MANUAL SHAPE DEFINITION AND OPTIMIZATION


Traditional working materials are clay and hardened foam. There is a direct sensory connection between stylist and model. Hand and eye perceive realistic facts. Many stylists would rather work manually only. Difficulties start when holding a physical model in hand does not suffice anymore but reliable data concerning the shape are necessary to make the model reproducible. For simple parts, this can be done by traditional measuring and afterwards recreation within the CAD system. With more complex free-form parts like a car body, the model is usually scanned with the help of very exact measuring methods (such as laser triangulation and stereo photo-grammetry), and it is then processed with a special software for semi-automatic surface reconstruction so that acceptable CAD surfaces are available in the end.

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