System and method for converting boundary representations to constructive solid geometry representations for three-dimensional solid object modeling

摘要

A system and method converts from the boundary representation ("b-rep") of a solid object to the constructive solid geometry ("CSG") representation thereof. The b-rep of a three-dimensional object is converted into a CSG expression by constructing a set of separators through triples of vertices on the face of the solid, until there is a separator passing through every vertex of the face. A separator is constructed through every planar edge of the face and containing the planar edge. For each nonplanar edge of the solid, one or more separators are constructed to separate the edge from the rest of the curve on the face. In this case, construction of nonplanar separating surfaces may be required. Each of these constructions are repeated for every face of the given boundary representation of the solid object. The natural half spaces previously induced from the b-rep together with the separators are then decomposed to determine the CSG expression of the object and the expression provided to a modeler which generates a CSG model of the object based on the CSG expression.