
400 10. Modeling with polygonal datasets
Figure 10.26: The surface of r evolution on the right was produced by revolving the
curve C around the axis A, shown on the left.
10.5 Surfaces of revolution
A surface of revolution is the formal way to describe the shape produced in a
workshop with a lathe. It has an ax is ar ou n d which some curve is rotated to
build a network of vertices and facets. The curve could be expressed analytically
or it could be a piecewise linear approximation to a smooth curve. An analytic
description is often used in con s tr u ctive solid geometr y applications but in the
context of the polygon faceted description of surfaces ...