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LocationTampa, FL
13396 E US Highway 92
Dover, FL 33527
New 2018 Fleetwood RV Discovery LXE 40D
Start your next discovery across the country in this 40D Discovery LXE triple slide out class A motor home. This model also features a bath and a half, plus plenty of comfortable seating throughout, and plenty of added touches that you would come to expect at home.
As you enter this model, you will find that both the driver and passenger seat swivel around so it is easy to join in on the conversation in the living and kitchen area. Above the cab there are overhead cabinets for your convenience.
The slide out along the curbside features a free-standing dinette, a fireplace for those chilly evenings, a 49" LED TV, and a residential refrigerator. Along the roadside there is a full wall slide out which has an L-transformer sofa, an overhead microwave, two burner range, dishwasher, double sink, a pantry, and a stackable washer/dryer.
The full wall slide out continues in the master bedroom with two full length wardrobes, a dresser, and a 32" LED TV. Across the room you will find another slide out with a king Exclusive Dream Easy Series bed and two nightstands.
Mid-coach there is a handy half bathroom with a toilet, sink, counter space, and overhead cabinets.
The rear master bath features a shower, sink, overhead cabinet, wardrobe, and a toilet, plus so much more!
Like most: WOW! What a coach! It is fantastic on the road. So stable, smooth, and quiet! We love it. You and the rest of the crew that took care of us on Saturday were great! Maikel is a 'one of a kind'! So friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. I have a few more questions for him, as he said I would. And Larry from the service department that took care of the wiring from the coach to our van was ... More » - Chuck from Holland, OH
Stock# 166366
Chassis: Freightliner XCM
|41 ft 4 in
|Ext Width
|8 ft 6 in
|Ext Height
|12 ft 10 in
|Int Height
|7 ft
|Hitch Weight
|10000 lbs
|Fresh Water Capacity
|100 gals
|Grey Water Capacity
|75 gals
|Black Water Capacity
|50 gals
|Furnace BTU
|55000 btu
|Onan 8000
|Fuel Type
|Cummins ISL9
|Freightliner XCM
|380 hp
|Fuel Capacity
|100 gals
|276 in
|Available Beds
|1150 ft-lb
|Refrigerator Type
|Refrigerator Size
|22 cu ft
|Cooktop Burners
|Number of Awnings
|Axle Weight Front
|12400 lbs
|Axle Weight Rear
|24000 lbs
|LP Tank Capacity
|38.7 lbs.
|Basement Storage
|182 cu. ft.
|TV Info
|Awning Info
|20' Power
|Washer/Dryer Available
|Gross Combined Weight
|46400 lbs
|Shower Type
|Electrical Service
|50 amp
General RV works hard to ensure the accuracy of all its listings however we are not responsible for any misprints, typos, or errors found in our website pages. Any price listed excludes sales tax, registration tags, and delivery fees. Manufacturer-provided pictures, specifications and features may be used as needed. Inventory shown may be only a partial listing of the entire inventory. Please contact us at 888-436-7578 for availability as our inventory changes rapidly. All calculated payments are an estimate only and do not constitute a commitment that financing or a specific interest rate or term is available.


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Crispy brussels and summer squash
This bright and crispy vegetable side dish is anything but boring! Bacon grease is a secret ingredient that can transform any dish; however, it isn't the healthiest option. Now you can have all that rich, salty, bacon flavour without the harmful fats or nitrates. We would like to introduce our new and exciting product –Magic Vegan Bacon Grease. This irresistibly addictive ingredient is non-GMO and 100% animal friendly. Try it in stir-fry's, bean dishes or simply spread over a slice of toast.
To make our crispy Brussels and summer squash side dish you will need:
about 10 large brussels sprouts
1/2 a red onion, sliced
1 medium summer squash (yellow zucchini) very thinly sliced into rounds
1 tbsp. of Magic Vegan Bacon Grease
Begin prepping the brussels sprouts by peeling off the layers, washing and drying well. Slice the red onion and summer squash. Set everything aside. Heat 1 tbsp. of Magic Vegan Bacon Grease in a large skillet over medium heat until very hot. Toss in all the veggies and sear for a minutes. Toss everything around the pan and let cook until the edges of your brussels begin to brown and crisp. Remove from the pan and serve warm with a sprinkle of slivered almonds.
Serves 3-4 as a side.

subset: commoncrawl


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- Areas of Study
- About A&S
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- Visit SIL-UND
Summer Institute of Linguistics
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Visit SIL-UND
Want to see for yourself what SIL-UND is like? Come sit in on classes for a day during the summer. We'll provide two nights free in the residence hall. We also invite you to eat with us in the dining hall; cost is about $20-25 per day.
You can visit any time guest space is available from mid-June through the last week in July. Thursday and Friday nights are good, because of parties on many Friday nights. To find a good time and make arrangements for housing, send a message to our receptionist .
We look forward to meeting you!


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Item Number:
This item (V17394) is not currently available for purchase.
Bring your indoor light display to life with the help of mesmerizing effects! Choose from three eye catching options including: Chasing, Gradual Color Change and Flash. Rope light controllers with 8 amp wires allow for up to 164 feet of incandescent tubing to be connected. Create brilliant animated light displays with ease and when you just want steady illumination, simply disconnect rope light from the controller!
Reviewed by Philip F. Bellace R.
on Sunday, January 19, 2014
3-Wire, 3 Function, Variable Speed Rope Light Controller
This worked well. If you need to place outside, you must put in an enclosed weather proof container.


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As we're settling into our new place, I'm finding new favorite corners, places, and tableaus. One of my favorite things is this shelf that Ryan hung for me so that I could have all my cookbooks in the kitchen.
He also gave me Mastering the Art of French Cooking for Christmas. Don't you just love him?


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I think that once we start working, once we start making money, we never stop. We become so addicted to money that we never stop making them.
Recently, a friend of mine from Pakistan, Rabia, told me about this website, oDesk. It is a website for freelancers, where you can hire someone or get a job. Back then I didn't know what exactly is it to be a freelancer. Rabia explained me that it practically means that you work whenever you want, however you want. There are tons of jobs in anything you're interested in. It doesn't matter if you want to write articles, be a virtual assistant, develop a website or work in photoshop, there are hundreds of jobs that are waiting for you to apply to them. I managed to make some money in a short period of time. I work as a article writer and video editor, but I've had step-by-step photographer job, as well as letter writing and expanding short stories.
Besides my virtual jobs, I decided with a friend of mine to have this little business. It's all about hand-made stuff, especially bracelets. We decided to start off just in our town, and if everything goes well, we'll expand it to the whole country.


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Simply breath taking with vintage a/c 1956 Chevrolet 3600 stepside restored mint
Price: US $13,310.00 Item location: Lakeland, Florida, United States
- Condition: Used
- Make: Chevrolet
- Model: C/K Pickup 3500
- SubModel: Stunning bumper to bumper cold a/c wow.
- Type: Pick Up
- Trim: 3600
- Year: 1956
- Mileage: 265
- VIN: 3e56f019716
- Color: Yellow
- Engine size: Straight 6
- Number of cylinders: 6
- Fuel: Gasoline
- Transmission: Manual
- Drive type: Rear Wheel Drive
- Interior color: Silver
- Vehicle Title: Clear Want to buy? Contact seller!
19560000 Chevrolet C/K Pickup 3500 Stunning bumper to bumper cold a/c wow.beautiful outstanding show truck1956 Chevrolet3600This Truck Is in 100% Show Condition, ellowPaint Job is simply show ready just being wet sanded scuffed buffedto and mirror finish that is second to noneandwith the Dark Wood Bed simply breath taking.The Power Train Consist of the original Straight 6 Engine and 4 Speed Transmission, ust having vintage a/c added that works amazing. I truly don't know were and better one could be found in this price range.This Truck Runs and Drives as Great as it LooksThis 3600hundred series has all new carpet, oor panel's,Paint color is stunning with like new upholstery that really pops.Truck runs and drives great and get a lot of attention everywhere it goes!
This is as nice of a 56 chevy stepside truckthat you can find. A straight truck that has just been detailed scuffed and buffed to a mirror finish. The stainless is very nice. The bumpers have a good shine that look like new. newer wide whitewall tires. The glass is in great overall condition. The seats and door panels were replaced and look mint. She runs and drives amazing better then new. It shifts through the gears very nicely. Thetruck stops straight and true with no pulling left or right. This is one of the best rare chevy'swe have seen in years. This is overall an amazing classic Chevy.
Take it to any show or cruise in.
The photo gallery below for this classic contains over 30 pictures.Enjoy!Should you like to negotiate a fair and reasonable offer please callDanAt(863) 370-6712OrDerekAt(727) 361-8026Please remember, his is an auction, nly one person can win.Why invest in a Classic automobile?This piece of Americana is a distinctive work of art and truly belongs with a collector, r enthusiast who can appreciate the quality and significance of this remarkable automobile. According to Knight Frank's Wealth Report, ollectible cars were the top-performing collectible asset with prices surging 23-percent in the 12-months ending in the third quarter of 2012, nd posting gains of 395-percent over 10-years.TERMS OF SALE:We try to bring the best we can at a price everyone can afford.Please note that all sales are binding and FINAL. All vehicles are being sold AS-IS, HERE-IS with NO warranty expressed, ritten or implied. Any descriptions or representations are for identification purposes only and are not to be construed as a warranty of any type. It is the responsibility of the buyer to have thoroughly inspected the vehicle and to have satisfied himselfherself as to the condition and value and to bid based upon that judgment. We try to represent it as accurately as possible to disclose any known defects associated with this vehicle. Seller assumes no responsibility for any repairs. We do not warranty anything that may or could happen after sale. Please carefully read the terms & conditions of the sale before bidding. Any inspections are to be completed before the end of sale, ot afterward. Please, O EXCEPTIONS. Winning this auction does not entitle you to come inspect the car and decide if you want to buy it, ut OBLIGATES you to complete the purchase! Please don't miss some of the great deals. Thanks so much for your bids, ood luck. We reserve the right to end this listing at any time, hould the vehicle no longer be available for sale.PAYMENT TERMS:Please, f you do not intend to pay, lease do not bid.All bidders with less than 5 feedback's need to call us or their bid might be canceled.The successful high bidder will submit a $1000.00 NON-REFUNDABLE payment deposit with PAYPAL within 24 hours of the close of the auction to secure the vehicle. Buyer agrees to pay remaining balance due (plus applicable fees and taxes) within 7 days of the close of the auction. All financial transactions must be completed before delivery of the vehicle.PAYMENT METHODS:PayPal for deposit only,which is due within 24 hours of the end of the auction, o exceptions. Remaining balance to be paid by Bank wire transfer or cash in person.SHOULD YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS,FEEL FREE TO CALLDan At(863) 370-6712Should you need assistance in transport, e can refer you to the company we have used many times...
There are over 30 pictures below... Please be patient, t is worth the wait!


