Automated conversion of curvilinear wire-frame models to surface boundary models; a topological approach

Abstract

An algorithm is presented for automatically converting data representing unambiguous, three-dimensional objects in wire-frame form with curvilinear edges into a boundary representation. The method is an important extension to a previously published algorithm based on graph theory and topology. The new method automatically detects and resolves anomalies, such as necks which may appear to be faces, that formerly required human intervention. The topological basis for the solution to this problem is given along with a description of what topological properties a well defined three-dimensional object should have. An implementation has been coded and examples of results are included.