General Overview

Advanced Level

These commands add a new level of complexity either because of their geometric shape, or because they represent GDL as a programming language.

In 3D:

There are shape commands in this group which let you trace a spatial polygon with a base polygon to make smooth curved surfaces. Some shapes require material references in their parameter list.

By using cutting planes, polygons and shapes, you can generate complex arbitrary shapes out of simple shapes. The corresponding commands are CUTPLANE, CUTPOLY, CUTPOLYA, CUTSHAPE and CUTEND.

In 2D:

PICTURE2 POLY2_A

SPLINE2 SPLINE2_A

Flow Control and Conditional Statements

FOR NEXT

DO WHILE ENDWHILE REPEAT UNTIL

IF THEN ELSE ENDIF GOTO GOSUB RETURN END EXIT

These commands should be familiar to anyone who has ever programmed a computer, but they are basic enought that you can understand them without prior programming experience.

They let you make repetitive script parts to place several shapes with little scripting, or let you make decisions based on prior calculations.