INTERACTIVE USER GUIDE

Exact Surfacing
for the Precise Reproduction of Surfaces
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Geomagic Blade, Geomagic Parametric Surfaces, Geomagic eShell and “the magic of making it
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trademarks of their owners.

Guide History

Date Revision

Aug 2009 First Release

May 2010 Updates for Geomagic Studio 12
About Geomagic Inc.
Geomagic, Inc. is a worldwide software and services company headquartered in Research Triangle Park,
North Carolina (U.S.A.), with subsidiaries in Europe and Asia and distributors worldwide. Geomagic is
the market leader in digital shape sampling and processing (DSSP) with a vision of mass customization,
technology innovation, and business performance. Geomagic software enables customers to accelerate
product development cycles and ensure quality at every step. More than 5,000 professionals use
Geomagic software and services across diverse industries including automotive, aerospace, medical,
and consumer products.

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Geomagic, Inc.
P.O. Box 12219
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Phone: +1 (800) 251-551 or +1 (919) 474-0122
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Table of Contents

1 GUIDE DESCRIPTION 5

1.1 Introduction 5

2 PRECISE REPRODUCTION OF SURFACES 8

2.1 Point Phase 8

2.2 Polygon Phase 12

2.2.1 Optional Output Steps 13
2.2.1.1 Saving the Polygon Object for use by Other Apps 13
2.2.1.2 Exporting a Profile from a Polygon Object 13
2.2.2 Choosing the Next Phase 14

2.3 Exact Surfaces Phase 15

2.3.1 Emphasis on Curved Regions 15
1.1.2 Legacy Workflow 18
1.1.3 AutoSurface 21
1 GUIDE DESCRIPTION

This Guide leads an advanced beginner through two fundamental workflows that yield precise
reproduction of a scanned part. The goal is to highlight the differences and expected results of each
workflow, enabling you to choose the best workflow for a real-life project.

The Guide requires Geomagic Studio 12 with the Geomagic Capture, Geomagic Wrap, and Geomagic
Exact Surfaces module licenses.

1.1 Introduction

The fundamental workflows:

• Precise reproduction of underlying data with emphasis on curved regions (data

capture, cleanup, conversion to a polygon object, refinement of the polygon object,
surfacing with the “Detect Contours” method in the Exact Surfaces Phase, and exporting to CAD).
An advantage of this technique is that the resulting CAD object has distinct faces for the curved
regions, thus allowing curved regions to be further engineered in the external
system if necessary. See section 2.3.1, “Exact Surfaces Phase with Emphasis on Curved Regions.”
(Preferred Workflow)

• Precise reproduction of underlying data (“legacy workflow”) (data capture, cleanup,

conversion to a polygon object, refinement of the polygon object, and surfacing with the
“Detect Curvature” method in the Exact Surfaces Phase). This is a legacy workflow that customers
find useful in certain situations—“Precise reproduction of underlying data with emphasis on curved
regions” is typically preferred over this workflow. See section 2.3.2, “Exact Surfaces Phase Legacy
Workflow”.
In Geomagic Studio, an object always exists in one of several Phases:

• Point Phase: the state of an object when it is a collection of scanned points.

• Polygon Phase: the state of an object when its appearance is approximated by drawing a
blue triangular surface between every three data points.

• Surface Phase (either Exact Surfaces Phase or Parametric Surfaces Phase): the state of an object when
a reproducible surface is being applied over its underlying polygon mesh.. This Guide describes the
Exact Surfaces Phase.

• CAD Phase: the state of an object when it is ready for trimming or for Boolean operations
to be performed.
2 PRECISE REPRODUCTION OF SURFACES

The instructions in this document use example files available from the Geomagic web site. To obtain
the examples, download the data files from the web page on which you found this Guide to a
directory of your choice. Double-click it to extract the example files that are referenced in this Guide,
then start Geomagic Studio 12.

It is possible to open the first file, follow the instructions carefully, and complete a workflow without
opening another file. But each section also mentions a specific file name that provides a new starting
point. For example, the result of steps applied to HandlePointPhase.wrp in Step 1 can be checked by
opening HandlePolygonPhase.wrp.

2.1 Point Phase

The Point Phase procedure explains how to register and merge two point objects into a single object,
and represent that object as a polygon object.

