octrees

[David]

Hi,
Im doing some research into octrees as I wish to simulate material removal of an object using a drill (basically, drilling holes into a 3d object). I guess that the way to do this would using octrees and voxels. I understand the basics but require further help such as an example in code...

If anyone can help or point me to a source on the web I would be grateful.

Thanks

[skw|d]

I wouldn't say that an octree is *THE* way. The first thing that came to my mind was portals. You might want to research portalization, it will be much easier to implement than an octree, IMHO.

/skw|d

[Rob]

Octrees are probably a reasonable way to go, but I'd worry about performance. To maintain a reasonable resolution is going to be *very* memory intensive as the user starts adding features. And rendering is going to be slow. Of course you can do some fun dynamic level of detail (as you probably already know).
Are you planning to add in other machining operations, such as milling, etc? I once thought about writing an engine like this for tool-path verification on a 5-axis mill. Never got out of the conceptual phase though.

[This message has been edited by Rob (edited 08-29-2000).]