Feature reconstruction for freeform surface design

In the conceptual design phase, designers not only require an easy way to construct a freeform surface, but also need to modify it intuitively. In this paper, a feature based freeform surface design method is proposed in order to fit the requirement. First, a freeform feature library is introduced as the basis of the system. Freeform features in the library can either be extracted from existing designs or be constructed by designers. With freeform features in the library and basis surfaces, new freeform designs are constructed by Boolean-like operations, such as feature based deformation or union with transition surfaces. In the designed surface, designer can easily modify features with changing highlevel parameters. Finally, several simple examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the feature based freeform surface design system.