Eighth Pacific Conference on Computer Graphics and Applications (PG''00)
Using Isosurface Methods for Visualizing the Envelope of a Swept Trivariate Solid
Hong Kong, China
October 03-October 05
ISBN: 0-7695-0868-5
We present a method for calculating the envelope surface of a parametric solid object swept along a path in three-dimensional space. The boundary surface of the solid is the combination of parametric surfaces and an implicit surface where the Jacobian of the defining function has a rank-deficiency condition. Using this condition, we determine a set of square sub-Jacobian determinants that must all vanish simultaneously on the implicit surface. When the generator of the swept surface is a trivariate tensor-product B-spline solid and the path is a B-spline curve, we can give a robust algorithm to determine the implicit surface. This algorithm is based upon the “marching tetrahedra” method, which is adapted to work on 4-simplices. The union of the parametric and implicit surfaces gives the envelope of the swept solid.
Index Terms:
swept surface; envelopes; boundary surface de-termination; trivariate B-spline solids; rank-deficient Jacobians; marching tetrahedra
Citation:
Jason Conkey, Kenneth I. Joy, "Using Isosurface Methods for Visualizing the Envelope of a Swept Trivariate Solid," pg, pp.272, Eighth Pacific Conference on Computer Graphics and Applications (PG''00), 2000