The typical way to begin is to obtain one or more Point objects, either by creating them with a
scanner plugin or by opening an existing Point object file.

These steps are common to both workflows described in this document.

Step 1. Use Application Button > Open to open

HandlePointPhase.wrp in Geomagic Studio 12. This object contains
two scans: Underside and Topside. (Note: The Application Button is
the Swirl icon in the top-left corner of Studio.)
Step 2. Select the Underside scan in the Model Manager and
press F2 to hide all other objects. Use one of the selection tools
from the right-hand menu to highlight the points (in red) that
belonged to the tabletop. Press the Delete key to delete these
points.

Step 3. Select the Underside and Topside scans in the Model Manager.
These objects contain extraneous data points. From the Points tab,
click Reduce Noise. Select “Prismatic Shapes (aggressive)” as the Noise
Reduction type. To perform the reduction, click Apply and then OK.
Step 4. Navigate to the Alignment tab, highlight both objects in the Model Manager, and click on
Manual Registration to achieve a rough registration of the two halves. Pick “Topside” as the Fixed
object, and “Underside” as the Floating object. Use n-Point Registration and pick at least three points
on the Fixed and the same three points on the Floating, then press Register and OK. The parts become
aligned.

Step 5. Stay on the Alignment tab and click on Global Registration

to “fine-tune” the alignment between the two halves. After you
press Apply and OK, the halves are well registered but remain as
separate objects (as shown to the right). At this stage, the object
appears to be a smooth surface—increasing the magnification on
the object still reveals the points.
Step 6. Select Group 1 in the Model Manager, navigate to the Points tab, and click on Combine Point
Objects to create a single point object that represents the whole door handle. When prompted, name
the single object “Whole Handle.” Click Apply and OK.

Step 7. Click on the Uniform Sample icon from the Points tab to create an evenly dense point cloud.
Accept the default settings, then press Apply and OK.

Step 8. Create a polygon object by clicking on

the Wrap icon. Set the Max Triangles to
220,000, and set Noise Reduction to Medium.
(This noise reduction supplements the
reduction performed earlier.) Move the
Sampling slider bar all the way to the right to
Quality. To minimize the amount of data in the
Model Manager, uncheck “Keep Original
Data.” Click OK.

The Point Phase is now complete. The object has become a Polygon object.
2.2 Polygon Phase

The steps in the Polygon Phase walk you through cleaning up the polygon object in preparation for
moving to the Surface Phase or for exporting specialized outputs.

Step 1. Open
HandlePolygonPhase.wrp, and
Navigate to the Polygons tab and click
on the Fill Single icon in the Fill Holes
box. For best results, start by filling
the largest hole individually by clicking the Flat fill type (see picture to right)
and clicking on its border. Press the ESC key or click again on the Fill Single
icon to exit the Fill Single mode.

Step 2. All remaining holes, even tiny and unnoticeable ones, can be filled simultaneously by pressing
Fill All with Curvature-Based filling type.

Step 3. Use Mesh Doctor to “clean up” the polygon model further. Press Apply to run the
command.

Step 4. Still in Mesh Doctor, click the Defeature icon and select the rough area on the door
handle (like in the picture below). Click Apply to delete the selected triangles and fill the resulting hole.
Press CTRL+C to clear the selection.
Step 5. Within Mesh Doctor, click on Make Manifold to force all triangles to be connected on all
sides.

The object is now a highly refined Polygon object that is ready to be taken to one of the Surface Phases
(Exact Surfaces Phase or Parametric Surfaces Phase) or to be exported using one of the optional output
steps.

2.2.1 Optional Output Steps

Most of the time, the workflow will continue on to one of the Surface Phases. However, you can choose
to export the as-is polygon object as a .stl or .obj file or you can choose to export a section from the
polygon object.

2.2.1.1 Saving the Polygon Object for use by Other Apps

Many external software packages accept a .stl or .obj representation of a polygon object. To create one
now, right-click on the WholeHandle polygon object in the Model Manager and select Save. Save the
object as a .stl or .obj.

2.2.1.2 Exporting a Profile from a Polygon Object

A two-dimensional section of the Polygon object can also be exported now so that a 3D solid can be
reconstructed in an external CAD system. This is a common “side usage” of Geomagic Studio.

