Electrical Design Software | Elecdes Design Suite by Scada Systems Ltd

Polyface Mesh and 3D Polylines

3D Polylines

A Polyline is an AutoCAD graphic entity which is best explained as a set of one or more "special" line segments. The segments are "special" for two reasons.

  • They are not recognised, by AutoCAD, as simple "line segment" entities.

  • They have more functionality than simple "line segment" entities. e.g. they can have a visible THICKNESS.

A single polyline entity can be composed of multiple segments. i.e. when you edit [e.g. erase] a polyline, you edit all of its segments with one operation.

e.g. You can create a rectangle with a single polyline, composed of 4 segments.

A 3D polyline is a "special" AutoCAD polyline used for creating 3D objects.

Polygon mesh

A polygon mesh is a single entity wireframe representation of a 3D object e.g. a sphere.

It is constructed with the "special" segments used in 3D polyline construction.

Polyface mesh

A polyface mesh is a single entity wireframe representation of a 3D object e.g. a sphere.

It is constructed with the "special" segments used in 3D polyline construction.

  • It has the added property of having FACES. i.e. when a HIDE, SHADE or RENDER is done faces are regarded as OPAQUE [NOT TRANSPARENT].