Creating a grid of tubes following a mathematical surface

Question

I am creating a 3D mathematical surface using the "Add Mesh: Extra Objects" plugin, resulting in the mesh surface below:

Ultimately, I would like to convert this surface into a grid of Paths, so I can have a circle trace each Path, and recreate the surface above as a grid of tubes.

My first thought was to use the Bridge function of the LoopTools Add-on to create a grid of vertices that describe the surface, as shown:

then collect each row and column of vertices into a Path or curve that I could follow with a circle to create the grid of tubes. However, I do not know how to collect a number of vertices into a Path or curve.

• Is there an easier way to create a grid of tubes from a mathematical surface? Or,
• How can I create a Path or curve from a collection of vertices?

Answer 1

This first thought was not bad. This can be done with hair particles, e.g tiny uv spheres, put at vertices, but you need to know their exact number first. Then convert particles to mesh, remove the surfaces' interior deleting vertices inside or remove the whole surface and you're done.