Creating an Arc3D object in Java

Question

I will be working with an application that will use 3D graphics in Java and I am pretty sure we'll need an arc object in 3D. I've seen some proposed methods on how to do that, one of which entailed creating an Arc2D object and then rotating it in 3D. Not quite sure how to do that because I couldn't find how to rotate a plane in Java 3D, but I imagine I need to use the javax.media.j3d.J3DGraphics2D object.

Regardless, I am wondering if it is worth my time to create an Arc3D object. It will make everyone's life much easier, it makes more sense to simply have an arc in 3D than create an entire drawing plane and then rotating it, and overall it would be a contribution to Java programmers.

My questions are, from your experience, how long does it take to create a new class that works in an existing API? and where would I start? I tried looking at the Graphics, Graphics2D, and Arc2D documentations and couldn't find where the actual drawing takes place so I can see how to do the same in 3D.

Any help?

Answer 1

The 'AWT Shape Extruder' API supports extruding of an Arc2D object in Java 3D. Download is available here: http://www.interactivemesh.org/testspace/awtshapeextruder.html