Marching intersections: an efficient resampling algorithm for surface management

Abstract

The paper presents a simple and efficient algorithm for the removal of small topological inconsistencies and high frequency details from surface models. The method, called marching intersections (MI), adopts a volumetric approach and acts as a resampling filter. All the intersection points between the input model and the lines of a user selected 3D reference grid are located and then, beginning from these intersections, an output surface is reconstructed. MI, which presents good characteristics in terms of efficiency, compactness, and quality of the output models, can be also used: for the conversion between different representation schemes; to perform logical operations on geometric models; for the topological simplification of surfaces; and for the simplification of huge meshes, i.e. meshes too large to be allocated in main memory during the simplification process. All these aspects are discussed in the paper and timing and graphic results are presented.