Hybrid approach for repair of geometry with complex topology

Abstract

A discrete geometry can have artifacts such as holes, intersections, non-manifold edges, mesh fragment among other defects depending upon its origin. These kinds of defects sometime cause the geometry to be unsuitable for any further use in computational simulation in absence of a satisfactory geometry repair technique. There are two main approaches to geometry repair, surface based and volume based. Surface based approaches, in general, provide better quality results when they work but require that the input model already satisfies certain quality requirements to be able to guarantee a valid output. Many of these requirements cannot even be met or checked automatically. Volume based approaches, in general, can guarantee watertightness but they usually significantly change the underlying model in this process and are computationally more expensive. A hybrid approach for mesh repair, combining surface based approach and a two step volume based approach is being presented in this paper. The two steps in the volume based approach are heat diffusion solution as the first step and Poisson surface reconstruction from oriented points in 3D space as the second step. This approach presents a reliable method for the repair of those defective discrete surface geometries which otherwise could not be completely repaired using existing surface-based techniques due to geometric and topological complexities presented as holes, isles, intersections and small overlaps.