Surface triangulation and the downstream effects on flattening

Abstract

Many applications within computer aided engineering require the support of a triangulation to gain geometrical and structural insight into the original surface being approximated. Therefore, downstream applications such as computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine path generation, finite element analysis (FEA) and flattening are triangulation dependant processes. However, despite the importance of triangulation in these applications, very little work has been focused on the downstream effects of triangulation. This paper investigates these effects on the application of surface flattening and demonstrates how subtle, but important changes in the triangulation can have a major impact on the flattening results. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.