Geometric Modeling For Swept

Volume Of Moving Solids

BITS Pilani
Hyderabad Campus
Introduction

• Solid modeling has become a vital CAD/CAM tool.

• The modeling of swept volume is important is simulating the interference between a

moving solid and its environment.

• Early applications of solid modeling were primarily limited to generating graphic displays
and calculating mass properties.

• But recent applications have been introduced that generates finite element meshes for
engineering analysis and numerical control (NC) codes for machining.

• Another important application of solid modeling is to manufacturing at General Dynamics

for graphic verification of NC tool paths.

• In principle, a machining process (removing material from a stock) can be simulated by

taking the Boolean difference of the tool swept volume from the stock.

BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Introduction

Figure 1. Simulation of five-axis NC milling operation: (a) initial

and final positions, (b) swept volume of tool-path, (c) tool-path
superimposed with the stock, (d) simulating machined part by
Boolean subtraction.

BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Geometric Modeling Of Swept
Volume
• In the Euclidean 3D space, a swept volume is considered as the totality of all points that
belong to the trace of a moving solid.

• The moving geometric entity is called a generator.

Moving Geometry
• A family of straight lines (called ruling) and a directive path (called directrix) define a
ruled surface.

• A planar curve rotating about a line in its plane defines a surface of revolution.

• Likewise, a moving surface can be used to define a solid volume.

BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

 Geometric Modeling Of Swept
Volume
• Figure 2 shows various
possible approaches one can
take to model a swept volume
.
• In this paper, they have opted
for the route designated by the
solid arrow, which is
apparently less "redundant" as
compared with others.

BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Geometric Modeling Of Swept
Volume

Envelope
• The task of computing the swept volume can be reduced for determining boundary
surface of the swept volume, frequently denoted as the envelope surface.

• The envelope consists of two categories of surfaces:

(1) a subset of the boundary of the generator at the initial and final positions.

(2) new surfaces generated during the motion of the generator.

• To determine the envelope, this journal assumed that

(1) the motion function is piecewise differentiable,

(2) the generator is a convex set, and

(3) the boundary faces of the generator are regular surfaces.

BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

 Geometric Modeling Of Swept
Volume
• For the parametric formulation, we make use of
the property that the envelope is tangent to the
generator at any contact point.
• This means that at any contact point, the normal
of the generator N is parallel to the normal of the
Figure 3. Parametric form of a swept volume.
envelope N.
• If the family of curves are represented in an
implicit form g(x,y,t) = 0, then a different
approach can be taken.
• Consider the intersection of two curves as shown
in Figure 4. As δt ͢ 0, the intersection converges to
Figure 4. Implicit form of a swept volume.
the envelope.
• it implies that a point on the envelope satisfies dg/dt =0.
BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus
Geometric Modeling Of Swept
Volume
A scan-rendering process for swept volume
• A special scan-rendering process has been developed to convert the swept volume into a
3D pixel image for subsequent Boolean operations with other models.

• The intermediate steps, as illustrated in Figure 8, include the following:

1) Create a polyhedral approximation from the analytical model of the swept volume.

2) find the scan spans for each scan line, and calculate the pixel intensity.

3) finally update the resulting geometry

BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Geometric Modeling Of Swept
Volume
Data Structure
• An envelope of swept volume is created for each step of
the tool motion.

• The envelope's topological and geometrical information

is embedded in a data structure.

• Within which four levels of topological entities are used,

namely- object, face, loop, and edge.

• The relationships among these entities, which are

sufficient to support the scan-line conversion, are shown
in Figure.

BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Geometric Modeling Of Swept
Volume
Application

• The system
structure of the
NC-simulation
software, NCS, is
shown in Figure

BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Geometric Modeling Of Swept
Volume
• The input for modeling a tool-path swept volume includes the description of the tool
geometry and a CL-data file,15 which defines the tool motion.

• The swept volume is also converted to the pixel data, which are compatible with those
of the workpiece and the fixtures.

• Then the Boolean difference is computed to remove material from the workpiece for
display of simulated machine part.

BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Geometric Modeling Of Swept
Volume
Concluding Remarks
• The modeling of swept volume involves a system of higher dimensions with one

more degree of freedom than the modeling of static solids.

• From the viewpoint of computational efficiency, it is desirable to reduce the

dimension and the degree of freedom of a system whenever possible.

• In modeling the interference of a moving object with its static environment,

the problem can be simplified by omitting the time dependency.

BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Thank You

BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus