Geometry Group #

Geometry groups are used to bundle geometries and populate the scene for ray-tracing instructions. They can be instantiated multiple times using transformations and act differently in different analyses depending on their intersection type.

Name#

The name of a geometry group serve as a unique identifier within the Cyclops for organizing and filtering analysis results. These names must be unique when added to a scene to prevent conflicts, as a duplicate name would cause one geometry group to overwrite another. Consequently, assigning distinct names to each geometry group is essential for proper scene management.

Geometry#

A geometry group can contain several geometries and any changes made to the group's properties will apply to all the geometries in it, as if they were a single unit.

Visibility Masks#

Visibility masks determine the geometry group visibility as it is hit by different kind of rays. Several visibility masks can be assigned to one geometry group and define the final visibility of each instance of the geometry group.

Transforms#

By applying multiple transforms, a geometry group can be replicated in various places and sizes. This is an efficient way to duplicate geometry within a scene without copying the underlying data and thereby save both analysis time and memory space.

Intersection Type#

The intersection type affects analyses that need to differentiate between target and obstruction geometries. More information can be found in the sunlight obstruction analysis page.