Editor's Pick: Developer Library Unites Sub-D and NURBS Paradigms

By Anthony J. Lockwood

Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:

San Diego-based IntegrityWare specializes in 3D geometric modeling and graphics technology solutions—things like NURBS and polygon-based software libraries. That is, these guys develop the stuff that runs in the background of your analysis, manufacturing, and engineering applications, which makes what you see and do in the foreground work like a charm.

IntegrityWare has this project known as the "Technology Gem Initiative.” The idea here is to develop 3D technologies—gems—that target and solve a particular problem, many of which ends users may not even think of, but applications developers think a lot about. And the first fruit of the Technology Gem Initiative, SubD-NURBS, was recently released.

SubD-NURBS is a software library that integrates with a 3D modeling system and then brings together the modeling paradigms of Sub-D (Sub Division Surface) surface modeling and the 3D modeler's NURBS-based processes. So, what does that mean for you as an end user? It means the developers of the engineering applications you rely on can create a system that combines the functionality of Sub-D free-form concept modeling with the precision of NURBS-based CAD design operations.

And this means a bidirectional reverse engineering of SubD surfaces and polygon meshes. And that means that you will be able to create a quick SubD-based concept, flesh it out with industrial-strength parametric design power, propagate those changes to the SubD design, then quickly revise the design some more or run out a rapid prototype model. Or you could quickly convert and export Sub-D models into a format that most FEA products can import.

Developers, of course, will be most interested in the SubD-NURBS component library. So, again, what about end users? Well, you'll just know that you can do things you couldn't really do before, and you can do these neat things quickly and easily, saving both time and money. You'll love that.

You can read more about SubD-NURBS from today's Pick of the Week write-up. Check out the link to the video to see some examples of what it will mean to you as developers roll out SubD-NURBS based application features in the not too distant future.

Thanks, pal. -- Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood
Editor at Large, Desktop Engineering

Read today's Pick of the Week write-up.