Computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/ CAM) involves the design, prototyping, manufacture, and inspection of complex geometric objects under computer control. Computational geometry (CG) is concerned with the design of efficient techniques for the computer representation and manipulation of geometric objects such as polygons, polyhedra, curves, and surfaces. These techniques have the potential to bring about significant design and performance improvements in CAD/CAM and, conversely, CAD/CAM provides a rich stream of interesting geometric problems that could stimulate further research in CG. The purpose of this special issue is to further foster this nascent interaction between CG and CAD/CAM.
The eight papers chosen for inclusion in this special issue exemplify this synergy:
The first paper, "A data front-end for layered manufacturing", by G. Barequet and Y. Kaplan, describes the application of efficient techniques from CG to process planning in the emerging area of layered manufacturing.
The second paper, "Filling polyhedral molds", by P. Bose, M. van Kreveld, and G. Toussaint, presents efficient geometric algorithms for mold orientation in the gravity casting process.
The third paper, "Slicing Minkowski sums for satellite antenna layout" by J.-D. Boissonnat, E. de Lange, and M. Teillaud, uses geometric techniques based on Minkowski operations to address the design problems encountered in the layout of a satellite antenna.
The fourth paper, "Computing constrained minimumwidth annuli of point sets", by M. de Berg, P. Bose, D. Bremner, S. Ramaswami, and G. Wilfong, investigates problems motivated by metrology and presents efficient geometric methods for assessing