Computer Aided Geometric Design 6 (1989) 87-96 North-Holland

87

Surface lofting and smoothing with skeletal-lines

S. BED1
De~artmenl of Meckanical Engineeri~& Universiry of Waterioo, Ontario, Canada

G.W. VICKERS
Depmnent of Meckanical Engineering University of Victoriq B.C., Canah

Received My 1987 Revised May 1988 Abstmet. A method of surface definition and smoothing using a set of three-dimensional skeletal-lines is given. The skeletal-lines represent the essential features of a surface and can be individually smoothed using the first divided difference. The modified skeletal-lines are automatically generated by back substitution from the smoothed first divided difference lines. In this way a surface can be defined and smoothly adjusted through a set of sparse. irregular, inconsistent data. Keywo& Surface definition difference. and smoothing, skeletal-line representation, back substitution of fist divided

The critical surfaces in ship hulls, turbine blades, propellers, aeropume fuselages, etc. are defined in three orthographic views [Bedi & Vickers 871 showing various horizontal, vertical and oblique cross-sections, as shown in Fig. 1. The drawings are done to a smalI scale and may contain inherent design errors. The computer models of these surt^acesare often generated by identifying form parameters, such as sectional area, end angles, elc. [Clements 84, Hattori & Matida 77, Munchmeyer 821, or using a control polyhedron [Bamhill 85, Bezier 72, de Boor
abear Iine

BODY PLAN

Fig. 1. Naval architects design drawing showing station-fines, water-tines, shear-line and profile-line.

0167.83%/89/$3.50

0 1989. Rfsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland)

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S. Bedi, G. W. Vickers / Surface :oftti,;g

72.1 These approaches require an experienced designer [Hattori & Matida 771, well versed in surface design techniques. In this paper a method is deveioped in which a smooth surface may be generated directly from a set of sparse irregular data contained in orthographic drawing views. The current approach to surface modelling has been adopted as it passes through the points lying on the surface [Bedi & Vickers 87, Bedi, Chemoff & Vickers 861and readily produces all station-line and water-line data as required for shipyard manufacture.

2. Surface design The traditional representation of surfaces showing a rectangular grid of vertical (station-lines) and horizontal (water-lines) sections does not represent the surface uniformly or completely. As shown in Fig. 1, the features near the stem and keel are undefined. This ambiguity was acceptable in manual lofting and fairing procedures where a loftperson interpreted the drawing based on his experience and judgement. However, this is not suitable for computer modelling. In this work, a set of three-dimensional curves, which lie on the hull surface and represent its essential features, is defined. The lines, called skeletal-lines, form the skeleton around which the surface is generated. If this skeleton is smooth, the generated surface is observed to blend smoothly from bow to stem. The skeletal-lines are generated in the front view of the surface by superimposing it with curved lines that divide the three-dimensional surface into equal sectors. On a uniformly curving surface, these skelatal-lines are equally spaced, whereas additional lines may be added to represent sharp curvatures or other unrepresented features of the surface. The skeletal tines, which are three-dimensional curves, are defined as Y /(X)9
z=h(x).

0)
(2)

The complete definition of the surface is generated by taking an intersection of the skeletal-lines at a particular station and fitting it with a curve. The equation of this curve is

y=dz9 (3) where /, g and h are cubic polynomials. Equations (l), (2) and (3) define every point on the surface and can generate any required vertical, horizontal or oblique cross-sectional view of the surface. This method has been implemented as a menu-driven, personal computer-based package, which has been used for many industrial applications such as hull design, turbine blade design, heart valve design, etc. The machined prototypes had a faired and smooth surface. A front view of a hull as shown in a naval architects plan, superimposed with a set of skeletal-lines, shown with broken lines, is given in Fig. 2. The surface generated after minor modifzations to this set of skeletal-lines is shown in Fig. 3. Similarly, the front view of a turgo turbine blade with the generating set of skeletal-lines is shown in Fig. 4. The perspective view of the final suf~ce of the turgo turbine Made is shown in Fig. 5.
3. Skeletal line method of surface fair@ The skeletal-lines are arbitrarily placed by digitizing the points at which they intersect the station-lines. The errors inherent in the unlofted and unfaired drawing in addition to errors due to digitizing small drawings, generate a surface that does not necessarily blend smoothly. A

S. Bedi, G. W. Vickers / SW/ace

89

Round-Bottom-Seiner

1 I

I 2

I 3

I
4

I
5

Fig. 2. A body-plan for a round bottl>m seiner fishing boat with 11 smoothed skeletal-lines.

typical set of initial surfaces with some oscillations is shown in Fig. 6. The oscillations in the surface can be seen by looking along the water-lines. Visual inspection is a discriminating way to identify smoothness, but manual modification by adjusting the data locally is a cumbersome and tedious task. Many approaches to semi-automatic smoothing of surfaces were attempted. One feature that became evident was that it is better to go back and smooth the skeletal-lines (control pointsj Round-Bottom-Seiner

II

Fig, 3. A perspective view of the hull shape of the round bottom wirier.

