Matlab-based problem-solving environment for geometric processing of surfaces

Abstract

In this paper a new problem-solving environment (PSE) for geometric processing of surfaces is introduced. The PSE has been designed to be responsive to the needs of our collaboration with an industrial partner, the Spanish company CANDEMAT S.A., devoted to build moulds and dies for the automotive industry. The PSE has been implemented in Matlab and is aimed to support the full range of activities carried out by our partner in the field of geometric processing of surfaces for the automotive industry. Firstly, the paper describes the architecture of the system and some implementation details. Then, some examples of its application to critical problems in the automotive industry - such as the computation of the intersection curves of surfaces, the generation of tool-path trajectories for NC machining and the visualization of geometric entities stored in industrial files of several formats - are briefly described. The PSE has shown to provide our partner with accurate, reliable solutions to these and other problems and to serve as a communication channel for exchange of geometrical data as well as a platform for trial and research support. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.