INTERACTIVE USER GUIDE

Parametric Surfacing
for the Restoration of Intended Design
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© 2010 Geomagic, Inc. All rights reserved

Geomagic, the Geomagic logo, Geomagic Studio, Geomagic Qualify, Geomagic Review,
Geomagic Blade, Geomagic Parametric Surfaces, Geomagic eShell and “the magic of making it
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Other company and product names referenced herein may be trademarks or registered
trademarks of their owners.

Guide History

Date Revision

Aug 2009 First Release

May 2010 Updates for Geomagic Studio 12
About Geomagic Inc.
Geomagic, Inc. is a worldwide software and services company headquartered in Research Triangle Park,
North Carolina (U.S.A.), with subsidiaries in Europe and Asia and distributors worldwide. Geomagic is the
market leader in digital shape sampling and processing (DSSP) with a vision of mass customization,
technology innovation, and business performance. Geomagic software enables customers to accelerate
product development cycles and ensure quality at every step. More than 5,000 professionals use
Geomagic software and services across diverse industries including automotive, aerospace, medical, and
consumer products.

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Geomagic, Inc.
P.O. Box 12219
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 USA
Phone: +1 (800) 251-551 or +1 (919) 474-0122
Fax: +1 (919) 474-0216

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Table of Contents

1 GUIDE DESCRIPTION 5

1.1 Introduction 5

2 RESTORATION OF INTENDED DESIGN 6

2.1 Procedure 6
2.1.1 Point Phase and Polygon Phase 6
2.1.2 Parametric Surfaces Phase 11
1 GUIDE DESCRIPTION

This Guide leads an advanced beginner through a fundamental workflow of Geomagic Studio 12 -- that
of discovering the design intent of an imperfect part, or of a near-perfect part that is scanned
imperfectly, and generating a CAD object with perfect geometry.

The Guide requires Geomagic Studio 12 with the Capture, Wrap, Shape, and Parametric Surfaces module
licenses.

This plumb bob will be surfaced with a set of geometrically perfect planes and cones.

1.1 Introduction

“Restoration of intended design” means that surfaces are replaced with geometrically perfect CAD faces.
For example, planar surfaces are replaced with perfectly planar CAD faces, and cone-like surfaces are
replaced with perfectly conical CAD faces.

This workflow starts with two reasonably clean point objects, one that represents the front (or
“forward”) section of the bob, and one that represents the back (or “aft”) portion of the bob. The
process continues with conversion of the Point objects to Polygon objects, consolidation of the two
objects into one, further refinement of the single polygon object, and detection of basic geometric
shapes so they can be rendered as perfectly geometrical CAD faces.

In Geomagic Studio, an object always exists in one of several Phases:

• Point Phase: the state of an object when it is a collection of scanned points.

• Polygon Phase: the state of an object when its appearance is approximated by drawing a
triangular surface between every three data points.

• Surface Phase (either Exact Surfaces Phase or Parametric Surfaces Phase): the state of an object
when a reproducible surface is being applied over its underlying polygon mesh. This Guide describes a
solution involving the Point, Polygon, and Parametric Surfaces Phases.

• CAD Phase: the state of an object when it is ready to be exported to a CAD package.
2 RESTORATION OF INTENDED DESIGN

The instructions in this document use example fi les available from the Geomagic web site. To obtain the
examples, download the data fi les from the web page on which you found this Guide to a directory of
your choice. Double-click it to extract the example files that are referenced in this Guide, then start
Geomagic Studio 12.

It is possible to open the first file, follow the instructions carefully, and complete a workflow without
opening another file. However, each step also mentions a specific file name that provides a new starting
point. For example, the result of steps applied to BobPointPhase.wrp in Step 1 can be checked by
opening BobAfterManualReg.wrp.

2.1 Procedure

2.1.1 Point Phase and Polygon Phase

This procedure starts with two clean point objects contained in a single .wrp fi le. The two objects are
wrapped to form polygon objects. A remnant of the scanning fixture is removed, then the two halves are
registered and combined to form a single polygon object. Voids in the mesh are filled, and an
undesirable feature is removed. Areas of high curvature are delineated, thus separating regions that are
near-perfect planes and cones. The near-perfect shapes are rendered with perfect geometry and a CAD
object is generated from the set of perfect planes and cones.

Step 1. Use Application Button > Open to open BobPointPhase.wrp in

Geomagic Studio 12. This object contains two scans: Underside and Topside.
(Note: The Application Button is the Swirl icon in the top-left corner of Studio.)

This object contains two clean scans: the forward and aft portions of a plumb
bob.

Step 2. Highlight Bob1 in the Model Manager.

