Curve to surface intersections are classified in
Table 5.2. Such intersection problems are useful in
solving the more general surface to surface intersection problems.
When the curve is a straight line, the curve/surface intersection is
useful for
ray tracing in computer graphics and visualization;
point classification in solid modeling;
procedural surface interrogation.
In Sects. 5.7.1 to 5.7.6
several of the most frequent curve to surface intersection problem
cases E3, E1, E2/E6, E7, E11, E9 are analyzed in some detail. The
remaining cases are not analyzed in detail, but the reader should be
able to analyze them via the cases addressed in this section. We
will start with case
(RPP curve to IA surface intersection),
which is quite representative of the complexities of this type of
problem.
Table 5.2:
Classification of curve/surface intersections