Overview

B-Rep (boundary) representation provides precise definition of a part. B-Rep is defined via a combination of geometry and topology: geometry (points, curves and surfaces) defines a body form and topology (vertices, edges, faces, shells, etc) defines trimming of underlying geometry.

CAD Exchanger API follows the ISO 10303-42 specification and uses its geometrical and topological entities.

The following sections describe supported types of geometrical curves and surfaces and topological entities.

Curves

Curves can be defined in 3D model space or in 2D parametric space of a surface. The latter are called parametric space curves or p-curves.

CAD Exchanger provides two hierarchy of classes - for 3D and 2D curves. The former derives from the ModelData_Curve class and the latter from the ModelData_Curve2d class.

CAD Exchanger supports the following curve types:

analytical/elementary curves (line, circle, ellipse, hyperbola, parabola);
Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS);
Bezier curves;
Offset curves;
Trimmed curves.

The curve type is returned by ModelData_Curve::Type() (or ModelData_Curve2d::Type()) as ModelData_CurveType enumeration.

Type	C++ classes	Example
Line	ModelData_Line, ModelData_Line2d
Circle	ModelData_Circle, ModelData_Circle2d
Ellipse	ModelData_Ellipse, ModelData_Ellipse2d
Hyperbola	ModelData_Hyperbola, ModelData_Hyperbola2d
Parabola	ModelData_Parabola, ModelData_Parabola2d
Bezier curve	ModelData_BezierCurve, ModelData_BezierCurve2d
B-Spline curve	ModelData_BSplineCurve, ModelData_BSplineCurve2d
Offset curve	ModelData_OffsetCurve, ModelData_OffsetCurve2d
Trimmed curve	ModelData_TrimmedCurve, ModelData_TrimmedCurve2d

Surfaces

CAD Exchanger supports the following surface types:

analytical/elementary surfaces (plane, conical, spherical surface, etc);
swept surfaces (surfaces of revolution and extrusion);
Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS);
Bezier surfaces;
Offset surfaces;
Trimmed surfaces.

Classes representing surfaces subclass the ModelData_Surface class. The surface type is returned by ModelData_Surface::Type() as ModelData_SurfaceType enumeration.

Type	C++ class	Example
Plane	ModelData_Plane
Conical Surface	ModelData_ConicalSurface
Cylindrical Surface	ModelData_CylindricalSurface
Spherical Surface	ModelData_SphericalSurface
Toroidal Surface	ModelData_ToroidalSurface
Surface of Linear Extrusion	ModelData_SurfaceOfLinearExtrusion
Surface of Revolution	ModelData_SurfaceOfRevolution
Bezier Surface	ModelData_BezierSurface
B-Spline Surface	ModelData_BSplineSurface
Offset Surface	ModelData_OffsetSurface
Rectangular Trimmed Surface	ModelData_RectangularTrimmedSurface

Topological Shapes

Topological entities are used to define trimming of the geometrical entities and connectivity between the entities.

Topological entities are eventually owned by the body (ModelData_Body) which are roots in B-Rep representation. For the list of supported body types refer to Body types.

Classes representing topological entities subclass the ModelData_Shape class.

The shape type is returned returned by ModelData_Shape::Type() as ModelData_ShapeType enumeration.