On the Computer Drawing of Solid Objects Bounded by Quadric Surfaces

摘要

The paper is a status report on a research project to develop and implement a computer procedure for generating line drawings of solid objects bounded by quadric surfaces. The emphasis of the research is on finding an efficient solution to the hidden-line problem, that is, the problem of determining which parts of an object are visible from a given vantage point. Some computational techniques for handling quadric surfaces are described. To avoid excessively time-consuming computation with high-degree nonlinear equations, certain curves are approximated by sequences of small straight-line segments. Special methods for treating such approximations are developed. (Author)