solid-bodies

Starting point for learning CAD/CAE file formats?

We are developing some stress and strain analysis software at university. Now it's time to move from rectangles and boxes and spheres to some real models. But I still have little idea where to start. In our software we are going to build mesh and then make calculations, but how do I import solid bodies from CAD/CAE software? 1) How CAD...

How to represent / Modify 3d solids

In my program I have some cubes (simple, xyz location, xyz size). I want bo be able to take one of these cubes and 'Subtract' another cube from it. So my question, what is a good generic data structure to represent the resulting 3d object, and what kind of algorithm is used to subtract a 3d solid from another? ...