S. Bedi, c:. If! Vickers

/ Surface

lofting

Turgo-Turbine-Blade

10

Fig. 4. A body-plan

for a tutgoturbinewith six smoothed skeletal-lines.

and thereby reform the surface, than to adjust the water-lines and station-iines individually [Hattori & Matida 77, Munchmeyer 82, Munchmeyer 791. It was fiirther determined that blending neighbouring points changes the shape of the resulting surface as it relaxes the curve at that point [Clements 841. In the most suitable method, the first divided difference of the skeletal-lines is used to amplify and identify sections of irregularities [Renz 821. Furthermore, modifications are made

Turgo-Turbine-Blade

,
2

ll

IO

Fig. 5. A perspectiveview of the developed turgo turbine.

S. Becsr.G. W. Vickers / Surjace lofting

91

Round-Bottom-Seiner

Double-Chine-Boat

IO

Fig. 6. Surface produced from digitized unsmooth data, representing a round bottom seiner fishing vessel and a double chine seiner.

to the divided difference curve rather than the skeletal-line itself, and the modified skeletal-line is generated by back substitution. As the modified skeletal-line is based on a smooth first divided difference, it is observed to blend smoothly. Given a curve y =f(x), the first divided difference is defined as
Sfxi)=
f(xt+l)-f(xi)

#+I

-xi

(4)

The second divided difference is defined as h(xi)=

x,+1) - dx,) . Ed X -x,

r+l

Skeletal-lines are three-dimensional curves, so their divided difference is plotted in the x-y and the x-z planes to identify unfair points. These points in the first divided difference plot are re-evaluated by fitting a taut-cubic spline through their neighbours. This smoothed divided difference is the basis of the modified and faired skeletal-lines that are evaluated by back-substitutions. The smoothing process is continued untii a satisfactory surface is obtained. The details of this method are given below. 3.1. Smoothing using divided differences
Let a skeletal-line be represerrted by n control points given by [f(x,), f(%)r...rf(X.-l)r /kJThe f&o divided difference for these control points is then given by

[g(x,),

dx2L.dx"-,)~

X(%-l)].

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S. Bedi, G. W. Vickers/ Surforelofting

The divided difference is viewed on a graphics terminal and visually inspected to identify points that deviate from the norm. Let point m, with a divided difference of g(x,), be in error. It is modified based on its neighbours, g(x,_Z)r g(x,_,) and 8(x,,,+,) and g(x,+2). A taut-cubic spline is passed through these points and its value gI( x,) at x,, is the modified and smoothed divided difference. The modified divided difference, g,(x,), can also be written as gr(x,) = g(x,) + Ag(xJ. and [x,, x2,. . . , x,] and are given by
(7)

(6)

The modified control points are obtained from f(xt)

f,(Xi+l)=(Xi+*-X*)g(xi)-tf(xi),

where f,(x,) =f(xt). 63)

The modified control points are then given by the following points [f(x,). f(x,+z) .4x,-,) I(x~),...rf(x,), f(x,+r) + (x,+1 --xmMg(xm),

+ (x,+1 -x,)Ag(x,). +(x,+1 -x&k(x,), f(x,) + (x,+1 -x,Mg(x,)].

As is apparent, all control points after the altered point have shifted by the same amount. Hence, it is r~~~ssary to restrict the curve modification to a reg& to prevent it propagating beyond the altered points. As only one point is altered, the region of alteration starts at g(x,,,_t) and extends to g(x,+, ). The points on the original curve corresponding to these divided differences are f(x,_,) and f(x,+,). Let the divided difference obtained by using equation (7) be Mxt), fi(x2)r...Jt(x-l)r ft(xn)l.

Then the final modified control points are given by the following formula

f*txi)

Q(x,_,)

fbm-1)

+o-wf~(x,+,)

f(xm+J 1

ifxm-l~xl=m+q~

(9)

\I \&I!

otherwise

where h=L_
xi-xm-l X m+l -X,-l .

In the above derivation, only one point of the divided difference curve was modified, but it is possible that a range of points needs to be altered in the divided difference curve. The method of altering a range of points is a minor modification of the above described method. If the divided difference curve is modified in the range p to q, the curve is obtained using the following equation

f(x,) +(* -x)f,(xp), I

_

ifxpSxi5x,, (10) otherwise

where ~+_xl-xp x 4 -x

S. Bedi, G. W. Vickers / Surface lofiing

93

Initialize

Display

I
Modify Yes t Divided Difference

Fig. 7. Flowchart for skeletal line smoothing using divided difference.

