curve.tangentAtLength(length [, opt])
Return a line that is tangent to the curve at a point that lies length
away from the beginning of the curve.
If negative length
is provided, the algorithm starts looking from the end of the curve. If length
is higher than curve length, a line tangent to the closest curve endpoint is returned instead.
The tangent line starts at the specified point. The direction from start
to end
is the same as the direction of the curve at the specified point.
If the control points of the curve all lie at the same coordinates, null
is returned (it is impossible to determine the slope of a point). The curve.isDifferentiable()
function may be used in advance to determine whether tangents can exist for a given curve.
The curve is first subdivided, according to opt.precision
(refer to curve.length()
documentation for more information about precision and curve flattening). Then, one subdivision is identified which contains the point at length
. A binary search is then performed on that subdivision, until a curve is found whose endpoint lies within opt.precision
away from length
. That endpoint is used as the start of the tangent line.
The default value for opt.precision
is 3; this corresponds to maximum observed error of 0.1%.
The opt.subdivisions
property may be specified, directly providing an array of pre-computed curve subdivisions from which to calculate curve length. Use the curve.getSubdivisions()
function to obtain an array of curve subdivisions. The opt.precision
property is still necessary, however; it determines the precision of the point search algorithm.