OCCUtils provides a convenience function to get the length of a curve in OpenCASCADE:

#include <occutils/Curve.hxx>

using namespace OCCUtils;

GeomAdaptor_Curve curve = /* ... */;

double length = Curve::Length(curve);

You can call it with GeomAdaptor_Curve or Geom_TrimmedCurve. While you can also call it with Handle(Geom_Curve), this is usually not what you want to do, since Geom_Curve typically describes an infinite curve (like an infinitely long line) and doesn’t know about which section of the curve is actually use (GeomAdaptor_Curve and Geom_TrimmedCurve both have the required Umin/Umax information stored).

In case you need to do it manually (without OCCUtils), use this snippet:

#include <GCPnts_AbscissaPoint.hxx>

GeomAdaptor_Curve curve = /* ... */;

GCPnts_AbscissaPoint::Length(curve);

For a Geom_TrimmedCurve, you need to convert it to a GeomAdaptor_Curve first. See How to convert Geom_TrimmedCurve to GeomAdaptor_Curve in OpenCASCADE for details on how to do that.

OCCUtils provides a conveniece function to convert a Geom_TrimmedCurve to a GeomAdaptor_Curve:

#include <occutils/Curve.hxx>

using namespace OCCUtils;

Geom_TrimmedCurve input = /* ... */;

GeomAdaptor_Curve result = Curve::FromTrimmedCurve(input);

If you want to do it manually, use this snippet:

Geom_TrimmedCurve input = /* ... */;

GeomAdaptor_Curve result(
    input.BasisCurve(), input.FirstParameter(), input.LastParameter()
);

If you have two points in OpenCASCADE:

gp_Pnt p1 = /* ... */;
gp_Pnt p2 = /* ... */;

you can’t just use == to check if they coincide in stock OpenCASCADE. However, OCCUtils provides operator== and operator!= for gp_Pnt among other types:

#include <occutils/Equality.hxx>

bool areTheyCoincident = p1 == p2;

If you can’t use OCCUtils, this is the way to check if they are coincident:

if (p1.Distance(p2) <= Precision::Confusion()) {
    // p1 coincides with p2
}

or alternatively:

if (p1.IsEqual(p2, Precision::Confusion())) {
    // p1 coincides with p2
}

The reason for this is that even though two points may represent the same point in space, depending on how you compute their coordinates exactly, their cartesian X/Y/Z coordinates might not be exactly identical. This is always the case with floating-point arithmetic, that’s the type of math computers use. Don’t confuse floating-point arithmetic with exact arithmetic which you have learnt in school or university.

The solution for this issue is to define a very small tolerance – any objects that have a distance less than that tolerance are considered equal.

In OpenCASCADE, Precision::Confusion() in the standard tolerance value for this.

My OCCUtils library provides

OCCUtils provides a conveniece function for creating a TopoDS_Edge between two points (i.e. a straight line):

#include <occutils/Edge.hxx>

using namespace OCCUtils;

gp_Pnt p1 = /* ... */;
gp_Pnt p2 = /* ... */;

TopoDS_Edge edge = Edge::FromPoints(p1, p2);

In case you want to do it manually (i.e. without OCCUtils), use this snippet

TopoDS_Edge edge = BRepBuilderAPI_MakeEdge(p1, p2).Edge();

but be aware that you also have to handle the case of p1 == p2 i.e.

if (p1.Distance(p2) <= Precision::Confusion()) {
    // Don't try to create an Edge in this case
}

OCCUtil’s Edge::FromPoints handles this case by returning TopoDS_Edge() i.e. a TopoDS_Edge where edge.IsNull() == true.

OCCUtils provides easy-to-use conveniece functions to convert multiple TopoDS_Edges to a TopoDS_Wire:

#include <occutils/Wire.hxx>

using namespace OCCUtils;

TopoDS_Wire& wire = Wire::FromEdges({edge1, edge2})

You can also pass a std::vector<TopoDS_Edge> to Wire::FromEdges().

If you want to do it manually without using OCCUtils, you can use BRepLib_MakeWire like this:

BRepLib_MakeWire wireMaker;
wireMaker.Add(edge1);
wireMaker.Add(edge2);
TopoDS_Wire wire = wireMaker.Wire();

This table shows you all the available standard colors in OpenCASCADE.

Use like this:

Quantity_Color myColor(Quantity_NOC_ALICEBLUE);

See below for the source code used to generate this table!

Continue reading →

OCCUtils provides an easy way of exporting a STEP with colored elements:

#include <occutils/ExtendedSTEP.hxx>
#include <occutils/Primitive.hxx>

TopoDS_Shape cube = Primitive::MakeCube(5 /* mm */);

STEP::ExtendedSTEPExporter stepExporter;
stepExporter.AddShapeWithColor(cube, Quantity_NOC_RED);
stepExporter.Write("ColoredCube.step");

The resulting STEP file looks like this:

You can also add non-colored shapes:

stepExporter.AddShape(myShape);

Doing it without OCCUtils is possible but might make your life miserable since it’s rather hard to get to work correctly.

