Re: Slice Formats....

From: Justin R Kidder (jkidder@spock.ecs.umass.edu)
Date: Thu Feb 29 1996 - 23:31:11 EET


Peter H. Gien wrote:
>
> Pierce Krouse wrote:
>
> >>The problem with contoured formats
> is that they pretty much enforce a given layer thickness when it comes
> time to build a prototype.
>
> Without starting a flame war as to which is the better format, I'm
> sure others in the group will be happy to elaborate further :-) <<
>
> As always, I am happy to elaborate:
>

>...
> 4) Contour data does not use surface normal information. A definate advantage
> given the number of files out there with messed up normals.
If I knew more about Rapid Prototyping (I'm still learning), I would say that this is
a disadvantage, not an advantage. From what I understand, although they are easy to
mess up (and therefore make the model bad), they are a vital piece of information
for post-processing operations that is very difficult to get from a contour format.
 
> 5) Contour data cannot be easily visualized.
Is fitting a surface (NURBS) to the contours really this difficult? Maybe it is, but
I don't think so...
 

> Peter H. Gien
> POGO International, Inc.
> 71773.3150@compuserve.com

BTW, you only mentioned surface models here. Is there any difference between
processing a surface model and processing a solid model (CSG or B-Rep)? Anyone?
I would assume that a solid model makes things like topology checking, volume
computation, etc. easier. Just a guess...

Justin Kidder

-- 
jkidder@spock.ecs.umass.edu
Automation and Robotics Laboratory
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
http://www.ecs.umass.edu/mie/labs/arl/people/jkidder/jkidder.html
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