EMG 2504: CAD/CAM: Geometric Modeling

SoMMME
Department of Mechanical Engineering
EMG 2504: CAD/CAM
Geometric Modeling
James K. Kimotho
SoMMME
Geometric Modeling - Introduction
A prototype is needed for testing and optimizing design

– Costly
– Time consuming
CAD eliminates the need of developing prototype
– Assists to evaluate the design.
Geometric modeling is the “Computer compatible
mathematical description” of the geometry of an object
CAD software allows the mathematical description of an object
to be displayed as an image on the screen of computer
2 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

SoMMME
Geometric Modeling
Steps in Creating a Geometric Model
Creation of basic geometric objects:

– By using commands like points, lines, and circles
Transformations of the elements:
– By using transformation commands of the geometric elements like
scaling, rotation, translation etc
Creation of the geometric model:
– Commands that cause integration of the objects or elements of
the geometric model to form the desired shape
– Merge, shell, loft, sweep

SoMMME
Geometric Modeling
Methods of creating a geometric model
Wire Frame modeling
Solid modeling
Surface modeling
Geometric Modeling
Wire frame Surface Solid
Analytical Free-form
Primitive SOE Cell CSG B-Rep Sweeping

instancing decomposition

SoMMME
Geometric Modeling
Why do we need 3D models?
3D models are easier to interpret.

Simulation under real-life conditions.
Less expensive than building a physical model (prototype).
3D models can be used to perform FEA (stress, deflection,
thermal…..).
3D models can be used directly in manufacturing – Computer
Numerical Control (CNC).
Can be used for presentations and marketing.

SoMMME
Wire Frame Modeling
Models are created using lines and curves.

• Connected by using their point coordinates or vertices.
Entities used to generate model are classified as:
– Analytical curves: line, circle, hyperbola, parabola, E
– Synthetic curves: Hermite, Bezier, B-spline, Rational
Basic curves are combined with desired continuity like C0, C1,
C2 to get the required smoothness of the curve.
Simplest way of 3D representation.
– Difficult to understand and visualize the 3D model.
Still used to generate simple geometric shapes and models.

SoMMME
Wire Frame Modeling

Contains information about the locations of all the points
(vertices) and edges in space coordinates.
Each vertex is defined by x, y, z coordinate.
Edges are defined by a pair of vertices.
Faces are defined as three or more edges.
Wireframe is a collection of edges, there is no skin defining the
area between the edges.

SoMMME
Wire Frame Modeling
A cube can be generated with twelve edges generated from

eight vertices.

SoMMME
Wire Frame Modeling
Advantages
– Can quickly and efficiently convey more information than multi-
view drawings.
– The only lines seen are the intersections of surfaces.
– Contain most of the information needed to create surface, solid
and higher order models.
Disadvantages
– Do not represent an actual solids (no surface and volume).
– Cannot model complex curved surfaces.
– Cannot be used to calculate dynamic properties.
– Ambiguous views .

SoMMME
Wire Frame Modeling
Ambiguity problem
– A model can be interpreted in more than one way.

SoMMME
Wire Frame Modeling
Impossible objects can be created using wire frame models

SoMMME
Wire Frame Modeling
Applications:
– conceptual sketching
– used to construct the basic framework of a 3D model
• The initial step in creating a surface model
• Framework for generating 3D piping network
– setting out layout for complex systems

SoMMME
Surface Modeling
Surface models define the surface features, as well as the

edges, of objects
They utilize the edge vertex definition of the wire frame model
as a basis for defining the geometry of the face
A mathematical function describes the path of a curve

(parametric techniques)
Surfaces are edited as single entities

SoMMME
Surface Modeling

SoMMME
Surface Modeling

SoMMME
Surface Modeling
External shape of object can be obtained with no information

about internal shape.
– E.g. sheet metal cover, car body exteriors.
The basic sketching tools required for surface generation are :
– extruded surface
– revolved surface
– swept surface
– offset surface

SoMMME
Surface Modeling
Advantages
– Eliminates ambiguity and non-uniqueness present in WFM
– Renders the model for better visualization and presentation
– Objects appear more realistic
– Provides the surface geometry for CNC machining
– Provides the geometry needed for mold and die design
– Can be used to design and analyze complex free-formed surfaces
(ship hulls, airplane wings, car bodies, …)
– Surface properties such as roughness, color and reflectivity can
be assigned and demonstrated
Disadvantages
– Surface models provide no information about the inside of an
object
• Difficult to generate cutting tool data for NC machines
– Complicated computations, depending on the number of surfaces
– The calculation of properties such as mass and inertia would be
difficult or impossible
SoMMME
Surface Modeling
Surface models are useful for representing surfaces such as:

– Thin containers such as bottles
– Ship hulls
– Aircraft fuselages and wings: the complex doubly curved
– Shapes of aerospace structures and dies and moulds
– Surface Representation
– Automobile bodies: automobile panels
– Telephone handsets

