NURBS, SubD, and Tsplines
A paper has appeared on the Russian CAD blog Isicad.net that some of you may be interested in reading. It summarizes the history of NURBS, subdivision surfaces, and Tsplines. I find that reading stuff like this helps me understand and appreciate tools that are available today.
If you are further interested in the history of CAD, a couple of years ago, David Weisberg made available a set of PDFs covering years of CAD history. He asks that you make a donation to Cancer League of Colorado Foundation in return for the download.
It’s a slow week between holidays, and maybe some insightful reading is just the thing.
How if SolidWorks implement this : http://www.integrityware.com/subdnurbs.html & http://www.upfrontezine.com/2011/upf-682.htm
@Ralph such as?
@Matt thanks for the link, it was an interesting read. The coons and tsplines links in the bibliography were interesting as well. IMO one of the failings of SW has been to omit any discussion of the underlying basis of the surface tools we use from the documentation. Having a nice simple and intuitive UI is one thing but understanding what you are actually about is another. Doesn’t matter how long you look at a ‘blank screen’ with an open mind you are unlikely to have this knowledge come to you.
If you were short of a writing project for the New Year perhaps you could come up with a new chapter for your books that is a blend of CAD history and technical papers that gives CAD users some working insight into their surfacing projects and the various tools. You could pick over available bits and pieces like those mentioned to get the vital explanations/clues/distinctions 😉 Maybe some of the content from Ed Eaton’s insights and Mark B. SWW presentations could find their way in their as well – sort of wrap up a whole lot of info into one convenient source. Hmmm maybe thats a fairly thick chapter or even a few that you could sell as a stand alone or as an e-booklet. It needn’t be directed at SW users exclusively though. Hmmmm ‘Matts’ Little Surfacing Handbook’ or something.
In relation to this perhaps you should go interview Jon H. now that he has left SW with a mind to capturing some important CAD history while its fresh…perhaps on video as well?
Dunno. Just some ideas. It would be good to start out the year on a positive note. 🙂
While I appreciate David Weisberg effort at collecting some of our industry’s history into a single volume, be aware that it contains a number of errors, which remain uncorrected. The errors are not so much his fault, as the mis-remembering by others he interviewed for the book.