\(GC^1\) multisided Bézier surfaces (Q1383481)

The authors address the problem of fitting geometrically continuous surfaces to a given set of curves describing an arbitrary number of boundary curves for each patch of the final surface. Tangent plane continuity and twist compatibility are built into the method. The resulting patches are biquintic Bézier patches, which allow direct data exchange among various CAD systems. Essentially, the degrees of freedom for patch construction are (i) the cross-boundary derivatives along each patch boundary curve and (ii) the locus of ``center points'' needed to break a macro-\(n\)-sided patch into multiple simpler patches. The method should be of interest for researchers concerned with CAD system development and, in particular, researchers concerned with modeling arbitrary, multiple \(n\)-sided patch configurations.