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NEWSLETTERS:

• Solid Modeling Solutions to Celebrate 10 Year Anniversary
• Latest Version of VSLib Released
• SMS Releases Version 7.5 Kernels and New Data Translators
• SMS Wishes Everyone Happy Holidays

Solid Modeling Solutions (SMS) was incorporated in February, 1998, and we shipped our first product that summer. This coming year represents ten years since Robert Blomgren and Jim Presti formed the company, and as they say, the rest is history. But to review a little history, the SMLib release was a major breakthrough resulting in recognition in the January/February issue of IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications as one of the Top 10 Software Products of 1998. Significant enhancements have been made to SMLib over the years along with the development of a family of geometry kernels building from the basic NURBS library NLib, to GSNLib, to TSNLib, and finally SMLib. Data translators have been expanded and now support over ten different industrial standard data formats. In addition to VSLib (see next article), the product has been enhanced with the availability of a subdivision surface geometry kernel known as SDLib. SMS has been a stable provider of source code solutions in the geometry kernel marketplace. Support to our customers has been exceptional, and our development and support staff are recognized as among the very best in the industry. We are very proud to have achieved ten years in a very dynamic marketplace supporting many exciting applications which require the most sophisticated geometry.

Solid Modeling Solutions VSLib's release this fall has met its design targets and expectations. The product will be further enhanced in 2008 to improve curve (and surface) constraints, approximation functions necessary to complete the 3d field shaping feature, and enhanced solver performance.

To review the information from our a previous newsletter, SVLib provides deformable modeling as part of a library using the constrained optimization techniques of the calculus of variations. More details are available by contacting info@smlib.com. The library supports several very different geometric operations:

Gap Refinement

• Reduce surface/edge gap sizes to a specified tolerance by modifying the shape of an existing surface a minimal amount without introducing sharp surface bends or dog-legs.
• Helps repair poorly made databases.

Deformable Modeling

• Design fair curve and surface shapes by setting and moving constraint point locations.
• Any number of constraint points can be located anywhere on the shape and each may constrain any combination of the shapeís differential properties: position, tangents, normals, curvatures, etc. The shape is deformed to interpolate all the constraints while keeping the surface/curve shape smooth and fair.
• Deform surfaces while interpolating any number of arbitrarily placed trim curves.
• Helps enable interactive sculpting applications using a tight loop of user input to modify constraint point values, automated surface recomputation, followed by surface rendering.

Improved Curve and Surface Approximations

• Create smooth and nicely parameterized low-control point count BSpline curve and surface approximations from high-count sample point sets. Individual sample points can contain any combination of position, tangency, normal, or curvature values.
• Each sample point value, in any combination, can either be interpolated or approximated.
• The number of output control points is decoupled from the number of input sample points. Output control point count depends only on shape complexity and desired tolerance. For example, a simple bi-Cubic surface sampled by 10,000 points can be approximated by a Bspline surface with 16 control points.

Global Deformations

• Create variations of existing Brep models by embedding them into a deformable 3 space. Change the shape of the Brep into a new valid Brep by smoothly deforming the space in which it is embedded. The user interface for bending space mimics the user interface for sculpting surfaces allowing space to be deformed by pulling on constraint points while constraining the space to interpolate an arbitrary set of 3d points, curves, and surfaces.

SMS released this fall version 7.5 of the NLib/GSNLib/TSNLib/SMLib family of geometry kernels. Each product has feature enhancements, better documentation, improved performance, and added stability with a number of outstanding problems fixed since the previous release. New versions of the ten data translators were also released this fall. More details can be found on the www.smlib.com website.

The SMS staff wish you all a very happy holiday season. We have had a very, very good year as a result of a growing base of satisfied users of our products. We look forward to even a better year in 2008. May you all have a very happy and prosperous new year

From the staff of Solid Modeling Solutions