Intuitive shape control for boundary patches
AssigneeAutodesk, Inc.
InventorXuejun Sheng
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system for computer aided design (CAD) is disclosed for intuitive shape control of boundary patch. A boundary patch is also known as n-sided patch which is defined by a number of input curves/edges. Continuity constraints (G0, G1 and G2) can be specified individually for the input curves. Boundary patch is primarily used to cover a relatively flat area where other modeling operators such as loft, sweep or fillet cannot apply due to irregular shape of the area. The present invention provides a technique to directly manipulate boundary tangent magnitude of a patch and allows the user to deform the patch shape in a very intuitive way. Thus, the present invention is especially useful for industrial design applications.
Claims21
A computer-implemented method for modifying the shape of a graphics object represented in a computer-aided design (CAD) application, the method comprising:
- generating a surface based on one or more boundaries of the graphics object, wherein the surface has a shape defined by a set of first coordinates;
- mapping the set of first coordinates to a set of second coordinates that identifies a different tangent for each of the one or more boundary edges, the second set of coordinates being defined relative to a modified spherical coordinate system having a variable origin determined by a variable function that is based on a variable scaling factor for scaling magnitudes of the tangents for the one or more boundary edges;
- modifying a first tangent for a first boundary edge by moving the variable origin of the modified spherical coordinate system;
- and
- modifying the shape of the surface based on the modified first tangent to generate a modified shape of the surface.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to modify the shape of a graphics object represented in a computer-aided design (CAD) application, by performing the steps of:
- generating a surface based on one or more boundaries of the graphics object, wherein the surface has a shape defined by a set of first coordinates;
- mapping the set of first coordinates to a set of second coordinates that identifies a different tangent for each of the one or more boundary edges, the second set of coordinates being defined relative to a modified spherical coordinate system having a variable origin determined by a variable function that is based on a variable scaling factor for scaling magnitudes of the tangents for the one or more boundary edges;
- modifying a first tangent for a first boundary edge by moving the variable origin of the modified spherical coordinate system;
- and
- modifying the shape of the surface based on the modified first tangent to generate a modified shape of the surface.
A computer system, comprising:
- a memory;
- and
- a processor configured to:
- generate a surface based on one or more boundaries of the graphics object, wherein the surface has a shape defined by a set of first coordinates,
- map the set of first coordinates to a set of second coordinates that identifies a different tangent for each of the one or more boundary edges, the second set of coordinates being defined relative to a modified spherical coordinate system having a variable origin determined by a variable function that is based on a variable scaling factor for scaling magnitudes of the tangents for the one or more boundary edges,
- modify a first tangent for a first boundary edge by moving the variable origin of the modified spherical coordinate system, and
- modify the shape of the surface based on the modified first tangent to generate a modified shape of the surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.