# Papervision 3D -- drawing abstract shapes?
**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/papervision-3d-drawing-abstract-shapes/261028
**Category:** flash
**Created:** [May 22, 2008, 6:51am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/papervision-3d-drawing-abstract-shapes/261028 "2008-05-22T06:51:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Anogar](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Anogar)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2008, 6:51am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/papervision-3d-drawing-abstract-shapes/261028/1 "2008-05-22T06:51:07Z")
I’m looking to make some abstract shapes in PV3D – specifically an arrow. This seems silly, but I can’t seem to hunt down documentation on drawing shapes from point to point. I guess I can just make the item in a 3D program and use a DAE model, but that seems like a bit of overkill for a simple item like an arrow.
Am I totally overlooking something, or should I just go ahead and pull in a 3D model? (Is there some… drawTo(x, y, z) functionality?)
Something like this (just a dirty sketchup):
Update:
I got this working with a DAE file, but it still seems a tad silly, heh.
Update 2:
Alright, got this working well with a DAE model, but there’s some significant clipping issues on rotation, the tris are showing. I tried paring the whole thing down to quads without seeing an improvement in visual performance. Hrm. :-/
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### Author:  [@skineh](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/skineh)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2008, 6:10pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/papervision-3d-drawing-abstract-shapes/261028/2 "2008-05-22T18:10:37Z")
Shoot, I played around with making my own geometry in PV3D (great white) before, but it’s been awhile so I’m sketchy on the specifics. I used Triangle3D to build the individual faces (the coords grabbed from an array I’d bring in via XML), then pushed them all into a single DisplayObject3D. I can try digging up some of the source for it when I’m home again and have a chance, but hopefully that’ll put you in the right direction. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Anogar](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Anogar)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/papervision-3d-drawing-abstract-shapes/261028/3 "2008-05-22T19:29:46Z")
That’s very helpful, thanks. The collada objects were kind of being a performance drain.
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### Author:  [@prototype](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/prototype)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/papervision-3d-drawing-abstract-shapes/261028/4 "2008-05-24T17:15:28Z")
See if this provides any help:
[http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/simple3d/](http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/simple3d/)
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### Author:  [@Anogar](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Anogar)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 5:27pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/papervision-3d-drawing-abstract-shapes/261028/5 "2008-06-05T17:27:12Z")
> [@jensa;2337201](#):
>
> @Anogar Have you looked at Away3D? They’ve solved the clipping issues by adding three possible render modes: BASIC, CORRECT\_Z\_ORDER and INTERSECTING\_OBJECTS. I’m just doing a similar thing with Away 🙂
I haven’t yet, but I certainly plan to. For this project I’m too far into the development with PV3D to switch, but I always like to try all the options. Keep us updated with how you like it. 🙂