Here’s a minimal example:

// Get global application
Handle(TDocStd_Application) application = XCAFApp_Application::GetApplication();
// Create document
Handle(TDocStd_Document) document;
application->NewDocument("MDTV-XCAF", document);
// Get shape & color tools
Handle(XCAFDoc_ShapeTool) shapeTool = XCAFDoc_DocumentTool::ShapeTool(document->Main());
Handle(XCAFDoc_ColorTool) colorTool = XCAFDoc_DocumentTool::ColorTool(document->Main());
// Create shape
// IMPORTANT: DO NOT use shapeTool->AddShape(TopoDS_Shape)!
// This WILL NOT PRESERVE the color!
TDF_Label partLabel = shapeTool->NewShape();
shapeTool->SetShape(partLabel, filletedBody);

//TDF_Label redColor = colorTool->AddColor();
colorTool->SetColor(partLabel, Quantity_NOC_RED, XCAFDoc_ColorGen);

STEPCAFControl_Writer writer;
writer.SetColorMode(true);
writer.Perform(document, "ColoredShape.step");

What colors can you use?

Either define the Quantity_Color yourself using RGB values (from 0.0 to 1.0) like this:

Quantity_Color red(1.0 /* R */, 0.0 /* G */, 0.0 /* B */, Quantity_TypeOfColor::Quantity_TOC_RGB);

alternatively you can do the same in the HSL colorspace:

Quantity_Color brownishOrange(1.0 /* H */, 0.5 /* L */, 0.5 /* S */, Quantity_TypeOfColor::Quantity_TOC_HLS);

or you can use the predefined colors in the Quantity_NameOfColor enum – see Overview of all standard colors available in OpenCASCADE for a table of all available colors.

In OpenCASCADE, you can get e.g. a list of edges for a TopoDS_Shape using

TopTools_IndexedMapOfShape edges;
TopExp::MapShapes (shape, TopAbs_EDGE, edges);

How can you iterate edges?

The easiest way is to use indexing like this:

for (size_t i = 1; i <= edges.Extent(); i++) {
    TopoDS_Shape& edge = edges(i);
    /* ... */
}

If you want to get the TopoDS_Edge from the TopoDS_Shape in the above example, use TopoDS::Edge(edge) inside the loop.

The OCCUtils library provides an easy way to fuse two shapes in OpenCASCADE.

First, let’s generate a box and a cylinder using OCCUtil’s primitive generation functions:

#include <occutils/Primitive.hxx>

using namespace OCCUtils;
  
TopoDS_Shape solid1 = Primitive::MakeBox(18 /* X */, 8 /* Y */, 14 /* Z */,
    Primitive::CenterX | Primitive::CenterY);

TopoDS_Shape solid2 = Primitive::MakeCylinder(5 /* d */, 35 /* L */,
    Primitivs::Orientation::Z,
    Primitive::CenterD);

Now we can fuse the primitives using this snippet:

#include <occutils/Boolean.hxx>

using namespace OCCUtils;

TopoDS_Shape fused = Boolean::Fuse({solid1, solid2});

Boolean::Fuse() can take a number of different argument types. In this example, we’are using a std::initializer_list (this is the curly-bracket syntax) – but it can also take a TopTools_ListOfShape or a std::vector<TopoDS_Shape> (and also most other STL- or non-STL containers).

If you want to perform a fuse without using OCCUtils, you might be tempted to use this syntax:

BRepAlgoAPI_Fuse fuse(solid1, solid2);
fuse.Build();
TopoDS_Shape result = fuse.Shape();

However, the BRepAlgoAPI_Fuse(TopoDS, TopoDS) constructor is deprecated and should therefore not be used. Instead, the following syntax should be used:

// Configure fuse
BRepAlgoAPI_Fuse fuse;
fuse.SetArguments(arguments);
fuse.SetTools(tools);
// Run fuse
fuse.Build();
TopoDS_Shape shape = fuse.Shape(); // Raises NotDone if not done.

where arguments and tools are two TopTools_ListOfShape instances. For other boolean algorithms like BRepAlgoAPI_Cut (boolean difference) the two have distinct meanings, but for BRepAlgoAPI_Fuse it’s just important that both arguments and tools have at least one element each!

You can use ListUtils::SplitIntoHeadAndTail from OCCUtils to generate a std::pair of lists (arguments and tools), with arguments having one element and tools having the rest like this:

auto toolsAndArgs = ListUtils::SplitIntoHeadAndTail(shapes, 1);
auto tools = toolsAndArgs.first;
auto arguments = toolsAndArgs.second;

However, if you use ListUtils::SplitIntoHeadAndTail(), you can just use Boolean::Fuse() right away.

My OCCUtils library provides a super-easy way of exporting your TopoDS_Shape to a STEP AP203 file:

#include <occutils/STEPExport.hxx>

using namespace OCCUtils;

TopoDS_Shape myShape = /* ... */;
STEP::ExportSTEP(myShape, "myShape.step");

In case you want to do it manually, it’s much more complicated to do right, but here are the basic steps to do it:

STEPControl_Writer writer;
writer.Transfer(shape, STEPControl_AsIs);
writer.Write(filename.c_str());

The full STEP::ExportSTEP code from OCCUtils is:

if (shape.IsNull () == true) {
    throw new invalid_argument("Can't export null shape to STEP");
}

STEPControl_Writer writer;
Interface_Static::SetCVal ("xstep.cascade.unit", unit.c_str());
Interface_Static::SetCVal ("write.step.unit", unit.c_str ());
Interface_Static::SetIVal ("write.step.nonmanifold", 1);
// "Transfer" = convert
IFSelect_ReturnStatus transferStatus = writer.Transfer(shape, STEPControl_AsIs);

if (transferStatus != IFSelect_RetDone) {
    throw std::logic_error ("Error while transferring shape to STEP");
}
// Write transferred structure to STEP file
IFSelect_ReturnStatus writeStatus = writer.Write(filename.c_str());

// Return previous locale
if (writeStatus != IFSelect_RetDone)
{
    throw std::logic_error ("Error while writing transferred shape to STEP file");
}