Solid modeler that provides spatial gradients of 3d cad models of solid objects

A method of improving reliability in designing an arbitrarily shaped object based on three-dimensional (3D) solid modeling of the object, the method comprising:

• obtaining a nominal model of the object;
• computing a surface mesh of the object;
• recording characteristics of a plurality of mesh nodes, including parametric coordinates and originating surfaces of each mesh node, and whether a particular mesh node lies on a surface boundary;
• obtaining a perturbed model of the object with at least one parameter of the object changed with respect to the nominal model;
• using the perturbed model, computing spatial positions of the plurality of mesh nodes by repeatedly querying corresponding spline surfaces of the perturbed model to obtain updated parametric coordinates of the plurality of mesh nodes;
• computing gradients at the plurality of mesh nodes by computing a vector at each mesh node that represents the difference between the previously recorded parametric coordinates of that mesh node and the updated parametric coordinates of that mesh node;
• reporting the computed gradients for the plurality of mesh nodes;
• detecting if any of the reported computed gradients is significantly smaller than the rest of the computed gradients, indicating a spurious movement of the corresponding mesh node;
• and
• removing the computed gradients indicating spurious movement of certain mesh nodes among the plurality of mesh nodes to improve reliability of further design optimization of the object.