Surface Modeling

Design of surfaces
Topics
 Types of surfaces
Planar s/c, Surface of revolution, extruded
surfaces, complex sweep surfaces, freeform
surfaces
 Representation of surfaces
 Parametric surfaces
 Design of sweep surfaces
 Surface patches
Surfaces
 Surfaces play important role in the design of
products.
 Product designers create smooth aesthetic
functional surfaces on several products.
 In CAGD, designer need flexible tools to
interactively create surfaces, tweak into various
shapes and blend them to create complex shapes.
 A surface in 3D space can be conceived as locus of a
curve which moves as per a specified trajectory
(path) of limited distance.
Parametric surfaces
 It maps a point P(x,y,z) in 3-D space to parametric
space u-v.
 Axis independence, affine invariance are adv.
 Rotational sweep and translational sweep surfaces
 Surface patches
1. Bilinear surface
2. Bi-cubic/Hermite
3. Coon’s patch
4. Bezier, B-spline and NURBS surface
Spherical surface
 x=acos cos, y=asin cos, z=asin, =2u, =2v
Analytical versus parametric
 Examples
 The surface of a helical tube is produced if we sweep a circular
cross section of radius r along a helix γ (t) = (a cos t, a sin t, bt).
Corrugated sheet
 sinusoidal curve on the x-z plane along x-axis is given by (t) =
(t,0,asin t).Sweeping this curve along y-axis by a distance v,

 P(u,v)=
Recap Rotational sweep
Cylindrical, helical surface
 Sweep surfaces

Translational sweep
Corrugated sheets
 Surface patch provides flexibility to designer for locally
tweaking the surface to suit the functionality.
 Surface patch passes through 4 corner points and 4 edge
curves
Hybrid sweep surface
A hybrid sweep is generated by two or more transformation
on a plane curve.
Questions?
 A parametric representation of a surface is given below:
x(u)=1+cosu
y(u)=2+sinu
z(u)=3v
What is this surface?
 A line segment Q(u) is defined by points P0(0,0,0),P1(0,3,0) if is
translated 10 units along. X-axis and simultaneously rotated about X-axis
through 2π.
(Hint: P(u,v)=[T]Q(u), where Q(u)=P0+u(P1-P0) and
[T]=transformation concatenation matrix=[[Rot(x)] {Tran(x)};[0 0 0 1]]
Planar and Bi-linear surface patches P1

 A plane surface is one formed by 3 non-coincident points. u

P2
P(u,v)=P0+u(P1-P0)+v(P2-P0) P0 v
 Bilinear surface has all the four edge curves as well as curves on the
patch are straight lines
P3
C2
P4

C1
P2
P1 u

 Equation of bi-linear surface P(u,v)=C1+v(C2-C1)

 where C1=P1+u(P2-P1), C2=P3+u(P4-P3)
 P(u,v)=(1-u)(1-v)P1+u(1-v)P2+(1-u)vP3+uvP4
Ruled surface P(u,v)=(1-v)C1(u)+vC2(u)

 A ruled surface patch has opposite edge curves which need

not be straight lines. That is curves C1 and C2 can be straight
lines, conics, Bezier, B-spline curves along one parametric
direction (u).
 The ruling curve along v has to be a straight line connecting
the corresponding points on C1 and C2 for chosen values of
u.
 So it is locus of straight line whose two ends are constrained
to move on two space curves C1 and C2 in 3D space.
Coon’s surface patch or bi-cubic patch

 Coon’s patch uses 4 boundary curves rather than 4

corner points in the design.
 Hermite surface patch is one form of Coon’s patch
which requires some tangent boundary conditions.
 There are 4 edge curves all are essentially cubic curves.
 Just like Hermit curves, both position and slope
continuity exists at the corner points.
 Flat ends at the corner points is noticed on this surface.
Hermite’s surface
 It is the tensor product of two cubic isoparametric curves along u
and v, each needing 4 boundary conditions.
 Therefore, 4 x 4 =16 conditions are needed.
 At each corner 2 tangents Pu and Pv exist
 At each corner 1 twist vector Puv exists.
Equation of Hermite patch
 P1 P2 P1u P2u   B1 (u ) 
P P4 P3u P4u   B2 (u )
P(u, v)  B1 (v) B2 (v) B3 (v) B4 (v) 3
 P1v P2v P1uv P2uv   B3 (u ) 
  
 P3v P4v P3uv P4uv   B4 (u )
B1 (u )  1  3u 2  2u 3
B2 (u )  3u 2  2u 3
B3 (u )  u  2u 2  u 3
B4 (u )  u 2  u 3
Bi-cubic Surface Patch
 A bi-cubic patch uses only the position vectors on the boundary
curves.
 To get all the constants, 16 points are required
𝑃 𝑢, 𝑣 = (𝑎0 + 𝑎1𝑢 + 𝑎2𝑢2 + 𝑎3𝑢3)(𝑏0 + 𝑏1𝑣 + 𝑏2𝑣2 + 𝑏3𝑣3)

Fig. Boundary conditions of a bicubic surface patch

Bezier surface patch
 Bezier curves employing Bernstein polynomials along with control
points.
 The equation of Bezier surface patch is given as follows:

Fig. Bezier surface patch

B-spline surface patch
B-spline surface is a synthetic surface and does not pass through all
data points.
Similar to Bezier surfaces, the equation of the B-spline surface is
obtained from four boundary B-spline curves.

