Consistent solid and boundary representations from arbitrary polygonal data

Abstract

Consistent repreaentations of the boundary and interior of thredimensional solid objects are required by applications ramging from interactive visualization to finite element analysis. However, most commonly available models of solid objects contain errors and inconsistencies. We describe an algorithm that automatically constructs consistent representations of the solid objects modeled by an arbitrary set of polygons. The key feature of our algorithm is that it first partitions space into a set of polyhedral regions and then determines which regions are solid based on region adjacency relationships. Fromthe solid polyhedral regions, we are able to output umsistent boundary and solid representations in a variety of iile formats. Unlike previous approaches, our solid-based approach is effective even when the input polygons intersect, overlap, are wrongly-oriented, have T-junctions, or are unconnected.