NUMERICAL IMPLICITIZATION FOR INTERSECTION AND G(N)-CONTINUOUS BLENDING OF SURFACES

The idea of numerical implicitization allows to treat not only paramet ric surfaces but also a lot of surfaces of practical use which have pe r definition no standard (parametric or implicit) representations in a uniform way as implicit surfaces. So it suffices to have a surface/su rface intersection algorithm for implicit surfaces. Further more the s imple G(n)-blending techniques for implicit surfaces are applicable. T he intersection of a space curve and a surface is just a specializatio n of a suitable surface/surface intersection problem. At least a simpl e method for the smooth approximation of a set of intersecting implici t surfaces is extended to more general surfaces. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sci ence B.V.