Linear perturbation methods for topologically consistent representations of free-form surface intersections Original Research Article

By applying displacement maps to slightly perturb two free-form surfaces, one can ensure exact agreement between the images in R3 of parameter-domain approximations to their curve of intersection. Thus, at the expense of slightly altering the surfaces in the vicinity of their intersection, a perfect matching of the surface trimming curves is guaranteed. This exact agreement of contiguous trimmed surfaces is essential to achieving topologically consistent solid model constructions through Boolean operations, and has a profound impact on the efficiency and reliability of applications such as meshing, rendering, and computing volumetric properties. Moreover, the control point perturbations require only the solution of a linear system for their determination. The basic principles of this approach to topologically consistent surface trimming curves are described, and example results from the implementation of a simple instance of the method are presented.