A system for reconstructing and visualising three-dimensional objects

Abstract

This paper presents a software program for three-dimensional separation, geometrical reconstruction and visualisation of subsurface objects. It uses as input a file containing 3-D co-ordinates of object points and respective attributes converted into a grey scale level. The software consists of two main components: recognition software; 3-D reconstruction and visualisation software. Based on the input file, the first component generates a set of planes, containing two-dimensional sections. If the information needed (i.e. the number of points) is insufficient, an approximation or interpolation method is applied to build smooth 2-D section borders. The first software component divides the set of all 2-D sections into subsets of similar 2-D sections. The second one uses each subset to build geometrically different 3-D subsurface objects. An experiment is performed to validate the program capabilities. Data obtained by prospective drills from the Aljustrel mine located in the South of Portugal is used for generation of the input file. The surfaces of three ore bodes are reconstructed and visualised from three different viewpoints. The main differences between the presented software program and some packages for 3-D modelling and visualisation are discussed.