Fig. B-Spline surface patch

m 1 n 1
P(u, v)   Bi ,k (u ) B j ,k (v) Pij
i 1 j 1
NURBS surface patch
 NURBS surface is derived from the B-spline surface by introducing
homogeneous coordinates for control points.
 The NURBS surface equation has the advantage of exactly
representing the quadric surfaces such as quadratic, cylindrical,
conical, spherical, paraboloidal, and hyperboloidal surfaces.

Fig. Cylindrical surface by translating a half-circle

Interpolation surface
 Just as a curve is created by interpolating data points, it is possible
to generate a surface from data points, when a geometric model
of an existing physical model is needed.
 There are many methods to interpolate data points.
 These methods are based on the surface equations used for the
interpolation surface.

 To fi t a B-spline surface through them, the equation can be

written as follows:
Surface manipulations
 Surface patches have to be joined together to generate an integral
surface of an object.
 Different types of manipulations are blending, transformation,
trimming etc. for the patches.
 Blending surface connects two adjacent surface patches to
manifest C 0 (position) and C1 (slope) continuity with two
patches as shown in figure.

Fig. Blending surface

 Contd…
n=(PuxPv)/magnitude
Pv
Pu

Fig. Segmented surface patch

Fig. Intersection of surfaces
Surface normal and curvature
 The expression for surface normal at any point is given as
𝑃𝑢 𝑃𝑣
N=
𝑃𝑢 𝑃𝑣
Where Pu and Pv are tangent vectors which are partial derivatives
w.r.t u and v respectively.
 Gaussian curvature is given by
𝐴𝐶−𝐵2
K= , where A, B, C are obtained from
𝑃𝑢 𝑃𝑣 4

[A B C]=[Pu  Pv]. [Puu Puv Pvv]

 If K is zero at all points on the surface, it is a developable surface.
Example: cone and cylindrical surfaces.
Summary
 A surface model generates a physical object bounded by
surfaces.
 Surfaces are represented either with analytical equations or may
be synthesized from a set of given data points.
 Sweep surfaces are formed by revolving or extruding a base
curve about an axis.
 A ruled surface is one in which the two base curves are joined
by two straight lines as edge curves.
 Surface blending, segmentation, intersection, and trimming are
important surface manipulation operations.
1
SOLID MODELING
 The third category of solid representation is
solid modelling.
 Solid modelling has become increasingly
popular due to its several advantages such as
rapid solid generation features, reduced
computing costs, improved user interfaces, and
new software configurations.
 It gives complete definition of part geometry and
topology through solid models is a key to
computer-integrated manufacturing.
 Programmable automation is achieved by
developing application algorithms that directly
operate on solid modelling databases. 2
Conti….
 Solid modelling techniques provide complete, valid, and
unambiguous representations of objects and give complete
details about an object such as its mass properties (such as
finding the center of mass, moments of inertia, and so on).
 Solid primitives such as cubes and cylinders can be added
or subtracted through several Boolean operations to form
solids of various distinct forms.
Many systems use the building block approach and sweep
operations as the basis for user interface.

3
Conti….
 The accuracy of a solid model depends on
the representation scheme and the data
stored in the database of the model.
 Several such schemes are available and
each scheme has its own advantages and
disadvantages, depending on their
application.
 Even solid models are complete and
unambiguous, but their representation is not
unique. This means that an object may be
created in various ways using different
primitives.
4
CONSTRUCTION OF SOLIDS
 Solids require information of surfaces and boundary
geometry along with topological data that represents the
relationship between the surfaces.
 Geometry is the actual dimension that defines the entities
of an object. Topology is the connectivity and the
associative nature of the object entities.
 The four widely used primitives are block, cylinder, cone,
and sphere. These are based on natural quadrics namely,
planes, cylinders, cones, and sphere.
Contd.,

For example, a block is formed by six intersecting

planes. These quadrics are considered to be commonly

found surfaces in design engineering.

Primitives require a set of location data, geometric data,

and orientation data to define them completely. Location

data entails a primitive local coordinate system and an

input point defining its origin.

6
Solid Primitives
A primitive is conceived as a parametric solid defined by two
sets of geometric data as follows:
1. Primitive size parameters
2. Primitive orientation parameters

Block It is a cube or a box which has the width, height, and

depth with a local coordinate system X-Y-Z as shown in Fig.
6.1.

Cylinder It is a primitive whose geometry is defined by radius R

and length H. The length is usually in the direction of the local Z-
7
axis. Refer to Fig. 6.2.
Cone A cone is a right circular frustum whose base diameter is R and
height H are used as user-defined parameters. Refer to Fig. 6.3.

Sphere A sphere is defined with radius R and is centered about the

origin of its local coordinate system. It is obtained by revolving a
semicircle about an axis as shown in Fig. 6.4.
Wedge The wedge has height H, width W, and base depth D as its
geometric data as shown in Fig. 6.5.

Torus It is another primitive generated by the revolving a circle about

an axis lying in its plane of local Z-axis as shown in Fig. 6.6. Torus
geometry can be defined by the radius of its body R1 and radius of
centre line of torus body R2 or by the inner and outer radii.
 Conti….
 The origin of local coordinates P in some systems coincides
with the world coordinate system and the user has to
translate the primitive to a desired location for avoiding the
entry of point P every time
 The common shape between the primitives is obtained by
the intersection () operator, while the difference operator is
used to subtract one object from the other and results in a
shape equal to the difference in their volumes.
 Figure 6.7 shows an example of Boolean operations
between a block A and cylinder B.

10
Desirable Characteristics of Solid Model

 Most objects around our surroundings are solids. These

tasks, therefore, involve pure solid modelling.
 Complete 3-D models are required in applications such as
finite element modelling, interference checking,
processing planning, and scheduling
Any valid solid should exhibit the following properties.

 Rigidity
 Finiteness.
 Closure property
 Three-dimensional homogeneity

11
Solid Modeling Representation Schemes
1. Pure primitive instancing
2. Generalized Sweep
3. Cellular decomposition
Spatial enumeration
Octree encoding
4. Constructive solid geometry (CSG)
5. Boundary Representation (B-Rep)
6. Analytical solid modeling

12
SOLID REPRESENTATION SCHEMES
 A pure solid is represented in different ways for various
computer-aided engineering (CAE) applications.
 Some popular methods of representing a solid are
presented briefly in this section.
Cellular Decomposition
Fig. 6.8 can be generated in two different ways—one with
three cells and another with multiple cells as shown in Fig. 6.8
(b) and (c).

13
Spatial enumeration
 When the same shape and size of basic elements are used to
model a solid, the scheme is called spatial enumeration.

Octree encoding
 When these cells are of varying dimensions but have the same
shape, they are called octree encoding.
 An octree encoding scheme divides regions of the three
dimensional (3-D) space into octants and stores eight data
elements in each node of the tree (see Fig. 6.9).

14
Generalized Sweep
There are two types of sweep in common practice as follows:
1. Linear
2. Non-linear
Non-linear sweep operation is similar to translational sweep with
the directrix (path) replaced by a curve instead of straight line as
shown in Fig. 6.10.

Pure Primitive Instancing

 In order to generate different types of similar components, we use
pure primitive instancing methodology.
 By varying the values (attributes) of primitive (predefined shape),
one can obtain the members of the part family 15
Boundary Representation (B-rep) Scheme
 A more concise way to represent a solid is by assigning
boundary points on the surfaces. This is often called polyhedral
representation.
 In this scheme, a solid object is represented by its topological
boundary with vertex, edge, loop, face, and shell data.
 Figure 6.11 shows the database details of a solid represented
in the B-rep scheme. Each vertex (V1, V2, V3, and V4) is
represented as a point P with coordinates (x, y, and z).

16
 Conti….
 Objects in engineering practice are of two types—polyhedral
objects and curved objects. Curved objects are beyond the scope
of fundamental discussion.
 Polyhedral objects consist of planar faces (sides) connected at
straight (linear) edges which, in turn, are connected at vertices
 In the fourth class, objects have holes (pockets) through the entire
object. Such through holes are called handles. Figure 6.12 shows
examples of such objects.

17
Topological Validity of Solids
 Once the boundary model elements are defined, the validity
of the B-rep model has to be verified.
 Euler proved that a polyhedral whose faces are non-self-
intersecting and belong to closed oriented surfaces are
topologically valid if they satisfy the following condition:

There are five regular objects existing in practice as follows.

1. Tetrahedron (K = 3, K = 3)
1 2

2. Cube (K = 3, K = 4)
1 2

3. Topaz (K = 4, K = 3)
1 2

4. Dodecahedron (K = 3, K = 5)
1 2

5. Icosahedron (K = 5, K = 3)
1 2
18
Data-structures for B-rep Models
 The B-rep model constructs an object in terms of its
constituent faces by gluing them along the edges.
 There are three commonly used data structures for a
B-rep model as follows:
1. Polygon-based data structure
2. Wing-edge data structure
3. STL data structure

19
Wing-edge data structure
 The wing-edge data structure tracks the object edges.
The edge is shared by two faces—F1 and F2—and is
defined by the vertices P1 and P2.
 Vertices constituting the faces are ordered in a
counter-clockwise direction. The data structure
considers tracking the edge in a specific order.
 For face F1, the order is P1 to P2, while for face F2,
the order is P2 to P1. On each face, we can determine
the predecessor and successor edges to the edge.
 Thus, this data structure has eight entries—start and
end vertices, left and right faces, and predecessor and
successors for left face and right faces.
 The wing-edge data structure minimizes redundancy of
data and enables efficient query processing.

