I’m Brian Mack and This Is How I Glyph.

My internship with Pointwise kicked-off this past spring while I was finishing up the spring semester of my junior year at the University of Texas at Arlington. My first assignment was to help a user update an existing Glyph script they had written for use with Gridgen, so that they could continue to leverage it within Pointwise. The script creates a constant-pitch helical connector around any of the three principal axes, and allows users to easily create connectors around a conical or cylindrical object.

The script presents users with a graphical Tk interface where they can specify x-, y-, and z- coordinates for starting and ending points; a principal rotation axis; and a dimension for the resulting connector. The XYZ values for either point can be provided via the available entry fields, or by selecting the point directly from the Display window within Pointwise. Radio buttons are provided, so that users can toggle between the three principal axes to be used for rotation.

Once all of the parameters have been provided, the connector as-defined can be previewed in the Display window by clicking the Create Connector button. The resulting connector’s orientation can be changed, which reverses its starting and ending points. Clicking Apply saves the connector and allows users to continue creating additional helical connectors, while clicking OK will save any connectors created and exit the script. Values entered are retained and can be re-used when creating multiple connectors.  Users can exit the script at any time by clicking Cancel.

To download this script directly, you can use this link. To learn more about this script or contribute changes, visit the project’s repository on GitHub.

If you have an idea for a new Glyph script, and you would like to learn more about how to get started, then contact us via the comments section below or contact @Pointwise on Twitter. We’re also interested in learning more about the Glyph scripts our users have created. Get in touch with us if you would like to share and have your script highlighted here on Another Fine Mesh.