Solid modeling method
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorsHiroaki Chiyokura, Teiji Takamura, Hiroshi Toriya, Toshiaki Sato
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Abstract
A solid modeling method for modeling solids which include free-form surfaces calculates intersecting portions of two solids and storing calculated results as first data, stores free-form shapes of the two solids as second data, approximates free-form surface portions of the two solids by polyhedrons so as to describe the two solids in a form of polyhedrons, obtains a union, a difference or an intersection of the two solids by carrying out set operations on the polyhedrons, and returns the polyhedrons obtained by the set operations into solids including free-form surfaces based on the stored first and second data.
Claims22
A computer-based solid modeling method for modeling intersecting original solids which include free-form surfaces, the computer including means for executing operations and areas for storing information, the computer-based solid modeling method comprising the steps of:
- (a) executing a calculating operating on data representing two original solids based on such information as (i) an intersecting line of two curved surfaces and (ii) an intersecting line of curved surfaces and planes;
- and storing calculated intersection results in a first data storage area, the calculated intersection results not being added to the data representing the original solids;
- (b) executing an approximating operation on the data representing the two original solids not including the calculated intersection results, for approximating free-form surface portions of the two solids by calculating data describing polyhedrons;
- and storing data describing original curves of the original solids known before the approximating operation in a second data storage area, the original curves constituting boundary curves of the free-form surfaces, the data describing polyhedrons not being stored in the second data storage area;
- (c) executing set operations on the data describing polyhedrons, for obtaining such set operation results as a union, a difference or an intersection of the data describing polyhedrons, the set operations not executing based on the calculated intersection results stored in the first data storage area or on the data describing original curves stored in the second storage area;
- and
- (d) executing a regeneration operation for re-converting set operation results based on the data describing polyhedrons obtained by the set operations into regenerated solids including the free-form surfaces, the regeneration operation based on the data describing polyhedrons as well as the calculated intersection results stored in the first data storage area and the data describing original curves of the original solids stored in the second data storage area.
A computer-based solid modeling method for modeling intersecting original solids which include free-form surfaces, the computer including means for executing operations and areas for storing information, the computer-based solid modeling method comprising the steps of:
- (a) choosing set operations for operating on data describing polyhedrons for obtaining set operation results such as a union, a difference or an intersection of the data describing the polyhedrons;
- (b) executing a pre-process before the set operations, the pre-process including:
- (1) executing a calculating operation on data representing two original solids based on such information as (i) an intersecting line of two curved surfaces and (ii) an intersecting line of curved surfaces and planes;
- and storing calculated intersection results in a first data storage area, the calculated intersection results not being added to the data representing the original solids;
- and
- (2) executing an approximating operation on the data representing the two original solids not including the calculated intersection results, for approximating free-form surface portions of the two solids by calculating data describing polyhedrons;
- and storing data describing original curves of the original solids known before the approximating operation in a second data storage area, the original curves constituting boundary curves of the free-form surfaces, the data describing polyhedrons not being stored in the second data storage area;
- (c) executing the set operations chosen in step (a);
- and
- (d) executing an after-process after the set operations, the after-process including:
- (1) executing a regeneration operation for re-converting set operation results based on the data describing polyhedrons obtained by the set operations into regenerated solids including the free-form surfaces, the regeneration operation based on the data describing polyhedrons as well as the calculated intersection results stored in the first data storage area and the data describing original curves of the original solids stored in the second data storage area.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.