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(05-11-2012, 06:05 AM)EyesWideOpen Wrote: Well, I finally got my ResMed S9 Autoset with version 905 firmware on it yesterday. It was quite the wait. That is the good news. Sadly I have not yet received any additional information on what changes there are in 905 versus 903 or 4. I have asked my DME to continue asking for clarification, and I'll pass along anything that I learn.
On a happy note I used the S9 last night and I am really impressed with it's performance. My AHI was reduced to .4 from a 3.5 the night before with my old RemStar Auto. It was really quiet and easy to breathe with. I also changed my mask to the ResMed Swift FX which I really love. It took 30 seconds to adjust the first time, and didn't move the whole night. It's very light and comfortable. I also used the climate-line tubing with the temperature set to 80, and even with the window open during a cold night, I am happy to report that there was absolutely no rain-out. Excellent!
Thanks to all on the forum for providing me with all of the data necessary to make this excellent choice.
I am just now reading this thread, and the above makes me quite jealous of you~! I woke up last night as I turned over and almost drowned in the water that ran up my nose.
So, how are you liking your machine, hose, mask now?
*I* am not a DOCTOR or any type of Health Care Professional. My thoughts/suggestions/ideas are strictly only my opinions.
"Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you. Jesus Christ and the American Soldier. One died for your Soul, the other for your Freedom."
"Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you. Jesus Christ and the American Soldier. One died for your Soul, the other for your Freedom."


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Penis size is an insecurity that many men have and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. A bigger penis can give men more self-confidence. It's not a matter of a bigger or smaller penis its a matter of what you feel comfortable with and what you would like to achieve.
The penis is no different than any other part of the human body, if exercised and stretched it will safely grow in size, it's just a matter of choosing the right product that suits you. There is plenty of information on our site to help you make an educated decision on what device or product may suit you best.
Advantages of penis pumps and stretchers:
- Increase the length and girth of your penis
- Improve performance and confidence in bed
- Promotes better blood circulation to the penis
- Can Prevent many common erectile dysfunction disorders
- Can Improve erection quality
- A safer alternative to surgical penis enlargement
- Can help straighten a bent penis also known as "Peyronie's disease"
Penis stretchers
Over the last few years several new revolutionary penis extending devices have been introduced to help men extend the length and girth of their penis, these devices are very comfortable and can be worn for extended periods of time without harmful side effects.
There are several different brands of penis stretchers ranging from the inexpensive and simple stretcher to the more sophisticated ones. Obviously you do get what you pay for, below are the best-selling products currently available. SizeGenetics and Jes-Extender are very similar traction devices which have been widely popular amongst men, Phallosan is also a stretcher but uses a different approach using suction and traction claiming yet more comfort.
SizeGenetics: This popular selling device is one that has helped thousands of men increase the size of their penis, it is very reasonably priced and is designed to be worn comfortably during the day or at night. SizeGenetics has been one of the top selling penis stretchers and has been featured in GQ Magazine and other news media channels SizeGenetics comes with no questions asked 6-month guarantee. Click here to read my full review
Jes-Extender: A very popular product that competes with Size Genetics, this product is versatile and comfortable and sells six different models with prices starting at $239.00 for the Jes-Extender original all the way up to $1399.00 for the platinum model. This device has won several awards, their product can increase a man's penis size 28% in length and 19% in girth and comes with a 1 year or lifetime warranty depending on the model you purchase. Click here to read my full review
Penis pumps
Penis pumps or vacuum pumps are another good way to extend and thicken the penis, in the past, vacuum pumps were used but offered men little results, today hydro pump technology has made penis enlargement very effective and affordable, using a penis pump is a simple way for men to achieve a larger penis without side effects.
Some of the benefits penis pumps have over stretchers is that they can be used daily for short periods of time, because of the pressure they provide results are usually instant, but those results usually fade in a few hours, however with extended use over a period of time those size increases will become permanent.
Penomet: The Penomet penis pump is one of the best selling penis pumps on the market and comes with a one year warranty, one of the things that make the Penomet very unique is that it comes with different pressure gaiters to ensure maximum results, if you follow their exercise guide your gains can be incredible. Click here to read my full review
Bathmate: The Bathmate pump offers several different models including the Bathmate X30. X40, Goliath and Hydromax extreme, the Bathmate can provide great results with no side effects, it is also very affordable for men looking for an entry level product for penis enlargement. The Bathmate Goliath is specially designed for well-endowed men or those working in the adult entertainment industry. Click here to read my full review.
Now just because we have our favorite products listed above does not mean you have to purchase any of them, penis enlargement is a personal choice, most men will walk away and chalk it up as something that simply does not work, and that's fine, we have found penis enlargement to be very effective, however, don't take our word for it.
We invite you to do some more searching, what you will find are many forums with success stories from men who have found great success with penis enlargement, now it's just a matter of choosing what device will work best for you, many times even your first choice may not be the best, penis enlargement is not easy, it takes trial and error and lots of patience, but in the end the benefits are very rewarding.


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Insightful Accountant and "Scaling New Heights" have produced a series of QuickBooks and other app-related web seminars over the past several months. They all can be found here. We'll update this page each time we produce a new event.
QB Talks - April 2018 - Niche Market: E-Commerce and QuickBooks
AccountingSuite's APP Academy Demo
QB Talks - March 2018 - QBO Quarterly Update
February 2018 QB Talks - Exploring QuickBooks Point of Sale Version 18.0
January 24 - Forecasting for More Profits
Taking the Next Step: How to Implement a Standard Tech Stack to Serve Clients Efficiently
Slides from "Taking the Next Step Web Seminar
January 2018 QB Talks - Exploring Automated Sales Tax and Price Rules (Beta)
Year End Planning for Maximum Impact and Profit - Dec 14
QB Talks - December 13, 2017 - Murph's Top App's From Fall Events
XERO Zone - November 29 - XERO Update
QB Talks - QBO and QBOA Quarterly Update - November 8
QB Talks - Real Estate and Property Management with Gita Faust - October 18
Slides for Real Estate and Property Management Web Seminar
QB Talks - 2018 QuickBooks Desktop - September 13
QB Talks - QBO Quarterly Update - August 9
Slides for the August 9 QBO Quarterly Update
QB Talks - Murph's Top Picks From Scaling New Heights - July 12
Leverage Automation for Substantial Business Growth and Efficiency (June 22)
QB Talks - QuickBooks Technical Potpourri of Concepts and Topics (June 14)
Statx Mobile Dashboard with QuickBooks (June 1)
QB Talks - QuickBooks T
The Xero Zone Quarterly Update with Murph and Amanda Aguillard (April 26)
QB Talks – April 19 – QBO Quarterly Update with Liz Scott and Murph
Slide Deck for April 19 Web Seminar
QB Talks – March 8 – Construction/Job Cost Accounting in QuickBooks
Slides for the March 8 Web Seminar
QB Talks – Feb. 8, 2017 – QuickBooks Desktop Performance
PDF of slides for February QB Talks
QB Talks – QBO Quarterly Update – Fireside Chat with Murph and Liz (Jan. 11, 2017)
Prevent the January 31 Nightmare: 5 Things Every Bookkeeper Should Know
QB Talks – Murph's Best Picks From Accountex & QuickBooks Connect (Dec 7)
QB Talks – Intuit Field Service Management (Nov. 9)
Click Here to access the power point slides from the Nov 9 presentation
QB Talks - QuickBooks Desktop 2017 Updates and Review (Oct. 19)
QB Talks - QBO Quarterly Update (Sept. 14)
QB Talks -QuickBooks Enterprise Advanced Inventory (Aug 10)
QB Talks - QuickBooks and Manufacturing (July 13)
Take The Work Out Of Workflow: Pro Tips For Speeding Up and Simplifying Your Tax & Accounting Workflow (June 14)
QB Talks – QuickBooks Online Quarterly Update (June 8) Download the pdf of the June 8 presentation HERE
QB Talks – Integrating QuickBooks Online, Bill.com, HubDoc and Canon Scanners (May 11)
Have Your Clients' Backs: Sales Tax Compliance for QuickBooks Users (April 28) Download the PDF of the April 28 presentation HERE
QB Talks - QuickBooks Point of Sale Powered by Revel (April 13)
Cash Flow Strategies for QuickBooks Users: Answers to the Small Business Lending Crisis (March 23) Download the .pdf of the presentation - HERE
QB Talks – QBO Quarterly Update With Woody Adams (March 9) Download the pdf of the presentation HERE
Streamline Bookkeeping Workflows with QuickBooks Integrated Solutions/How Bill.com Changes AP Workflow" (Feb. 24, 2016) Download the pdf of the presentation HERE
QB Talks – More Tips and Tricks for QB Desktop 2016 (Feb 10, 2016)
QB Talks – Jan. 6, 2016 – QuickBooks (Desktop) Payroll at Year End
Adopt It – Build It – Grow It: Engineering The Future Ready Firm (Part 3)
QB Talks – QB Custom Reporting Solutions With QuickBooks
Sales & Use Tax Compliance For Dummies (Nov 18)
QB Talks: Top 10 Tips and Tricks For QB Desktop (2016)
Adopt It – Build It – Grow It: Engineering The Future Ready Firm (Part 2)
QB Talks Web Seminar – QB 2016 Top New Features (Oct. 14)
Download the pdf of the QB 2016 Top New Features Presentation by CLICKING HERE
QB Talks Web Seminar – QuickBooks File Troubles. Repair or Start Over? (Sept. 9)
Adopt It – Build It – Grow It: Engineering The Future Ready Firm (Aug. 26)
Troubleshooting and Management of Equity on the QB Desktop Balance Sheet (Aug. 12)
Download the slides from the Troubleshooting and Management of Equity Presentation by clicking HERE
Troubleshooting Payroll in QuickBooks (July 8)
Troubleshooting Sales Tax in QuickBooks (June 10)
QuickBooks and Advanced Manufacturing (May 27)
Troubleshooting AR/AP In QuickBooks (May 13)
Turbocharge QuickBooks With Project Accounting (April 29)
QB Talk: Troubleshooting Inventory in QuickBooks (April 8)
You can download the slides from the Troubleshooting Inventory web seminar HERE
QB Talk: How To Determine An Accurate Cash Position In QuickBooks (March 11)
First Look at QuickBooks Point of Sale powered by Revel (Feb. 20, 2015)
QB Talk: QuickBooks At Tax Time (Feb. 18, 2015)
Clearing The Fog: Demystifying Intuit's Overhaul of the ProAdvisor Program -Part 2 With Luis Sanchez – Leader, Global ProAdvisor Program (Feb. 11, 2015)
Clearing The Fog: Demystifying Intuit's Overhaul of the ProAdvisor Program – Part 1 (Jan 22, 2015)
ProAdvisors As Fraud Busters with Frank Abagnale (Dec. 17, 2015)
Help Your QuickBooks Clients Grow Strategically (Nov. 19, 2014)
An Inside Look at the Evolution of QuickBooks with Terry Hicks and Joe Woodard (Oct. 1, 2014)
Partnering For Success: Intuit's ProAdvisor Program and QuickBooks Connect (Aug. 12, 2014)
Sales Tax and QuickBooks For ProAdvisors and Their Small Business Clients (July 30, 2014)
QuickBooks and American Express OPEN – Solutions For ProAdvisors (July 16, 2014)
Is QuickBooks Really An Accounting Product? (June 10, 2014)
Client Relationships 2.0: Tech Consulting and the QuickBooks User (Web Seminar) (May 27, 2014)
Sales Tax 101 For The Small Business Advisor (Web Seminar) (May 13, 2014)
Reduce The Risk of Fraud For QuickBooks Users (with Frank Abagnale) (April 29, 2014)
Grow Your QuickBooks Business Through Strategic Planning and Partnerships (April 23, 2014)
5 Sales Tax Hot Spots (March 26, 2014)
Offer Your QuickBooks Clients More Than They Expect...and Exactly What They Need (Feb. 27, 2014)
Find Your Marketing MOJO: Knock-Out Tips From Industry Marketing Heavy Weights (Feb 11, 2014)
QuickBooks Workflow Automation to Increase Profitability (Jan. 16, 2014)


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Published on
We spend millions defining and communicating the brand via marketing and communications channels. We need to take a fresh look at how the brand can behave in
social media. A crisp definition of our social brand will guide us from mere tactics to more impactful strategy. It will focus the efforts around best
practices from ethics to results and help our brands reap the benefits of social media faster and with a more enduring effect.


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Denmark has launched its candidacy for the UN's Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) for the period 2020–2024. The global struggle for women's rights needs Denmark's voice, says to the Minister for Equal Opportunities and Nordic Cooperation, Karen Ellemann and the Minister for Development Cooperation, Ulla Tørnæs. "The Commission on the Status of Women is one of the world's most important political arenas for the rights of women and girls. This is where you can change the agenda in discussions with countries, which we are absolutely not in agreement with when it comes to women's rights, but who it is nevertheless vital that we cross swords with. We lead the way by being a model country in this field, and there is a real need for Denmark's voice in the CSW, which is why we have launched our candidacy," says Karen Ellemann. "With the Danish government's high profile on women's rights in development cooperation, it is only natural for Denmark to seek membership of the UN's Commission on the Status of Women. For us in Denmark, a woman's right to decide over her own body is a key issue, but this right is challenged in many countries. Now, we have also experienced the US decision to reinstate the Global Gag Rule, which denies access to US funding to organisations that do not actively oppose abortion. We are already opposing this decision, and we will do so in a higher degree at the CSW discussions," says Ulla Tørnæs. The election for the UN's Commission on the Status of Women will be held in April 2019. It is not yet known if the Danish candidacy will be contested.
Currently, only Switzerland, besides Denmark, has registered its candidacy for one of the two seats that are reserved for the West European and Others Group (WEOG group). The WEOG group holds a total of five seats out of the commission's 45 members.
A seat on the CSW gives the right to vote on UN resolutions. If elected, it also gives the opportunity to be elected to the Commission's bureau, which makes decisions both on organisational issues regarding the sessions as well as on political questions relating to the commission's work. For further press information: Poul Kjar, +45 41865975.
Fill out the form to send a mail with a link to the current page:


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Monte Cook leaves WOTC/5e Public Playtest to start May 24th
Monte Cook has left WOTC. Posted on his Livejournal today (April 25th):
Last week I decided that I would leave my contract position with Wizards of the Coast. I am no longer working on Dungeons & Dragons, although I may provide occasional consultation in the future. My decision is one based on differences of opinion with the company. However, I want to take this time to stress that my differences were not with my fellow designers, Rob Schwalb and Bruce Cordell. I enjoyed every moment of working with them over the past year. I have faith that they'll create a fun game. I'm rooting for them.
Mike Mearls gives gives a sentence or two to this news here while announcing the public 5e playtest will start on May 24th.
I'll be honest, the news that Monte Cook has left WOTC and the 5e design team changes my opinion of 5e from "skeptical but interested" to "extremely skeptical." While I have a number of issues with Monte's Cook's D&D 3.x design work, he was pretty much out of the 4e design loop which I consider very important for my interest in 5e. Given I consider 4e the worst edition of D&D ever published for the way I like to play (and have played since 1975), having one of the lead 5e designers be someone so out of the 4e design loop that many "4vengers" loathed him was a good thing in my book.
April 25, 2012 at 11:16 PM
I'm with you on that. My admittedly marginal interest in 5e has now decreased even further. I wonder what precipitated the departure.
Chad Rose
April 26, 2012 at 12:28 AM
My interst in 5e is literally exploding! 3.5e is re-released through B&N, and Monte Cook leaves WotC while the public playtest is announced for May 24th...
How can your interest wane?!? Hell, I mean, I don't care if I don't like the game the same as anyone else (I have my fallbacks too) but to say your interest is waning is like saying that asteroid headed for Earth probably won't hit us so I'm going to go buy some TP and a "Hungry Man" microwave meal for dinner tonight.
April 26, 2012 at 5:17 AM
IMHO he's always been a kinda overrated game designer: his work on 3E has always obscured what Tweet and Williams did too, we shouldn't forget about it.
I will miss his funny L&L articles, anyway.
April 26, 2012 at 12:21 PM
@Chad: My interest in 5e has been waning the more I read about it. The hype WOTC is putting out surrounding the game is really worrying. For example, I can't imagine any way a player with a 1e-like character and a 4e-like character could happily co-exist at my table. With Monte leaving, i figure the chances of getting a 5e I wold be interested in playing have dropped so my interest drops.
April 27, 2012 at 2:57 AM
Regardless of one's feelings about Cook, it's not usually a good sign when one of the lead designers pulls out in the middle of a project. Who knows, maybe its all for the best. It's just that it smells like blood in the water.
Chris Nason - Freeware Front
May 6, 2012 at 5:48 PM
Insiders speculate that Cook left not because of the 5E design but rather a conflict with Wizards/Hasbro.
I'd still rather play M74 Extended. Maybe I can get Cook to turn Arcana Evolved into an M74 setting? Maybe? ;)
May 7, 2012 at 2:20 AM
Have to say I feel the other way about it. I didn't like Arcana Unearthed/Arcana Evolved, MCWoD never did anything for me, so seeing that he's left makes me more enthusiastic about 5e. And really, the people who liked Monte's stuff are all playing PF anyway.


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I have stumbled across a problem in finding and adding publications to my list in Reseracher ID. Both in Web of Knowledge and in Web of Science, if I type in "Abrahamczyk" as surname with out an initial I get 8 publications listed, which is correct. But if I add "S" as an initial (the first name is Stefan), then I only get 4 hits, missing 4 relevant papers. Now, there are two questions:
1) Why does this happen? It may not be a problem with such a special surname, but with Smith, I want to be sure that I find the correct papers...
2) If I go to the "Add to" menu in Reseracher ID, the initial is a required field, so that I am unable to find all relevant publications. One way I see to circumvent this is by adding papers via EndnoteWeb, but that requires me to serach for the papers otherwise, which is very inconvenient.
Any other solutions available?
In response to your query, this is happening because in some of the articles, the first name is indexed as 'Stefan' instead of simply the initial 'S'.
To avoid issues of this type, when searching for authors we recommend truncation of the first initial when making author searches by adding an asterisk '*' at the end:
Last / Family Name: Abrahamczyk
First Initial(s): S*
A fuller explanation of this can be found on the following Web of Knowledge help page:
When I truncate the initial i.e. S*, I see only 7 papers when I run the search. There is a paper by K. Abrahamczyk, I presume this is a different researcher (the paper also is in the geosciences area, and not ecology as with all the 7 papers by S. Abrahamczyk).
I hope this helps.
Dante Burford
Customer Technical Support Executive
Healthcare & Science
Thomson Reuters


text:
Kurti is in Beige color made from the fabric called Giccha & Tussar Silk, 100% pure Silk extracted out of cocoon, Weavers from Banka district of Bihar have developed traditional weaving into an industry. Painting you find here is Fusion in Tradition Madhubani art form specially designed keeping in mind the theme and story behind such painting, Leaf and flowers in line work is shown with fusion of trendy fashion in combination of Traditional art form. Families in and around the city and villages are into the development and production of Tussar. This Executive Wear of Tussar Silk Kurti and as well as jacket is going to leave the lasting impression in your presentation. Attitude that carries your style with grace and brings Artisan's divinity of tradition and culture.
Fabric: Giccha & Tussar Silk
Designer Product: Scarf layer one sided, With hand painting, Loose fit waste and knee length kurti
Color: Natural Beige color of coccoon
Hand Painting: Madhubani from Madhubani District
Artisan: Smita
Size Avilable: 32,34, 36, 38 S/M/L/XL


text:
"Our new catalog, HOPE, stands for Honor, Overcome, Participate, and Empower – all of which embody the strength of those passionately supporting causes," said Sam Taylor, CEO of Oriental Trading Company.
Omaha, NE (PRWEB) April 14, 2014
Oriental Trading Company, Inc., the nation's largest direct retailer of value-priced party supplies, arts and crafts, toys, novelties, and school supplies, recently launched a new catalog and product line called HOPE. The newly expanded assortment includes nearly 1,500 giveaway, fundraising, and event supplies in 14 awareness ribbon colors to help consumers and organizations support and raise awareness for the causes closest to them.
"Our new catalog, HOPE, stands for Honor, Overcome, Participate, and Empower – all of which embody the strength of those passionately supporting causes," said Sam Taylor, CEO of Oriental Trading Company.
"At Oriental Trading we work hard to make the world a better place to live, work, and play. With our national and community partners, we support programs that improve the lives of children, youth, and families, with an emphasis on education, youth organizations, and programs that advance healthcare and human services. We wanted to bring that same level of passion to our customers and help to make their fundraising and awareness efforts successful, and at the same time easy, affordable, and fun."
Whether you're supporting autism awareness through puzzle ribbons, child abuse prevention through blue pinwheels, promoting anti-bullying campaigns in your school, or showing support through specific ribbon colors like red ribbons for heart disease or purple ribbons to honor cancer survivors, Oriental Trading's new line has everything you need. From fun giveaways to race gear for color, mud, or glow runs, and from event supplies to apparel and accessories, OrientalTrading.com has exclusively-designed awareness products not found anywhere else. All products are always backed by a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee and the company's 110% Lowest Price Guarantee.
\"One of my favorite elements of this new product launch is the inclusion of personal stories from our employees and community organizations featured throughout our catalogs and website. The fight against these debilitating diseases and societal ills touches us all, and there's so much passion in their stories, their challenges, and their triumphs," said Taylor.
About Oriental Trading Company (A Berkshire Hathaway company)
Oriental Trading Company is the nation's largest direct retailer of value-priced party supplies, arts and crafts, school supplies, toys, and novelties. The company is recognized as one of the Top 15 Online Retailers for Customer Satisfaction and one of the Top 50 Catalog Companies. Oriental Trading employs approximately 1,800 employees and offers nearly 50,000 products to individuals, teachers, schools, churches, businesses, and not-for-profit organizations. From pink flamingos, party supplies, and wedding favors to holiday decorations, educational games, and crafts, Oriental Trading makes the world more fun. http://www.orientaltrading.com http://www.mindware.com


text:
- Description
DetailsTreat yourself to the luxury of brilliant sold gold that will never go out of style. This exquisite solid gold chain is made with expert craftsmanship and is perfect for daily use. We guarantee that our gold chains are made with authentic solid gold. Product image may be slightly enlarged to show detail. Please refer to thickness described in product title for exact measurements.
- Additional Information
Additional Information
Chain Type Box Thickness 0.42mm Clasp Spring Ring Metal Purity 14K Metal Type Yellow Gold approx weight 0.8 Grams Necklace Length 16 Inches
- Reviews
Customer Reviews 1 item(s)
- I am amazed!
Beautiful and so dainty. Love it. Recommend. Buy you won't be disappointed. The chain and gold stations were smaller than I expected, but it sparkles like crazy! One of the ladies at work commented on it and said that it was just the right size.
Price Value Quality


text:
Baker Hughes (BHGE), a GE company, has received a subsea contract from Petrobel for phase two development of the Zohr Gas Field which is located in the Mediterranean Sea offshore Egypt
Under the deal, BHGE will be responsible for providing project management, engineering procurement, fabrication, construction, testing and transportation of a subsea production system, according to the company.
In addition, BHGE will also support the installation, commissioning and start-up operations for the project development.
In a statement to The National, Tarek El-Molla, minister of petroleum and mineral resources in Egypt, said, "Maximising domestic energy resources and optimising reliability of their supplies are core elements of Egypt's vision. We are able to increase the value and efficiency of the sector by driving a sustainable and energy-efficient economy through the ministry's modernisation programme in partnership with companies such as BHGE."
"The Zohr gasfield is playing a major role in the development of Egypt's domestic energy resources, revenue generation and economic growth," he added to the source.
Petrobel, a joint venture between IEOC and Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), is in charge of the development of Zohr Field on behalf of PetroSherouk, a joint venture between Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) and IEOC.
The Zohr field is one of the most significant developments in the country. The field is located in the Shorouk concession with an area of 3,765 sq km. Discovered by Italy's Eni in August 2015, Zohr is the largest natural gas field in the Mediterranean with a total potential of 850 bcm of gas.
With the new deal, Egypt hopes to increase the value and efficiency of the domestic gas output and achieve a sustainable and energy-efficient economy.
Lorenzo Simonelli, president and CEO of BHGE, said that the project is expected to meet the country's growing gas demand and save the country's foreign currency that is presently being spent on importing gas from other international market.
Alain Charles Publishing, University House, 11-13 Lower Grosvenor Place, London, SW1W 0EX, UK
T: +44 20 7834 7676, F: +44 20 7973 0076, W: www.alaincharles.com


text:
Review by : Tamilstar team
Vijay, Jeeva, Srikanth, Ileana, Sathyan, Sathyaraj
Harris Jayaraj
Gemini Film Circuit
'Nanban' is a directorial venture by Shankar and there is much anticipation about the movie amidst fans. Moreover for the first time, Shankar has taken up a remake movie.
The main feauture of the movie is that it is a multistarrer.
Gemini Film Circuit took up the production. Lot of money has gone into the making and this movie is to be released on Pongal
The characters of the movie '3 Idiots', Madhavan, Sharman Johsi and Aamir Khan have been replaced by Srikanth, Jeeva and Vijay respectively. All the other replacements for 'Nanban' also have been done.
The music for movie 'Nanban' is already a hit. People are keen about booking for the movie well before the release during Pongal.
The original version mocks at the educational system in India. This is the reason for the original version's success.
The Telugu version is to be released during Makara Sankaranthi. The plan of making a separate version in Telugu was dropped and now it is a dubbed movie in Telugu as '3 Rascals'.
There was a lot of delay in selection of the characters and finally the movie director settled for the current actors.
Cast for the movie
Vijay plays Panjavan Parivendhan aka Pari, Jeeva plays Sevarkodi Senthil, Srikanth plays Venkatrama Krishnan BE, Ileana plays Riya,Sathyan plays Silencer Srivatsan, Sathyaraj plays Virumandi Santhanam, Raghava Lawrence, SJ Surya plays the original Pari, Vijay Vasanth, Kishore, Anuya Bhagvath plays Riya's sister, Manobala plays the Librarian, Uma Padmanabhan
Singers - Krish, Suchith Suresan, Hemachandran, Mukesh, Vijay Prakash, Chinmayi, Suv, Aalap Raju, Vijay Prakash, Javed Ali, Sunidhi Chauhan, Ramakrishnan Murthy
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text:
Wednesday is the first day Canadian National Railway Co. can begin running more trains on its newly acquired Elgin, Joliet & Eastern rail line, but CN said it has no plans yet to reroute freight traffic.
As suburbs along the EJ&E await word from CN, one of the communities that was an ardent critic of the acquisition has accepted a $1.8 million offer from the railroad to fund improvements intended to lessen the impact of the increased train traffic.
West Chicago's City Council voted 7-6 to approve an agreement with CN. The suburb could see an increase in freight traffic to more than 30 trains a day from 10.


text:
Above Raymond Aponte's bed are two framed documents. One lists the vows of Narcotics Anonymous. The other is a copy of his first paycheck in more than nine years, dated Sept. 27, from the Subway grinder shop in downtown Hartford.
Aponte took home $133.77 in that paycheck. Most of it was promptly taken away and put into a savings account in his name. That's what "home" is all about these days for the 33-year-old federal prisoner convicted of drug trafficking and the 42 other men who live with him instead of behind bars. Watkinson House on Collins Street is an unusual place that mixes freedom and restriction to achieve accountability. There are no bars on the windows, and that makes it a very difficult place in which to succeed. Almost 40 percent of the men who set out to call this halfway house their home do not succeed.


text:
Build Guide by
Not Updated For Current Season
This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page.
Thank You!
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creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.
Urgot Build
Ability Sequence
Not Updated For Current Season
The masteries shown here are not yet updated for the current season, the guide author needs to set up the new masteries. As such, they will be different than the masteries you see in-game.
Hey this is how Urgot should be played!
Mercury Treads- I know Urgot might not want to be in most fights but when he gets stun dove or Galio or Amumu Ult'd its a nice thing to have and lets you get away quicker so you can resume damage.
The Brutalizer- Just a good cheap item that is nothing but benefiting Urgot gived AD for his 'Q' CD reduction and armor pen cant hurt.
Phage- Again cheap and has good stats on it, Survivability, AD, and a slow on top of Urgots N.C.C and Acid Hunter make Urgot quite the early-mid game chaser.
Frozen Mallet- Same thing as Phage except better ! :D
BloodThirster- Add's some amazing damage and gives Urgot some life-steal which gives him some 1v1 strength which couldn't hurt and if your out of range in fights lets you heal up quite nicely and make you hit like a BEAST!
Youmuu's Ghostblade- An upgrade from the brutalizer but !!!... Gives an amazing active which make chasing down people great with more attack speed and more movement speed your target is going nowhere !
Randuin's Omen- With this item tower diving is an ease! late game. Also by this point in the game people will be hitting like trucks aswell, so some survive couldnt hurt some regen is nice and the active for this makes your ulti that much more useful in a team fight allowing you to not only single out a player on the enemy team but also allows you to slow thier whole team and then gives you mroe armor and resistance to get an easy escape and lets you get back to nuking thier carries down like you should be :D!
For Red and Blue runes i try and just get straight up Damage cause thats what your all about right :P? And for yellow i get some CDR because a lil more couldnt hurt you at all. and the Quints are for sruvive, not to picky on these its jsut i have these on all my chars.!
-I go into the increase spell pen cause of N.C.C and Acid hunter! and then into utility cause i get flash as a summer spell and for the mana increases because you will run into a mana problem every know and again !
Early Game
-Take Mid as MUCH AS POSSIBLE!
-Only use Acid hunter and N.C.C on champs. Dont throw away mana on minions.!
-Always!!! ALWAYS last hit creeps! gives you more gold and the you can get more offensive to begin early
champ harrasment!.
-Save your gold for your Merc Treads and Brutalizer! very key to getting them early!
Mid Game
-Harras the champs below half or at half whenever youc an this is key to mid game ganking/
-If you see a champ getitng low save your mana for a combo 'W' 'R' 'E' 'Q' This will kill any low champ be quick on the flash out! cause your defense wont last forever!
-Once youve killed your mid champ a few times and got his turret get someone to help with Golem and push another lane!
- Should have enough for a Frozen mallet and be saving for your B.F.
-You shine in team fights! ulti in but make sure your team is there to back you up! Flash to safety and destory their carries ! Xin Zhao, Garren, Tryn, Akali, Mundo. Etc They are yours if you can get to safety and nuke them from afar!
-If you see a champ running alone chase him its what your born to do!
-It is nice to have Golem buff :D for the mana and CDR stay longer in team fights.
Summer Spells :D <3
Ghost- Amazing for chasing!, Amazing for running NEEDED for Urgot end of story
Flash- Same thing as ghost goes perfectly with your ultimate for getting away right when you use it :D
Final Thoughts
-In this build i think you'll find that Urgot is an amazing carry killer! A great chaser and a pretty decent tank at times:D always run with your team! be very alert to people who are low and hp and people who look like they're about to split cause thats when you strike. 1v1 good luck killing you ! 5v5 good luck killing you! Have fun and rem!
'R' 'W' 'E' 'Q SPAM' and you will be just fine !
REM read your skills, fool around with this champ and the build get very familiar cause hes tricky to learn! This is the URGOT BUILD.
have fun and let me know what you like or didn't like ill get back to yea :D!


text:
Laravel is a great flexible and most popular PHP framework for building web applications. So, its only logical that clients come up to discuss their ecommerce website development needs with us using Laravel. Now, we already provide ecommerce website development services using famous WooCommerce and heavy-hitting Magento. However, there are clients who are more interested in a custom ecommerce solution rather an open-source one. For them, this is a handy guide to set up your ecommerce website in Laravel.Read more
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text:
Company says, "We never wanted to upset anyone."
That French eyewear company that caught global flack for a line of Anorexxxy sunglasses has changed the brand's name to Axxxexxxy, and apologized to those who felt the original name glorified an eating disorder. "This name was not meant to be taken seriously at all," said a company statement. "We were obviously in no way paying any kind of homage to anorexia as it is a terrible illness. We never wanted to upset anyone."
Read more and see images at Metro | Orbit


text:
In the past year and a half or so, independent rapper Macklemore undeniably has become one of the biggest faces in hip-hop.
New York rapper Le1f took some issue with that. Le1f, who is gay (and has produced for artists like Spank Rock and Das Racist and released his own acclaimed mixtapes), made waves in August when he went on a lengthy Twitter tirade slamming Macklemore, accusing the rising star of exploiting the gay community for his own gain. Before Le1f's show Friday at Empty Bottle, he connected by phone to elaborate.


text: Digital The New York Observer Lists 50 Media Bachelors By Chris O'Shea|August 15, 2011Share By Chris O'Shea|August 15, 2011Share The New York Observer has published a list covering 50 media bachelors today. Who made the list? A bunch of white guys, of course. But let's not bore you with the details of yet another chance for those in New York media to obsess over something that no one else cares about. Here are a few of the dudes who got a shout out: Will Welch, GQ Ben Cohen, The Wall Street Journal Brian Moylan, Gawker Jacob Bernstein, Newsweek/The Daily Beast Chris Wilson, The Daily And don't worry guys, tomorrow the Observer is publishing a bachelorette list, so get excited! Or whatever. Share http://adweek.it/2kYGN3W copy Adweek Adweek


text:
|Method and applications for rasterization of non-simple polygons and curved boundary representations
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/433,001, filed on Jan. 14, 2011. The teachings and disclosure of the referenced application are herein incorporated in its entirety.
This application relates to Computer-Aided Design (CAD), and more particularly, to high-quality rendering.
Computer-aided design (CAD) software allows a user to construct and manipulate complex three-dimensional (3D) models. A number of different modeling techniques can be used to create a 3D model. These techniques include solid modeling, wire-frame modeling, and surface modeling. Solid modeling techniques provide for topological 3D models, where the 3D model is a collection of interconnected topological entities (e.g., vertices, edges, and faces). The topological entities have corresponding supporting geometrical entities (e.g., points, trimmed curves, and trimmed surfaces). The trimmed surfaces correspond to the topological faces bounded by the edges. Wire-frame modeling techniques, on the other hand, can be used to represent a model as a collection of simple 3D lines, whereas surface modeling can be used to represent a model as a collection of exterior surfaces. CAD modeling using solid modeling techniques is widely used for industrial design and other applications requiring high-quality rendering.
A solid model is generally represented by a boundary representation (B-rep), which consists of trimmed parametric surfaces with inter-references that maintain the topology of the model. For example, an edge shared by neighboring faces will have references (sometimes called half-edges or edge-uses) to both faces.
Referring now to FIG. 1, an illustration of a B-rep topological structure of a cube 100 is shown. A half-edge e11 typically stores references to the associated face f1 of e11, the next half-edge e12 of e11, and the opposite half-edge e21 of e11. FIG. 1 illustrates that given half-edge e11, the neighboring face f2 of e11 can be identified by taking the face of the opposite half-edge e21 of e11.
A design engineer is a typical user of a 3D CAD system. The design engineer designs physical and aesthetic aspects of 3D models, and is skilled in 3D modeling techniques. The design engineer creates parts and may assemble the parts into one or more subassemblies and assemblies. During the design process, a high quality rendering of the 3D model is often desired to present the model as a real-world object.
Traditional rendering methods preprocess a model into a tessellation stored in a computer-processing unit (CPU) memory and use the tessellation for rendering. As graphics processing units (GPUs) became common components of CAD systems, interactively rendering solid models involved tessellating the models using a CPU and then transmitting the tessellation to a GPU for further processing.
The trimming of surface patches may complicate the tessellation due to fine-grained sampling along the trimming loops, which is necessary to obtain an acceptable quality of the tessellation along the trimming loops. This process is time consuming and the tessellations have significant memory requirements. For example, empirical evidence has shown that tessellated model representations generally require an order of magnitude more memory than boundary representations. Moreover, the advent of client graphics applications (e.g., in the context of cloud computing) begs for the reduction of the size of the models transmitted over the Internet.
The desire to reduce the size of a transmitted model motivated on-the-fly tessellation approaches of trimmed parametric surfaces. M. Guthe, J. Meseth, and R. Klein; Fast and memory efficient view-dependent trimmed NURBS rendering; Pacific Conference on Computer Graphics and Applications, p. 204 (2002) discusses an approach implemented on a CPU. Whereas, M. Guthe, Á. Balázs., and R. Klein; GPU-based trimming and tessellation of NURBS and T-Spline surfaces; ACM Trans. Graph. 24, 3, o. 1016 (2005) and A. Krishnamuthy, R. Khardekar, and S. McMains; Direct evaluation of NURBS curves and surfaces on the GPU; ACM Symposium on Solid and Physical Modeling, ACM, p. 329 (2007) describe approaches that utilize a GPU.
Guthe et al. (2005) described tessellating trimmed non-rational bspline (NURBS) patches by subdividing patches into rational bi-cubic Bézier patches, which are passed as textures to a GPU and evaluated directly. Trimming is performed using a trimming texture, which is generated using a method implemented on a GPU. The trim texture is computed by rendering a polygonal approximation of each trim loop in the uv-domain of a surface. The trimming texture is then used as a mask to identify pixels that are outside the face boundary (either outside the outer loop or inside a hole).
While tessellation on the GPU may not require preprocessing and storing the control meshes in CPU memory, and does reduce the amount of data transmitted over the communication network, the surfaces are still approximated by tessellation techniques. Furthermore and in general, when a user zooms into a model, the tessellation must be updated to reach a finer approximation.
As GPU technology becomes more advanced, rendering of models directly on the GPU becomes not only of higher quality, but also competitive in terms of computation speed. Methods have been described that directly render solid models and trimmed surfaces thereof directly on a GPU without a tessellation preprocess, and generally render the models when needed. (For example of the later, see Krishnamuthy et al.)
Rendering a solid model directly on the GPU without tessellating the model has advantages, which by way of non-limiting example include pixel-level rendering quality, less memory requirements, and less preprocessing requirements. Yet, one of the main problems with existing solutions for rendering solid models directly on the GPU without first creating a tessellation is the appearance of crack/gap artifacts between faces due to the approximations of trimming curves. These undesirable artifacts prevent or have a limiting effect on the usage of direct GPU rendering in CAD systems.
GPU ray casting methods are also utilized for rendering of surfaces. Such methods include rendering implicit algebraic surfaces (see C. T. Loop, and J. Blinn; Real-time GPU rendering of piecewise algebraic surfaces; ACM Trans. Graph. 25, 3, 664 (2006)) and constructive solid geometry (CSG) primitives (see F. Romeiro, L. Velho, L., and L. H. De Figueiredo; Scalable GPU rendering of csg models; Computers & Graphics 32, 5, p. 526 (2008). These methods render directly in terms of the surface polynomial representations, as opposed to a set of approximating triangles. The advantages are high-quality results compared to rendering tessellations and reduced memory usage.
Other ray casting techniques have been proposed to render parametric/trimmed surfaces directly on the GPU, such as H. F. Pabst, J. Springer, A. Schollmeyer, R. Lenhardt, C. Lessig, and B. Froehlich; Ray casting of trimmed NURBS surfaces on the GPU; Interactive Ray Tracing 2006, IEEE Symposium; p. 151 (2006), and A. Schollmeyer and B. Fröhlich; Direct trimming of NURBS surfaces on the GPU; ACM Trans. Graph. 28 (July), 47:1; (2009). These techniques use fragment shaders (also referred to as pixel shaders), to compute the intersection, or lack thereof, of a ray with a trimmed parametric surface. Such techniques enable rendering of trimmed surfaces up to pixel-level resolution seamlessly.
Ray casting of trimmed parametric surfaces, however, present further difficulties since the polynomials involved may be of higher degree, requiring numerical root extraction, and for the trimming of the surfaces, a point classification algorithm. Pabst et al. presented a GPU-based non-uniform rational b-spline (NURBS) ray casting implementation using a bi-variate Newton iteration to solve the ray-patch intersection problem. In order to achieve convergence to the root, Pabst et al. subdivide the surface into sub-patches in a preprocessing step and compute the convex hull of each sub-patch. The convex hull is then used as a bounding volume for rendering, and utilized to find a good initial value for the numeric iteration.
The trimming of the surfaces may present a problem for both tessellation and ray casting approaches. The basic problem is to classify whether a given point is inside a given face, in which case the point should be rendered, or outside the given face, in which case the point should be discarded. As previously discussed, a trimming texture can be used. Such a texture is a simple binary texture that stores, for example, a black pixel for outside and a white pixel for inside a given face. The fragment shader then checks whether the texture value corresponding to the pixel is black and if so performs no further operation using the pixel. The problem with this method is that the method introduces pixelization artifacts.
FIGS. 2a and 2b illustrate pixelization artifacts due to trimming texture decimation on a model of a duck with trimming loops around the eyes of the duck. FIG. 2a shows a full view of the duck model, whereas, FIG. 2b shows a close up view of the duck's eye. The texture is basically a pixelization of the uv-domain, and therefore, the mapping of the uv-domain of the surface to 3D space can produce noticeable effects. Recomputing the trimming texture with a higher resolution has the drawback of slowing down the application and requiring more GPU memory.
A more accurate method, which overcomes the pixelization artifacts of the trimming texture, uses the trimming curves directly for point classification. Pabst et al. provide an iterative implementation of a Bézier clipping algorithm to perform the trimming directly in the fragment shader. Schollmeyer et al. improve this method by preprocessing the trimming uv-curves into monotonic segments and using an acceleration structure combined with a bisection method to quickly identify whether a point is within a trimming loop.
The results of these more accurate trimming methods are finer and smoother surface boundaries and intersections. However, as noted by Schollmeyer et al., gaps still remain along the trim curves of adjacent faces. The reason is that the trimming curves in the surface uv-domain are approximations, and as pointed out by X. Song, T. W. Sederberg, J. Zheng, R. T. Farouki, and J. Hass; Linear perturbation methods for topologically consistent representations of free-form surface intersections; Computer Aided Geometric Design 21, p. 303 (2004), representing the trimming curves exactly is a difficult task. Therefore, an inherent gap exists in the geometry between two approximations of the same curve. Á Balázs. M. Guthe, and R. Klein writing in Fat borders: Gap filling for efficient view-dependent LOD NURBS rendering; Computers and Graphics 28, 1 (February), p. 79 (2004) attempted to overcome this problem in the context of real-time tessellation rendering by adding so-called "fat borders" that fill gaps between surface patches. However, filling the gaps in this way constructs additional geometry, which may decrease performance and introduce unwanted artifacts.
One of the main problems with existing solutions for rendering solid models as trimmed surfaces on the GPU is the appearance of crack/gap artifacts between faces due to the approximations of the trimming curves. Even where the trimming was performed using a trimming curve representation and not using trim textures as in previous techniques, gaps still existed between neighboring faces of a solid model (see Schollmeyer et al.).
Thus, a drawback of current state-of-the-art techniques includes the existence of crack/gap artifacts when directly rendering a model on a GPU without first tessellating the model. These inherent cracks/gaps are introduced by the approximation of the trimming curves. A system or method that addresses this and other drawbacks would greatly enhance current state-of-the-art computerized systems by allowing the high quality rendering of a 3D model without the undesirable crack/gap artifacts.
An example embodiment of the present invention may be implemented in the form of a method or corresponding product, data storage medium, or apparatus for rendering a solid computer-aided design (CAD) model directly on a GPU, and include, given a CAD model representing a real-world object constructing a boundary representation data structure of CAD model, which stores topological data comprised of data defining a face, constructing a data structure representing a parameter space of the face, and decomposing the parameter space into a number of cells.
For each cell, the presence of the face in the cell is designated by indicating that the cell is an empty type cell, a full type cell, an edge type cell, or a vertex type cell. The cells are encoded into a texture construct, which is transmitted to a graphics processing unit (GPU) where further processing renders the face on a computer monitor.
Implementations may include the edge type cell and the vertex type cell referencing representations of one or more trimming surfaces, wherein the trimming surfaces correspond to neighboring faces of the face; storing an underlying surface of the face, a uv parameter space bounding box of the face, and a 3D bounding box of the face; and encoding the trimming surfaces in a trimming surface texture for transmission to and processing by a the GPU. Furthermore, the trimming surfaces may be represented analytically as a plane, a cylinder, a cone, a sphere, a torus, a NURBS surface, or a generic surface. Upon receiving the texture construct, the GPU performs a ray casting process to render the face using the texture construct and one or more of the trimming surface representations, which are referenced by the cells encoded in the texture construct.
Other implementations may include a point classification process that determines whether a ray intersects an underlying surface of the face and rendering a corresponding pixel if the ray does intersect. Additionally, the CPU encodes the presence of the face as a cell type, where the types indicate that (i) no part of the face intersects with the parameter space area corresponding to the cell; (ii) a total area of the cell contains material of the face; (iii) a reference to a trimming surface corresponding to a neighboring face is stored; and (iv) references to two trimming surfaces corresponding to two neighboring faces are stored. Further, the cells are stored in a cell data structure, which may be implemented as a grid structure or a tree data structure.
The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description that follows. Other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.
FIG. 1 is an illustration of a B-rep structure for a cube.
FIG. 2a and FIG. 2b are illustrations of pixelization artifacts.
FIG. 3 is an illustration of a face representation.
FIG. 4a illustrates an union vertex.
FIG. 4b illustrates an intersection vertex.
FIG. 5a and FIG. 5b illustrates cell data structures.
FIG. 6a and FIG. 6b is an illustration of a classification issue in an embodiment.
FIGS. 7a, 7b, and 7c illustrate per-pixel accuracy in an embodiment.
FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a computer system in which embodiments of the present invention are implemented.
