Goal: To generate a VRML - ACIS basic conversion utility.

  What is VRML?

The Virtual Reality Modeling Language is a 3D representation standard. It allows all kinds of 3D models to be represented in the web.

  What is ACIS ?

ACIS is an object-oriented geometric modeling toolkit designed for use as a geometry engine within 3D modeling applications.

The main difference between these two formats is that VRML is only a representation engine. What you see in the screen is just a drawing, has no physical or solid meaning. An ACIS file has all the information for a 3D solid which can be useful for engineering purposes.

The utility will be able to handle simple solids: Basic primitives and simple polyhedra. None of these will include holes nor boolean operations. The utility will be able to read the geometry, rigid body transformations, and color of the VRML object from a .WRL file and convert them to ACIS structure. Finally, it will generate a .SAT file, which will contain the ACIS data.