State-of-the-art overview on 3D model representations and transformations in the context of computer-aided design

Within a virtual world, either in virtual reality or in a simulation environment, the digital counterparts of real objects are described by mathematical and computational models. Depending on the purpose, the field of application, and the used toolchain a wide variety of model representations is established. As a consequence, conversion methods and transformation algorithms are becoming increasingly important. This article gives a state of the art overview on model representations and on the most important transformation techniques.