What Are the Advantages of Implicit Modeling?
The major advantages of implicit modeling over traditional B-Rep approaches.
- Robust—The entire geometry is a single isosurface, extracted from the underlying field of the geometry. This removes the need to manage interfaces between separate surfaces, and models are automatically watertight. Offset operations are greatly simplified, and they can be as simple as adding or subtracting a constant from every scalar value in the field. These properties make Boolean, offset, shell, and other commands extremely robust compared to traditional CAD.
- Forgiving of complex topology—The field does not care about complex topologies, removing much of the difficulty in creating branching structures.
- Complete spatial control through field-driven design— Fields can be used to drive the parameters that control the local sizing of geometry. For example, one field can be used to describe a lattice, and a separate field can be used to control the local beam radius in that lattice. Ultimately, field-driven design gives unprecedented spatial control over complex geometries.
- Computationally efficient—Ideal for computation on the GPU and raytracing for enhanced rendering.
- Automated and repeatable— Workflows in implicit modeling can be scripted to produce an automated workflow. Inputs and quantities can be changed to explore design variations or apply the same processing steps to different geometries. The amount of engineering effort consumed by repetitive tasks can therefore be significantly reduced.