uniform generation of 3D points on cylinder/cone

Question

I wish to randomly and uniformly generate points on a cylinder and a cone (separately). The cylinder is defined by its center, its radius and height. Same specifications for the cone. I am able to get the bounding box for each shape so I was thinking of generating points within the bounding box. However, I'm not sure how to project them onto the cylinder/cone or if this is the best idea.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Answer 1

The cylinder case is trivial. If the cylinder of radius r > 0 and height h > 0 is the image of (x, y, z) = (r cos φ, r sin φ, z) on φ ∈ [0, 2π[ and z ∈ [-h/2, h/2], then simply choose φ and z randomly on these intervals. Of course one can simply parametrise the cone as well using the standard parametrisation, but then the area element will not be constant on the parameter plane, and so the distribution of points will not be random. Thus you need to find a different parametrisation. I have discussed this topic in detail for a sphere at my AlgoSim site.