CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Tokyo 2026
George Allen · nTop
By now, implicit modeling technology and its benefits are well understood. In situations where a part is highly complex or its design process is highly iterative, implicit modeling using signed distance fields is uniquely able to deliver the reliability, performance, and scalability that are required for success. However, the novelty of implicit modeling is also a source of problems. Current engineering/manufacturing processes are often heavily dependent on legacy software tools that cannot consume implicit models — they require meshes or boundary representations, instead. So how do we address this problem? There are a few options — we can either convert implicit models to the forms needed by legacy tools, replace the legacy tools with new ones that consume implicit models directly, or change the data flow in the overall process. The talk examines these issues, reports progress and the current status, and suggests some ways forward.
Links
Talk page with full transcript
