Feature-Based Mesh Editing

Editing and deformation of irregular meshes have become standard tools in geometric modeling. Most approaches try to preserve low-level differential properties of the surface during editing, whereas the global structure and shape of the features are not explicitly taken into account. In this paper, we introduce a feature-driven editing approach that puts global structural properties of the shape into the center of attention. We start by segmenting the mesh by ridges and valleys and use the so-defined curves and surface regions as intuitive handles for all subsequent editing operations. Our framework supports manipulations the positions and curvature values of the handles and the various mesh regions. In order to preserve the existing features, prevent unwanted appearance of new features, and maintain or manipulate global aspects of the shape, we apply curvature optimization in the affected areas. We show that the combination of feature extraction and curvature optimization leads to an intuitive modeling tool for high-quality surface manipulation.