ALL ABOUT CLASS A SURFACES ?

Regarding A-class surfaces, the answer depends on who you ask.

I think the two basic opinions are that class of surface either refers to
location or quality (or maybe both)

For example:
LOCATION - all surfaces that a consumer normally sees
can be considered class A surface. The outside of a an automotive
floor console would be class A, but the inside surfaces which normally
include manufacturing flanges and attaching surfaces would be class B.

QUALITY - refers to surface topology. Position, tangency, and curvature

across surface boundries, and internal patch structure. Some opinions are
that position continuity is class C, tangency continuity is class B, and curvature
continuity is class A.
But I think that these are more appropriately defined as C0, C1, and C2
condition refering to the B-spline curve equation and its 1st derivative (tangency=C1)
and it's 2nd derivative (curvature=C2).

So I think a class A surface can be discontinuous in curvature if that is the intention of

the design (highlight reflection, or other reasons) and even discontiuous in tangency
if the intention is a crease or sharp edge( but usually molding or stamping requires
no sharp edges so class A must be tangent continuous (C1)).

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Second Thought

Hear is a further understanding of Class-A surfacing based on experiences with two automotive
companies and whites goods
manufacturers. They independently have the same definition for the classification.

The physical meaning:

class A refers to those surfaces, which are CURVATURE continuous to each other at their
respective boundaries. Curvature
continuity means that at each "point" of each surface along the common boundary has the same
radius of curvature.

This is different to surfaces having;

Tangent continuity - which is directional continuity without radius continuity - like fillets. Point

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continuity - only touching

without directional (tangent) or curvature equivalence.

In fact, tangent and point continuity is the entire basis most industries (aerospace, shipbuilding,
BIW etc etc). For these
applications, there is generally no need for curvature.

By definition:

class A surface refers to those surfaces which are VISIBLE and abide to the physical meaning,
in a product. This classification
is primarily used in the automotive and increasingly in consumer goods (toothbrushes,
PalmPC's, mobile phones, washing
machines, toilet lids etc etc etc). It is a requirement where aesthetics has a significant
contribution. For this reason the exterior
of automobiles are deemed Class-A. BIW is NOT Class-A. The exterior of you sexy toothbrush
is Class-A, the interior with
ribs and inserts etc is NOT Class-A.

The consequence:

The consequence of these surfaces apart from visually and physically aesthetic shapes is the
way they reflect the real world.
What would one expect to see across the boundary of pairs of point continuity, tangent
continuity and curvature continuity
surfaces when reflecting a straight and dry tree stump in the desert????

* Point Continuity (also known as G0 continuity) - will produce a reflection on one surface,
then at the boundary disappear and
re-appear at a location slightly different on the other surface. The same reflective phenomenon
will show when there is a gap
between the surfaces (the line markers on a road reflecting across the gap between the doors of a
car).

* Tangent Continuity (also known as G1 continuity) - will produce a reflection on one surface,
then at the boundary have a
kink and continue. Unlike Point continuity the reflection (repeat REFLECTION) is continuos
but has a tangent discontinuity in
it. In analogy, it is "like" a greater than symbol.

* Curvature Continuity (also known as G2 continuity, Alias can do G3!) - this will produce the
unbroken and smooth reflection
across the boundary.

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Please do not believe me! This is the real physical world. Look at your cars rounded hood
reflecting lines on the road or trees.
Look at ripples of water that are not turbulent, reflection is everywhere but all blend into each
other, as there is also curvature
continuity everywhere.

Still not convinced - For an analytical approach, you may simply prove this point using any
rendering package (eg. CATIA V4
VST), Neon textures in 4D Navigator or DMU Navigator (V5), using the traditional
CURVE1+REFLECT or /ANADIA in V4
CATIA and of course the neon-tray dynamic reflect curve facility in V5.

What about CATIA??

Traditionally CATIA has been used to create the "engineering" side of most designs, rather then
the exterior "aesthetic" shell
(ie Class-A). These traditional yet awesome tools (like SURF2) are geared for this kind of
engineering work. The best example
being BIW in the automotive industry.

Functions like SURF2 and FORMTOOL carve up even the most difficult inner panel structures
into reality. This is why,
historically, CATIA took an early strangle hold (amongst other reasons like a great capacity in
all aspects of DMU and
integration across disciplines).

