuboctahedron.
Note: ambo is also known as "rectifying" the polyhedron, or rectification

b = bevel  The bevel operation can be defined by bX=taX.  bC is the truncated
cuboctahedron.  (Antiprism Extension: or "bn" where n is 1 or greater)
Note: bevel is also known as "omnitruncating" the polyhedron, or omnitruncation

d = dual   The dual of a polyhedron has a vertex for each face, and a face for
each vertex, of the original polyhedron, e.g., dC=O.  Duality is an operation
of order two, meaning for any polyhedron X, ddX=X, e.g., ddC=dO=C. 

e = expand This is Mrs. Stott's expansion operation.  Each face of X is
separated from all its neighbors and reconnected with a new 4-sided face,
corresponding to an edge of X.  An n-gon is then added to connect the 4-sided
faces at each n-fold vertex.  For example, eC is the rhombicuboctahedron.  It
turns out that eX=aaX and so eX=edX (Antiprism Extension: One subscript as "en"
or "e_n" where n is 0 or greater. Two subscripts as "en_m" or "e_n_m" where
n and m are 0 or greater)
Note: expand is also known as "cantellating" the polyhedron, or cantellation

g = gyro   The dual operation to s is g. gX=dsdX=dsX, with all 5-sided faces.
The gyrocube, gC=gO="pentagonal icositetrahedron", is dual to the snub cube.
g is like k but with the new edges connecting the face centers to the 1/3
points on the edges rather than the vertices. (Antiprism Extension: or "gn"
where n is 1 or greater)

j = join   The join operator is dual to ambo, so jX=dadX=daX.  jX is like kX
without the original edges of X.  It produces a polyhedron with one 4-sided
face for each edge of X.  For example, jC=jO is the rhombic dodecahedron.

k = kis    All faces are processed or kr = only r-sided faces are processed
The kis operation divides each n-sided face into n triangles.  A new vertex is
added in the center of each face, e.g., the kiscube, kC, has 24 triangular
faces.  The k operator is dual to t, meaning kX=dtdX.

m = meta   Dual to b, mX=dbX=kjX.  mC has 48 triangular faces.  m is like k
and o combined; new edges connect new vertices at the face centers to the old
vertices and new vertices at the edge midpoints.  mX=mdX.  mC is the
"hexakis octahedron".  (Antiprism Extension: or "mn" where n is 1 or greater)

o = ortho  Dual to e, oX=deX=jjX.  oC is the trapezoidal icositetrahedron, with
24 kite-shaped faces.  oX has the effect of putting new vertices in the middle
of each face of X and connecting them, with new edges, to the edge midpoints of
X. (Antiprism Extension: One subscript as "on" or "o_n" where n is 0 or greater
Two subscripts as "on_m" or "o_n_m" where n and m are 0 or greater)

p = propeller    Makes each n-gon face into a "propeller" of an n-gon
surrounded by n quadrilaterals, e.g., pT is the tetrahedrally stellated
icosahedron. Try pkD and pt6kT. p is a self-dual operation, i.e., dpdX=pX and
dpX=pdX, and p also commutes with a and j, i.e., paX=apX. (This and the next
are extensions were added by George Hart and not specified by Conway)

r = reflect   Changes a left-handed solid to right handed, or vice versa, but
has no effect on a reflexible solid. So rC=C, but compare sC and rsC.

s = snub   The snub operation produces the snub cube, sC, from C.  It can be
thought of as eC followed by the operation of slicing each of the new 4-fold
faces along a diagonal into two triangles.  With a consistent handedness to
these cuts, all the vertices of sX are 5-fold.  Note that sX=sdX.
(Antiprism Extension: or "sn" where n is 1 or greater)

t = truncate  All faces are processed or tr = only vertices of order r are
processed. Truncating a polyhedron cuts off each vertex, producing a new
n-sided face for each n-fold vertex.  The faces of the original polyhedron
still appear, but have twice as many sides, e.g., the tC has six octagonal
sides corresponding to the six squares of the C, and eight triangles
corresponding to the cube's eight vertices.


Antiprism Extension: Further operations added. Also see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway_polyhedron_notation

c = chamfer   New hexagonal faces are added in place of edges

B = bowtie    Bowtie like triangles divide pentagonal faces

E = ethyl     like expand but triangles are divided into 3 kites

G = opposite-lace  Similar to lace, except with new quad faces split opposite
                   L_1. (has also been referred to as L_-1, not supported)

J = joined-medial  Like medial but new rhombic faces in place of original edges

K = stake     Subdivide faces with central quads, and triangles
              All faces processed or can be "Kr" where r is 3 or greater

L_0 = joined-lace  Similar to lace, except with new quad faces produced in L_1
                   are not split

L = lace      An augmentation of each face by an antiprism, adding a twist
              smaller copy of each face, and triangles between
              Subscript as "L_n" where n is 0 or greater
              All faces processed or can be "L:r" where r is 3 or greater
              Both may be specified as "L_n:r"

l = loft      An augmentation of each face by prism, adding a smaller copy of
              each face with trapezoids between the inner and outer ones
              Subscript as "l_n" where n is 0 or greater
              All faces processed or can be "l:r" where r is 3 or greater
              Both may be specified as "l_n:r"

