I couldn’t find the solution for this online, so I solved this myself and wanted to share.
Given a (circular) arc between 0° and 180°, what non-rational, cubic Bezier curve can approximate this arc while maintaining G2 continuity at both ends?
The following image shows the start of the work to obtain it. The first equation is a simplified form of eq. 2.13 in https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=facpub
The remaining work is constructing a quadratic equation for t and solving. The curve can then be constructed by using t as the distance from the end points of the curve to the two interior control points.
Python:
cos_ = math.cos((math.pi/2.0)-arc_angle)
tan_ = math.tan(arc_angle/2.0)
sqrt_ = (1.0 + 6.0*tan_/cos_)**0.5
t = radius * cos_ * (sqrt_ - 1.0) / 3.0
The following table includes alternative ways to construct the non-rational, cubic Bezier. The Stack Overflow solution is found at
geometry - How to create circle with Bézier curves? - Stack Overflow
Arc: CentralAngle: 90.00 Radius: 1.000000
RC's Arc.ToNurbsCurve (non-rat'l): DevFromArc: 0.002727 StartRadius: 0.868325 EndRadius: 0.868325
Rebuild (preserveTans=False): DevFromArc: 0.002727 StartRadius: 0.868325 EndRadius: 0.868325
Rebuild (preserveTans=True): DevFromArc: 0.009540 StartRadius: 0.919482 EndRadius: 0.919482
Solution on Stack Overflow: DevFromArc: 0.000272 StartRadius: 1.021917 EndRadius: 1.021917
Solution by SPB: DevFromArc: 0.001963 StartRadius: 1.000000 EndRadius: 1.000000
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