20
3.STL (Stereolithography) FORMAT
• Here every face is divided into small
triangles called facets.
• STL file contains list of facets and the
associated data.
• Each facet is identified by a unit normal
and three constituent vertices of the
face.
Constructive Solid Geometry
 The constructive solid geometry (CSG) model is based on the fact
that an object is divided into a set of primitives which are
combined in a certain order following a set of rules (Boolean
operations) to form the 3-D object
 Figure 6.17 shows a CSG tree with four primitives and three
Boolean operations (two unions and one difference) along with the
final part.

22
Half-spaces
 All primitives are made up of simpler entities in terms of
surface equations called half-spaces which have geometric
parameters.
 The 2-D half-spaces are created by straight lines, open and
closed curves, while 3-D half-spaces are created by planes
and surfaces.

23
Demerits of CSG

1. The CSG tree is not unique. It is not suitable for

automated geometric reasoning of model to
downline
application task for design automation.
2. CSG models are not good for surface-based
property estimation due to the absence of face,
edge,
and vertex and connectivity database.
3. Realistically rendered images cannot be readily
produced; rather they require a special ray-tracing
algorithm.
24
Comparison between B-Rep and
CSG
B-rep CSG
The model requires The model is built from
drawing the outlines of solid primitives such as
an object cubes and cylinders
Unusual shapes are The initial model can
possible be easily formed
Boundaries are stored The model is stored as
entire data
Analytic Solid Modelling
 This is a 3-D parametric modelling approach with u, v,
and w as the parameters. The solid representation in
Cartesian domain (x, y, and z) is mapped into a cubical
parametric domain
P(u, v, w) = [ f(u, v, w), g(u, v, w), h(u, v, w)]

 The functions f, g, and h define the coordinates of the

data points required to describe the parametric solid.
 Most commercial software CAD packages frequently
use B-Rep, CSG, or sweeping schemes due to their
application interchangeability. 26
MANIPULATION OF SOLIDS

The various ways of solid manipulations are as follows:

1. Display
2. Segmentation
3. Trimming/Extrusion/Intersections
4. Transformations and editing
Display effects of solids

Segmentation of solids Figure below shows a type of

segmentation of a solid into four other solids.

27
Trimming
Trimming of a solid involves intersecting the solid with
trimming boundaries such as surfaces followed by removal of
the solid portions outside these boundaries.

Editing and transformations

 A realistic model is normally generated from several

alterations of the original model.
 Even if the model is not new, it requires several alterations
before its final design.
28
USE OF SOLID MODELS IN COMPUTER-AIDED
ENGINEERING
 Solid models are not only employed for visualization,
animation, and analysis modelling, but also for other
applications in CAE, that utilize advanced computer
graphics simulation technologies to replace complex
product prototype development procedures

Mass Property Calculations

 The main advantage of a solid model is the ability to directly

calculate the volumetric properties of an object from its
mathematical description.
 The volumetric properties of an object include its volume
(mases), centroids (centre of gravity), moment of inertia, and
product of inertia.
29
Mass

The mass of an object element is defined as follows

For the homogeneous material, we obtain the following:

Centroid or Centre of Mass

Centroid is defined by the centre where the total mass of the
body can be assumed to be concentrated. The location of
centroid is defined as follows:

30
Moments of Inertia
 The first moment of inertia is defined as the moment of an
object property (volume or mass) with respect to a given
plane
 The first moment of a distributed mass of an object with
respect to each plane is given as follows:

31
Kinematic Analysis

 Motion analysis of a solid model without considering

external forces is referred to as kinematic analysis.
 The key results of interest are finding the assembly range of
motion and determining part displacements, velocities, and
accelerations.
 Kinematic motion analysis actually appraises the models
under specific motion sequence which may be evaluated for
interference detection or simple description to generate
simulated motion sequence for demonstration purposes.

32
Conti….
Figure 6.22 shows the screenshot of mass property
assessment in SolidWorks environment.

33
VISUAL REALISM IN SOLID MODELS

 One of the most important applications of CAD/CAM is its

ability to provide users with visual displays of the objects
and scenes they model on the system.
 Visualization is the most effective means of communicating
new ideas and designs among designers, engineers, and
others. Visualization embraces both image understanding
and image synthesis.
 By shading the parts with different colours and by using
shadowing and transparency, a designer can easily detect
any undesired hidden interferences as shown in Fig. 6.23.

34
Hidden Line and Hidden Surface Removal

 When an object in space is projected on to a screen, its

clarity can be enhanced by displaying only the visible lines
and surfaces
 These algorithms are classified as object-space and image-
space methods. Object-space approaches are implemented
in the physical coordinate system in which objects are
described.
 The visibility of parts of objects of a scene depends on the
location of the viewing eye, the viewing direction, type of
projection, and the depth from various faces of objects in
35
the scene to the eye.
Back-face Removal Algorithm
 Back-face algorithm (an object-space method) is based on
the fact that a face of an object is visible if its normal vector
(in the direction of the outside of the object) points toward
the viewer and is otherwise invisible.
 Therefore, if the direction of the light face is pointing
towards the viewer, the face is visible as seen from Fig.
6.24

36
Z-Buffer Algorithm

 This is one of the commonly used image-space approaches

to eliminate hidden surfaces. The Z-buffer or depth buffer
algorithm compares the surface depths at each pixel
position (x, y) on the projection plane.

