ISSN 2079-3537      

 
 
 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Scientific Visualization, 2020, volume 12, number 4, pages 123 - 132, DOI: 10.26583/sv.12.4.11

Elaboration of Visualization Modes for Lighting Simulation in CATIA CAD System

Authors: E.D. Birukov1, A.G. Voloboy2, E.Yu. Denisov3

Keldysh Institute of the Applied Mathematics RAS, Moscow, Russia

1 ORCID: 0000-0003-4297-6813, birukov@gin.keldysh.ru

2 ORCID: 0000-0003-1252-8294, voloboy@gin.keldysh.ru

3 ORCID: 0000-0002-0614-9100, denisov@gin.keldysh.ru

 

Abstract

The CATIA CAD system was not initially intended for lighting simulation. However, modern engineering tasks require the lighting simulation to be a part of a new product design process. This justifies the necessity of integration of lighting simulation systems into CATIA CAD and adding special visualization modes that are initially absent in this CAD. This article describes elaboration of such visualization directly in CATIA workspace window using CATIA’s native CAA RADE programming environment. We propose the visualization modes that significantly simplify preparation of initial data for lighting simulation. Three new modes are considered here: visualization of geometry tessellation in form of a wireframe triangular mesh, heat map display of the optical parameters distribution over the scene, and spherical panorama preview. Implementation of the new visualization may cause the problems for redraw of the additional data in real time. The paper describes the proposed methods of solving or bypassing them. Using the new display modes provides a possibility of tuning some scene parameters and viewing preliminary results immediately while rendering of such scenes may take several hours. Such additional functionality can significantly improve the process of design of a new product.

 

Keywords: Visualization Modes, Lighting Simulation, Computer-aided Design, CATIA, Triangle Mesh, Heat Map, Spherical Panorama.