GEOMETRIC MODELLING USING EXACT OCTREE REPRESENTATION OF POLYHEDRAL OBJECTS

Abstract

In the last few years, octrees have been proposed for the representation of solids in Geometric Modelling systems. Using them, boolean operations are simple; however, they use a great amount of memory and it is very difficult to obtain smooth graphical outputs from them or to recompute the boundary model. In the present paper, a new class of Octtrees is introduced, which allows face, edge and vertex nodes as well as the classical white, black and grey nodes. The required amount of storage is less than in the case of classical Octtrees, and boolean operations are also simple. Futhermore, there exists an algorithm for the exact recomputation of the boundary model.