The main advantages of this method are as follows:

1. It is very easy to implement.
2. It can be implemented in hardware to overcome speed
difficulties.
3. The algorithm can handle a large number of polygons.
37
Depth-sorting Algorithm

 In depth sorting algorithm, the surfaces of the objects are

sorted by distances from the viewer and filled with their
respective colours from the farthest face to the nearest
face.
 The new paint covers the older shades so that only the
newest layer of paint is visible as shown in Fig. 6.25.

38
Shading and Colouring

 Shaded images convey the information regarding the shape

that cannot be represented in line drawings. Shaded
images can also convey features other than shapes such
as surface finish or material type.
 All modern CAD software tools provide this shading feature.
 Figure 6.26 shows some solid models with added shading.

39
Illumination Model
 An illumination model describes the interaction of the light
incident on a surface in terms of the surface properties and
the nature of the incident light.
 Computer graphics consider phenomena such as reflection
and transmission of light by a surface in displaying the
images. As seen in Fig. 6.27 (a).
 When light is scattered with equal intensities in all directions,
it is termed as diffuse reflection(Fig. 6.27 (b)).

40
Colour Models

 Colours are generated on the viewing screen using the

trichromatic ability of the human eye.
 A colour is perceived either as an additive effect of a
combination of three basic primary colours.
 Thus, it is used for CRT monitor-based image displays.
Figure 6.28 shows RGB and CMY colour spaces.

41
Shading Algorithms
 Shading is the operation of varying the colour or intensity
across the object face. Chromatic colours lie within the
spectrum of light and are detected by the cones of human
eyes.
Constant intensity shading (flat-shading) algorithm
 In this algorithm, the same shade is used over the entire
polygon. It can be used for quickly displaying the general
appearance of a curved surface as shown in Fig. 6.29.

42
Gourand shading
 It is a popular form of intensity interpolation. The polygon
surface is displayed by linearly interpolating intensity values
across the surface.
 Figure below shows an object with various surface
normals. Here, n = (n1 + n2 + n4 )/3, where n1 , n 2 and
n4 are the surface normal vectors.

43
 Conti….
 Intensity interpolation results in bright and dark intensity
streaks called Mach bands on the surface. The Mach-band
effect can be reduced by dividing the surface into greater
number of polygon faces.
 Figure below shows solid models with Gouraud shading.

44
Phong shading
 While Gourand shading is used to produce shaded
animation (motion sequence), shading changes in a strange
way because the interpolation is based on intensities.
The steps followed in this method are as follows:
1. Determine the average unit normal vector at each polygon
vertex.
2. Linearly interpolate the vertex normals over the surface of
the polygon.
3. Apply an illumination model along each scan-line to
determine the projected pixel intensities for
the surface points.
For example, for a polygon shown in Fig. 6.33,
45
Conti….

A summary of differences in different shading algorithms is given in Table 6.3.

46
SUMMARY
 Solids are constructed from basic elements called
primitives. Few commonly used primitives are block,
cylinder, cone, sphere, wedge, and torus.
 When these primitives are manipulated with Boolean
operators such as union, intersection, and subtraction, we
obtain different solids.
 There are different solid representation schemes. B-rep,
CSG, and sweep models are the famous methods used in
practice.
 Solids are properly manipulated to produce the required
shapes. 47
Conti….
 Visual realism is one of the effective means of
communicating design details in solid models. It involves
the removal of hidden lines and surfaces from solids and
applying shades and colors to the faces.
 The three famous hidden line/surface removal algorithms
are back-face removal, Z-buffer algorithm, and depth
sorting.
 Similarly, for shading, one can either use flat shading or
smooth shading Coloring, transparency, and shadows in
solid models are some related phenomena
48
CAD Standards
CAD Standards
• At CAD software configuration level, graphics
package must generate the image by using
application programs irrespective of the type
of display or input devices.
• Otherwise, an application would be specific to
a particular workstation.
• Such device independence is achieved by
inserting a kernel system before the driver so
as to follow the graphics standardization.

2
Types of CAD Standards
• Graphics standards at CAD software configuration
level
• Exchange standards at database level
• Communication standards between equipment and
CAD system level

Application Applic. Device

kernel
database Programs driver
Workstation

Exchange std., Graphics std., I Graphics std., II Graphics std.,III

3
Examples of CAD standards
• GRAPHICS Standards
(1) CORE system,
(2) Graphic Kernel systems (GKS)
(3) PHIGS
(4) OpenGL
• DATA EXCHANGE STANDARDS
(1) Initial graphics exchange specifications (IGES)
(2) DXF (Product definition data)
(3) STEP (Product data)
• COMMUNICATION STANDARDS
(1) DMIS (Dimensional measurement interface
specification)

4
Graphics Standards
• Graphics (application) standards allow
transportability of programs from one computer
system to another.
• Graphics data files define the representation of
graphical images with data.
• Graphics standards were initially started to free
the programmer from being tied to a single
screen.
• Some of the earlier graphics standards include
CORE and graphics kernel system.

