The second, revised edition of this book covers all aspects of non-uniform rational B-splines necessary to design geometry in a computer-aided environment. Basic B-spline features, curve and surface algorithms, and state-of-the-art geometry tools are all discussed. Detailed code for design algorithms and computational tricks are covered, too, in a lucid, easy-to-understand style, with a minimum of mathematics and using numerous worked examples. The book is a must for students, researchers, and implementors whose work involves the use of splines.
It was no picnic!
Some years ago a few researchers joked about NURBS, Haying that the acronym really
stands for Nobody Understands Rational B-Splines. We admit that our colleagues
were right. In the last four years, we were largely influenced by this interpretation
and tried to present the material in the book in an intuitive manner. We hope that
this helps change the acronym NURBS to EURBS, that is, Everybody Understands
Rational B-Splines. We welcome the reader's opinion on our job and suggestions on
possible improvements.
It is our pleasure to acknowledge the help and support of many people and organi-
zations. First and foremost, we are grateful to our spouses, Karen Piegl and LaVella
Tiller, for their patience, support, and love. We owe special thanks to Nancy Rogers of
NAR Associates for the beautiful typesetting job, and David Rogers for the editorial
and technical discussions that led to many improvements in the manuscript. We also
thank Jim Oliver and Tim Strotman for the many suggestions and technical corre-
spondence that helped shape this book into its current form. Tiller also thanks the
many past and present colleagues in industry who over the years contributed inspiring
discussions, valuable insights, support, and collegia! companionship: They know who
they are. Piegl's research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation
under grant CCR-9217768 awarded to the University of South Florida, and by various
grants from the Florida High Technology and Industry Council.
