Semi-automatic method for surface smoothing

This paper presents a new method for generating smooth free-form surface by local correction. B-spline surface is used for its convenience of local correction, and the direction of surface correction is fixed to the average-surface-normal direction. The surface to be corrected is approximated into a uniform cubic B-spline surface. Then, the smoothness (curvature arrows, iso-parametric lines) of the approximated surface is displayed with B-spline control points. When a control point near the region that needs correction is selected, a new point 1 mm higher than the original control point in the direction of the average surface normal is displayed. And the surface is corrected by giving the amount of control point movement interactively. Since the direction of correction is given by the program and the amount of correction is selected by the user, the method is called semiautomatic. sufficiently smooth surface can be obtained by this method. Examples are given to illustrate the method.