Patent ID: 7372460

Claim:
A method of generating volume data from boundary representation data, comprising the steps of: (A) inputting boundary representation data of an object having a surface shape into a computer via external data input means, wherein the boundary representation data inputted comprises three dimensionally shaped data; (B) converting the boundary representation data so that the boundary representation data is solidified or merged of a boundary line of a plane and converting surface shape into a triangle patch having a phase by data converting means; (C) dividing a space into rectangular parallelepiped cells whose boundary planes cross one another at right angles to associate each cell with a triangle to be included in the associated cell by associating means; (D) dividing the triangle patch having the phase, floating in a space, by cell faces to bring a state in which all the triangles are arranged inside associated cells and on a boundary by dividing/arranging means; (E) integrating ridge lines by ridge line integrating means without changing the phase, and judging whether or not the following conditions are satisfied i. there is not any triangle vertex in a cell body or on a cell surface; ii. there is only one vertex of the triangle patch on the cell edge; and iii. a phenomenon does not occur in which the phase changes by integrating the cutting points; (F) assigning each triangle and a vertex of the triangle to the associated cell with reference to index data of the vertex by cell assigning means; and (G) setting an attribute value of each cell by labeling means.