Canopy surface technique for parametric blending

A method based on canopy surfaces is presented for blending parametric surfaces. The blend designed using this method gives freedom to the designer in selecting i) the primitive surfaces to be blended, ii) the contact curves lying on them (in which the blend meets the primitives), iii) the endtangent directions along the contact curves (which are used to ensure tangentplane continuity), and iv) the shape of the cross-sectional curve. An important feature of this method, which is not seen in earlier methods, is the use of end tangents to ensure theC ¹ continuity of iso-parametric curves across the junctions between the blend and the primitives in addition to the tangent-plane continuity.     

Designing parametric blends: surface model and geometric correspondence

A model based on the curve-modulation technique is proposed for designing a parametric blend between two parametrically defined surfaces. The modulants are the cross section and the spine curves. The end position and tangency conditions of the cross section are discussed. Its intermediate shape can be left to the designer's choice, and generally depends on the application at hand. Various alternative choices, that fulfill the end conditions are suggested; this provides the flexibility demanded by various applications. The spine is designed as the intersection of two derived surfaces. Two alternative surface derivations are proposed, and both are discussed in some detail with their merits and demerits. The first derivation generates the contact curves automatically and relieves the designer from specifying them; the second one accepts contact curves specified by the designer, and generates the spine accordingly. Both of them are equally important in CAD/CAM and solid modelling applications.     

Parametric circles and spheres

Formulations for parametric circles and spheres in terms of rational Gaussian (RaG) curves and surfaces are introduced. With the proposed formulations, a full circle is generated by interpolating a closed RaG curve to the vertices of an equilateral triangle, and a full sphere is generated by interpolating a closed RaG surface to the vertices of an octahedron with equilateral triangular faces. Generation of circles and spheres in this manner is very intuitive and easy to remember as the weights are all 1 and the nodes are all unique and uniformly spaced.     

Adaptive polygonization of parametric surfaces

This paper describes an algorithm for dividing a (u, v)-parametric surface into the least possible number of plane triangular elements that closely follow the surface they approximate. The concept, of closeness defined here is based on a set of three subdivision criteria: unit-normal criterion, chord-distance criterion, and edge-refinement criterion.The triangles generated by the subdivision, together with the unit normals at their vertices, serve as input to the ray-tracing program, which generates a shaded image of the surface with photographic realism.     

Approximate implicitization of parametric surfaces by using compactly supported radial basis functions

In this paper, a new approach is proposed to solve the approximate implicitization of parametric surfaces. It is primarily based on multivariate interpolation of scattered data by using compactly supported radial basis functions. Experimental results are provided to illustrate the proposed method is flexible and effective.     

On geometric interpolation of parametric surfaces

By exploiting the freedom in the choice of parametrization of a parametric surface, we show that there exist quadratic parametric surfaces that approximate a given parametric surface with the same approximation order as cubics, namely four, in the neighbourhood of a point where the Gaussian curvature of the surface is nonzero. This provides a first generalization to surfaces of earlier work for curves.     

A comparison of sampling strategies for computing general sweeps

Sweeping moving objects has become one of the basic geometric operations used in engineering design, analysis and physical simulation. Despite its relevance, computing the boundary of the set swept by a non-polyhedral moving object is largely an open problem due to well-known theoretical and computational difficulties of the envelopes.We have recently introduced a generic point membership classification (PMC) test for general solid sweeping. Importantly, this PMC test provides complete geometric information about the set swept by the moving object, including the ability to compute the self-intersections of the sweep itself. In this paper, we compare two recursive strategies for sampling points of the space in which the object moves, and show that the sampling based on a fast marching cubes algorithm possesses the best combination of features in terms of performance and accuracy for the boundary evaluation of general sweeps. Furthermore, we show that the PMC test can be used as the foundation of a generic sweep boundary evaluator in conjunction with efficient space sampling strategies for solids of arbitrary complexity undergoing affine motions.     

Coefficient formula and matrix of nonuniform B-spline functions

The paper derives a coefficient formula of nonuniform B-spline functions of arbitrary degree from the Coxde Boor recursive algorithm. An efficient numerical algorithm for the coefficient matrix of nonuniform B-spline functions is also presented that is based on this formula. The results in the paper are useful for the evaluation and conversion of NURBS curves and surfaces in CAD/CAM systems. They will promote the application of product data-exchange standards in industry.     

Angular interpolation of bi-parameter curves

This paper presents an approach to the interpolation of angular feedrate for bi-parameter curve paths in multi-axis machining. A bi-parameter curve is the intersection of a parametric surface and an implicit surface. A tool path is identified by a position curve and an orientation curve, both of which are generated based on the bi-parameter curve. The angular feedrate interpolator calculates the tool position and orientation at each sampling cycle according to the specified angular feedrates and the given tool path. The paper analytically relates the angular arc-length derivatives to the time derivatives of the parameters along the path making use of both angular feedrates and angular feed acceleration. The results are then used to interpolate the parameters of the bi-parameter curve leading to an accurate calculation of the position and orientation of the cutting tool. A general parametric surface has been used to verify the effectiveness of the algorithm. The bi-parameter curves of the surface have been computed for arbitrarily selected intersecting cylinders.     

