Rhino Reverse Description Page

Index

• Ease of Use
• New Algorithms
• High Face Quality
• Fast Skinning Method
• Extra Technical Features
• Healing, Relief, and Patch Functions

Ease of Use

Arbitrary faces can be defined to represent design intentions like feature lines smoothly. The user only has to sketch a grid containing boundary curves for all new faces. See (Figure 1 to 3). For this sketching procedure the user only needs the mouse. The use of rhinoreverse is intuitive and easy.

STL Data	Sketched Boundary Curves	Resulting NURBS Faces

New Algorithms

New algorithms are now available to calculate and handle trimmed faces bring exceptional advantages. RhinoReverse 2 now generates trimmed faces. This procedure enables the user to define arbitrary faces by up to 25 boundary curves. Figure 4 shows such a typical trimmed face, highlighted in yellow, with more than 4 boundary curves. Decoupling the approximation routine from the sketched boundary curves improves the shape quality a lot. The shape of the faces is now only dependent from the shape of the given point mesh. The use of trimmed faces in RhinoReverse2 also reduces the manual effort required in comparision to previous versions. Less curves have to be sketched. To sketch the curves for the model shown in figure 1 we need approximately 25 faces in RhinoReverse2 as compared to 50 in previous versions.

Joined Surface model	Before Boolean Operation	After Boolean Operation

High Face Quality

The high face quality of the calculated multi-face model enables solid modeling. If the "healing" option is used, the transitions between calculated faces will be adjusted to Rhino´s current tolerance settings. This ensures that the resulting face model can be used afterwards for solid operations or NC programming without any rework. See figures 5 and 6 above.

Fast Skinning Method

Rapid creation of simplified faces in RhinoReverse2 has been revised and improved. The goal is to represent point meshes quickly with a small number of surfaces. The example in figures 8 and 9 shows the representation of the head by the use of only 4 NURBS-faces.

Sketched Boundary Curves	Resulting NURBS Faces

Technical Features

• Several import interfaces for mesh data (*.stl, *.wrl, *.vrml, *.af, *.nas, *.txt)
• Simple sketching of boundary curves on the given mesh data by using the mouse
• Flexible definition of the faces by 2 to 25 boundary curves (former: 4 curves define one face)
• Optional mode, to skin the point mesh quick-and-dirty with a low number of faces
• Flexible use of arbitrary t-joins for local refinements
• Use of only one file (*.3dm) for saving all data
• Automatic calculation of topology by using graph algorithms
• Automatic approximation of start faces
• Robustness against small holes and sharp edges in the mesh
• Automatic recalculation of face transitions to Rhino´s tolerance settings
• Robustness against gaps in the point mesh
• Additional "healing", "relief", and "patch" functions as below

Healing, Relief, and Patching

• RRHeal - a new powerful "healing" algorithm
  Already existing NURBS-face models can be healed: Small gaps, steps and overlaps will be filled automatically. The goal is to improve data quality in order to enable solid-modeling and NC-milling.
  
• RRRelief - Surface Relief
  In geography and architecture large relief surfaces are given in STL format. But for engineering tasks often NURBS face data are needed. To transform them, the method RRRelief was designed. This function works similar to Rhino's "drape" command. In the example below, the resulting NURBS face shows a homogenous distribution of control points. Also steep surface areas are processed well. The handling of large meshes is simple and fast.

  Relief - STL and Contour Lines	Resulting SPLINE Face

  
  
• RRPatch - Patch Command
  The RRPatch function was designed to allow for creation of complex patches. The function works similar to Rhinos "patch" command. The RRPatch process allows the user to additionally include design curves in order to define the inner shape of the patch. A robust tolerance-based interpolation scheme enables the user to generate a face within Rhino's internal absolute tolerance. This ensures joinable faces and makes RRPatch easy to use: The user does not have to set lots of parameters.

  Wireframe Model	Symmetry Support	RRPatch: Resulting Face

  
  

  Double Mirrored Face, Joined	Zebra Plot