Solid Modeling By Computers

This book contains the papers presented at the international research sympo sium "Solid Modeling by Computers: From Theory to Applications," held at the General Motors Research Laboratories on September 25-27, 1983. This was the 28th syposium in aseries which the Research Laboratories began sponsor ing in 1957. Each symposium has focused on a topic that is both under active study at the Research Laboratories and is also of interest to the larger technical community. Solid modeling is still a very young research area, young even when com pared with other computer-related research fields. Ten years ago, few people recognized the importance of being able to create complete and unambiguous computer models of mechanical parts. Today there is wide recognition that computer representations of solids are aprerequisite for the automation of many engineering analyses and manufacturing applications. In September 1983, the time was ripe for a symposium on this subject. Re search had already demonstrated the efficacy of solid modeling as a tool in computer automated design and manufacturing, and there were significant re suIts wh ich could be presented at the symposium. Yet the field was still young enough that we could bring together theorists in solid modeling and practition ers applying solid modeling to other research areas in a group sm all enough to allow a stimulating exchange of ideas.

This textpresents solid modeling not just as a communication tool, but as an essential part of the design process. To this end, the text explores design intent, the use of solid models in engineering analysis, and introduces techniques from manufacturing such as mold design and sheet metal patterning. Howard and Musto provide a student-friendly presentation filled with easy to use tutorials. Their approach is also designed to help students understand how engineering is used in the real world. For instance, modeling exercises are largely centered on examples drawn from industrial applications. FREE Solid Works software is now available to students with an access card, so students can apply exactly what they are reading!

Building Product Models thoroughly presents the concepts, technology, and methods now used to work out what will become the building product model - a new, digital representation for architecture, civil engineering, and building construction. Organized into three sections (history, current tools and concepts, and existing efforts and research issues), this resource provides the field of building product modeling with a standard reference as well as a single, comprehensive text for university courses. Until now, all the efforts in building modeling have been reported in research journals and conference proceedings or been made available as draft standards on the Internet. Building Product Models is the only book available on this vital field, bringing together essential aspects of major efforts from the early 1970s to the present.

This book is a result of the lectures and discussions during the conference "Theory and Practice of Geometric Modeling". The event has been organized by the Wilhelm-Schickard-Institut fiir Informatik, Universitat Tiibingen and took place at the Heinrich-Fabri-Institut in Blaubeuren from October 3 to 7, 1988. The conference brought together leading experts from academic and industrial research institutions, CAD system developers and experien ced users to exchange their ideas and to discuss new concepts and future directions in geometric modeling. The main intention has been to bridge the gap between theoretical results, performance of existing CAD systems and the real problems of users. The contents is structured in five parts: A Algorithmic Aspects B Surface Intersection, Blending, Ray Tracing C Geometric Tools D Different Representation Schemes in Solid Modeling E Product Modeling in High Level Specifications The material presented in this book reflects the current state of the art in geometric modeling and should therefore be of interest not only to university and industry researchers, but also to system developers and practitioners who wish to keep up to date on recent advances and new concepts in this rapidly expanding field. The editors express their sincere appreciation to the contributing authors, and to the members of the program committee, W. Boehm, J. Hoschek, A. Massabo, H. Nowacki, M. Pratt, J. Rossignac, T. Sederberg and W. Tiller, for their close cooperation and their time and effort that made the conference and this book a success.