5
 Graphics standards contd.,

• Graphics programs would not require modification at

the source level, even when the graphics device
changes.
• Therefore, in order to meet the requirements of
different hardware and software packages for
CAD/CAM applications, device-independent graphics
and efficient portability of data from one software to
another are very essential.
• Standards govern the methods for connecting different
graphics hardware to the computer and the internal
construction of the software.

6
 Need of graphics standards
• Application program portability
This avoids hardware dependence of the program. For example, a
program written originally for direct view storage tube (DVST)
display can be transported to support a raster display with minimal
effort.
• Picture data portability
Storage of pictures should be independent of different graphics
devices.
• Text portability
Text associated with graphics can be presented in an independent
form of hardware.
• Object database portability
This is used to shop a CAD database of a specific design to an
external vendor to manufacture and produce the product.

7
Types of graphics standards

1.Interface standards to standardize the

communication at an interface between hardware
and software elements.
2. Data interface standards, where the digital
representation of data is used to send commands
from a computer to graphics display.
3. Subroutine interface standards to specify the
behaviour of a set of subroutines that can be called
to manipulate graphical data.

8
 1.Graphic Kernel System
It is a subroutine interface used by application programmers to
manage graphical input/output. It is an international standard
approved by the ISO.
It specifies the interface to a graphics subroutine library, which
addresses the graphical input/output needs in a range of
applications.
he original GKS was developed as a 2-D standard in 1982;
It was extended to 3-D graphics later.
The GKS has the following objectives:
1. It should provide a complete range of graphical facilities in
two dimensions.
2. It should control all types of graphical devices such as
plotters and display devices.
9
 Graphic Kernel System (contd.,)
• GKS is a form of computer language comprising a series of
commands for graphical operations.
• The graphical parts of a program may be designed as a
series of these GKS commands
• GKS has helped in layer modelling for graphics
programming.
• It is based on a number of primitives that may be used in
an image.
• They have names such as POLYLINE (n, X, Y) (to draw a
multi-line), POLYMARKER (n, X, Y) (to draw the points),
FILLAREA (n, X, Y) to raster-fill operation, and TEXT
primitive.

10
2.Programmer’s Hierarchical Interactive Graphical
System (PHIGS)
• Both CORE and GKS do not support dynamic displaying and more user
interactions. Therefore, the ISO suggested another standard known as
programmer’s hierarchical interactive graphics system (PHIGS).
• This standard is intended to support high function workstations and
their related CAD/CAM applications. The benefits of PHIGS over GKS-
3D are its ability to handle dynamic graphic changes.
• PHIGS defines a set of device-independent logical concepts. These
logical concepts are used with a set of PHIGS rules to store and
retrieve data.
PHIGS defines six basic logical concepts as follows:
1. Structure networks and manipulation,
2. Logical input device
3. Search and enquiry
4. Structure transversal and display
5. Graphic output in PHIGS
6. Viewing pipeline to record the sequence of operations
11
3.Virtual Device Interface (VDI)
• The virtual device interface (VDI) is a standard developed by the
American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
• It defines a standard way for a program to drive a graphics device.
• Its main purpose is to provide a device-independent way to control
hardware.
• VDI is a lower level standard.
• It lies between the kernel and the device driver and is designed to
interface plotters to GKS or PHIGS.
• It can be used to obtain greater control and flexibility by using it to
communicate directly with graphics devices.
• It is not suitable to interface intelligent workstations.
• It is also not well-matched to a distributed (network) environment.
• VDI is now popularly called computer graphics interface (CGI).

12
4.Virtual Device Metafile (VDM)
• The virtual device metafile (VDM) standard defines the functions
needed to describe a picture.
• It is a means of permanent picture storage.
• It is a way to communicate graphical data between programs or
between computers,
• Writing data in metafile is similar to sending graphical data to a
display or plotter.
• The software for creating metafiles is embodied in the device
driver. A separate software is available to read and to interpret
metafiles.
• It functions at the level just above device drivers. VDM is now
popularly called computer graphics metafi le (CGM).

13
Advantages and disadvantages
Advantages Disadvantages

1. The user can select graphics hardware 1. Once standards are defined, they may
according to the needs of performance or create difficulties in accommodating new
cost. Therefore, the user can upgrade the needs.
graphics equipment to fulfil the current 2. Improper implementation of standards
demands. may create problems to users.
2. Due to the property of device 3. Suitability of a particular standard for a
independence, application programs can given application must be carefully
address a wide range of audience analyzed.
3. One can use standard software 4. A given application may not run equally
package that provides the necessary well on a wide variety of devices.
facilities so that development of new
graphics routines every time may be
avoided.
4. Transporting application programs from
one computer to another becomes easy.
5. It facilitates in training application
programmers who use interactive
graphics. 14
2.Exchange standards via Neutral file formats

• The method of using neutral file formats eliminates large number of programs to
be written for exchange.
• Compared to the direct translator mode, the neural file format structure runs
quite slowly and data files may be lengthy.
• However, neutral files can be potentially archived and the database can be kept
for several years.
1. Initial graphic exchange specifi cation (IGES)
2. Drawing interchange format (DXF)
3. Standard for exchange of product model data (STEP)
4. PDES 15
 neutral file between two systems

Standard
Neutral file

Database Database
Pre-processor Post-processor

Data exchange requires 2 translators from either side for

transmission. Exchange is also possible by introducing a neutral
structure independent of existing system. Each system has its
own pair of processors to transfer data to and from this neutral
file format.

