Atom simplification and quality T-mesh generation for multi-resolution biomolecular surfaces

Abstract

In this paper, we present an algorithm to simplify low-contributing atoms and generate quality T-meshes for multi-resolution biomolecular surfaces. The structure of biomolecules is first simplified using an error-bounded atom elimination method. An extended cross field-based parameterization method is then developed to adapt the parametric line spacings to different surface resolutions. Moreover, an anisotropy defined from an input scalar field can also be achieved. From the parameterization results, we extract adaptive and anisotropic T-meshes for the further T-spline surface construction. Finally, a gradient flow-based method is developed to improve the T-mesh quality, with the anisotropy preserved in the quadrilateral elements. The effectiveness of the presented algorithm has been verified using several large biomolecular complexes.