抄録
This research aims to propose a new approach to modelling solid shapes, called qualitative solid modelling, for supporting conceptual mechanical design. In a previous paper, a method has been described to represent qualitatively the simplified shapes of solids whose surfaces are all planes and perpendicular to the axes of the given orthogonal coordinate system. A qualitative solid model is defined as a domain network that has domains(cuboids)as its nodes and qualitative spatial relations among the domains as its links. This paper details a number of qualitative solid operations, ranging from the most basic declarations of domains and domain relations to qualitative set operations of domains, that can be combined to facilitate tasks of modelling complex qualitative solid shapes in computers. All operations mentioned in this paper have been implemented in a qualitative solid modelling system, called QuaSMos. The validity and efficiency of several important qualitative solid operations and the qualitative solid modeller QuaSMoS are confirmed with an example of complex solid shapes.
