Reconstruction of 3D models from 2D orthographic views using solid extrusion and revolution

In this paper, a new method for automatic reconstruction of 3D solid models from 2D orthographic views is proposed. The algorithm developed reconstructs a part in two main stages. In the first stage, features on the part are constructed by extrusion and revolution operations after evaluating inner geometric entities through a data interchange format (DXF) translator on three orthographic views. In the second stage, outer profiles of three views are extruded using the information in neighbouring views to obtain the basic primitives. Feature volumes obtained in the first stage are then subtracted from these basic primitives. Finally, a solution model is obtained by intersecting the processed solids. If no inner features exist on the part, the algorithm directly starts from the second stage and adopts the solution model obtained by intersecting of basic primitives. The algorithm has been applied to several examples to demonstrate its efficiency and capability. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.