FREE-FORM SURFACE RECON-STRUCTION BASED ON NURBS TO SERIAL CROSS-SECTIONS

A new method for recovering shape from cross-sectional contours with complex branchingstructures is presented. First, each branching problem by providing an intermediate contour using dis-tance function and image processing technology is solved. Then, all contours are divided into severalgroups of simple contours. For each group, a NURBS curve is fitted to contour points in each sectionwithin a given accuracy on a common knot vector.Finally, the NURBS surface skinning of these con-tours is performed for providing a smooth geometric model. The method is suitable to reproduce theobject by NC machining or rapid prototyping. Some results demonstrate its usefulness and feasibility.