TANKILL-G(1)

💖 NAME 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to TANKILL-G(1) from BRL-CAD — it's the tool that converts UK TANKILL triangular mesh geometry into a BRL-CAD database. slay ✨

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

tankill-g [-v] [-n] [-k] [-t _tolerance_] [-x _lvl_] [-X _lvl_] [-i _input.tankill_] [-o _output.g_]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So tankill-g takes a model in the UK TANKILL format — that's the simple triangular patch format used by the British Defence Research Agency — and turns it into a BRL-CAD .g database. TANKILL describes each object as a series of vertices, and those vertices get built into triangular facets in a strip: vertices one, two, and three; then two, three, and four; then three, four, and five; and so on 💅

By default, each object becomes a single bot(5) solid — or an nmg(5) solid if you pass -n — and it gets placed into its own region with the component code given in the TANKILL file. Then the resulting regions get collected into a hierarchy of groups based on their component codes. For example: 00XX_codes, 0XXX_codes, and a top level all group. iconic hierarchy behavior, no cap 🎀

Component code 1000 is treated as an air region. Component code 1001 is skipped by default unless -k is given. iykyk 🫶

Input is read from standard input unless -i is used, and output is written to tankill.g unless -o is used.

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -v — Verbose output; report each component, solid, region, and group as it is created. main character energy for your terminal ✨
• -n — Write each object as an nmg(5) solid instead of the default bot(5) solid.
• -k — Keep components with id 1001. These are normally skipped as non-physical.
• -t tolerance — Minimum distance, in millimeters, below which two vertices are treated as the same vertex. The default is 0.0005.
• -x lvl — Set the librt debug flag to the given hexadecimal value.
• -X lvl — Set the NMG debug flag to the given hexadecimal value.
• -i input.tankill — Read the TANKILL model from the named file instead of standard input.
• -o output.g — Write the BRL-CAD database to the named file instead of tankill.g.

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🧪 EXAMPLES 🧪

🌸 Example 1. Convert a TANKILL model and inspect the result

tankill-g -t 0.01 -i tank.tankill -o tank.g
mged tank.g 'tops'

Convert tank.tankill into tank.g, merging vertices within 0.01 mm of each other, then list the top-level objects of the new database — such as the all group — with mged(1). cute little pipeline moment 💚

🦋 Example 2. Pipe TANKILL data through a filter and keep 1001 components as NMGs

gunzip -c tank.tankill.gz | tankill-g -n -k -o tank.g

Read gzip-compressed TANKILL data from standard input, retain the normally skipped component code 1001, and write nmg(5) solids to tank.g. filtered, kept, and converted — obsessed 💖

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

Go hang out with the related crew: brlcad(1), mged(1), fast4-g(1), bot(5), and nmg(5).

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

BRL-CAD Team 🫶

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🌈 COPYRIGHT 🌈

This software is Copyright (c) 1993-2026 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.

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Bye bestie 💅 — this is the BRL-CAD source/version of TANKILL-G(1), and the footer has no date stamped on it, so that's the timestamp situation 🫶✨