From the Points tab, click on the Wrap icon. Accept the defaults, but do not check Keep Original Data,
and press OK.
Step 3. Repeat Step 2 for Bob2.

The result is that both portions of the plumb bob are converted to Polygon objects. Notice that the
Model Manager now contains Polygon objects instead of Point objects. (The objects moved from the
“Point Phase” to the “Polygon Phase”.)

Step 4. Notice that Bob1 contains extra data (part of the fixture to which it was clamped during
data capture). This is a common condition. In this case, set the selection tool to behave like the
Lasso Tool by choosing it from the right-hand menu.

Also, pick Select Through from the right-hand menu or press Ctrl+G (which causes sets of triangles
to be selected “all the way through”, not just the visible or front triangles). Highlight the extra data and
press the Delete key.

Step 5. The next goal is to join each portion of the bob into a single
object. Select both Bob1 and Bob2 in the Model Manager so that
both are highlighted simultaneously.

Navigate to the Alignment tab and click on Manual Registration.

In the Mode group, select the 1-Point Registration radio button.

In the Fixed list, click Bob1. In the Floating list, click Bob2.
The plan is to click one point on Bob1 (the Fixed) and one point on
Bob2 (the Floating) and pull them to a single point in space. The two
halves will look like a single, registered object.
Rotate both objects such that
they have similar orientations.

Click a point on the Fixed object.

Click a point on the Floating
object that lies at the same
position as the one clicked
on the Fixed object.

Immediately, the lower panel displays the

Fixed and Floating objects after they are
registered at to the point that was clicked.
Click
Click on Register to improve the alignment.
Click OK. Notice that Bob1 and Bob2 have
been grouped into Group 1 in the Model
Manager.

Step 6. Open BobAfterManualReg.wrp.

The registered halves of the object are positioned in space to look like a single object. The next
step is to convert the registered halves into a single polygon object. Highlight Group1 in the Model
Manager, navigate to the Polygons tab, and click on Merge. Check the Global Registration checkbox,
which “fine-tunes” the registration done with Manual Registration. Click OK.

The previous command created an object named Merged. Right-click on the name in the Model
Manager and select Rename. Type in PlumbBob and press Enter.
Step 7. There are still two holes in the polygon mesh.
Click Fill All to construct a polygon mesh where holes
exist.

Select the Flat Fill type, click Apply and then click
OK.

Step 8. For the purposes of this Guide, the threaded

hole at the end of the plumb bob does not have to be
reproduced. In fact, objects often have structures that
users prefer to ignore. This step demonstrates a
technique for removing a hole and replacing it with a
plane.

Orient the bob as in the illustration at right, and

select the Custom Region Tool from the right-hand
menu (or use the shortcut Ctrl+U). Click a series of
points around the hole like in the illustration, and press
the Space bar to automatically complete the circle
when it is close to completion.
When the loop becomes complete, everything inside the loop becomes selected, including all polygons
inside the hole.

Press Delete. The selected polygons disappear.

The next step is to fill in the opening. Click Fill All to construct a polygon mesh where holes exist. Select
the Flat Fill type, click Apply and then click OK.

Step 9. Before moving on to Parametric Surfacing, it’s always wise to use the Mesh Doctor. It
optimizes the polygon mesh to avoid problems ahead. Under the Polygons tab, click on Mesh Doctor.
Accept the defaults, click Apply to fix any outstanding errors, and then click OK.

Next is the Parametric Surfacing Phase for surfacing according to the probable design intent. For
example, shapes that approximate planes will be turned into perfect planes, and surfaces that
approximate cones will be turned into perfect cones.
2.1.1 Parametric Surfaces Phase

Step 10. Open BobParametricSurfaces.wrp and select the Parametric Surfaces tab. Click the Start
Parametric Surfacing icon on the left side of the ribbon toolbar.

Step 11. Click on Detect Regions. Accept the defaults and press Compute. The goal is to generate a red
separator band on areas of relatively high curvature, and thus “segment” the object into a set of
relatively flat areas.

Tip: With the default settings, one of the contours failed to be recognized, so set Curvature Sensitivity
up to 75. This object has an element that is small but distinct, namely the beveled shoulder, so set
Minimum Area to the lowest setting (0.26). Click Compute again.

The result of the Detect Regions command can often be improved

by hand. In this case, a planar region was accidentally recognized as
two adjoining planes.

In the Editing group, press the Merge Regions icon. Click in

one of the planes, drag across the extra red separator, and release
the mouse button. The two regions become one. Note: If you wish
to merge other sections, the Merge Regions icon must be pressed
each time.
Any other problems can be fixed by using any of the Selection Tools from the right-hand menu. For
instance, the beveled edge should be defined as one region instead of six separate ones. Hold down the
CTRL key and use the Paintbrush Tool to remove some of the separators like in the picture below. If you
delete too much, use CTRL+Z to undo or redraw them with the Paintbrush Tool.

