3D mesh metamorphosis from spherical parameterization for conceptual design

Engineering product design is an information intensive decision-making process that consists of several phases including design specification definition, design concepts generation, detailed design and analysis, and manufacturing. Usually, generating geometry models for visualization is a big challenge for early stage conceptual design. Complexity of existing computer aided design packages constrains participation of people with various backgrounds in the design process. In addition, many design processes do not take advantage of the rich amount of legacy information available for new concepts creation. The research presented here explores the use of advanced graphical techniques to quickly and efficiently merge legacy information with new design concepts to rapidly create new conceptual product designs. 3D mesh metamorphosis framework ―3DMeshMorpher‖ was created to construct new models by navigating in a shape-space of registered design models. This efficient software framework enables designers to create numerous geometric concepts in real time with a simple graphical user interface. The framework is composed of: 1) a fast spherical parameterization method to map a geometric model (genus-0) onto a unit sphere; 2) a geometric feature identification and picking technique based on 3D skeleton extraction; and 3) a LOD controllable 3D remeshing scheme with spherical mesh subdivision based on our spherical parameterization. Our spherical parameterization is focused on closed genus-zero meshes. The method is based upon barycentric coordinates with convex boundary. Unlike most existing similar