Question: what is a good general-purpose CAD representation format?

If you have high-resolution constraints and very particular surfaces with particular curves, then it seems wrong to represent them as a collection of fine-grained triangles especially if the triangles don't actually correspond to the desired curvature.

There is a difference between representation format and rendering format. See faq.

Representation formats

• implicitcad f-reps ? these might be two separate techniques.
• tessellated polyhedral triangle meshes
• smoothed quads subdivision surface (catmull-clark etc)
• NURBS
• b-splines
• bezier curves
• CSG boolean representation (unevaluated)

Edge cases

• high-resolution, smooth surface with particular exact shape that must be transmitted to the CAM/CNC tool with certain specifications
• intersection of high-resolution curves between two surfaces