SOLID MODELLING

Solid modeling is the easiest and the most advanced method of geometric modeling.
A solid modeling is a complete and most unambiguous representation of an object. The
completeness and unambiguity of the solid model are attributed to the fact that unlike the wire-
frame and surface modeling which contain only geometric data solid modeling contains both
geometric data and topographical information of the object.
The use of solid modeling in CAD/CAM systems is growing rapidly. The solid modeling is
considered as the technological solution to integrate and automate the design and
manufacturing.
The solid models can be converted to wire frame models . This type of conversion is used to
generate automatically the orthographic views.
However it is not possible to convert wireframe models to the solid models.
GEOMETRY AND TOPOLOGY :
The data required for the construction of solid models can be divided in to two categories :
1) Geometry
2) Topology
GEOMETRY:
It is the actual dimensions that defines the entity of the object.
e.g. ,
1) the length of lines
2) angles between lines
3) radius of the half circle
4) the centre of the half circle etc.,,
TOPOLOGY :
It is he connectivity and associativity of the different entities of the object. It describes the way in which
different entities of the object connected together.





METHODS OF SOLID MODELLING
1) constructive solid geometry
2) boundary representation
3) sweeping
4) parametric solid modeling
5) primitive Instancing
6) feature based modeling
7) cell decomposition
8) spatial enumeration
9) octree encoding
10) quadtree encoding


PRIMITIVE INSTANCING
This scheme is based on the notion of families of objects, each member of a family distinguishable from
the other by a few parameters. Each object family is called a generic primitive, and individual objects
within a family are called primitive instances. For example a family of bolts is a generic primitive, and a
single bolt specified by a particular set of parameters is a primitive instance. The distinguishing
characteristic of pure parameterized instancing schemes is the lack of means for combining instances to
create new structures which represent new and more complex objects. The other main drawback of this
scheme is the difficulty of writing algorithms for computing properties of represented solids. A
considerable amount of family-specific information must be built into the algorithms and therefore each
generic primitive must be treated as a special case, allowing no uniform overall treatment.



SPATIAL OCCUPANCY ENUMERATION
This scheme is essentially a list of spatial cells occupied by the solid. The cells, also called voxels are
cubes of a fixed size and are arranged in a fixed spatial grid (other polyhedral arrangements are also
possible but cubes are the simplest). Each cell may be represented by the coordinates of a single point,
such as the cell's centroid. Usually a specific scanning order is imposed and the corresponding ordered
set of coordinates is called a spatial array. Spatial arrays are unambiguous and unique solid
representations but are too verbose for use as 'master' or definitional representations. They can,
however, represent coarse approximations of parts and can be used to improve the performance of
geometric algorithms, especially when used in conjunction with other representations such
as constructive solid geometry
CELL DECOMPOSITION
This scheme follows from the combinatoric (algebraic topological) descriptions of solids detailed above.
A solid can be represented by its decomposition into several cells. Spatial occupancy enumeration
schemes are a particular case of cell decompositions where all the cells are cubical and lie in a regular
grid. Cell decompositions provide convenient ways for computing certain topological properties of solids
such as its connectedness (number of pieces) and genus (number of holes). Cell decompositions in the
form of triangulations are the representations used in 3d finite elements for the numerical solution of
partial differential equations. Other cell decompositions such as a Whitney regular stratification or
Morse decompositions may be used for applications in robot motion planning.
BOUNDARY REPRESENTATION
In this scheme a solid is represented by the cellular decomposition of its boundary. Since the boundaries
of solids have the distinguishing property that they separate space into regions defined by the interior of
the solid and the complementary exterior according to the Jordan-Brouwer theorem discussed above,
every point in space can unambiguously be tested against the solid by testing the point against the
boundary of the solid. Recall that ability to test every point in the solid provides a guarantee of solidity.
Using ray casting it is possible to count the number of intersections of a cast ray against the boundary of
the solid. Even number of intersections correspond to exterior points, and odd number of intersections
correspond to interior points. The assumption of boundaries as manifold cell complexes forces any
boundary representation to obey disjointedness of distinct primitives, i.e. there are no self-intersections
that cause non-manifold points. In particular, the manifoldness condition implies all pairs of vertices are
disjoint, pairs of edges are either disjoint or intersect at one vertex, and pairs of faces are disjoint or
intersect at a common edge. Several data structures that are combinatorial maps have been developed
to store boundary representations of solids. In addition to planar faces, modern systems provide the
ability to store quadrics and NURBS surfaces as a part of the boundary representation. Boundary
representations have evolved into a ubiquitous representation scheme of solids in most commercial
geometric modelers because of their flexibility in representing solids exhibiting a high level of geometric
complexity.

