A new CAD mesh segmentation method, based on curvature tensor analysis

This paper presents a new and efficient algorithm for the decomposition of 3D arbitrary triangle meshes and particularly optimized triangulated CAD meshes. The algorithm is based on the curvature tensor field analysis and presents two distinct complementary steps: a region based segmentation, which is an improvement of that presented by Lavoue et al. [Lavoue G, Dupont F, Baskurt A. Constant curvature region decomposition of 3D-meshes by a mixed approach vertex-triangle, J WSCG 2004;12(2):245–52] and which decomposes the object into near constant curvature patches, and a boundary rectification based on curvature tensor directions, which corrects boundaries by suppressing their artefacts or discontinuities. Experiments conducted on various models including both CAD and natural objects, show satisfactory results. Resulting segmented patches, by virtue of their properties (homogeneous curvature, clean boundaries) are particularly adapted to computer graphics tasks like parametric or subdivision surface fitting in an adaptive compression objective. q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.