Communications: electrical – Land vehicle alarms or indicators – Internal alarm or indicator responsive to a condition of the...
Patent
1989-03-07
1991-01-01
Oberley, Alvin E.
Communications: electrical
Land vehicle alarms or indicators
Internal alarm or indicator responsive to a condition of the...
340729, 340747, 364518, G09G 100
Patent
active
049821806
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a three-dimensional display method for structures and, more particularly, to a display method through which structures can be displayed in three dimensions in a simple manner without complicated computations.
2. Description of the Related
With the strides that have been made in computer graphics, a variety of methods of displaying various structures three-dimensionally have been proposed and put into practice in recent years. In these conventional three-dimensional display methods, a structure generally is expressed by an internal model capable of being recognized mathematically.
For this reason, a three-dimensional display of a structure in the prior art requires a large number of calculations, thereby necessitating a costly apparatus capable of processing at high speeds. However, a conversational-type numerical control (NC) apparatus or NC automatic programming apparatus cannot be provided with a high-speed processing function for reasons of cost. At best, these apparatus can be equipped with microprocessors of the type presently in general use. In consequence, an enormous amount of processing time is needed to display a structure three-dimensionally, thus making it impossible to achieve the display rapidly. Thus, the conventional methods are impractical.
In a conversational-type NC apparatus or NC automatic programming apparatus, whether or not machining will be performed correctly based on originated NC data need only be verified by the three-dimensional display of the workpiece, thus making it unnecessary to graphically portray the workpiece with high precision.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been devised in view of the foregoing points and its object is to provide a display method through which a structure can be displayed three-dimensionally at high speed by a comparatively inexpensive apparatus.
In a method of displaying a structure three-dimensionally according to the present invention, a rectangular parallelepiped having, as each of its sides, distances L.sub.x, L.sub.y, L.sub.z between minimum and maximum positions along each axis of a structure is constituted by a set of a number of unit solids, e.g., unit cubes, of the same shape and same dimensions, and the structure is expressed by information indicating whether each unit solid is part of the structure. Individual ones of the unit solids constituting the structure are displayed in order starting from unit solids seen on a foremost side of the structure, and the face of a unit solid overlapping a face of a unit solid already displayed is not displayed; instead, only the visually foremost faces thereof are displayed, thereby displaying a perspective view of the three-dimensional structure. It can be arranged so that the faces of the unit solids are displayed in colors different from one another so as to render them distinguishable, and so that those faces of the unit solids lying in the same plane are displayed in the same color, thus making it possible for the faces of the overall structure to be visually distinguished from one another.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system for practicing the method of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a structure;
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the structure divided into unit cubes;
FIG. 4 is a view for describing the display color of each of the faces of a unit cube;
FIGS. 5(a(-5(d) are three-dimensional views for describing the order in which the unit cubes are displayed in the present invention;
FIGS. 6(a)-5(c) are three-dimensional vies for describing a method of generating a paint graphic;
FIG. 7 is a two-dimensional view for describing logical operations for the purpose of generating paint graphics; and
FIG. 8 is another three-dimensional view of paint graphic generation.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system for practicing the method of the present invention. Numeral 11 denotes a host, and numeral 1
REFERENCES:
patent: 3577031 (1969-05-01), McCormick
patent: 4509043 (1985-04-01), Mossaides
patent: 4721952 (1983-01-01), Huber
patent: 4821210 (1989-04-01), Rumbaugh
Seki Masaki
Takegahara Takashi
Fanuc Ltd.
Oberley Alvin E.
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