Geometric assistance for visual reasoning and construction of solids with curved surfaces from 2D orthographic views

As the extensive use of solid models becomes widespread, it is important to have a mechanism by which existing engineering drawings can he converted into solid models. Therefore, a geometric assistance that can aid in visual reasoning and constructing of solid models is beneficial. In this paper, we present key operations for a system called the Assistant for Reasoning and Construction of Solids (ARCS), which provides this assistance given a set of two orthographic views. The geometric domain of ARCS encompasses curved solids with cylindrical and spherical surfaces, such as those found in typical mechanical parts. We have devised the Cylindrical and Spherical Warping operations to create cylindrical and spherical surfaces, which use interactive computer graphics that guide a human user to curved faces of a solid. These operations are then illustrated with examples using ARCS to create the solid models of typical mechanical pal-ts from their orthographic projections. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.