Here is an excellent link, from which to get a list of 3D coordinates for points on a unit sphere.

https://sites.google.com/site/hispeedpackets/Home/optimalorderings

After clicking on the link, there are two types of points that can be obtained.
1. Optimally Ordered Antipodally Symmetric Point Set Generator (click on "click here" to run the java program launch.jnlp)
2. Optimally Ordered Non-Antipodally Symmetric Point Set Generator (click on "click here" to run the java program launch1.jnlp)



Select the number of points desired. For Antipodal, half a sphere set is generated. For Non-Antipodal, a full sphere set is generated.

Hit "Get Point Set"

Hi-Light the points, and do control-V to save a text file. (I paste into Notepad++) (Windows PC)

Open MoI, and run the script "ImportPointFile" (I am using the revised version.)
The point lists are TAB delimited.

Perhaps someone would try it out on a Mac, and give instructions...

Alternatively, there are also two Java Jar files, and a link to a Java program, so a person could generate the points on their own computer.
(Have not tried to do this.)

There is some use of these for medical MRI...

This appears to be a newer Google site...There seems to be an older site with older program versions...

These could probably be scripted for MoI...

Hi Ben,

i made of both apps each a standalone vers. with the JarBundler for OSX, but i found the results not
convincing. When creating for example 364 points, the points file is written, but nothing loads into
MoI (with tab settings) and when using for example 1222 points i have not a result like evenly
distributed points on a sphere surface.

Regards
Stefan

Perhaps try ImportPointFile script with this text file?

I tried you points file and this is my result:



Regards
Stefan

Does ImportPointsFile.js work with Mac OSX?
Yes, according to this post:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5124.1

Here is the discussion on the the updated version, which added multiple spaces delimiters:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4381.7
........EDIT See Post 11 for updated point import file location, & updated save.....

How about a really simple file like the attached text file?

Well,

Michael has updated this and the export script for OSX a while ago.

Regards
Stefan

Edited post above.
How does the simple text file, TestPointImportFile2.txt, attached there, import?
I do not have a Mac.

Did a google search for "tab delimited text file osx", where people had (other) problems with
tab delimited... I know next to nothing about Max OSX. :-)

Attached is a comma delimited version to try:

Thanks for your help!

I tried both of your new examples and they both import fine and show the proper result.

I also converted your original 50 points file again with commas instead of tabs and it
showed also the same bad result.

Maybe Michael, or someone else with a Mac can load the 50 points file and
verify if the result is properly shown, from the 50 points file...

Regards
Stefan

Good idea.

Is there a problem with16 decimal digits, or with the E notation?

Hi Stefan,

> Maybe Michael, or someone else with a Mac can load the 50 points file and
> verify if the result is properly shown, from the 50 points file...

I tested the file Antipodal50.txt from above on my Mac here and it seems to give what looks like the proper result:




I used the ImportPointsFile from here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5124.2

And set delimiter to Tabs, and the points seem to be arranged in the expected kind of dome form.

I did not edit or change the file itself...

- Michael

Hi Michael,

thanks for trying it out! It's very strange that i don't get the same results...
Maybe when i have time tomorrow i will create an own points file
generated from some generic polygon mesh and see what happens.

Best regards
Stefan

Hi Stefan is there some way that the text file is getting changed when you download it? Are you opening it in a text editor after downloading it or something similar to that?

Do you have any special downloader mechanism that you are using? I just used Safari to download the file to my desktop and it seemed to work fine for me over here.

- Michael

Hi Stefan, also is your system locale set to something that uses the comma character as the decimal point separator? Maybe there is some issue with that, although you did say that other text files worked ok for you, is that right?

- Michael

Hi Michael,

i downloaded the file also with Safari and have no other downloader used. About the system locale i'm not
quite sure, i changed terminal a while ago to ISO Latin 9 instead of UTF-8 for an older email client under
Terminal. But i switched it back now and it displays still the same in MoI. However i also renamed the
file with an .asc extension and loaded it in Meshlab and there it displays the point fine. The other both
files from Ben worked fine.

Regards
Stefan

Hi Michael,

I just checked and this is my locale settings:



Regards
Stefan

Hi Michael,

i switched my locale settings as a test to United States and now MoI displays Ben's 50points file properly.
I must admit i never had this problem before on my Mac.



Regards
Stefan

Hi Stefan, the locale can have an impact on how numbers are parsed with certain kinds of parsing functions.

Somewhere in there is a bug that numbers are being parsed with a locale-specific handler when it should not be.

Thank you for posting your settings and for testing with altered locale to narrow down the problem, that should let me reproduce it over here and investigate a fix.

- Michael

It is kind of weird that other files did work ok for you though. Anyway tomorrow I will investigate and try to see what's going on there.

- Michael

.Deleted irrelevant post.