Direct manipulations of B-spline and NURBS curves

This paper presents a method for the direct manipulations of B-spline and non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS) curves using geometric constraints. A deformable model is developed to define the deformation energy functional of B-spline and NURBS curves. The finite element method is used to minimize the deformation energy functional and solve for the deformed shape of curves subjected to constraints. This approach results in a set of linear equations for a B-spline curve and a set of non-linear equations for a NURBS curve. A perspective mapping is used to linearize the NURBS formulations. NURBS curves are first mapped from the 3D Cartesian coordinate space to the 4D homogeneous coordinate space, and transformed to 4D B-spline curves. After the manipulation in the 4D homogeneous coordinate space, the modified NURBS curves are then mapped back to the 3D Cartesian coordinate space. The approach is implemented by a prototype program, which is written in C, and runs under WINDOWS. Several examples are presented to demonstrate the capabilities of this approach. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.