Section: Application Domains

Solid modeling

Solid modeling, i.e., the computer representation and manipulation of 3D shapes, has historically developed somewhat in parallel to computational geometry. Both communities are concerned with geometric algorithms and deal with many of the same issues. But while the computational geometry community has been mathematically inclined and essentially concerned with linear objects, solid modeling has traditionally had closer ties to industry and has been more concerned with curved surfaces.

Clearly, there is considerable potential for interaction between the two fields. Standing somewhere in the middle, our project has a lot to offer. Among the geometric questions related to solid modeling that are of interest to us, let us mention: the description of geometric shapes, the representation of solids, the conversion between different representations, data structures for graphical rendering of models and robustness of geometric computations.