Solids are static subsets of a d-dimensional space, typically representing some non-deformable object which can be thought of obeying the laws of classical (Newtonian) physics. I am predominantly interested in modelling the shape of such objects for Computer-Aided Design applications. Typically the material of such objects is assumed to be homogeneous, but inhomogeneous materials are also of interest.
I have been working on describing solids on a high abstraction level suitable for a human, typically an engineer, to create, modify and analyse them. In particular for reverse engineering applications I have been working on detecting patterns in such objects. Such patterns can typically be thought of as regularities, often related to symmetries, which can be detected automatically in boundary representation models. As reverse engineered objects are approximate in the sense of them not exhibiting these regularities exactly, robust detecting algorithms are required to find approximate regularities. Such approximate regularities can then be used to build an exact model, but also to modify the model and analyse its properties.
Beautification is an approach to detecting approximate symmetry-based regularities in relatively simple boundary representation models, selecting a suitable, consistent set of such approximate regularities to consequently build an exact, more-beautiful object. Work on this has lead to a project on design intent detection which concentrated on finding suitable decompositions of complex solids into symmetric parts such that more symmetry-based regularities can be detected in a robust manner. In order to select suitable regularities among the possible approximate regularities that are detected and enforce regularities exactly on the model, but also to modify the model after the regularities have been detected, geometric constraints are used.
A particular issue we are currently concentrating on is the fact that the previous algorithms developed for beautification and design intent detection provide a specific interpretation of the solid. For more general applications this seems to be too restrictive.
Solids,http://www.langbein.org/research/solids by Frank C Langbein [26/October/2008, 17:40].
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