A unified approach to geometric modelling

Whereas, historically, much of the effort on computer-aided geometric design has concentrated on the problems of representing so-called sculptured surfaces, there has recently been much interest in systems which can handle typical mechanical components by a volume modelling approach. The paper is concerned with the possibility of combining the two approaches and discusses the issues raised. A solution in terms of applying smoothing operators to a geometric coarse structure is proposed, with the added benefits of detecting and successfully handling anomalous regions in surfaces and leading to potential benefits in the analysis of geometric properties.