Abstract: | We propose a method that automatically generates discrete bicubic G1 continuous B-spline surfaces that interpolate the curve network of a ship hullform. First, the curves in the network are classified into two types: boundary curves and "reference curves". The boundary curves correspond to a set of rectangular (or triangular) topological type that can be represented with tensor-product (or degenerate) B-spline surface patches. Next, in the interior of the patches, surface fitting points and cross boundary derivatives are estimated from the reference curves by constructing "virtual" isoparametric curves. Finally, a discrete G1 continuous B-spline surface is generated by a surface fitting algorithm. Several smooth ship hullform surfaces generated from curve networks corresponding to actual ship hullforms demonstrate the quality of the method. |