Modifying CAD/CAM surfaces according to displacements prescribed at a finite set of points

This article presents a method for modifying CAD/CAM surfaces automatically in accordance with displacements prescribed at a finite set of points in R³, such as node displacements predicted by finite-element analysis. The method is based on the ‘morphing’ approach introduced by Sederberg and Parry in 1986. The input to the process consists of (a) a CAD/CAM model containing trimmed polynomial B-spline surfaces and (b) a set of points and associated displacement vectors in R³. These points are assumed to be close to, but not necessarily on, the objects of the CAD/CAM model. A rectangular volume, enclosing the CAD/CAM model and the input points in R³, is represented as a volume spline, i.e. a trivariate tensor-product spline. A modified volume spline is computed using (a) a least-squares fit based on the given point displacements, and (b) a smoothing functional. The modified CAD/CAM objects are defined as compositions of the original parametric functions and the modified volume spline (i.e. a morphing). In order to ensure compatibility with standard commercial CAD/CAM systems, the modified surfaces are fitted with appropriate splines using any standard, reasonably shape-preserving, fitting procedure applied in the parameter domains of the original surfaces.