Step 1. Navigate to the Curves tab and click Create by Section. Pressing Apply and OK generates a
Curves object in the Model Manager.

Step 2. Right-click on the curves object in the Model Manager and save it with a file type of .obj or .igs.
2.2.2 Choosing the Next Phase

Once the Polygon Phase has been completed, the next step is to move to either the Exact Surfaces Phase
or Parametric Surfacing Phase. This Guide describes two paths through the Exact Surfaces Phase.

Step 1. Open ExactSurfacesPhase.wrp and select the Exact Surfaces tab. Click the Start Exact
Surfacing icon on the left side of the ribbon toolbar.

Producing a “good” surface during Exact Surfacing Phase requires creating an object with a good patch
structure with regularly shaped patches (i.e., rectangular shaped without severe or multiple-curvature
changes) that fill spaces efficiently.

The basic steps for Exact Surfaces Phase are illustrated in the flowchart on the next page. The first
column depicts steps to produce a precise reproduction of an object with the emphasis on curved
regions. The second set of steps places no emphasis on curved regions.

• For the “Exact Surfaces Phase with Emphasis on Curved Regions,” start at section 2.3.1.
• For the “Exact Surfaces Phase Legacy Workflow,” start at section 2.3.2.
• For using AutoSurface to automatically work through either of the above two workflows, start at
section 2.3.3.

Note: AutoSurface may not be suitable for all models, so it is a good idea to understand the full Exact
Surfaces Workflow.
2.3 Exact Surfaces Phase

2.3.1 Exact Surfaces Phase with Emphasis on Curved Regions

The steps in this section produce a precise reproduction of the original object with emphasis on the
precision of the curvy parts.

Step 1. Click on Contours > Detect Contours.

Press the Compute button. The red separator bands represent the software’s estimate of the location of
curved regions. Use the Paintbrush Selection tool to add (with LMB) and remove (with CTRL+LMB) the
separators so that they appear as pictured in the third figure below—the goal being to put red separator
bands where you would expect to see seams on an upholstered chair. Check the Detect Extension
Contours checkbox, set the Sensitivity to the highest, and press the Extract button to generate yellow
contour lines. Click OK to exit the command.

At this point, yellow contour lines are present on the centerlines of the estimated curved regions.
Step 2. Now we want to edit the contour lines so that they lie on the center of the curved areas. Click
on Edit Contours. Click Subdivide and then Accept. The Operation icons will become active. Check the
box for Curvature Map to see a visualization of the curved regions.

Use the Draw operation to click and drag the subdivision points (if needed) to the center of the
rounded areas. Click the Check Problems button to check for any bad intersections. Use the arrow
buttons below to scroll through any problems that are flagged. Note: It is very important to remove all
problems before moving on! When the problems have been resolved, click OK to exit.

Step 3. Now that yellow contour lines appear on the centerlines of

estimated curved regions, the “estimated” locations of curved regions need
to be converted into “actual” locations of curved regions. Click on
Subdivide/Extend Contours to lay “contour patches” on the curved regions.
Select the Extension radio button. Click Extend and OK. Contoured patches
define where the surface will be reproduced with the greatest precision.

Step 4. Click on Shuffle Panels. Use the Fill Empty Panels button to fill the
spaces between the contour patches. Press OK.
 Dealing with Bad Patches

The command in Step 3 sometimes generates tangled patch lines, but you
might not know until a warning is issued in Step 4. Therefore, it is good
practice to examine the object when Fill Empty Panels is complete. If bad
patch lines are found, use the Move Vertices mode of Repair Patches.
Simply left-click and drag green vertices until the patch lines are untangled.

Before
After
Step 5. Click on Construct Grids. Press Apply. If
the resulting grids are tangled and highlighted
red, reduce the Resolution to about 17 and try
again. Press OK. The grids serve as a “bed” for
the NURBS surface that will be generated in the
next step.

Before Construct Grids (left) and after (right)

Step 6. Click on Fit Surfaces. Accept the default settings, then press Apply and OK. The olive green
NURBS surface has now been applied to the model, and can be exported as .igs or .stp.

