Solid modeling: current status and research directions

The March 1982 issue of IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications was devoted to solid modeling. The lead article in that issuel summarized the history of the field and its status as of late 1981; this article is an update to the 1982 article. Here, we shall note the proliferation of commercial systems over the past two years, discuss changes in system organization, and summarize applications support. We shall also survey work aimed at enhancing the geometric coverage, the applications coverage, and the performance of solid modeling systems. Research is progressing swiftly on several fronts, and it is virtually certain that late-1980s solid modelers will be markedly more powerful than those available now.