Surface approximation with rational B-splines

Abstract

Many modern geometric modelers use nonuniform rational B-spline curves and surfaces as their canonical representations. Rational B-splines are a versatile representation, encompassing integral B-splines and the basic classical primitives such as conics, quadrics, and torii. However, rational B-splines representations other than these classical primitives have found little application in surface modeling. In this paper we develop approximation algorithms based on the general rational B-spline formulation. Numerical experiments indicate that rational B-splines allow a significantly more compact approximation of two classes of parametric surfaces in comparison to integral B-splines. The two classes of surfaces studied are generalized cylinders and offsets of a rational B-spline surface patch progenitor.