Volume modelling in a feature based product modeling system

In this article we propose a hybrid modeling system based on B-rep model and volume model to overcome the inability of representing volume information of modeling object in conversional feature based modeling systems. Using this hybrid representation, we can easily solve the visualization and mass property computation for designing objects with specified volume attribute. In this article we propose a new method of converting B-rep models into volume models. This converting method is based on marching cube algorithm, and is optimized by octree algorithm. Using this converting method, we can efficiently convert the B-rep models into volume models. We also discuss the antialiasing technical on those volume models, we analyze different filters used for the voxelization of analytically described objects. To solve the visualization product problems in modeling systems, such as dynamic simulation, we present the methods of how to add Boolean operations on the hybrid modeling system to solve these problems. Voxelization enables uniform representation of all objects by a single primitive. Thus, instead of dealing with a number of different objects with specific features, dynamic simulation and dynamic interference on volume models only need simple calculations and is more efficient. We show that, using volume modeling, difficult problems in old modeling systems can be easily solved. The details of our algorithm are discussed in this article. We have implemented a volume modeling system based on our old feature based modeling system-GSCAD.