The foregoing will be apparent from the following more particular description of example embodiments of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating embodiments of the present invention.
The present invention provides for high-quality rendering of a computer-aided design (CAD) model without introducing cracks and gaps in the rendering. Rather than using the geometry of trimming curves directly, the present invention makes use of the topology information available via a boundary representation of the model.
The present invention combines a unique representation of the faces of a solid model, which are passed to the graphics processing unit (GPU) encoded as textures. A fragment shader (which computes color and other attributes for each pixel and may process pixels in parallel in the GPU), receives bounding boxes of the faces as input, along with parameters of underlying surfaces and the encoded textures. Fragment shader methods utilize the representation of the faces for identifying a surface area to be rendered. Using implementations of the present invention, high quality renderings of models without the presence of crack/gap artifacts may be achieved at interactive speeds.
Additionally, the present invention performs a ray casting computation to render CAD models. The ray casting computation, executed by a fragment shader, checks whether the ray hitting the bounding box hits the underlying surface. If the ray does intersect the surface, a point classification process checks whether the point is within the area defined by surface representation(s). Unlike the classification methods described by Guthe et al. (2005) and Schollmeyer et al., which utilize trimming textures and trimming uv-curves, respectively, the present invention implements a point classification method that utilizes a neighboring face along an edge to identify whether a point is inside or outside of the face upon which is currently being operated
The present invention introduces a new representation of the trimming loops and uses this new representation in a point classification process. Trimming curves do not generally have a parametric algebraic representation and are therefore typically approximated within a CAD system. However, a trimming curve can also be viewed as the intersection of two surfaces—one corresponding to a face currently being processed and the other corresponding to a neighboring face. Furthermore, the neighboring surfaces (e.g., one neighboring surface for an edge and two neighboring surfaces for a vertex where three edges meet), and their orientation relative to a face currently being operated upon are accessible through the topology of the B-rep structure. Thus, by storing a reference to the intersecting surface the point classification problem in the neighborhood of the trimming loop is solved by classifying on which side of the surface the point lies and is transformed from a uv-domain 2D classification to a 3D point classification. Furthermore, many of the present invention's classification queries operate on simple analytical surfaces for which the classification is straightforward.
The trimming loops of a face are encoded not with trimming curves, which are inherently non-exact, but with trimming surfaces. Additionally, the present invention makes extensive use of the analytic representations of surfaces (e.g. planes, cylinders, cones, spheres, torii), which are easier to compute and encode than splines. These analytic representations of surfaces compose the majority of surface representations in typical models designed using state-of-the-art CAD systems.
In one embodiment of the present invention two phases are implemented—a preprocessing CPU phase and a GPU phase run from a fragment shader. In the CPU phase, each face is stored in CPU memory with a data structure for the face's loops, the face's underlying surface and other parameters including the face's uv bounding box and 3D bounding box, and other attributes needed for visualization such as color. The face parameter (uv) space is decomposed into cells, each cell can be empty (meaning that no part of the face intersects with the cell), full (meaning that the complete cell contains material of the face), or contain an edge or a vertex. For cells containing an edge or a vertex, the cell data structure stores references to one or two trimming surfaces corresponding to the one or two neighboring faces (one for edge cells, two for vertex cells) from which the loop edge or vertex originated. The cell data structure can be implemented as a regular grid over the parameter space or using a quad-tree where empty, full, edge and vertex cells are leaves of the tree. In the preprocessing step, the face representation and the cell data structure are constructed, and the cell data structure is encoded for each face in a trim state texture. The trimming surfaces are encoded in a trim surfaces texture, which is referenced by the trim state texture. An encoding of a trimming surface can, by way of non-limiting example, simply store the axis and radius of a cylinder and respective basic parameters for other types of surfaces.
Referring now to FIG. 3, an embodiment's representation for a planar face that caps a cylinder is shown. In FIG. 3, the planar face 302 of the cylinder is stored in a cell data structure 304 (in this case, a regular grid) encoded in the trim state texture. The 0-cells are empty cells, the 1-cells are inner cells, and the 2-cells are edge cells that hold references to the trimming cylinder representation in the trim surface texture. The encoded data and computation thereof will later be discussed.
The GPU phase is implemented in the fragment shader. In the fragment shader, if a ray hitting a bounding box intersects with a surface, the intersection point and uv-parameters are computed as well as the normal of the surface at the intersection point. The cell data structure is then searched for the cell with the uv-point. If the cell is an empty cell the pixel is discarded. Otherwise, the pixel color is computed using a shading method such as Phong shading or Blinn-Phong shading.
In the next step, if the cell is full, the color is returned. If the cell is an edge cell, the ray intersection point is compared to the trimming surface, which is decoded from the trim surface texture. The pixel is discarded if the point is on the outside orientation of the surface. If the cell is a vertex cell then similarly the ray intersection point is compared to the trimming surfaces from which the vertex originated. A vertex cell can be a union cell or an intersection cell. In a union cell the pixel is discarded if the point is on the outside orientation of both surfaces. In an intersection cell the pixel is discarded if the point is outside either of the surfaces.
An embodiment handles several surface types for ray casting and for point classification, including the common surface types used in CAD solid modeling, namely planes, cylinders, cones, torii, spheres, and NURBS surfaces. In addition, a generic mesh surface is used for any non-common surface types.
All surfaces are parametric and represented by a uv-domain [u0; v0]×[u1; v1]. The analytic surfaces also store a local coordinate system {O; x; y; z}. (Herein bold notation denotes vector values.) Specifically, the following describes the representation of the surfaces.
The plane equation is given by S(u,v)=ux+vy+O. Therefore, the uv-domain and local coordinate system describe the surface fully.
The cylinder equation is given by S(u,v)=R((cos u)x+(sin u)y)+vz+O; where R is the cylinder radius and 0≦u<2π. Thus, an additional radius parameter R is passed to the fragment shader.
The cone equation is given by S(u,v)=(R+v(tan θ))(((cos u)x+(sin u)y))+vz+O; where R is the radius of the intersection circle of the cone with the xy-plane. θ is the half-angle of the cone apex. The domain must satisfy 0≦u<2π and −R(cot θ)≦v<∞. The cylinder representation therefore has an additional radius parameter R and angle parameter θ, which are passed to the fragment shader.
The sphere equation is given by S(u,v)=R(cos v)((cos u)x+(sin u)y)+R(sin v)z+O; where R is the radius of the sphere and the domain satisfies 0<=u<2π; −π/2<=v<π/2. The sphere representation therefore has an additional radius parameter R, which is passed to the fragment shader.
The torus equation is given by S(u,v)=(R+r(cos v))((cos u)x+(sin u)y)+r(sin v)z+O; where R and r are the major and minor radii of the torus, respectively, and the domain satisfies 0≦u<2π; −π<=v<π.
Unlike the analytic surfaces, a NURBS surface does not have a local coordinate system and is represented by the degree of the surface and knot vectors of the surface in u and in v, and by the control mesh of the surface in the global coordinate system. The NURBS representation is:
where m and n are the degrees of the NURBS in u and v, pij are the control points in the control mesh and Bij(u, v) are the NURBS basis functions.
CAD systems may use other surface representations instead of or in addition to analytical and NURBS surfaces. For example, to represent an offset surface, which is a procedural surface, some systems store a reference to the base surface and an offset-distance value. Such a representation cannot be represented exactly using a NURBS surface. Thus, for example, the equation for an offset surface may include a square root. Offset surface representations typically are used as black boxes that can answer queries on point and derivative evaluation at a given uv-parameter. To support less common surface representations and as a generic surface for an unsupported surface, an embodiment utilizes a surface representation comprised of a mesh with normal values at the mesh vertices; such normal values are obtained by querying the procedural surface. The meshes are regular meshes over the entire surface domain. The trimmed domain is not triangulated. The trimming of the meshes without gap artifacts is performed in the fragment shaders in the same way as is performed for other surfaces (i.e., using trimming surfaces).
When rendering an analytic surface, a 3D box bounding the surface is rendered. The ray emanating from the viewpoint is computed with respect to the point of intersection with the box. Given the viewpoint position O in the surface local coordinate system (i.e., object space) and the ray direction vector d, the ray in the surface local coordinate system is parameterized by R(t)=O+dt. The fragment shader then computes the intersection points by finding the roots of a polynomial in t. The polynomial is constructed by plugging the linear equation of R(t) into the implicit equations of the analytical surfaces. The result is a quadratic equation for cylinders, cones, and spheres, and a quartic equation for torii. (For planes there is no need for this procedure; rather, the underlying plane is rendered directly and the shader only performs the point classification process.) Thus, the fragment shaders only need to solve a quadratic or quartic equation in order to get the intersection point (or lack thereof, in which case the pixel is discarded). Given the intersection point, the uv parameters and the normal at the intersection point is easily computed, and from those uv parameters and the normal, the shading color is computed.
For a mesh surface, the ray casting in the shader implements a Blinn-Phong shading method, which interpolates the vertex normal values. For a NURBS surface, finding the ray-surface intersection is more complicated. A similar method to that described by Pabst et al. and Schollmeyer et al. is used. An embodiment divides the surface into Bézier patches, (which are easier to handle than bspline patches within the shaders, although bspline patches may also be used), and further subdivides the patches to sufficiently flat sub-patches. Bounding volumes of the sub-patches are then rendered using oriented bounding boxes, unlike Pabst et al. that described the use of convex hulls of the patches. The result is a bi-variate system of polynomial equations in u and v (see Pabst et al. for details) that is solved using a Newton-Raphson iteration. Once the intersection point with the underlying surface is known, the intersection point is passed to the point classification process.
The point classification process first takes the uv-point on the face and searches for the corresponding uv cell in the cell data structure. If the cell is an empty cell, the uv-point is discarded then the process checks the next root of the ray-surface intersection polynomial for another ray intersection with the underlying surface that may be within the surface domain and inside the face. If the cell is a full cell, the pixel shade is computed using the exact normal value and the pixel is rendered. If the cell is neither full nor empty, the cell contains an edge, two intersecting edges (i.e., a vertex), or two edges that do not intersect (which may result from a coarse-grain cell structure), and the process applies a 3D point classification based on the trimming surfaces the cell references.
In an embodiment, two cell data structures are implemented. The first cell data structure is implemented as a regular grid and stored as an RGB texture. The first value (R) stores the type of cell, and the other two values (GB) are reserved for referencing trimming surfaces in the trim surface texture. The type of cell may be empty, full, edge, union vertex, or intersection vertex.
An empty type cell contains a uv subdomain that is not contained in the face, that is, outside the outer loop or totally inside a hole. The GB values in the empty type cell are null. A full type cell contains a uv subdomain that is completely inside the face. The GB values in the full type cell are also null. An edge type cell contains a single edge, which is a trimming curve. The G value of the edge type cell references an index in the trim surface texture, which references a representation of the trimming surface. An union vertex type cell contains two edges that are incident at a vertex. The G and B values of the union vertex type cell references indices in the trim surface texture, which in turn reference representations of the trimming surfaces.
An intersection vertex type cell is similar to the union vertex type cell; however, the classification procedure treats the union and intersection vertex type cells differently because an union vertex type cell is a result of a union boolean operation between two surfaces, whereas, the intersection vertex type cell results from an intersection between two surfaces. Thus, for an union vertex type cell, if a point is on the inner side of either trimming surface the point will be rendered. Whereas, for the intersection vertex type cell, a point is rendered only if the point is on the inner side of both trimming surfaces. The distinction between an union vertex type cell and an intersection vertex type can be determined based on the orientations of the edges around the vertex, as described with reference to FIG. 4a and FIG. 4b.
Referring now to FIG. 4a, va is a union vertex 400a. The edges e1 and e2 in FIG. 4a make a right turn, and therefore, the surface 402a has added material when compared to a case where the edges form a straight line. FIG. 4b shows an intersection vertex 400b denoted as vb. The edges e1 and e2 in FIG. 4b make a left turn, and therefore, the surface on 402b has reduced material when compared to a case where the edges form a straight line.
