Hello, any ideas on how to extract a centerline from a tube. More specifically a tube with curvature and taper. Not sure the best approach for something like this.

First thought I have is maybe extract an edge running the length of the tube. For each point along the edge, find the vectors of connected edges, do a cross product to get a vector facing towards the opposite side of the tube. Ray the points across and then divide the distance of the ray in half for center points. Seems a bit overcomplicated. Wondering if there's something simpler? Thanks in advance.

Labs straight skeleton is general purpose but slow.

Aslak posted a faster method for tubes here:

https://youtu.be/F86-TDRzjnc [youtu.be]

Oh this is great. Way easier than what I was thinking. Thanks so very much.

This video also have a lot of interesting solutions:

Oh wow, this is great. Love seeing this and different solutions. Very clever stuff there.

The Laplacian can also be used to produce a straight skeleton, with similar results to Labs Straight Skeleton but much faster:

https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/101499/ [www.sidefx.com]