Inside AutoCAD® 2002

Controlling Surface Resolution

As mentioned earlier in this chapter, AutoCAD displays solid objects onscreen as boundary representations of the objects (see Figure 30.23). Solid objects are converted to surfaces only when you hide, shade, render, plot, or export the solid geometry.

Figure 30.23. Solids are represented onscreen by lines and curves denoting boundaries.

The process of converting a boundary representation into a surface representation is called tessellation. Tessellation places a series of contiguous three- and four-sided tiles on the solid’s boundaries, resulting in a surface mesh that can be shaded, rendered, and used in a hide ...