CATIA comes from the aerospace industry. The exterior of aeroplanes (whose panels buckle
between frames and expand with
every land-takeoff cycle) has very little "need" for curvature continuity and has 100%
engineering factors driving its design
(aerodynamics and structures).

That is, there is zero styling in the design of an aircraft body. The fact that aeroplanes looks
good and "smooth" is by virtue of its
operation (streamlined as possible), their general cleanliness and most importantly the distance
that one generally views them.
If one was to look carefully down the fuselage of an aircraft on the ground, there is nothing
smooth about it!

Having the capability to cater for these industries in an engineering and process capacity with
existing function and not
requiring the ability to create Class-A, has made CATIA the de-facto standard for the aerospace
and automotive industries.

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As for Class-A, automotive manufacturers have utilised either or combinations of Alias and/or
ICEM Surf (or others) to
achieve these goals in a productive manner (remember the word productive). Alias has the
ability cover the entire industrial
design process from Sketches TO Surfaces on sketches TO Surface manipulation and build and
further onto rendering and
animation.

In retrospect, CATIA V4 can create Class-A surfaces with (1) compromise (eg. this deviation is
OK, because it can be polished
by the toolmaker) and (2) an idiosyncratic approach by the CATIA operator - ie, it can be done
but not as easily as with Alias
or ICEM Surf.

Historically, its been "difficult" of Dassault to create software in V4 to easily create Class-A
surfaces due to the use of Bezier
(polynomial) based mathematics. There is nothing against Bezier based surfaces though. They
are excellent for creating the
engineering surfaces we have all come to love (BIW etc) utilising intelligent use of multi-patch
surface methodology. In fact, I
doubt NURBS surfaces could do a better job.

And without a doubt, V5, with its new architecture and use of Bezier and NURBS surfaces will
go along way in being able to
confidently and more importantly competently producing these Class-A surfaces for an ever
growing aesthetic minded world.

And what about V4 CATIA??

CATIA V4 currently has the ability to create curvature continuous surfaces in two categories.

Surfaces:

a. Using SURF2 and SKIN (GSM) functions to sweep and loft as "long" a surface as possible.
This will generally produce a
curvature continuous surface with minimum deviation.

b. Intelligent use of SPINES and LIMIT curves when using SURF2 and SKIN to closely match
curvature across boundaries.

c. Utilising conic surfaces and conic curve approximations to mimic curvature conditions.

d. For parts with large variations within its shape cause techniques a and b to struggle. For this
reason, we may take three

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approaches.

d1. Create "unstressed" surfaces to the point of struggle and fill in the blank with blend surfaces
and curvature continuity. This is
very much situation dependant.

d2. Use ARC's and PATCHES's - ARC's and PATCHES have the peculiar yet great ability to

* not go through all their constraints (good for the styling end of the design process) * the
ability to deform a arc or patch to a
point * the ability to deform the boundary of a patch to an arc whilst maintaining the opposing
continuity. * most importantly -
the ability to reduce or increase degrees of arcs and patches to maximise or localise
deformations.

I have found these most useful.

e. Utilise NURBSCRV and NURBSSRF when and arc or patch refuses to go close enough to
the constraints of interest.

Blends:

These are a curious family of surfaces. One can utilise two functions within CATIA V4.

The first is the ubiquitous BLENSURF functions, which allows a point/tangent/curvature

continuos blend between any two
curves on any part of any plane, FSUR, RSUR, surface, face or skin. OR automatically creating
bi-rail curves along two
surfaces at particular "radii" and placing a point/tangent/curvature continuous blend between
them. Tensions and connectivity
locations are also adjustable.

Although it is a great tool, one issue with Blensurf is its inability to blend around a large angle.
For instance, if one constructs
two segment surfaces to each other at right angles with a gap between them and then placing a
curvature continuos surface to
connect them. The result is very suprising. The surface comes off one with curvature continuity,
takes the shortest route to the
other and then blends with curvature again. It is not the expected shape in the blend, when
comparing it to the curves created
using CURVE2+CONNECT with curvature from the isoparametric curves of each surface.

The reason for this is that Blensurf creates purely mathematical curvature. For the correct shape,
mathematical and

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isoparametric curvature is required. Guess what my friends, Dassault are already on the ball,
this is possible using GSM's SKIN
function blend and V5 GSD blends.

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