Interactive Virtual Tools for Manipulating NURBS Surfaces in a Virtual Environment

Abstract

DN-Edit is a virtual environment developed to allow the manipulation of non-uniform rational b-spline (NURBS) surfaces using virtual shaping tools. NURBS have become the industry standard for representation of free-form curves and surfaces. The contribution of the work presented here is in the development of shaping tools which are used to operate directly on the NURBS data and change the shape of the surfaces in a virtual environment. These shaping tools allow surface manipulations to be made using methods that match the shaping of real malleable objects. The virtual shaping tools are three-dimensional shapes that are controlled through a six degree-of-freedom tracking system that converts user hand motions into computer input. The NURBS surface updates itself in real time due to the effect of the tools on the surface. The new shape of the surface is dependent on the position and orientation of the shaping tool relative to the surface. Constraint-based surface manipulation is used to obtain multiple point direct manipulation of NURBS surfaces. In addition, computational methods to allow the user to have direct control of the first derivative of the surface over an area are implemented. This application has been developed using the C2 software libraries and Iowa State University’s C2 surround screen virtual environment.