Abstract:
This paper presents a physics-based modeling approach for the creation of high
quality surfaces for application in CAGD. Physics-based modeling is commonly used
in animation and scientific modeling, and simulates realistic dynamic motion for
computer graphics. We propose a physics-based modeling of liquid surface motion as
a means to generate complex geometry. Regions of a model are defined to be in a solid
phase and other parts are in a liquid phase. The liquid surface is mobile and moves in
response to physics-based forces resulting in a smooth, minimum energy surface. The
objects created by this method are referred to as Temporal Computational Objects
(TCO's) and provide a capability that is fully integrated with standard CAD, FEA and
CAM utilities. We demonstrate the usefulness of the approach with a wide range of
examples that produce high quality physics-based surface models that have been
analyzed and fabricated.
