C++ program to trace streamlines of discrete (face-based) vector fields.
The streamlines can be visualized as space curves with Polyscope (left), exported to obj files, or exported to SVG textures (center) which can be styled using Inkscape or Illustrator and then rendered with Blender (right).
On macOS/Linux, you can build this project with:
git clone --recursive https://github.com/MarkGillespie/StreamlineTracing.git
cd StreamlineTracing
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo ..
make -j7
bin/trace-streamlines /path/to/mesh.obj --vizOn Windows, Visual Studio can use the provided CMake files to build and run the project.
You can trace streamlines on triangle meshes by running:
bin/trace-streamlines /path/to/mesh.objThe program accepts various arguments to control the vector field generation and streamline tracing:
| Flag | Purpose |
|---|---|
--viz, -v |
Launch in interactive GUI mode |
--svg-name |
If provided, exports streamlines to SVG file |
--obj-name |
If provided, exports streamlines to OBJ file |
| Flag | Purpose |
|---|---|
--input-field |
If provided, loads the vector field from file instead of generating a new one |
--output-field |
If provided, saves generated vector field to file |
--nSym=1 |
Set n-rotational symmetry for the vector field (default: 1) |
| Flag | Purpose |
|---|---|
--max-segments=150 |
Maximum number of segments per streamline (default: 150) |
--max-len=6.0 |
Maximum length of each streamline (default: 6.) |
--min-dist=0.75 |
Minimum distance between streamline seeds generated by Poisson disk sampling (default: .75) |
| Flag | Purpose |
|---|---|
--stroke-width=0.05 |
Stroke width in world space units (default: .05) |
--foreground=#000000 |
Streamline color in hex format: #RRGGBB or #RRGGBBAA (default: "#000000") |
--background=#FFFFFF |
Background color in hex format (default: "#ffffff") |
--image-size=500 |
Viewbox size of output svg image |
Vector fields are stored as plain text files with one 3D vector per face:
# Face tangent space vectors
0.707 0.707 0.0
-0.5 0.866 0.0
...
If you want to save the streamlines to an SVG texture, the mesh must be passed as an obj file with texture coordinates