Freeform surface modelling is the art of engineering Freeform Surfaces with a CAD or CAID system.
The technology has encompassed two main fields. Either creating aesthetic (class A surfaces) that also perform a function; for example, car bodies and consumer product outer forms, or technical surfaces for components such as gas turbine blades and other fluid dynamic engineering components.
CAD software packages use two basic methods for the creation of surfaces. The first begins with construction curves (splines) from which the 3D surface is then swept (section along guide rail) or meshed (lofted) through.
The second method is direct creation of the surface with manipulation of the surface poles/control points.
From these initially created surfaces, other surfaces are constructed using either derived methods such as offset or angled extensions from surfaces; or via bridging and blending between groups of surfaces.
Read more about Freeform Surface Modelling: Surfaces, Modelling, History of Terms, Freeform Surface Modelling Software
Famous quotes containing the words surface and/or modelling:
“Just under the surface I shall be, all together at first, then separate and drift, through all the earth and perhaps in the end through a cliff into the sea, something of me.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
“The windy springs and the blazing summers, one after another, had enriched and mellowed that flat tableland; all the human effort that had gone into it was coming back in long, sweeping lines of fertility. The changes seemed beautiful and harmonious to me; it was like watching the growth of a great man or of a great idea. I recognized every tree and sandbank and rugged draw. I found that I remembered the conformation of the land as one remembers the modelling of human faces.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)