CGAL users discussion list

["Heitz, Renaud (GE Healthcare)" <>]

Hello,

 

I am new to CGAL.

 

I have two 3D solids (robots) extracted from a CAD software : Pro Engineer.

These solids are not convex.

In my real time C++ software, I know at each cycle the positions of my 2 solids (robots).

 

I need to compute in that C++ software at each cycle the shortest 3D distance between these 2 solids.

As it is used for collision avoidance, this distance needs to be accurate.

As it is used in real time, this computation needs to be

 

I have seen that there are many primitives and algorithms in CGAL that could help me : C++ geometric objects, 3D convex hulls, 3D triangulation, Triangulated Surface Mesh Simplification, 3D Fast Intersection and Distance Computation (AABB Tree).

But there is no direct algorithm for 3D shortest distance between two 3D solids (AABB Tree only computes distance between 1 point and 1 3D solid).

 

Several questions :

1) Is there an easy way to import CAD objects to CGAL ?

2) Do you know if this function has already been implemented (with CGAL or other geometric library) ?

3) Do you see a way to combine CGAL primitives in order to compute the shortest distance between two solids ?

4) Do you see what I would have to code on top of CGAL functions in order to have this functionality ?

 

Thank you very much for your help,

 

Renaud Heitz