UNIT - II

GEOMETRIC MODELING

SOLID MODELING
• Solid modeling is the most powerful 3D modeling
technique. Solid models are considered as
complete, valid and unambiguous representation
of objects.
• The completeness of the information contained
in a solid model allows the automatic production
of realistic images of a shape and automation of
the process of interference checking.
 SOLID MODELING
Solid models should contain two types of
information such as
1. Metric or Geometric Data
2. Connectivity or Topological Data
The Geometric data relate to the coordinate
positions of the entities of the object or actual
dimensions that define entities of the object.
The Topological data refers the connectivity
and associatively of the object entities.
SOLID MODELING
 SOLID MODEL REPRESENTATION
(i)Wireframe models:

Joining points and curves creates wireframe

models. These models can be ambiguous and
unable to provide mass property calculations,
hidden surface removal or generation of
shaded images. Wireframe models are mainly
used for a quick verification of design ideas.
 SOLID MODEL REPRESENTATION
(ii)Surface models:
Surface models are created using points, lines,
and planes. A surface model is unable to
identify points that do not lie on the surface,
and therefore, the moment of inertia, volume,
or sections of the model cannot be obtained.
 A surface model can be shaded for better
visibility. Surface models are used for
modeling surfaces of engineering
components.
 SOLID MODEL REPRESENTATION
(iii)Solid models:
Solid models are the most preferred form of
CAD models and they represent unambiguous
image of a component.

A solid model can be used to analyze the

moment of inertia, mass, volume, sections of
the model, etc.
 SOLID MODEL ENTITIES
 Solid modeling entities are building blocks which
are also called primitives.
 Most of the commercially available solid
modeling packages such as AutoCAD,
SolidWorks, Unigraphics, IDEAS, Pro/Engineer
 It have certain set of solid primitives which can be
combined by a mathematical set of Boolean
operations to create the solid model.
 A solid modeler has a library of set of primitives
such as block, cylinder, sphere, cone, wedge,
torus
 SOLID MODEL ENTITIES
Solid Primitives
 SOLID MODEL ENTITIES
 Block:
It is a cuboid or box which is represented by its width, height and depth.
 Cylinder:
It is a right circular cylinder whose geometry is defined by its radius or
diameter and length
 Cone:
It is a right circular cone or frustum of a right circular cone whose geometry
is defined by its base radius, top radius and height.
 Sphere:
It is defined by its radius or diameter and it is centered about the origin.
 Wedge:
It is a right angled wedge whose geometry is defined by its height, width
and base depth.
 Torus:
It is generated by the revolution of a circle about an axis lying in its plane.
The geometry can be defined by both inner radius and outer radius.
 SOLID MODEL APPROACHES
There are two different types of solid
modeling approaches:

Primitive based modeling

Feature based modeling.
 SOLID MODEL APPROACHES
 Primitive based modeling:
The designers use the predefined primitives
described above to create complex solids.
Designers must use Boolean operations to
combine the primitives and produce the required
shape. A right combination of primitives is
selected and their specific instances are used as
bricks or elements to build the solid. The
available Boolean operations are
 Union or combination (u or +)
 Intersection (n or I)
 Difference or subtraction (-).
 SOLID MODEL APPROACHES
Feature based modeling:
Feature based modeling is more flexible
because it allows the construction of more
complex shape and it elaborates solids more
readily than the primitive based modeling.
This type of modeling is in fact a
generalization of primitives approach. Here
also, Boolean operations are used but they are
hidden from the user.
 SOLID MODEL APPROACHES
For example, creating a protrusion on the
face of a cube is a Boolean union and creating
a cut in the cube is a Boolean subtraction.
These operations are must for the creation of
final solid.
SOLID MODEL APPROACHES
The various representation schemes have
been developed to create solid models.
Half-spaces
Boundary representation (B-rep)
Constructive solid geometry (CSG)
Sweeping
Analytic Solid Modeling
Cell decomposition
Spatial enumeration
Octree encoding and
Primitive modeling
 Advantages of Solid Modeling
 Mass properties such as area, volume, weight, center of
gravity and moment of inertia of physical model can be
quickly calculated.
 Cross-section Views of mode s can be easily obtained.
 It can be used for interference/Clearance checking of
moving parts.
 Aesthetic look of finished object can be visualized in the
computer screen itself with colour shading, high-lighting
and facilities available in solid modelers.
 Different views of object (Isometric, Perspective and
Orthographic view) can be obtained easily.
 Solid model is very much useful for finite element analysis.
 They can help to produce NC machining instructions
automatically
 CONSTRUCTIVE SOLID GEOMETRY (CSG)
Constructive solid geometry (CSG) is one of
the most popular methods of representing
and building complex solids. The simple
primitives are combined in certain order by
means of regularized Boolean set operators
which are directly included in the
representation.
Primitive themselves are valid CSG solid
model. The type of Boolean operations is used
in CSG are 1.Union (U), 2.Difference (-)
3.Intersection (n).
 CONSTRUCTIVE SOLID GEOMETRY (CSG)
 The data representation of CSG objects is
represented by a binary tree. Directed
graph(binary tree) scheme is used to store the
model in the data structure.
 Any node may have one parent node and two-
child node. The root node (R) has no parent and
leaf node (L) has no children. The binary tree
gives the complete information of how individual
primitives are combined to represent the object.
The number of primitives thus decides the
number of Boolean operations required to
construct the binary tree.
CONSTRUCTIVE SOLID GEOMETRY (CSG)
CONSTRUCTIVE SOLID GEOMETRY (CSG)
CONSTRUCTIVE SOLID GEOMETRY (CSG)
 CONSTRUCTIVE SOLID GEOMETRY (CSG)
Advantages:
 Since, the data to be stored are less and the
memory required will be less.
 It creates fully valid geometrical solid model.
 Complex shapes may be developed relatively
quicker with the available set of primitives.
 Less skill is enough.
 The data file of CSG is concise.
 CSG is more user friendly.
 Algorithms for converting CSG into B-Rep have
been developed
 CONSTRUCTIVE SOLID GEOMETRY (CSG)
Disadvantages:
 More computational effort and time are required
whenever the model is to be displayed in the
screen.
 Getting fillet, chamfer and taperness in the model
are very difficult.
 CSG database contains information about a solid in
an unevaluated form.
 The validity of a feature of an object cannot be
assessed without evaluating the entire tree.
 The tree is not unique for the same part design.
 BOUNDARY REPRESENTATION (B-REP)
 Boundary representation (also known as B-rep) is
based on the concept. A physical object is bounded by
a set of faces. This approach is widely used in most of
the solid modelers.
 This scheme describes an object in terms of its surface
boundaries: vertices, edges, and faces.
 Some B-reps are restricted to planer, polygonal
boundaries and it may even require Faces to be convex
polygons or triangles.
 Only the boundary surfaces of the model are stored
and the volumetric properties are calculated by the
Gauss Divergence theorem which relates The volume
integral to surface integrals.
 BOUNDARY REPRESENTATION (B-REP)
The solid model created by using B-rep
technique may be stored in graph based on
data structure system.
 BOUNDARY REPRESENTATION (B-REP)
In a B-rep model, in addition to store the
topology of solid, topological consistency of the
models is also carried out in order to create
geometrically valid solid models. For topological
consistency, certain rules have to be followed.
They are as follows.
(a)Faces should be bound by a simple loop of edges
and they should be not intersected by itself
(b)Each edge should exactly adjoin two faces and
each edge should have a vertex at each end.
(c)At least three edges, it should meet at each
vertex.
 BOUNDARY REPRESENTATION (B-REP)
B-rep solid must satisfy the Euler-Poincare formula. For
this purpose, various elements or primitives of the B-rep
model are defined as follows:

 Vertices: It is a point in three-dimensional Euclidian

space.
 Edge: It is a finite, non-intersecting space curve bounded
by two vertices that are not necessarily distinct.
 Face: It is a finite connected, non-self-intersecting, region
of a closed oriented surface and bounded by one or more
loops.
 Loop: It is an ordered alternating sequence of vertices
and edges. A loop defines a non-self intersecting closed
space curve which may be a boundary of a face.
 BOUNDARY REPRESENTATION (B-REP)
Body: It is an entity that has faces, edges and
vertices. A minimum body is a point.
Boundary hole: It is a blind hole.
Interior hole: It is a hole which is lying inside
and having no boundary on surface of the
solid.
Genus: It is the topological name for the
number of through holes or handles in an
object. A through hole may be termed as a
three-dimensional hole
 BOUNDARY REPRESENTATION (B-REP)
B-rep scheme is more widely used because of the
following reasons.
1. In CSG, the number of basic primitives available is
limited but it is not so in B-rep.
2. The performance of B-rep scheme is very much
superior to that of CSG scheme for complex
engineering models.
3. Conversion of CSG to B-rep is possible but the
conversion from B-rep to CSG is not possible.
4. Combining the wire frame and surface model is
possible only through B-rep solid representation.
 BOUNDARY REPRESENTATION (B-REP)
Advantages:
Computational effort and time required to display
the model are less compared with CSG.
Combining wire frame and surface model are
possible.
Complex engineering objects can be easily
modeled compared with CSG.Examples are
aircraft fuselage and automobile body styling.
This format gives efficient picture generation and
easy access to other geometric information.
 BOUNDARY REPRESENTATION (B-REP)
Disadvantages:
The data to be stored is more and hence, it
requires more memory. So, it is not
suitable for tool-path generation.
It is generally less robust than the half-space
method.
The data structure of B-rep is complex compared
to CSG.
Conversion of CSG to B-rep is possible. At the
same time, the conversion for B-rep to CSG is
impossible.