[ Identification | Description | Examples | Input parameters | Links ]

The `Text2OFF` Instrument

Render a text string as 3D geometry, e.g. for export to an OFF file

Identification

Site: Templates
Author: Peter Willendrup (pkwi@fysik.dtu.dk)
Origin: DTU Physics
Date: October 2026

Description

Draws the string given in "letters" with the Text component and nothing else -
no particles are traced. Use it with mcdisplay-cad to turn a text into CAD
geometry, for instance an OFF file that can be fed back into components that
read OFF geometry (labels, logos, test shapes):

mcdisplay-cad Text2OFF.instr -t 2 -f off letters="McStas" size=0.5

Notes:
- Use --trace 2 (-t 2): with the default trace level 1 Text draws thin lines,
which carry no surfaces and give an empty OFF/STL file.
- Each stroke is a cylinder and each stroke end/joint a sphere, so the
resulting surfaces overlap - fine for display, not a closed single solid.
- Letters are drawn upper-case; characters without a glyph are left blank.

Example: letters="McStas" size=0.5 plane="XY"

Examples

(Test cases in bold)

Input parameters

Parameters in boldface are required; the others are optional.

Name	Unit	Description	Default
letters	str	Text to draw	"McStas"
size	m	Letter height	0.5
plane	str	Plane of the text: "XY", "YZ" or "XZ"	"XY"
thickness	1	Stroke diameter as fraction of size	0.1
rx	deg	Rotation of the text around the x axis	0
ry	deg	Rotation of the text around the y axis	0
rz	deg	Rotation of the text around the z axis	0

The Text2OFF Instrument

Identification

Description

Examples

Input parameters

Links

The `Text2OFF` Instrument