Supporting Reuse in Freeform Shape Design: a Signal Processing Approach

Reuse of freeform shape is of great importance in industrial design. This paper presents a novel technique for supporting reuse in freeform shape design based on signal processing approach. By treating the freeform feature as 2D surface signals, local shape manipulations are implemented by handling the corresponding Fourier spectrums. Techniques for feature retrieval are explored, and algorithms for shape synthesis are developed. Working exclusively with the discrete freeform surface distribution, the proposed approach provides a new way in supporting design reuse without involving deep into the sophisticated underlying model representations, such as geometric data-structure and topology. It is capable in handling solid models, surface models, mesh models, or point cloud models. A framework in supporting reuse in freeform shape design is introduced, and related operators in the frequency domain are discussed. Associated examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.