How to make a fractal-top prism

[FudgeFlakeNut]

   

How would one make a prism with the top and bottom faces a 2D fractal such as the Dragon, Sierpinski Triangle or Terdragon? I am making something that uses a combination of prisms in those shapes.

[Garth Thornton]

It depends on the fractal. For a shape with no filled interior, such as the Sierpinski triangle, you can do it in XD with extrusion.
Starting with the Sierpinski, add a holon, set all scales to 100, click the Free Holon and Hide Parent Shape buttons, and use the Extrudez metamorph in Local, adjusting Amount for the height.
If you have a fractal shape that already fills in the spaces solidly, that should work too, though it could be slow as it will get a solid prism, not a hollow one.
If the shape is empty in the interior, you can extrude the outline but I don't know any direct way to get flat top and bottom. If you instead add one or more prisms to be iterated you may be able to fill the shape but not with constant height.

[Garth Thornton]

XD currently allows Extrudez to make a triangular prism. I'm experimenting with future options. The limitation is that the method of closing the top converges towards the center, which is only clean for concave shapes. Otherwise you get extra flat areas outside the shape. Here is an example viewed from underneath.
   

[FudgeFlakeNut]

XD currently allows Extrudez to make a triangular prism. I'm experimenting with future options. The limitation is that the method of closing the top converges towards the center, which is only clean for concave shapes. Otherwise you get extra flat areas outside the shape. Here is an example viewed from underneath.

Hi, I'm back. I am just getting started with XdX, and am again making fractal-top prisims. Is the method for making a prism any different than what you described earlier for XD?

[Garth Thornton]

The method is similar, except that if you are extruding a fractal or any shape made of multiple holons, instead of a free holon and hiding the parent shape, you put the Extrude Z metamorph on the group holon.

There is still no way to close the top or bottom that doesn't just converge to the center, for an otherwise unfilled outline.

[FudgeFlakeNut]

The method is similar, except that if you are extruding a fractal or any shape made of multiple holons, instead of a free holon and hiding the parent shape, you put the Extrude Z metamorph on the group holon.

There is still no way to close the top or bottom that doesn't just converge to the center, for an otherwise unfilled outline.

Put the metamorph on the group holon and... it worked! Thanks. I'll post to the forum when I have some completed works, I'm exploring ways to show off the nested structure of self-similar regions of 2d fractals using 3d.  

[Garth Thornton]

Great result!