M = medial    Similar to meta except no diagonal edges added, creating quad
              faces. Can be "Mn" where n is 1 or greater

n = needle    Dual of truncation, triangulate with 2 triangles across every
              edge. This bisect faces across all vertices and edges, while
              removing original edges

q = quinto    ortho followed by truncation of vertices centered on original
              faces. This create 2 new pentagons for every original edge
              it effectively lines the original faces with pentagons
              Lei Williams called this operation "Pental"

S = seed      Seed form

u = subdivide Ambo while retaining original vertices. Similar to Loop
              subdivision surface for triangle face
              One subscript as "un" or "u_n" where n is 1 or greater
              Two subscript as "un_m" or "u_n_m" where n and m are 1 or greater

W = waffle    Truncation on all vertices and then all faces split into sections

w = whirl     Gyro followed by truncation of vertices centered on original
              faces. This create 2 new hexagons for every original edge
              it effectively lines the original faces with hexagons

X = cross     Combination of kis and subdivide operation. Original edges are
              divided in half, with triangle and quad faces
              Can be "Xn" where n is 1 or greater

z = zip       Dual of kis or truncation of the dual. This create new edges
              perpendicular to original edges, a truncation beyond "ambo" with
              new edges "zipped" between original faces. It is also called
              bitruncation

Orientation of the input model will have an effect on chiral operations such as
snub or whirl. The orientation mode is set to positive by default. Operations
have been added to control orientation mode. The mode will remain until changed
+ (plus sign) = positive orientation  - (minus sign) = negative orientation
Changing orientation mode can be placed anywhere in the operation string

Summary of operators which can take n as subscript or r as face/vertex number

b  - n may be 1 or greater (default: 2)
e  - n,m n and m may be 0 or greater except for _0 and _0_0 (default: _2_0)
g  - n may be 1 or greater (default: 1)
K  - r may be 3 or greater representing face sides
k  - r may be 3 or greater representing face sides
L  - n,r n may be 0 or greater, r may be 3 or greater
l  - n,r n may be 0 or greater, r may be 3 or greater
       both n and r may be used together as L_n:r or l_n:r (L_0 may not have r)
       without delimiters Lr and lr, r is face sides and subscript default to 1
M  - n may be 1 or greater (default: 2)
m  - n may be 1 or greater (default: 2)
o  - n,m n and m may be 0 or greater except for _0 and _0_0 (default: _2_0)
s  - n may be 1 or greater (default: 2)
t  - r may be 2 or greater representing vertex connections (2 in tiles)
u  - n,m n and m may be 0 or greater except for _0 and _0_0 (default: _2_0)
X  - n may be 1 or greater (default: 2)

Antiprism Extension: any operation can be repeated N time by following it with
the superscript symbol ^ and a number greater than 0. Examples: a^3C M0^2T

Seeds which require a number n, 3 or greater

P  - Prism
A  - Antiprism
Y  - Pyramid
Z  - Polygon (Antiprism Extension)
R  - Random Convex Polyhedron (Antiprism Extension)

Note: Antiprism Extensions will work on tilings. Hart algorithms (-d) will not
e.g.: unitile2d 3 | conway p -t | antiview -v 0.1 (-t for tile mode)

Regular 2D tilings can be constructed from base polygons. The basic tilings are

            One Layer  Two Layers  Three Layers...
Square:     oZ4        o2Z4        o3Z4
Hexagonal:  tkZ6       ctkZ6       cctkZ6
Triangular: ktkZ6      kctkZ6      kcctkZ6 (kis operation on Hexagonal)

Name                   Vertex Fig  Op     String Dual Name              String
Square                 4,4,4,4            oZ4    Square                 do2Z4
Truncated Square       4,8,8       trunc  toZ4   Tetrakis Square        dto2Z4
Snub Square            3,3,4,3,4   snub   soZ4   Cairo Pentagonal       dso2Z4
Triangular             3,3,3,3,3,3 kis    ktkZ6  Hexagonal              ddctkZ6
Hexagonal              6,6,6              tkZ6   Triangular             dctkZ6
Trihexagonal           3,6,3,6     ambo   atkZ6  Rhombille              dactkZ6
Snub Trihexagonal      3,3,3,3,6   snub   stkZ6  Floret Pentagonal      dsctkZ6
Truncated Hexagonal    3,12,12     trunc  ttkZ6  Triakis triangular     dtctkZ6
Rhombitrihexagonal     3,4,6,4     expand etkZ6  Deltoidal Trihexagonal dectkZ6
Truncated Trihexagonal 4,6,12      bevel  btkZ6  Kisrhombille           dbctkZ6
Elongated Triangular   3,3,3,4,4   NonWythoffian Prismatic Triangular   none


Substitutions used by George Hart algorithms

P4 -> C       o  -> jj      dd ->         gT -> D       dD -> I       
A3 -> O       m  -> kj      ad -> a       aT -> O       aO -> aC      
Y3 -> T       t  -> dk      gd -> g       dC -> O       aI -> aD      
e  -> aa      j  -> dad     aY -> A       dO -> C       gO -> gC      
b  -> ta      s  -> dgd     dT -> T       dI -> D       gI -> gD      

Equivalent Operations (Antiprism)

b1 = z        e1 = d        M1 = o        m1 = k        o1 = S
b2 = b        e2 = e        M2 = M        m2 = m        o2 = o
s1 = d        u1 = S        X1 = k
s2 = s        u2 = u        X2 = X

Equal but opposite handed: e_n_m = e_m_n, o_n_m = o_m_n, u_n_m = u_m_n


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