Glossary for Geospatial Science

solid modeling:  The process of rendering a 3D surface from vector type data.  This process is widely used in CAD software packages to prepare a realistic color presentation of a component part, a building, or other solid object from complex vector-oriented engineering drawings.  In GIS vector-oriented software, contours of the surface of the land stored as vectors might be used to render a solid model of the land’s surface.