Symmetric alteration of four knots of B-spline and NURBS surfaces (Q2508243)

NURBS (non-uniform rational B-spline) belongs to the standard tools in the area of free form curves and surfaces modelling. The shape of a NURBS surface can be changed by four shape modifiers: position of control points, degree of rational basis functions, knot vector and weights of control points. A B-spline surface is a special type of a NURBS surface with the same (usually unit) weights of control points. In this article, the influence of a symmetric alteration of four knots on the shape of the B-spline and NURBS surface is presented. The authors applied the previous theory of symmetric alteration of two knots of B-spline and NURBS curve in an extended range of modification. They investigate paths, along which the points of the B-spline and NURBS surface move when modifying the knots and prove that the extended paths for the symmetric alteration of four knots converge to a point which can be expressed with several control points.