Snowflake Generator

About

The Snowflake generator is a program that generates 3D Snowflakes meshes using a hexagonal cellular automata.
Snowflakes can be exported in OBJ and STL file formats. It also supports an experimental SVG export.

This program is available in the Donors version of Incendia.

Controls

Generator Type

This control let you select the snowflake generator type:

• Hexagonal, The initial seed and the automaton are hexagonal.
• Triangular, The initial seed and the automaton are triangular.
• Random at init, The seed is randomly chosen between the triangular and the hexagonal configuration.
• Random while running, The automaton type varies randomly between the hexagonal and the triangular configuration while running.

Play Pause Buttons

These buttons are for pausing and resuming the snowflake generation. Use them if you plan to export the snowflake with different export parameters.

New Snowflake

This button erases the previous snowflake and generates a new one.

Export Options

The following buttons and controls let you define the various parameters for the snowflake mesh export.

Extrusions

This control let you define the values of the snowflake extrusions. The parameters are:

• Wall Length, Defines the thickness of the snowflake, that is, the distance between both faces of the snowflake.
• Surface Height, Defines how much extruded is the snowflake face. A value of 0 will produce a flat snowflake face.

Extrusion Type

This control defines the function that will be applied to the values of the cell when it is converted to a mesh. The applied functions changes the snowflake morphology. The functions are:

• Cell value, the current value of the cell is used.
• Gradient (Cell), a gradient function is applied to the cell value.
• Gradient Fold, like gradient (cell), but with a fold limit applied.
• Exp (Cell), An exponential function is applied to the cell value.
• Average (Cells), The cell value is averaged with the neighbor cells.
• Average Fold, Like the average cells, but with a fold limit applied.
• Average Gradient Fold, The cell value is averaged with the neighbor cells, then a gradient is applied and the final result has a fold limit.
• Sin (Cell), A sine function is applied to the cell value.
• Divide, the cell value is the result of current cell between the neighbor cells.

Snowflake Smooth

This option smooth the snowflake for exporting. The snowflake will look like if it has melted.

STL Export

This button export the current snoflake to the STL format. This format can be used on Incendia and it also is compatible with most 3D printers.

OBJ Export

This button export the snowflake to a OBJ formated mesh, that can be imported in most 3D graphic programs.

SVG Export

This is an experimental 2D SVG export of the snowflake. The SVG export options are:

• Triangles Only, The snowflake is exported as a set of solid filled triangles.
• Lines Only, Instead of triangles, the snowflake is exported as lines.
• Both, The snowflake is exported in both format, triangles and lines.

You can open the SVG file on graphic programs such as Inkscape or in a Web browser.

Example Models