Step 7. Click on Convert > To CAD Phase. Click Yes on the popup message that appears.

Step 8. Save the gold-colored CAD object as .igs or .stp for further processing by an external system,
such as a CAD package.

The “Exact Surfaces Phase with emphasis on curved regions” objective is complete.
2.3.2 Exact Surfaces Phase with Legacy Workflow

The steps in this section produce a precise reproduction of the original object with no particular
emphasis on curved regions.

Step 1. With HandleExactSurfacesPhase.wrp, select the Exact Surfaces tab. Click the Start Exact
Surfacing icon on the left side of the ribbon toolbar.

Step 2. Click on Detect > Detect Curvature. Under Granularity, Set the Target to 500 curvature lines and
Curvature Level to 0.25. Click Apply and OK. The resulting black lines represent candidates for
promotion to orange panel demarcation lines in the next step.

Step 3. In the Contours group, click on Shuffle Curvature Lines to achieve an optimal set of orange
panel demarcation lines. “Optimal” orange lines resemble the seams on a furniture slip-cover. The art of
shuffling curvature lines is to convert certain black lines to orange so that the resulting set of orange
lines resembles the seams on a slip-cover. In other words, the orange lines to outline the curved areas.

• In Promote/Demote Lines mode, promote some black lines to orange by clicking them with the
LMB (and Ctrl+LMB to make orange lines black, or “demote”).

• In Flip Path mode, change the direction of existing black lines so they become more
likely candidates for promotion to orange.

When complete, press OK.

Before Shuffle Curvature Lines (left) and after (right)

Step 4. Click on Construct Patches. Select the Specify Patch count radio button. Specify the Target
Patch Count to 100. Click Apply and OK.

Step 5. Use Shuffle Panels to make the patches more orderly.

Before Shuffle Panels (left) and after (right)

The figures below are close-ups of a panel during the Shuffle Panels command.

Figure A is of the panel after clicking it to activate it for subsequent actions.

Figure B is of the panel after clicking the left end in Add/Del 2 Paths mode. Note that each pair of
opposing sides now has an equal number of “path” lines (even though they are tangled).

Figure C is of the panel after setting the Type to “Grid” and pressing Execute.

The goal is to make all panels more

orderly by this technique.
Step 6. Click on Construct Grids and enter in a Resolution of 20. The grids serve as a “bed” for the
NURBS surface that will be generated in the next step. Click Apply and then OK.

Before Construct Grids (left) and after (right)

Step 7. Click on Fit Surfaces. Select the Adaptive fitting radio button. Click Apply and then OK. This olive
green model can be exported as .igs or .stp.

Step 8. Optionally, click on Convert > To CAD Object. Click Yes on the popup message that appears.

Step 9. Save the CAD object as .igs or .stp for further processing by an external system. This object is an
accurate reproduction of the scanned data.

The Exact Surfaces Phase Legacy Workflow is complete.

2.3.3 Exact Surfaces Phase with AutoSurface

The steps in this section produce a precise reproduction of the original object automatically with one of
two workflows (emphasis on contours or curves).

Step 1. Open With HandleExactSurfacesPhase.wrp, select the Exact Surfaces tab. Click the Start Exact
Surfacing icon on the left side of the ribbon toolbar. Click on AutoSurface.

Step 2. Select the Mechanical radio button and leave all the other settings as default. Notice that
Interactive mode is checked. Click Apply. It will run through 8 phases of surfacing.

Step 3. Interactive mode allows the user to stop and fix some problems manually before continuing at
certain stages. An error like below may occur.

Click Yes. Use the Arrow Keys under Walkthrough to click through the problems. Fix any patch problems
using the tools under Action. Click Update to check to see if a problem has been fixed. Tip: Avoid sharp
or wide angles when editing the patches. Think of it as trying to make the patches as rectangular/square
as possible.

When no problems remain, click Done to continue AutoSurface. The command will complete surfacing
to create a NURBS model. Click OK to exit. This olive green model can be exported as .igs or .stp.

Step 4. Optionally, click on Convert > To CAD Object. Click Yes on the popup message that appears.

Step 5. Save the CAD object as .igs or .stp for further processing by an external system. This object is an
accurate reproduction of the scanned data.