Shapes: Blocks

A block shape is a rectangular cuboid with the following properties:

Size

The block's extent in its local $\Sxyz$ axes. One corner of the block is at the origin, $(0,0,0)$; the diagonally-opposite corner is given by the $(x,y,z)$ components of size.

Orientation

This consists of three rotation angles, rotation 1, 2 and 3, defining the block's orientation, $\Sxyz$, relative to the connection axes, $\Cxyz$. $\Sxyz$ is calculated by first aligning the block with $\Cxyz$, such that $\Sxyz = \Cxyz$. Rotation 1 is applied about $\vec{S}_x (=\vec{C}_x)$, followed by rotation 2 about the new $\vec{S}_y$ direction, and finally rotation 3 about the new (and final) $\vec{S}_z$ direction.

The remaining block data are common to all geometric shapes and are described under the shape data and drawing topics.