Choice "Piegl and Tiller
offer an excellent source of information on NURBS (nonuniform rational B-spines),
which fills a very large gap in the technical literature related to CAD/CAM/CAE.
It is written for the average engineer with elementary knowledge of college
mathematics and computing. It would be very useful to students, teachers,
and designers of geometric modeling systems. A well-presented work, with
abundant computer-generated figures."
Product Description:
The second, revised edition of this book covers all aspects of non-uniform
rational B-splines necessary to design geometry in a computer-aided environment.
Basic B-spline features, curve and surface algorithms, and state-of-the-art
geometry tools are all discussed. Detailed code for design algorithms and
computational tricks are covered, too, in a lucid, easy-to-understand style,
with a minimum of mathematics and using numerous worked examples. The book
is a must for students, researchers, and implementors whose work involves
the use of splines.
Avg. Customer Review: Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Good reference for implementers who are familiar with NURBS, July 24, 2003
Reviewer: A reader
This book is best for those who have at least become familiar with Bezier
and NURBS curves and surfaces and want to start implementing some programs.
The illustrations are not as clear as they could be so it may make it a little
difficult for first-timers to understand. If you're unfamiliar with Bezier
and NURBS curves then "Curves and Surfaces for CAGD" by Farin is probably
a better place to start. But if you get Farin's book make sure to get the
5th edition since earlier editions aren't as clear.
With that said
there is a wealth of information about creating and manipulating NURBS geometry
in this book. All explanations are followed by code implementation. The
code is a little difficult to understand at first, but if you stick with
it you'll understand their coding style.
4 stars since thier layout and illustrations could be a lot clearer.
I own many books on the subject of NURBS. I always come back to this one
while programming NURBS and reading research papers. It provides a fantastic
foundation. It is an older book, so don't expect recent research to be included.
For those that also want to know how to do ray tracing with NURBS surfaces
look here:
This book is complete, but there is too many math formula. The composition
is appr. 80% formula explanation, 10% sample and 10% algorithm. So if you
are a programmer you are wasting 3/4 pages of the book. But, since there's
no other book about NURBS, as complete as this, you may want to buy this
one or else you can take a look "Mathematical Element for Computer Graphics".
It also contains 300 pages of NURBS.
One of the greates assets of this book is that it is fairly comprehensive
while still using a minimum amount of mathematics. The style is lucid, easy
to follow; the numerous C-like algorithms can be adapted to one's own use,
and deal with the most important aspect of NURBS. This is easily the best
introductory NURBS text. The only problem I see is the lack of discussion
for ray-surface intersection tests, which are necessary if NURBS are to
be rendered by raytracing. I recommend "The Nurbs Book" to any engineers
and graphics professionals interested in curved surfaces.
Before owning this book i cassified NURBS as kind of mathematical definitions
of curves and surfaces. I was wrong, now it opened my mind so i develop new
NURBS surfaces based on well described primitives. Twisting, blending,
extruding is good starting point to develop surface definitions you exactly
need. How about lofting shapes along branch like path curves?
Very practical and a little bit best, January 22, 1999
Reviewer: A reader
In this book, you will begin to understand what the good algorithms are.
And most of all, you will master all the fundamental ideas about surface
design, definitely including curve design. The most pity of this book is
that we can not find the origin of the curves and surfaces, I mean how the
inventor created them. Of course, it is the highest requirement for every
author.
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See all Editorial Reviews
Good reference for implementers who are familiar with NURBS, July 24, 2003
An Essential Foundation, August 7, 2002
This is a definitely a math book, not a programming book !, May 23, 2000