Tool Design And Application In Virtual Clay Modeling

VCM (Virtual Clay Modeling) is a new type of computer aided design method. It meets the need of intuition in the process of creative design. So, VCM is more attention-getting in the field of automobile styling design. A Virtual Clay Modeling system is first developed in the key Laboratory of Contemporary Design and Integrated Manufacturing Technology. In this system automobile styling is designed under virtual environment. Designers operate virtual clay model with modeling tools. Tool swept volume should be built by the shape and position from a moving modeling tool. Then Boolean operations are carried on between clay model and tool swept volume.Modeling tool is an important part in virtual clay modeling system. According to the characteristics of virtual clay modeling, this paper implemented the classification on virtual clay modeling tool, and studied its modeling method. A tool editor is developed toward tool generation, tool edit, tool modification and tool saving. The swept volume of virtual clay modeling tool is constructed based on the theory of envelop and is dispersed into compressed voxel model.The tool designed in this paper is applied in Virtual Clay Modeling and obtains good results. It carries out the modeling of various complicated geometric objects, and lays a stable and reliable foundation for the application of virtual clay modeling technique in the development process of automobile and other products.