UNIT - III

Geometric
Modeling
Mr. G. V. DEVKE
Assistant Professor
Mechanical Engg. Dept.
STES’s SAOE, Pune.
 Geometric modeling scheme
• Wire-frame model
• Surface model
• Solid model
 Wire-frame model
• The shape of the object is defined by a
collection of points (vertices) and a set of
edges.
• Edges – line or curved connects pair of points
• Conventional Approach - Place the geometry
entirely in the data structure.
• Another Approach - Procedural Approach
 Wire-frame model

• Example : tetrahedron
 Disadvantages of wire-frame
• Tend to be not realistic
• Ambiguity
– complex model difficult to interpret.

What does this object look like?

 Disadvantages of wire-frame
• Does not allow for use of photo realistic rendering
tools. *(some software capable of hidden line
removal on limited basis).
• No ability to determine computationally information
on mass properties (e.g volume, mass, moment etc)
and line of intersection between two faces of
intersecting models.
• No guarantee that the model definition is correct,
complete or manufacturable.
 Advantages of wire-frame
• Easy to construct
• Most economical in term of time and memory
requirement.
• Used to model solid object.
• Often used for previewing objects in an
interactive scenario.

Geometric Modeling
 Surface model

• An area bounded by an identifiable

perimeter.
• In Computer Graphics, is an area within
which every position is defined by
mathematical method.
Surface model
 Surface model

Surface may be:

– Planar
– Cylindrical/conic
– Sculptured or freeform in shape
 Surface model
• To overcome ambiguity in wire-frame
model
•used for the generation of visually
realistic images through techniques
such as
• rendering
•hidden edge removal.
 Surface model

•Does not represent internal features of

the model, no sense of volume.
•Models of limited value for volumetric
and mass property analysis.
 Solid model
• Most complex
• Complete representation
• unambiguous description
• Appropriate for the world of engineering
objects
Solid model
 Types of Curve
• Analytic Curve
• Synthetic Curve
 Why solid modeling?
• Recall weakness of wireframe and surface
modeling
– Ambiguous geometric description
– incomplete geometric description
– lack topological information
– Tedious modeling process
– Awkward user interface
 Solid model
• Solid modeling is based on complete, valid
and unambiguous geometric representation of
physical object.
– Complete 🡪 points in space can be classified.
(inside/ outside)
– Valid 🡪vertices, edges, faces are connected
properly.
– Unambiguous 🡪 there can only be one
interpretation of object
 Solid model
• Analysis automation and integration is possible
only with solid models has properties such as
weight, moment of inertia, mass.
• Solid model consist of geometric and topological
data
– Geometry : shape, size, location of geometric elements
– Topology:connectivity and associativity of geometric
elements, Non graphical, relational information
 Solid model representation schemes

1. Constructive solid geometry (CSG)

2. Boundary representation (B-rep)
3. Spatial enumeration
4. Instantiation.
Constructive solid geometry (CSG)
• Objects are represented as a combination of simpler
solid objects (primitives).
• The primitives are such as cube, cylinder, cone, torus,
sphere etc.
• Copies or “instances” of these primitive shapes are
created and positioned.
• A complete solid model is constructed by combining
these “instances” using set specific, logic operations
(Boolean)
Constructive solid geometry (CSG)

• Boolean operation
– each primitive solid is assumed to be a set of
points, a boolean operation is performed on
point sets and the result is a solid model.
– Boolean operation 🡪 union, intersection and
difference
– The relative location and orientation of the two
primitives have to be defined before the
boolean operation can be performed.
– Boolean operation can be applied to two solids
other than the primitives.
 Constructive solid geometry (CSG)-
boolean operation

• Union
– The sum of all points in each of two defined
sets. (logical “OR”)
– Also referred to as Add, Combine, Join, Merge

A B
A∪
B
 Constructive solid geometry
(CSG)- boolean operation
• Difference
– The points in a source set minus the points
common to a second set. (logical “NOT”)
– Set must share common volume
– Also referred to as subtraction, remove, cut

A B
A-B
 Constructive solid geometry
(CSG)- boolean operation
• intersection
– Those points common to each of two defined
sets (logical “AND”)
– Set must share common volume
– Also referred to as common, conjoin

A B
A∩B
 Constructive solid geometry
(CSG)- boolean operation
• When using boolean operation, be careful to
avoid situation that do not result in a valid
solid

A B
A∩B

Geometric Modeling
 Constructive solid geometry (CSG)-
boolean operation
• Boolean operation
– Are intuitive to user
– Are easy to use and understand
– Provide for the rapid manipulation of large
amounts of data.
• Because of this, many non-CSG systems also
use Boolean operations

Geometric Modeling
 Constructive solid geometry (CSG)- data
structure
• Data structure does not define model shape explicitly
but rather implies the geometric shape through a
procedural description
– E.g: object is not defined as a set of edges & faces but by
the instruction : union primitive1 with primitive 2
• This procedural data is stored in a data structure
referred to as a CSG tree
• The data structure is simple and stores compact
data 🡪 easy to manage
Constructive solid geometry (CSG)- CSG
tree
• CSG tree 🡪 stores the history of applying
boolean operations on the primitives.
– Stores in a binary tree format
– The outer leaf nodes of tree represent the
primitives
– The interior nodes represent the boolean
operations performed.
Constructive solid geometry (CSG)- CSG
tree

+
-
 Constructive solid geometry (CSG)- not
unique
• More than one procedure (and hence database) can
be used to arrive at the same geometry.

-
 Constructive solid geometry (CSG)
representation
• CSG representation is unevaluated
– Faces, edges, vertices not defined in explicit
• CSG model are always valid
– Since built from solid elements.
• CSG models are complete and unambiguous
 Constructive solid geometry (CSG) -
advantage

• CSG is powerful with high level command.

• Easy to construct a solid model – minimum
step.
• CSG modeling techniques lead to a concise
database🡪 less storage.
– Complete history of model is retained and can
be altered at any point.
• Can be converted to the corresponding
boundary representation.
 Constructive solid geometry (CSG) -
disadvantage
• Only boolean operations are allowed in the modeling
process 🡪 with boolean operation alone, the range of
shapes to be modeled is severely restricted 🡪 not
possible to construct unusual shape.
• Requires a great deal of computation to derive the
information on the boundary, faces and edges which
is important for the interactive display/ manipulation
of solid.
 solution
• CSG representation tends to accompany the
corresponding boundary representation 🡪
hybrid representation
• Maintaining consistency between the two
representations is very important.
 Boundary representation (B-Rep)
• Solid model is defined by their enclosing
surfaces or boundaries. This technique consists
of the geometric information about the faces,
edges and vertices of an object with the
topological data on how these are connected.
Boundary representation (B-Rep)
• Why B-Rep includes such topological
information?
- A solid is represented as a closed space in
3D space (surface connect without gaps)
- The boundary of a solid separates points
inside from points outside solid.
 B-Rep vs surface modeling
• Surface model
– A collection of surface entities which simply
enclose a volume lacks the connective data to
define a solid (i.e topology).
• B- Rep model
– Technique guarantees that surfaces definitively
divide model space into solid and void, even after
model modification commands.
 B-Rep data structure
• B-Rep graph store face, edge and vertices as
nodes, with pointers, or branches between the
nodes to indicate connectivity.
 v5
B-Rep data structure
f3 f2 E3
E4
E1 v4 E7
f4 f5 E2 E6 v3soli
E8 f1
v E5 v2 d
1 face1 face2 face3 face4
face5 Combinatorial
edge1 edge2 edge3 edge4 edge5 edge6 edge7 structure /
edge8 topology

vertex1 vertex2 vertex3 vertex4

vertex5 Metric information/
(x, y, z) geometry
Boundary representation- validity

• System must validate topology of created

solid.
• B-Rep has to fulfill certain conditions to
disallow self-intersecting and open objects
• This condition include
– Each edge should adjoin exactly two faces and
have a vertex at each end.
– Vertices are geometrically described by point
coordinates
 Boundary representation- validity
• This condition include (cont)
– At least three edges must meet at each vertex.
– Faces are described by surface equations
– The set of faces forms a complete skin of the solid
with no missing parts.
– Each face is bordered by an ordered set of edges
forming a closed loop.
– Faces must only intersect at common edges or
vertices.
– The boundaries of faces do not intersect themselves
 Boundary representation- validity
• Validity also checked through mathematical
evaluation
– Evaluation is based upon Euler’s Law (valid for
simple polyhedra – no hole)
– V–E+F=2 V-vertices E- edges F- face loops

v5 V = 5, E = 8, F = 5
f3 f2 E3
E4
E1 v4 E7 5–8+5=2
f4 f5 E2 E6 v3
E8 f1
v E5 v2
1
 Boundary representation- validity
• Expanded Euler’s law for complex polyhedrons
(with holes)
• Euler-Poincare Law:
– V-E+F-H=2(B-P)
– H – number of holes in face, P- number of passages or through
holes, B- number of separate bodies.
V = 24, E=36, F=15, H=3,
P=1,B=1
 Boundary representation- ambiguity and
uniqueness
• Not fully unique, but much more so than CSG
• Potential difference exists in division of
– Surfaces into faces.
– Curves into edges
 Boundary representation- advantages
• Capability to construct unusual shapes that
would not be possible with the available
CSG🡪 aircraft fuselages, swing shapes
• Less computational time to reconstruct the
image
 Boundary representation-
disadvantages
• Requires more storage
• More prone to validity failure than CSG
• Model display limited to planar faces and
linear edges
- complex curve and surfaces only approximated
Solid object construction method
• Sweeping
• Boolean
• Automated filleting and chambering

• Tweaking
– Face of an object is moved in some way