16
Initial Graphics Exchange Specification IGES
• Initial graphics exchange specification (IGES or IGS) was approved
as an ANSI standard in 1981.
• It enables exchange of model databases among CAD/CAM systems.
• The IGES functions at the level of the object database or application
data structure in the graphics software configuration.
• The IGES has undergone various revisions since its inception and
currently, it is supporting solid modelling, including CSG and B-rep
schemes. The IGES defines a neutral database which describes an
IGES model of a given product.
• This file can be read and interpreted by different CAD/CAM systems
and the product data can be exchanged among the systems.
• IGES model is built on the concept of entities. Entities may be simple
geometric objects such as points, lines, plane-arcs, and so on.
• Each entity defined by the IGES is assigned a specific entity type
number for referring in the IGES file.

17
IGES contd.,
• IGES has several sections.
• Records are presented in 80 column fields.
• 1-72 provide the data and values 73-80 provide a sequence number for
record.
• IGES consists of following 6 sub-sections:
* Flag section
* Start Section
* Global section
* Directory entry section
* Parameter data section
The IGES has the following three data type entities:
1. Geometric (101 to 198)
2. Annotation (202 to 230)
3. Structure (302 to 600)
Geometric entities define product shape and include curves, surfaces,
Annotation and structure are non-geometric data types. IGES reserves entity
numbers 100 to 199 for geometric entities.
18
* Terminate section
IGES contd.,
Data presented in the parameter section varies with the type of entity. For
circular arc (type 100), the parameter data stored are: (i) parallel
displacement of X,Y plane containing arc along Z-axis (ii) arc center X and Y
coordinates, (iii) start point X and Y coordinates (iv) end point X and Y
coordinates.
SolidWorks IGES file using analytic representation for surfaces S 1
1H,,1H;,2Hp9,27HC:\Users\nit\Desktop\p9.IGS,15HSolidWorks 2012,15HSolidW G 1
orks 2012,32,308,15,308,15,2Hp9,1.,2,2HMM,50,0.125,13H170406.161713, G 2
1E-008,499990.,3Hnit,,11,0,13H170406.161713; G 3
314 1 0 0 0 00000200D 1
314 0 7 1 0 0D 2
110 2 0 0 0 01010000D 3
110 0 0 1 0 0D 4
color 110 3 0 0 0 01010000D 5
110 0 0 1 0 0D 6
120 4 0 0 0 01010000D 7
Line 120 0 0 1 0 0D 8
126 5 0 0 0 01010500D 9
126 0 0 2 0 0D 10
s/c of rev 124 7 0 0 0 00000000D 11
124 0 0 4 0 0D 12
100 11 0 0 0 11 01010000D 13
100 0 0 1 0 0D 14
19
2.Drawing Exchange Format
• Drawing exchange format (DXF) files are originally developed to
give the user flexibility in managing the data. It is not an industry
standard.
• They translate AutoCAD drawing into file formats that could be
read and used by other CAD systems. It contains five basic
sections—header section,
table section,
blocks section,
entity section,
terminate or end section, where the information about
the end of fi le is visible.
• The header section describes AutoCAD drawing environment
(i.e., system settings) such as dimension style and layers.
• Generally, DXF files are very lengthy, even for simple drawings.

20
 DXF summary
• DXF is standard developed by Autodesk corp.
• DXF is ASCII text file containing both 2-D and
3-D geometric and topological information in
addition to information of layer, line color and
text.

21
 2.Product model data standards
• IGES and DXF files are developed to exchange
product definition data instead of product data.
• Product data means the data relevant to the
entire life cycle of a product including design,
manufacture, quality assurance, testing, and
support. In principle, data exchange standards
define an agreed-upon syntax and structure of 3-
D modelling constructs and annotations for
tolerances and dimensions so that all
participants in the manufacturing supply chain
can understand each other’s models.
22
 3.STEP (Standard for exchange of
product model data)
• Standards for product data representation are
essential to digital manufacturing.
• No single software tool can perform all the
engineering tasks needed to design and
manufacture a product.
• Users will mix and match the software products
according to their business objectives.
• Suppliers may not have access to the same
software as original equipment manufacturers.

