RBOX - A Utility for Generating Point Data Sets

RBOX is a utility that generates lists of points. These lists can be used as test input to programs that determine convex hulls, Delaunay triangulations, Voronoi Diagrams, nearest neighbors, or other computational geometry tasks.

By default, the points are generated in a cube each of whose coordinates ranges from -0.5 to 0.5.

RBOX is invoked as a one line command, with an extensive list of arguments, separated by spaces. These arguments include

3000

the number of points to generate (3000 is just an example);

D3

the dimension of the space (D3 requests 3 dimensions);

c

add a unit cube to the output (c G2.0 sets the size to 2);

d

add a unit diamond to the output (d G2.0 sets the size to 2);

l

generate a regular 3D spiral (available only in 3D);

r

generate a regular polygon (r s Z1 G0.1 makes a cone);

s

generate cospherical points (generate randomly in a cube, then project onto a sphere);

x

generate random points in a simplex. (r or W commands may be used);

y

same as 'x', but include the simplex vertices as well;

Pn,m,r

add point [n,m,r] first, pads with 0 (I'll get back to you when I find out what this gibberish means)

Ln

lens distribution of radius n. Also 's', 'r', 'G', 'W'.

Mn,m,r

lattice rotated by [n,-m,0],[m,n,0],[0,0,r]. "27 M1,0,1" is {0,1,2} x {0,1,2} x {0,1,2}.

W0.1

random distribution within 0.1 of the cube or sphere's surface.

Z0.5 s

random points in a 0.5 disk projected to a sphere.

Z0.5 s G0.6

same as previous one, but within an 0.6 gap.

Bn

Bounding box coordinates, default 0.5.

h

Output as homogeneous coordinates for cdd.

n

Don't include the command line as first line of output.

On

Offset the coordinates by n.

t

Use time as the random number seed.

tn

Use n as the random number seed

z

Print integer coordinates, default 'Bn' is 1,000,000.

Files you may copy include:

• rbox.c, the source code;
• rbox.h, an include file;

RBOX is part of the QHULL package.

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