Mesh Simplification

Abstract

Mesh simplification is an important stage after surface reconstruction since the models produced can contain a large number of polygons making them difficult to manipulate. In this paper we present a mesh simplification algorithm to reduce the number of vertices in a dense mesh of triangles. The algorithm is based on edge operations that are performed in the inside of independent clusters distributed over the entire mesh. The clusters are well-characterized regions that can successfully accept simplification operations. The simplification operations produce only local transformations on the mesh. This region-based, distributed approach permits to easily track and control the changes in the triangulation and avoids the appearance of particular cases that would require a special handling. The algorithm uses two user-specified parameters to guide the operations. These parameters allow various simplification strategies that are illustrated on several dense triangulations.