Abstract

Surface offsetting is a valuable tool used in Computer Aided Design (CAD). An offset surface is a collection of points that are at a constant distance from another surface. An offset surface is created in CAD by selecting a surface and then specifying the distance that the surface is to be offset. If a surface is selected and a distance of D is specified, then the resulting offset surface should always be distance D from the original surface. The surface offset tool can be used for many applications. Modeling of composites or other layered manufacturing processes rely heavily on offset surfaces. Thin walled parts such as injection molded components are often modeled using the offset tool. Coating processes can also be modeled using the offset tool. Modern CAD systems have surface offsetting tools and are widely used throughout industry. However, CAD systems often fail to produce valid results. The process of surface offsetting can often result in surface self-intersections as well as surface degeneracies. Self-intersections and degeneracies make the surfaces invalid because they are physically impossible to create and CAD systems cannot use these invalid surfaces to represent solid bodies. The surface offset tool is therefore, one of the most challenging CAD tools to implement. The process of avoiding, detecting and removing surface self-intersections is extremely challenging. Much research in the field of CAD is dedicated to the detection and removal of surface self-intersections. However, the methods proposed in the literature all suffer from robustness problems. The purpose of this research is to introduce a method that creates valid offset surfaces and does not suffer from the problem of creating surface self-intersections. This method uses a numerical approach that approximates the offset surface and avoids all self-intersections. Because no self-intersections are created, the method does not require intersection tests of any kind. The value of this method is demonstrated by comparing its results with results from leading CAD systems.

Degree

College and Department

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology; Mechanical Engineering

Rights

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