An approach to representing heterogeneous non-uniform rational B-spline objects

The representation method of heterogeneous material information is one of the key technologies of heterogeneous object modeling, but almost all the existing methods cannot represent non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) entity. According to the characteristics of NURBS, a novel data structure, named NURBS material data structure, is proposed, in which the geometrical coordinates, weights and material coordinates of NURBS heterogeneous objects can be represented simultaneously. Based on this data structure, both direct representation method and inverse construction method of heterogeneous NURBS objects are introduced. In the direct representation method, three forms of NURBS heterogeneous objects are introduced by giving the geometry and material information of control points, among which the homogeneous coordinates form is employed for its brevity and easy programming. In the inverse construction method, continuous heterogeneous curves and surfaces can be obtained by interpolating discrete points and curves with specified material information. Some examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed methods.