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Is there a way to get at the data points that form shapes generated by Mathematica's native commands such as Sphere, Cylinder or Cone?

Usually 3D graphics objects like these can be generated using ParametricPlot3D, and the resulting -Graphics- object can be perused for data points used by the GraphicsComplex command to generate the surfaces.

The previously named native commands however seem to be much lighter computationally, and it would be great if these objects could be addressed directly at their constituent data points in order to be able to build complex geometries from simple components.

amarojrs
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    I think the answer is "no",but you could try deleting this question and posting it here http://mathematica.stackexchange.com/questions,where it'll receive much more attention – Dr. belisarius Feb 21 '14 at 13:57
  • The answer is not because all these *represent* perfect spheres, cylinders, cones. Whatever you generate using plotting functions is just an approximation. It is true that when rendered on screen, some sort of approximation needs to be used, but the rendering is a separate step that might be done in various ways, and might change with versions (or rendering methods). The expression `Sphere[]` still represents a perfect sphere, not an approximation to a sphere. – Szabolcs Feb 21 '14 at 18:47
  • I use `Sphere[]` for data points like this: `Translate[Sphere[], points]`, where `points` the list of 3D data points. – Szabolcs Feb 21 '14 at 18:48
  • You could always set about writing a substitute function that converts Sphere, ( and the other primatives) into a polygon surface mesh. Potentially an interesting question..but better on mma.se.com – agentp Feb 21 '14 at 19:24

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