Abstract

The study and understanding of molecules, once the domain of blackboards and stick-and-ball models, has become more and more exclusively linked to the use of computer-aided visualizations. By creating tangible multilevel physical models for biologists, this thesis envisions that they can once again use their tactile sense while interacting with and manipulating a physical model, thus aiding educational and research endeavors. To increase the effectiveness of such a tool, the model is constructed such that multiple levels of information are viewable within the single physical form, stressing the interaction between the assorted components within the molecule.

This research addresses two challenges that hinder the fabrication of tangible models. The first research element aims to represent the multiple molecular components in a homogenous format by developing a system for converting triangular mesh data, as provided by the molecular modeling package, into multi-surface spline models. It focuses on techniques needed to produce a smooth stitching at the boundaries and corners shared by multiple spline surfaces that will create a near G¹ continuous model. Leveraging the homogenous surface representations, the pipeline combines the multiple molecular components into a single model from which it is necessary to create a mold. The second research element addresses the challenges inherent in defining the contact regions of the two mold halves. The developed system presents a curve morphing algorithm that is able to generate a surface between two 3-dimensional spacial spline curves of arbitrary degree. Similar to the conversion system, the surface parameterization work aims to develop visually smooth restuls.

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