SoMMME
Solid Modeling
The model is defined by the volumetric shape it occupies and
provides a full and unambiguous description of 3D shape
Solid models represent the full surface geometry of an item
and also the internal structure
Solid model consist of geometric and topological data
– Geometry  shape, size, location of geometric elements
– Topology  connectivity and associativity of geometric elements
Features of a solid model
– It provides complete definition of a volumetric 3D shape,
indicating outside and inside of an object.
• This makes it easy to detect interference, especially in assembly
– Analytical advantage, including automatic display of accurate
mass properties and efficient construction of finite elements
– Ability to incorporate color choice and tone control
– Allows simulation of mechanism dynamics, tool path procedures
and robot handling.
SoMMME
Solid Modeling
Advantages
Has all the advantages of surface models (uniqueness, non-

ambiguous, realistic, surface profile) plus volumetric
information.
Allows the designer to create multiple options for a design.
2D standard drawings, assembly drawing and exploded views
are generated form the 3D model.
Can easily be exported to different Finite Element Methods
programs for analysis.
Can be used in newly manufacturing techniques; CIM, CAM
and DFM & DFA
Mass and volumetric properties of an object can be easily
obtained; total mass, mass center, area and mass moment of
inertia, volume, radius of gyration, …

SoMMME
Solid Modeling
Disadvantages
More intensive computation than wireframe and surface

modeling.
Requires more powerful computers (faster with more memory
and good graphics)  not a problem any more.

SoMMME
Solid Modeling
Methods
Primitive instancing
Spatial occupancy enumeration (SOE)
Cell decomposition
Constructive solid geometry (CGS)
Boundary representation (B-rep)
Sweeping

SoMMME
Solid Modeling
Primitive Instancing
In this scheme, a composite model for the entire family of

objects is parametized
– features on the model can be turned on or of
The dimensions of each feature are set as variables
(parameters)
An object instance can be defined by assigning values to the
parameters and can be used to represent standard parts which
have different dimensions
N=20 N=30
D=40 D=60
H=10 H=20

SoMMME
Solid Modeling
Primitive Instancing
Basic primitive solids

SoMMME
Solid Modeling
Spatial Occupancy Enumeration (SOE)
Space is described as a regular array of cells (usually cubes).

Each cell is called a Voxel. A 3D object is represented as a list
of filled voxels.

SoMMME
Solid Modeling
SOE
Advantages:
– Easy to verify if a point (a voxel) is inside or outside an object.
– Boolean operations are easy to apply.
Limitations:
– Requires large memory.
– Resolution is limited to size and shape of voxel.
Used in Biomedical engineering e.g. for mapping and
illustration of living cell structures.

SoMMME
Solid Modeling
Cell Decomposition
Is a general class of SOE.

A solid is decomposed into simple solid cells with no holes
The solid is formed as a result of attaching component cells
that satisfy certain boundary conditions

SoMMME
Solid Modeling
Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG)
This method uses primitive solids (blocks, cylinder, sphere,

wedge, torus, cone, prism etc) as building blocks
Employs boolean set operators (union, intersection and
difference (subtract)) to construct complex/composite object
The boolean operations and primitives are stored in a tree type
data structure
– where leaves represent primitives, and nodes represent
operations.

SoMMME
Solid Modeling
CSG
– Plan your modeling strategy
before you start creating the
solid model -

SoMMME
Solid Modeling
CSG

SoMMME
Solid Modeling
Advantages of CSG
– CSG is powerful with high level command.
– Easy to construct a solid model – minimum steps.
– CSG modeling techniques lead to a concise database  less
storage.
– Complete history of model is retained and can be altered at any
point.
– Can be converted to the corresponding boundary representation.
Disadvatages
– Only boolean operations are allowed in the modeling process
• with boolean operation alone, the range of shapes to be modeled is
severely restricted
• not possible to construct unusual shape.
– Requires a great deal of computation to derive the information on
the boundary, faces and edges which is important for the
interactive display/ manipulation of solid.

SoMMME
Solid Modeling
Boundary Representation (B-rep)
A solid model is formed by defining the surfaces that form its

boundary (edges and surfaces)
The face of a B-rep represents an oriented surface, there are

two sides to the surface; solid side (inside) and void side
(outside), unlike faces in a wireframe.
B-rep model is created using Euler operation
Finds extensive application Finite Element Method (FEM)

Softwares.
– Allows the interior meshing of the volume to be more easily
controlled.

