#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;
########the real testing begins here###################

my (@p, $file, $output_file, $data, $OUTPUT, $key, $points, $i);

###############open file for reading
$file = <~/thesis/handmodel/testtext.txt>;
open(DATA, "<$file");
$data = join '', <DATA>;
close(DATA);


############### parse input

my @points;
while ($data =~ /.*?(Coordinate).*?point \[(.*?)\]/gs){
    $key=$1; $points=$2;
    print "key is $key\n";
    @p = $points =~ /(-?\d+\.\d+)/g;
    #print "@p";
    #print "$p[1]\n";
    #my @points;
    for ($i=0; $i < $#p; $i += 3){
    push @points, [$p[$i],$p[$i+1],$p[$i+2], 1];
    }
    #print {$OUTPUT} Dumper(\@points);
    print "$#points\n";
    #@points = (); #clear variable
    
}

################open file for output
$output_file = <~/thesis/handmodel/testpoints.cpp>;
open($OUTPUT, ">$output_file") or die "Can't open $output_file for wri
+ting: $!";

print {$OUTPUT} "\/\/Author: Phoenix\n";
print {$OUTPUT} "\/\/Description : Homogeneous coordinate values for h
+and model\n";
print {$OUTPUT} "\/\/\t $output_file 31 March 2006 \n\n";
print {$OUTPUT} "#ifndef POINTS_HPP\n";
print {$OUTPUT} "#define POINTS_HPP\n\n";
print {$OUTPUT} "const double points\[$#points\]\[4\] = \{\n";

for my $j ( 0 .. $#points){
    my $k=0;
    print {$OUTPUT}"\t\{$points[$j][$k],$points[$j][$k+1], $points[$j]
+[$k+2], 1\}" ;
    if ($j != $#points){
    print {$OUTPUT} ",\n";
    }
    else {
    print{$OUTPUT} "\n\};\n\n#endif";
    }

}
close($OUTPUT);
[download]

not the best code but it works like I said.
I actually wrote 3 similar scripts to get all the data I want from the vrml file. I got stuck trying to do it in 1 script using associative arrays. I could store stuff in the array but had problems trying to access the data later. so I stuck to normal arrays. mm. for fun. here's sample data I used:

geometry IndexedFaceSet {
            coord
            Coordinate {
                point [  265.185 -166.225 -510.375,
                     264.529 -166.901 -513.43,
                     269.321 -166.425 -510.918,
                     271.021 -166.956 -513.279,
                     271.223 -167.21 -514.637,
                     272.77 -166.984 -514.019,
                     270.767 -167.555 -516.859,
                     268.668 -167.344 -515.143,
                     272.884 -167.285 -515.945,
                     266.267 -167.539 -516.835,
                     267.193 -167.766 -518.544,
                     272.686 -167.438 -517.418,
                     269.214 -167.83 -519.399,
                     274.761 -166.996 -515.928,
                     275.801 -166.946 -519.035,
                     264.372 -167.451 -517.076,
                     266.21 -167.785 -519.148,
                     263.801 -167.367 -516.587,
                     269.266 -167.919 -521.463,
                     271.322 -167.821 -522.477,
                     266.656 -168.197 -528.597,
                     269.644 -168.342 -527.906,
                     267.007 -167.981 -524.961,
                     264.07 -167.493 -517.639,
                     263.244 -167.65 -520.707,
                     267.726 -167.91 -521.09,
                     264.468 -167.739 -523.493]
                  }

          colorPerVertex FALSE
            normal
            Normal {
                vector [  0.283327 0.589642 -0.756338,
                     0.290016 0.584234 -0.757999,
                     0.290674 0.591917 -0.75176,
                     0.294405 0.586667 -0.754418,
                     0.277385 0.586313 -0.761114,
                     0.281287 0.573944 -0.769069,
                     0.280843 0.489526 -0.825525,
                     0.292972 0.558267 -0.776212,
                     0.28304 0.543153 -0.790489,
                     0.31842 0.562395 -0.763099,
                     0.418496 0.521052 -0.743885,
                     0.438261 0.572811 -0.692687,
                     0.0414296 0.210334 -0.976751,
                     0.144261 0.318093 -0.937019,
                     -0.169459 0.196165 -0.965817,
                     0.284861 0.187786 -0.939995,
                     0.280689 0.367447 -0.886677,
                     0.228712 0.200214 -0.952683,
                     0.235995 0.0929388 -0.9673,
                     0.240012 0.152475 -0.958721,
                     0.252035 0.319933 -0.913302,
                     0.346045 0.0724201 -0.935419,
                     0.342717 0.0627962 -0.937338,
                     0.331245 0.114564 -0.936564,
                     0.283689 0.259392 -0.923167,
                     0.383508 0.0867687 -0.919453,
                     0.200092 0.0675543 -0.977445,
                     0.215463 0.198183 -0.95619,
                     0.213162 0.0833883 -0.973452,
                     0.258661 0.478244 -0.839272,
                     0.350493 0.430564 -0.831726,
                     0.28955 0.31473 -0.903939,
                     0.370349 0.251505 -0.894196,
                     0.267697 0.593232 -0.759219,
                     0.269102 0.564528 -0.780315,
                     0.512169 0.531879 -0.674379 ]
            }
            coordIndex [0, 1, 2, -1,
                    2, 1, 3, -1,
                    4, 5, 1, -1,
                    6, 7, 8, -1,
                    9, 10, 11, -1,
                    12, 13, 14, -1,
                    15, 16, 17, -1,
                    18, 19, 15, -1,
                    16, 20, 17, -1,
                    21, 22, 23, -1,
                    23, 24, 19, -1,
                    25, 23, 22, -1,
                    26, 27, 12, -1,
                    28, 17, 27, -1,
                    8, 5, 29, -1,
                    13, 27, 20, -1,
                    27, 17, 20, -1,
                    8, 16, 6, -1,
                    6, 30, 9, -1,
                    16, 15, 31, -1,
                    19, 24, 15, -1,
                    10, 9, 30, -1,
                    30, 6, 24, -1,
                    24, 23, 32, -1,
                    8, 3, 1, -1,
                    4, 33, 5, -1,
                    7, 6, 34, -1,
                    1, 5, 8, -1,
                    35, 11, 10, -1,
                    12, 27, 13, -1,
                    32, 23, 25, -1,
                    34, 6, 9, -1,
                    29, 13, 20, -1,
                    29, 20, 16, -1,
                    29, 16, 8, -1,
                    16, 31, 6, -1,
                    31, 15, 24, -1,
                    24, 6, 31, -1,
                    30, 24, 32, -1,
                    30, 32, 10, -1 ]
        }
    }
[download]

I wanted to extract Coordinate points, normal points and the coordIndex. to understand how those are specified, if you hae the interest, read
http://accad.osu.edu/~pgerstma/class/vnv/resources/info/AnnotatedVrmlRef/ch3-323.htm
PerlMonk rocks. I've learnt so much from using your site's tutorial and forum. I started with no idea about regexp at all, and within a week got my task done!! (plus got addicted to perl)