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Implicit Modeling
Create implicit models with primitives, lattices, point clouds, fields, offsetting, Booleans, inverting, smoothing, morphing, and filleting.
Overview
An overview of Inspire's implicit modeling and its benefits.
What is Implicit Modeling?
What is implicit modeling and why do we want to use it?

Welcome
What's New
Discover new features and enhancements.
Get Started
New to Inspire? Learn the basics here.
Tutorials
Start using Inspire with our interactive tutorials.
Parametric Modeling
Create parametric sketches, geometry, and PolyNURBS with construction history and variables.
Implicit Modeling
Create implicit models with primitives, lattices, point clouds, fields, offsetting, Booleans, inverting, smoothing, morphing, and filleting.
- Overview
  An overview of Inspire's implicit modeling and its benefits.
  - What is Implicit Modeling?
    What is implicit modeling and why do we want to use it?
  - Lattice Design: Implicit Modeling vs. Traditional CAD
    A comparison of designing lattices with implicit modeling versus traditional CAD.
  - What Are the Advantages of Implicit Modeling?
    The major advantages of implicit modeling over traditional B-Rep approaches.
  - Why Choose Inspire Implicit Modeling?
    Inspire revolutionizes and democratizes implicit modeling for engineers and designers by addressing five common criticisms of existing implicit modeling methods.
  - Flexible Parameter Controls
    In Inspire, you can assign and edit implicit modeling parameters in multiple ways.
  - FAQ: Inspire Implicit Modeling
    Answers to frequently asked technical questions about Inspire Inspire Implicit Modeling.
  - System Requirements
    A list of supported operating systems and minimum requirements for hardware and memory.
- Visualization Quality and Mesh Settings
  Learn how to use the Visualization Quality and Meshing Settings to manage compute times, the visual appearance, and the geometric accuracy of implicit and mesh geometry when working with Inspire Implicit Modeling. This includes working in Implicit Modeling, converting other geometry formats in Implicit Modeling, and meshing implicit geometry for export or other downstream processes.
- View Field
  Use a colormap and contour lines to visualize the underlying field of an Implicit Body.
- Create an Implicit Primitive
  Create simple geometric shapes that can be used for repetitive tasks or combined into more complex shapes. Implicit primitives include a cuboid, cylinder, and sphere.
- Create an Implicit Surface Lattice
  Fill a body with a surface lattice, which is a cellular structure constructed from one — or sometimes two — surfaces. The body can be a Parasolid, STL, PolyNURBS, or implicit geometry.
- Create an Implicit Planar Lattice
  Fill an implicit body with a planar lattice, which is a 2.5D cellular structure with a clearly defined 2D cross-section that is drawn or extruded along the third dimension.
- Create an Implicit Strut Lattice
  Fill an implicit body with a strut lattice, which is constructed from nodes that are connected by beams.
- Create an Implicit Stochastic Lattice
  Create a randomized strut lattice by defining points, edges between points, filters to remove certain points and/or edges, a method to thicken edges into struts, and outer body treatments such as combining the lattice with an outer body or shell.
- Create a Conformal Coordinate Space
  Construct a conformal coordinate space to make body-fitted implicit patterns and lattices.
- Point Clouds in Implicit Modeling
  To drive a field or create implicit geometry, you can import a point cloud or create one from scratch.
- Thinking in Fields - A Primer for Implicit Modeling
  A detailed description of how fields are used in Implicit Modeling within Inspire, with videos and illustrative examples that will help you think intuitively in terms of field-driven design.
- Create a Field For Implicit Modeling
  Create a field to define geometry or control the parameters of an existing geometry at every location within the bounds of the field.
- Convert to Implicit Geometry
  Convert parts to implicit geometry. You can select CAD, PolyNURBS, meshes, or optimized parts.
- Move Implicit Geometry
  Translate and rotate implicit bodies.
- Combine Implicit Geometry
  Combine two implicit bodies into one.
- Subtract Implicit Geometry
  Carve out implicit bodies ("tools") from another implicit body ("target").
- Intersect Implicit Geometry
  Retain only the intersecting portions of two sets of implicit bodies.
- Offset Implicit Geometry
  Offset an implicit body. The offset can be made into a hollow shell.
- Invert Implicit Geometry
  Swap the "inside" and "outside" of an implicit body by reversing the sign of all scalar values in the underlying field.
- Pattern Implicit Geometry
  Create a rectangular, circular, conformal, or point-cloud pattern of implicit bodies.
- Mirror Implicit Geometry
  Mirror implicit bodies across a symmetry plane.
- Morph Implicit Geometry
  Morph one implicit body into another and vice versa. Physically separate bodies may not produce meaningful results.
- Smooth Implicit Geometry
  Used to denoise objects created in Implicit Modeling. This reduces the size of, or removes, unwanted small and sharp features in an implicit body.
- Fillet Implicit Geometry
  Round edges of implicit bodies to create fillets with a constant or variable radius.
- Remap
  Remap a generic field of scalar values into a signed distance field.
Structures
Set up your model and run a structural analysis or optimization.
Motion
Set up and run a motion analysis, plot the results, and export the results.
Fluids
Prepare and run a computational fluid dynamics simulation.
Design Explorer
Evaluate designs by using geometric variables and applying a design-of-experiments (DOE) or optimization method. We recommend fully constraining your sketch when sketch variables are used in the design exploration.
Manufacture
Set up and run a basic porosity or thinning analysis.
Print 3D
Prepare and run an additive manufacturing simulation, and export a file for 3D printing.
Rendering
Adjust the materials and environment of objects in the scene to create a photorealistic image.
Inspire Python API
Learn how to access the Inspire Python API including online help, quick start demos, and the Extension Manager.
Reference
View the glossary, frequently asked questions, and errors and alerts.
Keyboard Shortcuts and Mouse Controls
Learn keyboard shortcuts and mouse controls for common operations.

What is Implicit Modeling?

What is implicit modeling and why do we want to use it?

Instead of explicitly defining the surface or boundary of an object, implicit modeling represents geometry through implicit functions, defining relationships between points in space using conditions or constraints.

Implicit functions can be thought of as a 3D field of scalar values, where positive values are outside the geometry's boundary and negative values are inside the geometry's boundary. An isosurface is created, passing through all positions in the field where the scalar value is equal to zero.

With implicit modeling, you can efficiently and robustly manipulate complex geometry, perform Boolean and offset operations without failure, and model at scale with a high resolution.

Figure 1. Illustrative Example of 3D Field of Scalar Values with Isosurfaces at Different Offsets from the Object's Surface

Figure 2. Examples of Implicit Geometry. 64 x 64 x 64 = 262,144 unit cells (Gyroid), trimmed by another body, while still being editable at interactive speeds. This would require 25 million NURBS patches to model.