pyshp Create Multipatch cube

Question

I am trying to create a Multipatch Shapefile in the shape of a cube. I am using pyshp library and could create one face as a 3D Polygon as described in the wiki of pyshp (Creating 3D Polygons). However, I am not able to create a multipatch geometry, probably because I do not use the right order of coordinates or something like that. Here is my Code using the coordinate order described by esri (Link, doc Page 35):

w = shapefile.Writer(shapeType=shapefile.MULTIPATCH)
w.poly(parts=[[[0,0,0] , [0,0,1] , [0,1,1] , [0,0,0]] , [[0,0,0] , [1,0,0] , [1,1,0] , [0,0,0]],
        [[0,1,0] , [0,1,1] , [0,0,0] , [0,1,0]] , [[0,0,0] , [0,1,1] , [0,0,1] ,[0,0,0]],
        [[1,1,0] , [0,1,1] , [0,1,0] ,[1,1,0]], [[1,1,0] , [1,1,1] , [0,1,1]] ,
        [[1,0,0] , [1,1,1] , [1,1,0] ,[1,0,0]], [[1,0,0] , [1,0,1] , [1,1,1]] ,
        [[0,0,0] , [0,0,1] , [1,0,0] ,[0,0,0]], [[1,0,0] , [0,0,1] , [1,0,1]] ,
        [[0,0,1] , [0,1,1] , [1,1,1] ,[0,0,1]], [[0,0,1] , [1,1,1] , [1,0,1]]], shapeType=31)
w.field("NAME")
w.record("PolyZTest")
w.save("shapefiles/test/MyPolyS")

What am I doing wrong? Is the usage of poly() wrong?

Answer 1

You're close - just a few minor issues.

Multipatch shapefiles need a specialized type for each part which can be:

VALUE  PART TYPE
0      Triangle Strip
1      Triangle Fan
2      Outer Ring
3      Inner Ring
4      First Ring
5      Ring

In pyshp, this is defined in your parts array using the array "partTypes"

All polygons must move in clockwise order which I didn't double-check in your example. I created my own coordinates to be sure and used the rest of your code verbatim to create a working cube:

import shapefile

w = shapefile.Writer(shapeType=shapefile.MULTIPATCH)
w.poly(parts=[
[[0,0,0], [0,1,0], [0,1,1], [0,0,1], [0,0,0]],
[[0,0,0], [0,0,1], [1,0,1], [1,0,0], [0,0,0]],
[[1,1,0], [1,1,1], [0,1,1], [0,1,0], [1,1,0]],
[[1,0,0], [1,0,1], [1,1,1], [1,1,0], [1,0,0]],
[[0,0,1], [0,1,1], [1,1,1], [1,0,1], [0,0,1]],
[[0,0,0], [0,1,0], [1,1,0], [1,0,0], [0,0,0]]
], 
        partTypes=[5,5,5,5,5,5],
        shapeType=31)
w.field("NAME")
w.record("PolyZTest")
w.save("MyPolyS")

Here is what the above output looks like in Esri ArcScence: