NSF Award
9901627
This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will further develop the proposed concept of automatic creation of NURBS surfaces from both 3D point sets and polygonal surfaces. Based on the feasibility research in Phase I that studied three methods, it was determined which one holds the biggest promise to lead to a practical and fully automatic solution. Without a practical automated method, the task of constructing NURBS surfaces is both laborious and unpredictable for designers and engineers. The goal is to develop a software solution that takes any polygonal surface and automatically transform it into a NURBS surface. The software will preserve shape topology, adapt to local curvature, and identify character lines, which will be used as constraints in the patchwork of NURBS.<br/> The resulting software will fill in urgent need in the marketplace where integrated and flexible design and manufacturing is a key to the nation's competitiveness and product quality. From automotive to toy makers, this technology will enable designers and engineers to produce high quality 3D surface and solid models with unprecedented ease and speed.
