Developer: openNURBS
Summary: Discusses non-uniform scaling issues when using the openNURBS toolkit.

In Rhino, I can insert an instance of a block and give it a non-uniform scale (transformation). But, when I read the model, using the openNURBS toolkit, and try to “explode” the block into its geometric form, the geometry is no longer non-uniformly scaled.

Not all ON_Geometry-derived classes can be can be accurately modified with “squishy” transformations like projections, shears, an non-uniform scaling. For example, if you were to apply a non-uniform scale to a circle, which is represented by an ON_ArcCurve curve, the resulting geometry is no longer a circle.

When exploding an instance reference into its geometric form, you will want to first test to see if the the instance reference's transformation is a similarity transformation. This can be done by using ON_XForm::IsSimilarity(). See opennurbs_xform.h for more information.

If the transformation is not a similarity, then you should convert the geometry into a form that can be accurately modified. This can be done by using the ON_Geometry::MakeDeformable() override on the geometric object.

For example:

if( bNeedXform )
{
 // If not a similarity transformation, make sure geometry
 // can be deformed. Generally, this involves convert non-NURBS
 // geometry into NURBS geometry.
 if( 0 == xform.IsSimilarity() )
   geom->MakeDeformable();
 
 // Do the transformation
 geom->Transform( xform );
}

Download openNURBS sample code