I. Harashima et al., A PRINCIPAL CURVATURE GRAPH FOR PRODUCT FORM ANALYSIS, International journal of the Japan Society for Precision Engineering, 29(1), 1995, pp. 88-93
In industrial design with a mechanical CAD system, since designers hav
e a lot of hard time converting their images of a product form into a
geometric model, it is necessary to help confirm the product form as a
geometric model in some way. This paper describes techniques to analy
ze free form surfaces and evaluate their features for confirmation by
computer. First, recent surface evaluation methods are classified into
three categories. Secondly, from one of these categories, a new curva
ture visualization method using a principal curvature (PC) graph is pr
oposed. The PC graph indicates surface features by analogy with primit
ive surfaces such as cylinders, spheres or planes and has high sensiti
vity in surface evaluation. Finally, results of tests on the PC graph
developed as a prototype are shown and its effectiveness in industrial
design is confirmed.