Node: Polyhedron Getstart, Previous: Cuboid Getstart, Up: Solid Figures



Polyhedron

The class Polyhedron is meant for use only as a base class; no objects of type Polyhedron should be declared. Instead, there is a class for each of the different drawable polyhedra. Currently, 3DLDF defines only three: Tetrahedron, Dodecahedron, and Icosahedron. There's no need for a Cube class, because cubes can be drawn using Cuboid (see Cuboid Getstart).

Polyhedra have a high priority in my plans for 3DLDF. I intend to add Octahedron soon, which will complete the set of regular Platonic polyhedra. Then I will begin adding the semi-regular Archimedean polyhedra, and their duals.

The constructors for the classes derived from Polyhedron follow the pattern familiar from the classes already described. The constructors for the classes described below have identical arguments: First, a Point specifying the center, then a real for the diameter of the surrounding circle (Umkreis, in German) of one of its polygonal faces, followed by three real arguments for the angles of rotation about the main axes.