23
 STEP CONTD.,
• In 1984, the ISO established a single worldwide
standard for exchange of product model data
known as the standard for exchange of product
model data (STEP).
• It standardizes the exchange of digital product
data including geometric shapes, topology,
tolerances, relations, attributes, etc.
• Based on its importance, several companies are
providing tools to access and manipulate STEP
data.
24
 STEP configuration
• STEP uses a three-layer architecture. These include
application layer, logical layer and physical layer.
• The application layer is the interface between the user
and STEP and contains all descriptions and information of
various application areas.
• The logical layer provides a consistent, computer-
independent description of data constructs.
• The physical layer deals with the data structures and data
format for the exchange file.
• STEP files are fully interpretable by the computer. It
eliminates human presence in product data exchange.
25
 ISO-10303-21;
Example STEP file
 HEADER;
 FILE_DESCRIPTION((''),'1');
 FILE_NAME('S718Y-60-G','1998-06-04T',('DesignSuite'),(''),
 'PRO/ENGINEER BY PARAMETRIC TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION, 9745',
 'PRO/ENGINEER BY PARAMETRIC TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION, 9745','');
 FILE_SCHEMA(('CONFIG_CONTROL_DESIGN'));
 ENDSEC;
 DATA;
 #1=CARTESIAN_POINT('',(-2.094E0,-2.875E0,-1.375E0));
 #2=DIRECTION('',(0.E0,1.E0,0.E0));
 #3=DIRECTION('',(1.E0,0.E0,0.E0));
 #4=AXIS2_PLACEMENT_3D('',#1,#2,#3);
 #6=CARTESIAN_POINT('',(-2.094E0,-2.875E0,-1.375E0));
 #7=DIRECTION('',(0.E0,1.E0,0.E0));
 #8=DIRECTION('',(-1.E0,0.E0,0.E0));
 ……………………………….
 …………………………………………..
 #8590=TRIMMED_CURVE('',#8589,(0.E0),(1.E0),.T.,.UNSPECIFIED.);
 #8595=TRIMMED_CURVE('',#8594,(0.E0),(1.E0),.T.,.UNSPECIFIED.);
 #8600=TRIMMED_CURVE('',#8599,(0.E0),(1.E0),.T.,.UNSPECIFIED.);
 #8612=ADVANCED_BREP_SHAPE_REPRESENTATION('',(#8463),#8611);
 #8619=PRODUCT_DEFINITION('design','',#8618,#8615);
 #8620=PRODUCT_DEFINITION_SHAPE('','SHAPE FOR S718Y-60-G.',#8619);
 #8621=SHAPE_DEFINITION_REPRESENTATION(#8620,#8612);
 ENDSEC;
 END-ISO-10303-21;
26
 Main advantages of STEP
• Data exchange between dissimilar systems.
• Long term archieving due to system independent
STEP architecture
• Life cycle support for product development,
revisions and maintenance
• Web-based communication and exchange of
product data

27
 COMMUNICATION STANDARDs
• For manufacturing-related data communication, a new
standard called dimensional measurement interface
specification (DMIS) is used.
• It provides a bi-directional communication of inspection
data between computer systems and inspection
equipment.
• The manufacturing database is used to generate
inspection programs for coordinate measuring machine
(CMM) in addition to part programs for NC machine
tool.

28
Process of creating standards
Train all users to
standards use

Yes
Do existing CAD files Convert existing files to
need to be updated meet new standards

No

Use standard

Check on compliance
with standard

29
 Important questions
1. Describe the basic functions of a graphics system/package.
2. What is rasterization? Name line drawing algorithms.
3. 3-D homogeneous transformation matrix for rotation and translation.
4. Distinguish the properties of geometric modeling and drafting software.
5. Cox-de Boor recursive formula for B-spline basis functions.
6. Define the NURBS curve formed by ‘n+1’ control points.
7. Write the equation of ruled surface P(u,v) formed by boundary curves R(u) and Q(u).
8. What is parametric representation of surface of revolution and tabulated cylinder.
9. State the important characteristics of Bezier and B-spline surface patches.
10. What is hybrid sweep surface? A line in X-Y plane (x(u),y(u)) is rotated along X-axis by 360o and
translated along X-axis by  units simultaneously. Write the resultant parametric equation of the
surface
11. Explain some surface manipulations like segmentation and intersection
12. Define the surface normal and Gaussian curvature?
13. Data-structures used for boundary representation models.
14. Basic primitives and Boolean operators used in CSG modeling?
15. Various Solid modeling representation schemes.
16. Give the advantages and disadvantages of CSG representation of solids
17. Explain any two hidden surface removal techniques.
18. Describe the Gourand and Phong shading algorithms.
19. What are needs of graphics standards and give examples?
20. Explain the file structure of IGES and DXF.
 Important questions
[1] Explain surface manipulations like segmentation, trimming, intersection
etc.
[2] What is linear and nonlinear sweep referring to solids?
[3] List-out any application areas of solid modeling.
[4] Apply Euler-Poincare topology validation formula for given solid
[5] Using vision vector and surface normal, how would you identify a back
face?
[6] Lambert’s cosine law for diffuse reflection and what is specular reflected
surface.
[7] What is total illumination intensity as per Phong? (I=Iambient+Idiffusive+Ispecular)
[8] How would you find a vertex normal from the shared surface normals.
[9] What are the needs of graphics standards. Explain salient features of GKS
and PHIGS standards.
[10] Differentiate between product definition and product model data (IGES
and STEP) exchange standards.
[11] B-Rep model of a tetrahedron using polyhedral data structure.
[12] Explain the mathematical definition and applications of NURBS surfaces.