Determine Normal Direction of Br

Demonstrates how to determine the normal direction of a Brep face at a specified point.

partial class Examples
{
  public static Result DetermineNormalDirectionOfBrepFace(RhinoDoc doc)
  {
    // select a surface
    var gs = new GetObject();
    gs.SetCommandPrompt("select surface");
    gs.GeometryFilter = ObjectType.Surface;
    gs.DisablePreSelect();
    gs.SubObjectSelect = false;
    gs.Get();
    if (gs.CommandResult() != Result.Success)
      return gs.CommandResult();
    // get the selected face
    var face = gs.Object(0).Face();
    if (face == null)
      return Result.Failure;

    // pick a point on the surface.  Constain
    // picking to the face.
    var gp = new GetPoint();
    gp.SetCommandPrompt("select point on surface");
    gp.Constrain(face, false);
    gp.Get();
    if (gp.CommandResult() != Result.Success)
      return gp.CommandResult();

    // get the parameters of the point on the
    // surface that is clesest to gp.Point()
    double u, v;
    if (face.ClosestPoint(gp.Point(), out u, out v))
    {
      var direction = face.NormalAt(u, v);
      if (face.OrientationIsReversed)
        direction.Reverse();
      RhinoApp.WriteLine(
        string.Format(
          "Surface normal at uv({0:f},{1:f}) = ({2:f},{3:f},{4:f})",
          u, v, direction.X, direction.Y, direction.Z));
    }
    return Result.Success;
  }
}