Constant-radius blending in surface modelling (Q1120949)

Blending, which is considered in connection with geometric modelling, means the creation of localized (smooth) transitions between surfaces. The authors present methods for blending surfaces, whose rectangular parametric formulation makes a more general approach than that of implicit one. The suggested method allows the construction of constant- radius blends for any type of rectangular parametric surfaces as long as their offset surfaces are smooth, without singularities and self- intersections. It is shown how this last mentioned restriction may be relieved. The first section contains a brief description of the SSI algorithm for the intersection of offset surfaces. The following two sections deal with the construction of edge and corner blend surfaces among rectangular parametric surfaces patches.