PICKET_FENCE(1)

💖 PICKET_FENCE(1) 💖

okay bestie, grab a lil snack because this is a page from the BRL-CAD manual and it's literally about building fences out of math. yes. fences. out of math. let's go 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

picket_fence — the tool that makes you a whole BRL-CAD database full of picket fence, following 3D waypoints like a little GPS for carpentry 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

picket_fence filename prefix height spacing [-r] x0 y0 z0 ... xn yn zn

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

So picket_fence generates a BRL-CAD geometry database — that's your filename — and inside it? a picket fence. iconic. 🏡✨

Every single dimension is in millimeters, no cap. And the fence path comes from two or more 3D coordinate waypoints. For each consecutive pair of waypoints, picket_fence builds a fence section between them, complete with posts, pickets, and two horizontal backing rails. the whole package, bestie 🫶

Here's the cute part — each section gets built at the origin first, with the backing boards in the negative x halfspace and the pickets in the positive x halfspace, and then it gets rotated and translated into place. so if you wanna enclose an area with the pickets facing outward, specify your waypoints in counter-clockwise order. that's the vibe check right there 💫

Now the numbers, and these matter:

• height — the overall fence height, and it must be positive. no zero, no negatives, we don't do that here 🙅‍♀️
• spacing — the gap between adjacent pickets, and it must be non-negative.

All the generated objects get named using prefix, and the top-level assembly is prefix*fence.c*. Result can be viewed and edited with mged(1). slay 👑

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -r — adds a round post (a cylinder) at each waypoint, on top of the default square posts. one lil catch though: when this flag is present it must appear immediately after the spacing argument and before the first coordinate. order matters, don't test it 😭

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

⭐ Example 1. A single straight fence run

picket_fence fence.g Imy 2000 15 0 0 0 100 6000 0

Creates a fence two meters high and roughly six meters long, with fifteen millimeter gaps between pickets, running from the origin to (100, 6000, 0). Object names are prefixed with "Imy", so the assembly is named "Imyfence.c". cute name, cute fence 💖

⭐ Example 2. An enclosed yard with round posts

picket_fence yard.g yd 1200 10 -r 0 0 0 5000 0 0 5000 5000 0 0 5000 0 0 0 0

Builds a closed, square fence that's 1.2 meters high with round posts at every corner. The waypoints are listed counter-clockwise and the loop is closed by repeating the starting point, so the pickets face outward. Render the result with rt(1) or inspect it interactively in mged(1). main character fence energy fr fr 🔥

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

brlcad(1), fence(1), mged(1), rt(1)

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

BRL-CAD Team

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💜 COPYRIGHT 💜

This software is Copyright (c) 1989-2026 by the United States Government as represented by U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

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🍓 BUG REPORTS 🍓

Reports of bugs or problems should be submitted via electronic mail to devs@brlcad.org

ngl if something's broken, tell the devs — that's the whole point of the address 💌

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okay that's the whole page bestie, go build a fence 🧚💫

— this lil manual page is from BRL-CAD (the PICKET_FENCE(1) page), so like, credit where credit's due, mwah 💅🌸