Repeat that technique to join all the beveled regions into a single beveled region like in the third picture
above.
Under Contours portion of the dialog, click Extract. The regions have now been defined. Click OK. Notice
that the Regions have changed colors indicating the classification of the region. This will be explained in
later steps.

Step 13. Open BobAfterDetectRegions.wrp. Click on Edit Contours. For this model, the contours do not
need to be edited, but for good practice, check the box for Curvature Map, and take a closer look at the
contour lines. Make sure that they follow the curvature appropriately. Click the Check Problems button
to check for any possible contour issues. If there are no problems, click OK.
Step 14. Notice the colors of the regions. These indicate a type of surface classification (i.e. plane,
cylinder, freeform, etc.). Light green is the color for planes. Notice that AutoClassify sometimes
mis-judges the shape of a region. In the picture below, Studio thinks that the salmon colored region is a
freeform because of the rough underlying data.

Click on the mis-classified region like in the picture below and go to Classify Regions>Plane. The region
will now be light green like the rest of the planes on the PlumbBob.

Repeat this action for the beveled edge, which should be a light blue cone like the nose region.

Every region is now correctly assigned a basic geometric shape, so the next step is to calculate a perfect
geometric surface for each geometric shape.
Step15. Press CTRL+A to highlight all of the primary regions. Click Fit Surfaces and then click Apply to
apply surfaces to each of the regions. Blue surfaces indicate that the surface fit well. Orange (warnings)
and red (errors) surfaces indicate problems fitting the regions.
All of the regions except the nose fit as expected. Notice the orange color of the nose surface.

Expand Diagnostics in the dialog and check Error Labels. The warning is High Boundary Deviation. At this
point, we can choose to accept the proposed warning surface by clicking Accept (in which case it will
turn blue), or we can edit the profile of the surface. In this case we are going to edit the profile.

Click OK. A message will appear indicating that warnings remain and that Repair Surfaces can be used
for further instruction. Click OK.
Click on Repair Surfaces. Expand the High Boundary Deviation warning message under Problems and
Click on the name of the surface. A color deviation plot will appear. Click the What’s Wrong button. A
popup will appear indicating what the problem is with the surface and proposes how to fix it. In this
case, we will accept the proposed surface by clicking Accept. Click OK.

Tip: Now that the primary regions are fitted with surfaces, this is the ideal time to use Parametric
Exchange for the transfer of surfaces directly to one of four CAD packages (Inventor, SolidWorks, CATIA,
or Pro/Engineer). The beauty of Parametric Exchange is the real-time, parametric transfer of surfaces to
a CAD package without the necessity to finish the steps in this Guide! Download the Parametric
Exchange User Guide for a guide to using this tool.
Step 16. Now it is time to fit the connections in between the
primary regions. Highlight the straight connections that go
around the model. Go to Classify Connections>Constant
Radius to make them blue. Set the rest of the connections as
Freeform (yellow).

Press CTRL+A to highlight all connections and click on Fit

Connections. Click Apply.

An error such as Intersecting Trim Curves may appear. Click OK.

In this case, the connection lines need to be adjusted so that they aren’t intersecting. Click on Repair
Surfaces. Click on the name of the connection with the error under Problems and click on Fix.
Expand Edit Boundaries and zoom into the problem areas. Manually click and drag the boundary lines so
that they are not criss-crossing like in the picture below. Click Apply and then Done. The error no longer
exists under Problems. Click OK.
Step 17. Perfected surfaces have been generated, so it’s time to render perfected CAD faces. Click on
Trim and Stitch. This is the step that converts generated surfaces into CAD faces. Select the type of CAD
object that you would like to create (see below for explainations).

A Stitched Object is a water-tight representation of CAD faces that represent the object.

Untrimmed Primaries is a set of primary surfaces, with-out connection surfaces --suitable for export to a
CAD package for the creation of custom connections.

Trimmed Primaries is a set of primary surfaces without the connectors, also suit-able for export to a CAD
package for further work.

For the purposes of this Guide, select the Stitched Object radio button, and press the Apply button. Click OK. This
creates a stitched CAD object in the Model Manager.

Step 16. Open BobCADPhase.wrp

Note that PlumBob – Stitched Model exists in the Model

Manager. To export it to a CAD package for further work,
highlight it in the Model Manager, right-click and pick
Save…, then set Save As Type to .IGES or .STEP.