CONSTRUCTIVE SOLID GEOMETRY
Constructive solid geometry (CSG) connotes a family of schemes for representing rigid solids as Boolean
constructions or combinations of primitives via the regularized set operations discussed above. CSG and
boundary representations are currently the most important representation schemes for solids. CSG
representations take the form of ordered binary trees where non-terminal nodes represent either rigid
transformations (orientation preserving isometries) or regularized set operations. Terminal nodes are
primitive leaves that represent closed regular sets. The semantics of CSG representations is clear. Each
subtree represents a set resulting from applying the indicated transformations/regularized set
operations on the set represented by the primitive leaves of the subtree. CSG representations are
particularly useful for capturing design intent in the form of features corresponding to material addition
or removal (bosses, holes, pockets etc.). The attractive properties of CSG include conciseness,
guaranteed validity of solids, computationally convenient Boolean algebraic properties, and natural
control of a solid's shape in terms of high level parameters defining the solid's primitives and their
positions and orientations. The relatively simple data structure and elegant recursive algorithms have
further contributed to the popularity of CSG.

SWEEPING
The basic notion embodied in sweeping schemes is simple. A set moving through space may trace
or sweep out volume (a solid) that may be represented by the moving set and its trajectory. Such a
representation is important in the context of applications such as detecting the material removed from a
cutter as it moves along a specified trajectory, computing dynamic interference of two solids undergoing
relative motion, motion planning, and even in computer graphics applications such as tracing the
motions of a brush moved on a canvas. Most commercial CAD systems provide (limited) functionality for
constructing swept solids mostly in the form of a two dimensional cross section moving on a space
trajectory transversal to the section. However, current research has shown several approximations of
three dimensional shapes moving across one parameter, and even multi-parameter motions.



IMPLICIT REPRESENTATION
A very general method of defining a set of points X is to specify a predicate that can be evaluated at any
point in space. In other words, X is defined implicitly to consist of all the points that satisfy the condition
specified by the predicate. The simplest form of a predicate is the condition on the sign of a real valued
function resulting in the familiar representation of sets by equalities and inequalities. For example
if the conditions , , and represent
respectively a plane and two open linear halfspaces. More complex functional primitives may be defined
by boolean combinations of simpler predicates. Furthermore, the theory of R-functions allow
conversions of such representations into a single function inequality for any closed semi analytic set.
Such a representation can be converted to a boundary representation using polygonization algorithms,
for example, the marching cubes algorithm.

PARAMETRIC AND FEATURE BASED MODELING
Features are defined to be parametric shapes associated with attributes such as intrinsic geometric
parameters (length, width, depth etc.), position and orientation, geometric tolerances, material
properties, and references to other features. Features also provide access to related production
processes and resource models. Thus, features have a semantically higher level than primitive closed
regular sets. Features are generally expected to form a basis for linking CAD with downstream
manufacturing applications, and also for organizing databases for design data reuse
ADVANTAGES OF SOLID MODELLING :
1) a solid modeling is the easiest and the most advanced method of geometric modeling
2) it provides better visualization as compared to the wire frame and surface modeling
3) the solid model can be converted into wireframe
4) using solid modeling it is possible to calculate the properties like volume , density , MI etc.,
automatically
5) the solid modeling produces the accurate designs , improves the quality of design and provides
the complete 3D definition of the object.
LIMITATIONS :
1) it is not possible to create the solid models automatically from the wireframe or surface models
2) it requires more CPU time to retrieve,edit, or update the model.