A second implementation of a cell data structure is a quad-tree representation, as described in M. de Berg, O. Cheong, M. Van Kreveld, and M. Overmars; Computational Geometry, Algorithms and Applications, 3rd ed. Springer, New York; (2008), and is also stored in an RGB texture. The leaf nodes of the quad-tree store the same types of cells as in the grid cell structure previously described. However, the inner nodes of the quad-tree, which have an R value that indicates the nodes as inner nodes, refer to the first of a block of four cells that are the children of the inner node.
In the fragment shader, given a computed uv value, a search procedure searches the cell data structure for the cell that contains the given uv point. The steps of the search procedure are dependent on the type of cell data structure. If the cell is neither empty nor full, the 3D point on the surface corresponding to the uv-point is evaluated. Then the 3D point is compared to the one or more surfaces referenced by the cell.
As previously discussed, for each edge (i.e., each trimming curve) of a face, there exists a corresponding trimming surface referenced from cells in the cell data structure. The trimming surfaces are encoded in a floating point trim surface texture that stores the respective parameters of the surfaces. The first cell holds the surface type and the fragment shader activates a function that reads the surface from the texture based on the surface type.
For analytic surfaces, the representations are compact, based on the parameters previously described in the discussion of surface representations. NURBS surface representations are less compact, and therefore, only the relevant Bézier sub-patches that actually intersect the face are stored in the trim surface texture. Similarly, for mesh surfaces, only the relevant triangles that actually intersect the face are stored during a preprocessing step.
When constructing the cell data structure, the preprocessing procedure identifies for every cell whether the points of the face should lie on the positive or negative side of the surface. This information is also stored in the trim surface texture. Note that all surface representations previously described have a positive surface normal, which is defined as the direction of the cross product Su(u,v)×Sv(u,v) at a given uv-value. Therefore, in a sufficiently close neighborhood of a surface, a point p is either on the positive or on the negative side of the surface. This can be determined when classifying a 3D point, by projecting p onto the surface, finding the closest point Sp on the surface, and comparing the vector p−Sp with the normal at Sp.
The construction of the cell data structure is performed on the CPU, which then encodes the data structure into the trim state texture, which is then queried in the shader as previously described. The construction procedure receives as input the trimming loops, and then partitions the uv-domain of the surface into cells that contain uv sub domains.
Referring now to FIGS. 5a and 5b, illustrations of the cell structures are shown. FIG. 5a shows a grid cell structure with a 64×64 grid. The grid squares are colored in two shades to distinguish between the cells. FIG. 5b shows a quad-tree cell structure where the smallest cell in the quad-tree is 0.01 of the domain width. The quad cells are colored in different shades, where leaf cells that are further from the root cell are colored in lighter shade.
The grid cell structure is a uniform grid that is laid on the uv-domain. The trimming loops are intersected with the grid and every grid cell stores a reference to the one or more trimming curves that intersect with the respective grid cell. Excluding degenerate end cases, for a sufficient resolution of the grid there are at most two edges in a cell—one if an edge passes through the cell and two if the cell contains a vertex. In rare cases, a cell may contain more than two edges or contains two edges that do not meet at a vertex, which may happen, for example, in trimming loops that are nearly tangent. In such rare cases, the grid may be reconstructed with a finer resolution. Once all the edge and vertex cells have been identified, the cells that do not hold an edge are traversed, and using a polygon point containment test, are classified as full or empty.
The distinction between union and intersection vertices requires further computation. First, the edges are assumed to be oriented so that the material of the face is to the left of each edge, which is a common convention in CAD systems. However, an embodiment may assume that the edges are oriented so the material is to the right of each edge and have similar results. Given a vertex cell, the incoming edge is denoted by ei and the outgoing edge is denoted by eo. If the edges {ei; eo} perform a left turn then the vertex is an intersection vertex (i.e., the intersection with the surface on eo reduced material as shown in FIG. 4b). Otherwise, the vertex is a union vertex (i.e., the surface on e1 added material as shown in FIG. 4a). Determining the orientation of {ei; eo} is performed by taking the tangent of the trimming curves at the endpoints and computing the cross product between them.
The quad-tree cell data structure recursively subdivides the uv-domain into subdomains until a termination criterion is satisfied (e.g., size or the overall number of subdomains). Each inner cell holds references to the inner cells's four children subdomains and also holds a list with references to all edges that intersect the respective inner cell. If the cell subdomain contains no edges, then the cell is a leaf of the quad-tree and is classified as either an empty or full leaf cell in the same way as was done for the grid cell data structure. Otherwise, the subdivision continues until only one or two edges intersect the cell or until the cell size reaches some small tolerance, which may happen in degenerate cases.
When the cell contains only one edge, the cell is a candidate to be a leaf cell; although, having only one edge does not guarantee that the cell is a leaf. Verification is needed that the cell intersects the trimming surface only with a single component (branch). Otherwise, a point inside the cell that is outside the other branch of the surface will be treated incorrectly, for example, rendered when the point should be discarded or vice versa. Consider for example the configuration in FIGS. 6a and 6b.
FIGS. 6a and 6b show a keyhole-shaped hole in a surface 600. A top edge 602 of the keyhole-shaped hole is an elongated arc of an ellipse on a plane. This, for example, can be a result of part of a cylinder intersecting the plane. Only points that are above the upper arc of the ellipse, as shown in FIG. 6a, should be rendered. However, if the cell 604 intersects the ellipse more than once as in the FIGS. 6a and 6b, the point classification procedure described herein will render also those points that are outside the other branch of the ellipse (i.e., the points under the ellipse as denoted by the shaded area in FIG. 6b. Therefore, a procedure must check that the cell intersects the trimming surface with only a single connected component.
FIGS. 6a and 6b demonstrate a classification issue that needs to be avoided and may occur when an ellipse intersects a leaf cell twice. The bold line outlining the keyhole shape is the loop of a hole in the face. The dashed rectangle is the area of a leaf cell in the quad-tree. The full ellipse has two branches in the cell where the dotted line shows the other branch. FIG. 6a illustrates the desired result where only the area above the ellipse is rendered. Whereas, FIG. 6b illustrates an undesirable result where the lower branch intersects the cell and causes the lower area to be rendered as well.
If the edge is between tangent faces, the procedure does not terminate but rather continues the subdivision until the minimum cell size is reached. Continuing the subdivision addresses difficulties tangent faces present in the point classification procedure. Similarly, if a cell contains two edges connected at a vertex, the edges must satisfy the same conditions as previously discussed. Furthermore, a vertex between tangent edges also presents difficulties in classification, and therefore in such a case, the subdivision continues until the minimum cell size is reached.
Referring now to FIGS. 7a through 7c, the per-pixel accuracy of an embodiment is shown. FIG. 7a shows a 3D model. FIGS. 7b and 7c show zoomed-in views of the 3D model in FIG. 7a. Further, FIG. 7b illustrates a zoomed-in view using a common tessellation method; whereas FIG. 7c illustrates a ray-casting approach in one embodiment of the present invention. In particular, the curvature of the rim 702 shown in FIG. 7c is much smoother than the curvature or lack thereof of the rim 702 shown in FIG. 7b.
Referring now to FIG. 8, a computerized modeling system 800 is shown and includes a CPU 802, a computer monitor 804, a keyboard input device 806, a mouse input device 808, and a storage device 810. The CPU 802, computer monitor 804, keyboard 806, mouse 808, and storage device 810 can include commonly available computer hardware devices. For example, the CPU 802 can include a Pentium-based processor. The mouse 808 may have conventional left and right buttons that the user may press to issue a command to a software program being executed by the CPU 802. As an alternative or in addition to the mouse 808, the computerized modeling system 800 can include a pointing device such as a trackball, touch-sensitive pad, or pointing device and buttons built into the keyboard 806. Those of ordinary skill in the art appreciate that the same results described herein with reference to a mouse device can be achieved using another available pointing device. Other appropriate computer hardware platforms are suitable as will become apparent from the discussion that follows. Such computer hardware platforms are preferably capable of operating the Microsoft® Windows® 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista®, Windows 7, UNIX®, Linux, or Mac OS® operating systems.
Additional computer processing units and hardware devices (e.g., graphic processing units (GPUs), rapid prototyping, video, and printer devices) may be included in the computerized modeling system 800. Furthermore, the computerized modeling system 800 may include network hardware and software thereby enabling wired or wireless communication to a hardware platform 812, and facilitating communication between numerous computer systems that may include a CPU and a storage system, among other computer components.
Computer-aided modeling software may be stored on the storage device 810 and loaded into and executed by the CPU 802. The modeling software allows a user to create and modify a 3D model, and implements aspects of the invention described herein. The CPU 802 uses the computer monitor 804 to display a 3D model and other aspects thereof as described. Using the keyboard 806 and the mouse 808, the user can enter and modify data associated with the 3D model. The CPU 802 accepts and processes input from the keyboard 806 and mouse 808. The CPU 802 processes the input along with the data associated with the 3D model and makes corresponding and appropriate changes to that which is displayed on the computer monitor 804 as commanded by the modeling software. In one embodiment, the modeling software is based on a solid modeling system that may be used to construct a 3D model consisting of one or more solid and surface bodies.
The invention may be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or in computer hardware, firmware, software, or in combinations thereof. Apparatus of the invention may be implemented in a computer program product tangibly embodied in a machine-readable storage device for execution by a programmable processor; and method steps of the invention may be performed by a programmable processor executing a program of instructions to perform functions of the invention by operating on input data and generating output. The invention may advantageously be implemented in one or more computer programs that are executable on a programmable system including at least one programmable processor coupled to receive data and instructions from, and to transmit data and instructions to, a data storage system, at least one input device, and at least one output device. Each computer program may be implemented in a high-level procedural or object-oriented programming language, or in assembly or machine language if desired; in any case, the language may be a compiled or interpreted language. In one embodiment, the present invention is implemented using the OpenGL and the GLSL shading language. Suitable processors include, by way of non-limiting example, both general and special purpose microprocessors. Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data from a read-only memory and/or a random access memory. Storage devices suitable for tangibly embodying computer program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory, including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, such as EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM disks. Any of the foregoing may be supplemented by, or incorporated in, custom-designed ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits).
High quality rendering in the manner described herein not only realizes time-saving advantages. For example, a 3D model may be rendered directly from the model's definition (e.g., analytical surface definition) rather than having to create a tessellation of the model as a pre-requisite to rendering. Other advantages include the alleviation of gap/crack artifacts, as well as the need to store large tessellations of models and to transmit the tessellations from one processing unit (e.g., a CPU) to another processing unit (e.g., GPU). Generally, the present invention is not limited by bandwidth due to the compact surface representations discussed herein, and therefore, is well-suited for client graphics applications as well as other applications. Furthermore, as GPU technology advances the fillrate-limited techniques described herein will have less of an impact on performance. CAD modeling using solid modeling techniques is widely used in the fields of engineering, industrial design, and entertainment, all of which could benefit from implementations of the present invention.
This invention has been particularly shown and described with references to example embodiments thereof. Nevertheless, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications in form and details may be made without departing from the scope of the invention encompassed by the appended claims. For example, implementations may change the order in which operations are performed. Furthermore, depending on the needs of an implementation, particular operations described herein may be implemented as a combined operation, eliminated, added to, or otherwise rearranged. By way of non-limiting example, one embodiment may implement the cell data structure as a different structure over the parametric domain, (e.g., as a k-dimensional tree).


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