A constraint based feature modeller for sculptured object modelling

Abstract

There are numerous discussions concerning feature modelling. Most of these studies concentrate on regular shaped object modelling. The objective of this paper is to extend feature modelling coverage to include sculptured objects, so that feature technology is beneficial to modelling this class of objects. Feature modelling for a sculptured object consists of two basic elements: features and modelling operations. Feature semantics are declared by means of constraints in a feature class specification. These constraints are instantiated by the modelling operations during the modelling session. A feature modeller for sculptured objects is designed to generate the feature model from these constraints. A validation mechanism is introduced in the modeller to maintain the semantics of the feature model.