SoMMME
Boundary Representation
Boundary representations can be defined in two ways:
– Primitive based. A collection of primitives forming the boundary
(polygons, for example)
– Freeform based (splines, parametric surfaces, implicit forms)
A polyhedron is a solid bounded by a set of polygons and is
constructed from:
– Vertices, V
– Edges, E
– Faces, F
Each edge must connect two vertices and be shared by exactly
two faces.
At least three edges must meet at each vertex
A simple polyhedron must satisfies Euler's formula:
𝑉−𝐸+𝐹 =2
SoMMME
Euler’s formula can be generalized to a polyhedron with holes

and multiple components, 𝑉 − 𝐸 + 𝐹 − 𝐻 = 2(𝐶 − 𝐺)
– H is the number of holes in the faces
– C is the number of separate components
– G is the number of pass-through holes
– V, E and F are respectively vertices, edges and faces

SoMMME
Curved and Faceted B-rep model
– A closed cylindrical face has one edge and two vertices.
– A spherical face has one vertex and no edges.
– A boundary model of a closed cylinder has three faces (top,
bottom and cylindrical face) two vertices and one edge connecting
two vertices.
– The other edges are for visualization known as limb.
– The boundary model of a sphere consists of one face one vertex
and no edges

SoMMME
Sweeping
This involves sweeping a 2D area along a trajectory creates a

new 3D object.
There are two types of sweep.
– Translation (extrusion) e.g. translation of a rectangle produces a
box.
– Rotation (revolve) - rotation of the same rectangle about an edge
produces a cylinder.
This method can produce highly complicated shapes.
One manufacturing application of sweeping is NC cutter
simulation

SoMMME
Sweeping

SoMMME
Feature Based Modeling
In solid modeling a 3-D design is created by starting a base

feature and then adding other features, one at a time, until the
accurate and complete representation of the parts geometry is
achieved
Some features available in typical solid modeling software are:
– Extrude – Revolve
– Thin – Hole
– Blend – Chamfer
– Pipe – sweep
– Rib – Fillet
– Slot – shell

SoMMME
Standard CAD Data Exchange Formats
Each CAD system has its own proprietary data format.

To transfer data from one CAD system to another, or between
CAD and CAM packages, a translational software is required.
A standard data exchange format (intermediate data format)
will reduce the need for multiple translators.
When such a data file is used, each CAD systems needs only
one preprocessor and one postprocessor (one set of
translators).

SoMMME
Data
CAD 1 Exchange CAD 2
Format
The preprocessor imports the data into the system and the
postprocessor outputs the file into standard format.
The most widely accepted formats are IGES, DXF and STEP.

SoMMME

IGES (Initial Graphics Exchange Specification)
– was the first specification for CAD data exchange published in
1980 as a NBS (National Bureau of Standards) report in USA
– all major CAD vendors support IGES and it is currently the most
widespread standard for CAD/CAM/CAE data exchange
DXF (Data eXchange Format)
– was originally developed by Autodesk, Inc., the vendor of
AutoCAD.
– widely used to exchange 2D/3D wireframe data
STEP (STandard for the Exchange of Product model data)
– is a new International Standard (ISO 10303) for representing and
exchanging product model information
– offers different resources, e.g. geometric and topological
representation

SoMMME
Thank You
for
Your Kind Attention!
Dr.-Ing. James Kuria Kimotho Department of Mechanical Engineering
jkuria@eng.jkuat.ac.ke JKUAT
P.O. Box 62000-00200
Tel: Nairobi

EMG 2504: CAD/CAM: Geometric Modeling

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

EMG 2504: CAD/CAM: Geometric Modeling

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

SoMMME

Department of Mechanical Engineering

EMG 2504: CAD/CAM

Geometric Modeling - Introduction

A prototype is needed for testing and optimizing design

2 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

Creation of basic geometric objects:

3 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

Wire frame Surface Solid

Primitive SOE Cell CSG B-Rep Sweeping

4 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

3D models are easier to interpret.

5 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

Wire Frame Modeling

Models are created using lines and curves.

6 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

Wire Frame Modeling

7 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

Wire Frame Modeling

A cube can be generated with twelve edges generated from

8 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

Wire Frame Modeling

9 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

Wire Frame Modeling

10 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

Wire Frame Modeling

Impossible objects can be created using wire frame models

11 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

Wire Frame Modeling

12 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

Surface models define the surface features, as well as the

A mathematical function describes the path of a curve

Surfaces are edited as single entities

13 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

14 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

15 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

External shape of object can be obtained with no information

16 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

Surface models are useful for representing surfaces such as:

18 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

Has all the advantages of surface models (uniqueness, non-

20 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

More intensive computation than wireframe and surface

21 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

22 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

In this scheme, a composite model for the entire family of

23 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

Basic primitive solids

24 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

Space is described as a regular array of cells (usually cubes).

25 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

26 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

Is a general class of SOE.

27 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

This method uses primitive solids (blocks, cylinder, sphere,

28 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

29 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

30 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

31 EMG 2504: Geometric Modeling/ 24.05.2022

A solid model is formed by defining the surfaces that form its

The face of a B-rep represents an oriented surface, there are

B-rep model is created using Euler operation