Tom's POVRay Ink Pen

The picture above was made with this demo POV file and this pen object POV file

About this Object

This ink pen is based on a real pen, which is very popular, and found in most offices. The cap and pen are separate objects; put together in their default orientation, the pen is "closed". The cap is particularly nice, and can be rendered well from any direction. The "clip" of the cap is rounded on the inside, and tapers to a point, and also tapers away from the pen, just like the real object.

Specs

The origin goes through the central axis of the pen, not the bottom edge. It must be translated up a bit to appear to rest on a surface at Y=0.

The pen shaft is 0.14 units in diameter. The cap is 0.18 units in diameter, the little ridge is 0.197 units in diameter, and the clip extends up to 0.26 units above the central axis. The clip faces up in it's initial position -- a rotation of 130 (or so) degrees about the x axis will position the clip such that it seems to be resting on the same surface as the cap itself.

The origin lies at the writing end of the pen cylinder -- this can be seen in the uncapped pen above which is translated off the origin but still on the Z axis. The writing tip extends past the origin 0.73 units in the negative X direction, and the rest of the pen shaft extends 4 and 7/8 units in the positive X direction.

The origin seems to go arbitrarily through the middle of the pen cap, however when the pen and cap are rendered together in their default positions, the pen is properly closed. The cap extends almost 1 and 3/16 inches past the origin in -X (towards the top of the cap), and the "clip" part of the cap extends 1.275 units in the positive X direction. Units correspond to inches in the original object.

Problems and Future Work

This ballpoint pen has no ball point. Easy to fix, but I'm lazy. The text is flat, and might look odd under really close examination.

Copyright

This web page, the associated image(s), and POV files are all copyright 2004 by Thomas A. Fine (that's me!). I hereby grant free distribution rights, including for-profit uses, in full or in part, provided only that copyright notices are preserved and due credit is given.

WARNING: This POV object is based on a real object. I'm not aware of any legal issues related to the design of that real object. It is the user's responsibility to cover your ass.


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