Method and apparatus for adding detail to a 3D solid model using a secondary geometric representation

A system for detailing a graphical 3D solid model of an article displayed to a user, the system comprising:

• a graphical user interface device configured to receive input from a user and transmit the input to a computer, the computer comprising a Central Processing Unit (CPU) and/or a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU);
• a memory for use with the computer, the memory comprising computer software configured to:
• (a) identify a region of the 3D solid model of the article where detail is to be added, according to user input;
• (b) create a secondary geometric representation based on the identified region in (a), wherein the secondary geometric representation is a voxel-based representation;
• (c) add detail to the secondary geometric representation according to user input, wherein the addition of detail comprises at least one member selected from the group consisting of embossing, debossing, carving, acquiring, and/or adding 3D data, and texture mapping;
• (d) create a new surface by sampling the detailed secondary geometric representation at a sub-voxel resolution, wherein creation of the new surface is controlled with one or more of the following:
• (i) a level of smoothing of the secondary geometry;
• (ii) a number of split tiles for a trimmed region;
• and/or (iii) an amount of voxel oversampling within each of the split tiles;
• and
• (e) integrate the new surface in (d) into the 3D solid model using the region identified in (a), thereby producing a detailed 3D solid model;
• and
• a video display configured to graphically display the detailed 3D solid model to the user.