Can we make a transparent solid 3D model using text that can be imported to excel?
I have been trying to make a text based 3D model file that can be imported into excel to plot my 3d data with rotatable view. My data is (1) a distorted-sphere-like solid from set of triangular faces, and (2) set of scatter points inside and outside of the solid. To see the points inside, I need to make the solid transparent. I can't use third party software to make the 3d model, because I'm planning to make a macro for generating the 3d object file and import it to excel.
Among office supported formats, I tried STL and PLY so far, my 3d model files can be downloaded here. STL doesn't have property to make transparent so I move on to PLY. But I couldn't figure out how is the syntax for transparent faces that can be imported to excel? My PLY sample syntax for a simplex is below. I tried some variation of that syntax but couldn't find a working one. Or is transparency not supported by excel PLY import? I still hesitant to go to glTF because of the complex structure syntax, and also the float-hex-base64 little endian conversion still confuses me. So are other supported formats (OBJ, 3MF, FBX, GLB) easier and support transparency before I go to glTF if PLY doesn't work?
Any suggestions are much appreciated, thank you.
I have been trying to make a text based 3D model file that can be imported into excel to plot my 3d data with rotatable view. My data is (1) a distorted-sphere-like solid from set of triangular faces, and (2) set of scatter points inside and outside of the solid. To see the points inside, I need to make the solid transparent. I can't use third party software to make the 3d model, because I'm planning to make a macro for generating the 3d object file and import it to excel.
Among office supported formats, I tried STL and PLY so far, my 3d model files can be downloaded here. STL doesn't have property to make transparent so I move on to PLY. But I couldn't figure out how is the syntax for transparent faces that can be imported to excel? My PLY sample syntax for a simplex is below. I tried some variation of that syntax but couldn't find a working one. Or is transparency not supported by excel PLY import? I still hesitant to go to glTF because of the complex structure syntax, and also the float-hex-base64 little endian conversion still confuses me. So are other supported formats (OBJ, 3MF, FBX, GLB) easier and support transparency before I go to glTF if PLY doesn't work?
VBA Code:
ply
format ascii 1.0
element vertex 4
property float x
property float y
property float z
property uchar red
property uchar green
property uchar blue
property uchar alpha
element face 4
property list uchar int vertex_indices
end_header
0 0 0 0 0 255 50
1 0 0 0 0 255 50
0 1 0 0 0 255 50
0 0 1 0 0 255 50
3 0 1 2
3 0 2 3
3 0 3 1
3 1 2 3Any suggestions are much appreciated, thank you.
