FasTFit: A fast T-spline fitting algorithm

T-spline has been recently developed to represent objects of arbitrary shapes using a smaller number of control points than the conventional NURBS or B-spline representations in computer aided design, computer graphics, and reverse engineering. However, existing methods for fitting a T-spline over a point cloud are slow. By shifting away from the conventional iterative fitand-refine paradigm, we present a novel split-connect-fit algorithm to more efficiently perform the T-spline fitting. Through adaptively dividing a point cloud into a set of B-spline patches, we first discover a proper topology of T-spline control points, i.e., the T-mesh. We then connect these B-spline patches into a single T-spline surface with different continuity options between neighboring patches according to the data. The T-spline control points are initialized from their correspondences in the B-spline patches, which are refined by using a conjugate gradient method. In experiments using several types of large-sized point clouds, we demonstrate that our algorithm is at least an order of magnitude faster than state-of-the-art algorithms while provides comparable or better results in terms of quality and conciseness. Computer-Aided Design This work may not be copied or reproduced in whole or in part for any commercial purpose. Permission to copy in whole or in part without payment of fee is granted for nonprofit educational and research purposes provided that all such whole or partial copies include the following: a notice that such copying is by permission of Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.; an acknowledgment of the authors and individual contributions to the work; and all applicable portions of the copyright notice. Copying, reproduction, or republishing for any other purpose shall require a license with payment of fee to Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright c © Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc., 2017 201 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 FasTFit: A Fast T-spline Fitting Algorithm Chen Feng∗, Yuichi Taguchi Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) 201 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. Abstract T-spline has been recently developed to represent objects of arbitrary shapes using a smaller number of control points than the conventional NURBS or B-spline representations in computer aided design, computer graphics, and reverse engineering. However, existing methods for fitting a T-spline over a point cloud are slow. By shifting away from the conventional iterative fitand-refine paradigm, we present a novel split-connect-fit algorithm to more efficiently perform the T-spline fitting. Through adaptively dividing a point cloud into a set of B-spline patches, we first discover a proper topology of T-spline control points, i.e., the T-mesh. We then connect these B-spline patches into a single T-spline surface with different continuity options between neighboring patches according to the data. The T-spline control points are initialized from their correspondences in the B-spline patches, which are refined by using a conjugate gradient method. In experiments using several types of large-sized point clouds, we demonstrate that our algorithm is at least an order of magnitude faster than state-of-the-art algorithms while provides comparable or better results in terms of quality and conciseness.