are fitted with three-dimensional The smoothed control points [fr(x,), fi(xz),...,fi(xn)] taut-cubic splines or B-splines to obtain the skeletal line. The above method can be extended to modification of the first divided difference based on the second divided difference. Based on the success of this method. however, it was not necessary to extend the modification process to second divided difference. The above method gives very sensitive control in moving the data points. The flowchart of the program implementing the above method is given in Fig. 7. This method has been successfully used to identify and modify inconsistent irregularities on the skeletal-line data for a number of different surface designs. Two of the designs are discussed as examples below. 3.2. Chine boat A set of skeletal-lines is drawn on the body plan of a naval architects plan for a double-chine boat, according to the approach described earlier. The surface generated from these skeletal-lines is shown in Fig. 6. The first divided difference in the x-y and x-z planes of fine skeletal-fines is shown in Figs. g and 9, respectively. The skeletal-lines were modified using the divided difference approach described above. The modified first divided difference curves are shown in Figs. 10 and 11. The water-lines and station-lines of the surface generated from these modified skeletal-lines are shown in Figs. 12 and 13. 3.3. Non-chine boat The surface generated from the original skeletal-lines digitized from a naval architects plan is shown in Fig. 6. These skeletal-lines were modified using the divided difference technique. The station-lines and water-lines generated from the modified skeletal-lines are shov-m in Fig. 3.

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S. Bedi, G. W. Vickers / Surjbce lofting

2.5

clthdg-xy

2.0

IS

I.0

0.6

x
0 2 4 6 8 10

F@. 8. The x-y view of the first divided difference of the unmodified skeletal-lines of the double-chine boat.

Z 2.5

4thdgxz

2.0

I.5

1.0

0.5

il 2 4 6

II

ltl

Fii. 9. The x-t view of the first dkidcd difference of the unmodified skeletaMincs of the double-chine boat.

2.5

2.0

I.6

I.0

0.5

II

IO

Fig. 10. The x-y view of the Tit divided difference of the modified !skektal-linesof the doubleshine boat.

S. Bedi, G. W. Vickers / Surface lofting

2.5 IO

95

-I

4thoot4a

2.0

II

l.S

1.0

0.S

0 2 4 6 8 IO

(I

Fig. 11. The x-z view of the first divided difference of the modified skeletal-lines of the double-chine boat.

Fig. 12. The water-lines of the modified surface of the double-chine boat.

Double-Chine-Boat

IO

Fig 13. A perspective view of the hull shape of the double-chine fishing boat.

The skeletal-lines represent a surface uniformly and completely. Furthermore, they provide a means with which the surface can be modified selectively and in a controlled fashion. The above methods have now been implemented as a package based on a personal computer. The package is being used at a local shipyard where it has reduced the lofting and fairing time by one-third. The packages versatility is further demonstrated by the variety of applications, such as kayak design, francis and turgo turbine blade design, hull model design, etc., that it has succesfully handled.

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G. W. Vickers / Surface /ofring

References
Barnhill, R.E. (1985). Surfaces in CAGD: A survey, Cornfilter Aided Cmmetric Design 2, l-17. Bedi, S. (1984). A study of B-splines and their application to engineering, Masters Thesis, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Bedi, S., W. Chernoff and G.W. Vickers (1986), Computer aided fairing and direct numerically controlled machining of ship hull hydrodynamic test tq models, J. Ship Research, to appear. Bedi, S., and G.W. Vickers (1937). The generation of smoothed curved surfaces from sparse irregular data, ASME, computers tn Mechanical Ei@neering. to appear. B&ier, P.E. (1972). Numerical Control - hfarhemotics and Applications. Wiley, New York. Clements. J.C. (1984). Developed plate expansion using geodesics, Marine Technology 21(4). Collae G., and E. Seifert (197,h Interactive fair@ of ship lines - a procedure developed for the model hamburg basin, Computer-Aided Hull surface Definition Symposium, Annapolis. Coons, S.A. (1976), Surfaces for - flputer aided design of space forms, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Project MAC. de Boor, C. (1972). on calculating a& B-splines, J. Approx. Theory6. de Boor, C. (1978), A Guide to S,$ines, Applied Mathematical Sciences, 27, Springer, Berlin. Forrest. A.R. (1%8), Curves as< sttrfaces for computer aided design, Ph.D. Thesis, Cambridge. University of Cambridge. Hattori, Y., and Y. Matida (1977).:isme problems in practical improvement of mathematical fairing, Computer-Aides 3 tiull Surface Definition Syzqxwun, Annapolis. Hoschek, J. (1985). Smoothing of c-es aad surfaces, Computer Aided Geometric Design 2, 97-105. Munchmever,F.C. (1982). Mathematical ship lines and surfaces, Marine Technology 19 (3). Munchmeyer, F.C., C. Shubert anu Ji. Norvacki (1979), Interactive design of fair hull surfaces using B-splines, Computer Applicatiun in the Automation of Shipyard Opemtions and Ship Design 3, North-Holland, Amsterdam. Munchmeyer, F.C., and G.K.H. Lau (1978), Gn the interactive design of smooth patched surfaces, Inteructioe Techniques in Compufer-Aided Design, Palazro de, Congressi, Bologna, Italy. Rena, W. (1982). Interactive smoothing of digitized point data, Computer Aided Design 14 (5). Rogers, D.J., S.G. Satterfield and F.A. Rodriguez (1983). Ship hulls, B-splines and CAD/CAM, Computer Graphic Appl. 3 (9). Vickers, G.W., S. Bedi and R Haw (1985). The defntition and manufacture of compound curved surfaces using G-surf, Computers in Industry 6 (3). 173-183.