C.27.4 Surface Mesh Primitives Macro
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### C.27.4 Surface Mesh Primitives Macro

Table C.27-4 specifies the attributes of the Surface Mesh Primitives Macro.

Table C.27-4. Surface Mesh Primitives Macro Attributes

Attribute Name | Tag | Type | Attribute Description
--- | --- | --- | ---
Long Vertex Point Index List | (0066,0043) | 2 | Contains n point indices describing Vertices. See Section C.27.4.1.
Long Edge Point Index List | (0066,0042) | 2 | Contains 2n point indices describing unconnected Edges. See Section C.27.4.1.
Long Triangle Point Index List | (0066,0041) | 2 | Contains 3n point indices describing unconnected Triangles. See Section C.27.4.1.
Triangle Strip Sequence | (0066,0026) | 2 | All Triangle Strips in this Surface. Zero or more Items shall be included in this sequence.
>Long Primitive Point Index List | (0066,0040) | 1 | See Section C.27.4.1.
Triangle Fan Sequence | (0066,0027) | 2 | All Triangle Fans in this Surface. Zero or more Items shall be included in this sequence.
>Long Primitive Point Index List | (0066,0040) | 1 | See Section C.27.4.1.
Line Sequence | (0066,0028) | 2 | All Lines in this Surface. Zero or more Items shall be included in this sequence.
>Long Primitive Point Index List | (0066,0040) | 1 | See Section C.27.4.1.
Facet Sequence | (0066,0034) | 2 | All Facets in this Surface. Each sequence Item describes one facet. Zero or more Items shall be included in this sequence.
>Long Primitive Point Index List | (0066,0040) | 1 | See Section C.27.4.1.

#### C.27.4.1 Surface Mesh Primitives Macro Attribute Descriptions

The Surface Mesh Primitives Macro uses point indices to reference the point rather than repeating point coordinates. All of the point coordinates used are specified within the Surface Points Sequence (0066,0011) of the same Surface Sequence (0066,0002) item. Point indices are described in Section C.27.2.1.1.

### Note

In a previous edition, other Attributes were used that had an OW VR and a limitation to no more than 65535 points per surface. These have been retired and replaced with new Attributes. See PS 3.3 2014a.

A Surface Mesh shall contain one or more of the following primitive types:

Vertex a single Vertex, referencing a single point

Edge an Edge, referencing two points

Line a series of connected points describing a path

Triangle a Triangle, referencing three points:

Triangle Strip a Triangle Strip with n triangles, referencing n+2 points. The first three referenced points describe the first triangle, the second, third and fourth referenced points describe the second triangle.

Triangle Fan a Triangle Fan with n triangles, referencing n+2 points. The first referenced point is in the center of the fan. Together with two subsequent referenced points, it describes a complete triangle.

Facet a closed planar polygon, referencing n points. The final point in the point index list shall be connected to the first point in the point index list to close the facet.

If the Surface Points Normals Sequence (0066,0012) is not present, the default normals can be derived from the Surface Mesh Primitives.

For the Triangle Strip, Triangle Fan and Facet the Long Primitive Point Index List (0066,0040) the ordering of the point references implies the direction of the primitive's normal: The normal points in the direction from which the referenced points are specified in a counterclockwise order. For finite volumes this shall be the outward direction.

For the Line primitive, the ordering of the point references defines a directed path, starting with the first point and ending with the last point referenced in each Long Primitive Point Index List (0066,0040).

For Primitives of type Triangle Strip or Triangle Fan, the orientation of the normals is given by the order of the points in the first triangle.

### Note

These points may be used to compute normals to the primitive. (see Section C.27.1.1.6.) The order these point references are presented in the Long Primitive Point Index List (0066,0040) will affect the direction the computed normal points. If the order of the point references is reversed, the direction of the normals will be reversed as well.

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