Hierarchical structure to winged-edge structure: a conversion algorithm

The winged-edge data structure is advantageous for traversing the topological graph of the boundary representation of a solid object. This paper presents an algorithm for converting hierarchical boundary representations into representations in the winged-edge data structure. As a result of the conversion, the adjacency relationships of geometric entities embedded in hierarchical boundary representations,-which may be evaluated through boundary evaluation on solid objects defined via Boolean set-operations, can be easily and efficiently accessed.     

Fairing of Parametric Cubic B-spline Curves and Bicubic B-spline Surfaces

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Analysis and verification of the boundary surfaces of solid objects

Triangulation of complex three-dimensional objects is a time-consuming process, and the boundary surfaces of the object have to be checked very carefully to ensure no crror is made. With the increased use of computer graphics in the generation of complicated object shapes, such as aircraft, space vessels, machine parts, physical models, etc., visual inspection alone is not good enough to affirm the validity of the object, and a thorough verification of the output from a CAD system is necessary to ensure that the object is well defined and complies with the input requirements of the mesh generator.This paper describes such a data verification procedure for general curved surfaces and objects defined by the boundary surface modelling technique. The quality of individual elements, the overall topological structures, and geometrical correctness in terms of intersections, close touches and sharp angles will all be studied and verified. Several engineering objects are analysed to illustrate the practical applications of the procedure.     

Trimming of free-form objects for a B-Rep solid modeller

This paper describes a technique for trimming solid objects in a B-Rep solid modelling system. A B-Rep scheme based on the split-edge structure, which is suitable for the representation of trimmed surfaces, is first discussed. Algorithms for graph traversal, graph merging and graph splitting are then given in detail. Based on this B-Rep scheme, a technique for trimming objects is developed. The trimming process involves the evaluation of surface intersections, graph cutting along intersections and merging of appropriate graphs to obtain the required trimmed objects.     

Surface intersection by switching from recursive subdivision to iterative refinement

This paper discusses an attempt to devise an efficient (involving minimal computations), accurate (numerically high precision), exhaustive (detecting all possible solutions), and robust (working without failures) method for detecting intersection of two parametric surfaces. The method starts with subdivision to ensure that all solutions are detected. Later it switches over to numerical iterative refinement for efficient and accurate evaluation of the intersection curve. The switching takes place only when the convergence of the refinement method is guaranteed. The necessary theory to arrive at a computable condition leading to this guarantee has been developed using fixed-point and contractionmapping theorems from topology and mathematical analysis. The implementation is discussed elaborating the data structures and the algorithms used for (1) detecting segments of the intersection curve, (2) generating points on these segments using refinement, and (3) tracing a continuous curve by identifying neighboring segments and joining them in order.     

Boundary of the volume swept by a free-form solid in screw motion

The swept volume of a moving solid is a powerful computational and visualization concept. It provides an excellent aid for path and accessibility planning in robotics and for simulating various manufacturing operations. It has proven difficult to evaluate the boundary of the volume swept by a solid bounded by trimmed parametric surfaces undergoing an arbitrary analytic motion. Hence, prior solutions use one or several of the following simplifications: (1) approximate the volume by the union of a finite set of solid instances sampled along the motion; (2) approximate the curved solid by a polyhedron; and (3) approximate the motion by a sequence of simpler motions. The approach proposed here is based on the third type of simplification: it uses a polyscrew (continuous, piecewise-helical) approximation of the motion. This approach leads to a simple algorithm that generates candidate faces, computes the two-cells of their arrangement, and uses a new point-in-sweep test to select the correct cells whose union forms the boundary of the swept volume.     

d-Dimensional parametric models for dynamic animation of deformable objects

This paper introduces an accurate, efficient, and unified engine dedicated to dynamic animation of d-dimensional deformable objects. The objects are modelled as d-dimensional manifolds defined as functional combinations of a mesh of 3D control points, weighted by parametric blending functions. This model ensures that, at each time step, the object shape conforms to its manifold definitions. The object motion is deduced from the control points dynamic animation. In fact, control points should be viewed as the degrees of freedom of the continuous object. The chosen dynamic equations (Lagrangian formalism) reflect this generic modelling scheme and yield an exact and computationally efficient linear system.     

Blind digital watermarking of rational Bézier and B-spline curves and surfaces with robustness against affine transformations and Möbius reparameterization

We present a blind watermarking scheme for rational Bézier and B-spline curves and surfaces which is shape-preserving and robust against the affine transformations and Möbius reparameterization that are commonly used in geometric modeling operations in CAD systems. We construct a watermark polynomial with real coefficients of degree four which has the watermark as the cross-ratio of its complex roots. We then multiply the numerator and denominator of the original curve or surface by this polynomial, increasing its degree by four but preserving its shape. Subsequent affine transformations and Möbius reparameterization leave the cross-ratio of these roots unchanged. The watermark can be extracted by finding all the roots of the numerator and denominator of the curve or surface: the cross-ratio of the four common roots will be the watermark. Experimental results confirm both the shape-preserving property and its robustness against attacks by affine transformations and Möbius reparameterization.