SOLID or VOLUME MODELING

Briefly, it is CAD’s objective to build solid models. Most geometric objects

that we see every day are solids, that is, they are geometric objects with an
interior. Solid models' are known to be complete, valid and unambiguous
objects. Solids can be very simple like a cube or very complex like a turbine
blade.

Application of Solid Models:

In mechanical engineering, a solid model is used for the following
applications:
1. Graphics: Generating drawings, surface and solid models.
2. Design: Mass property calculation, interference analysis, finite element
analysis, kinematics and mechanism analysis, animation, etc.
3. Manufacturing: Tool path generation and verification, process planning,
dimension inspection, tolerance and surface finish.
4. Assembly: Application to robotics and flexible manufacturing: Assembly
planning, vision algorithm, kinematics and dynamics driven by solid
models.
For computer system to process, solids must have some representations that can
describe the geometry and characteristics completely. The following are issues to
be addressed:
• Domain: While no representation can describe all possible solids, a
representation should be able to represent a useful set of geometric objects.
• Unambiguity: When you see a representation of a solid, you will know what is
being represented without any doubt. An unambiguous representation is usually
referred to as a complete one.
• Uniqueness: That is, there is only one way to represent a particular solid. If a
representation is unique, then it is easy to detennine if two solids are identical
since one can just compare their representations.
• Accuracy: A representation is said to be accurate if no
approximation is
required.
• Validness: This means that a representation should not
create any invalid or Impossible solids. More precisely, a
representation will not represent an object
that does not correspond to a solid.
• Closure: Solids will be transformed and used with other
operations such as union and intersection. Closure means
that transforming a valid solid always yields a valid solid.
• Compactness and efficiency: A good representation
should be compact enough to save space and allow for
efficient algorithms to determine the desired physical
characteristics.
 Solid modeling approaches:
A solid model can be generated by two approaches. One is by
constructive solid geometry(C-REP) and the other is by describing
the full solid through its enclosing surfaces (B-REP).
(a) Constructive solid geometry (CSG) or C-REP and
(b) Boundary representation. (B-REP)
Constructive solid geometry (CSG)
Constructive solid geometry (CSG) is a technique used in solid
modeling. Constructive solid geometry allows a modeler to
create a complex surface or object by using Boolean operators
to combine objects. The Boolean operation are union, subtract
and intersection.
The simplest solid objects used for the representation are called
primitives. Typically they are the objects of simple shape:
cuboids, cylinders, prisms, pyramids, spheres, cones.
To construct a solid by CSG approach, the primitives are
created with specified size, kept in place and Boolean
operations are performed to get the required solid. The data
of the solid model is stored in the database in free form.
 CSG tree → stores the history of applying boolean
operations on the primitives.
 Stores in a binary tree format
 The outer leaf nodes of tree represent the primitives
The interior nodes represent the boolean operations performed
Find the CSG Binary Tree for the following Figure?
Problem: Explain how to construct the solid model of
the bearing support with primitives and Boolean
operations. Construct a CSG tree
Geometry and topology:

The above figure illustrates the difference between geometry and topology.
The geometry that defines the object is the lengths of lines, areas of
surfaces, the angles between the lines, and the radius and the center of the
cylinder and the height. On the other hand, topology (sometimes called
combinatorial structure), is the connectivity and associativity of the object
entities. It has to do with the notion of neighborhood and determines the
relational information between object entities. From a user point of view,
geometry is visible and topology is considered to be nongraphical relational
information that is stored in solid model databases and are not visible to
users.
Boundary representation (B-REP):
Boundary representation models are composed of two parts:
topology and geometry. The main topological items are: faces,
edges and vertices. Topological information provides the
relationships among faces, edges and vertices similar to that
used in wireframe model. It also includes the orientation of
edges and faces. Geometrical information include equations of
edges and faces.

It is an extension of wireframe modeling. The advantages of B-

rep is that it has well defined surfaces, with interiors and
exteriors. Faces have arcs,lines, edge and vertex.Each vertex is
indicated by x,y,z, coordinates.

A typical database structure of a product is shown.

Product → Assembly → Attributes → Part → solid body → Face →
Edge → Vertex.
The B-rep of 2 manifolds that have faces with holes satisfies the
generalized Euler’s formula:
V–E+F–H=2(C−G)
Where, V = Number of vertices.
E = Number of edges.
F = Number of faces.
H = Number of holes in the faces.
C is the number of separate components (parts).
G is the genus (for a torus G = 1)