The flattening of a non-developable surface is an important process in footwear making, garment design, airplane manufacturing and texture mapping in computer graphics. The solution to flattening a surface using a computer has been studied for several decades. There are a few branches of solutions, such as finite eIement analysis, surface geometry analysis and energy minimization. The energy minimization approach is the subject of recent focus because of its simple implementation and its ability to handle different kinds of surfaces without modifying the formulation. However, energy minimization is performed in 2D and the 3D information is lost during the process. Also, the algorithm for handling anisotropic material is not well developed. In this thesis, an algorithm for flattening usi...[ Read more ]

The flattening of a non-developable surface is an important process in footwear making, garment design, airplane manufacturing and texture mapping in computer graphics. The solution to flattening a surface using a computer has been studied for several decades. There are a few branches of solutions, such as finite eIement analysis, surface geometry analysis and energy minimization. The energy minimization approach is the subject of recent focus because of its simple implementation and its ability to handle different kinds of surfaces without modifying the formulation. However, energy minimization is performed in 2D and the 3D information is lost during the process. Also, the algorithm for handling anisotropic material is not well developed. In this thesis, an algorithm for flattening using a simple cloth model is proposed. The optimal pattern is generated by using energy minimization of the cloth model on the 3D object surface and assuming there is no deformation in the flattened pattern. Insertion of plane darts and curve darts with the cloth model are proposed to reduce the deformation of the model. Both isotropic and anisotropic material can be handled.