3D mesh metamorphosis from spherical parameterization for conceptual design

Engineering product design is an information intensive decision-making process that consists of several phases including design specification definition, design concepts generation, detailed design and analysis, and manufacturing. Usually, generating geometry models for visualization is a big challenge for early stage conceptual design. Complexity of existing computer aided design packages constrains participation of people with various backgrounds in the design process. In addition, many design processes do not take advantage of the rich amount of legacy information available for new concepts creation. The research presented here explores the use of advanced graphical techniques to quickly and efficiently merge legacy information with new design concepts to rapidly create new conceptual product designs. 3D mesh metamorphosis framework 3DMeshMorpher was created to construct new models by navigating in a shape-space of registered design models. The framework is composed of: i) a fast spherical parameterization method to map a geometric model (genus-0) onto a unit sphere; ii) a geometric feature identification and picking technique based on 3D skeleton extraction; and iii) a LOD controllable 3D remeshing scheme with spherical mesh subdivision based on the developedspherical parameterization. This efficient software framework enables designers to create numerous geometric concepts in real time with a simple graphical user interface. The spherical parameterization method is focused on closed genus-zero meshes. It is based upon barycentric coordinates with convex boundary. Unlike most existing similar approaches which deal with each vertex in the mesh equally, the method developed in this research focuses primarily on resolving overlapping areas, which helps speed the parameterization process. The algorithm starts by normalizing the source mesh onto a unit sphere and followed by some initial relaxation via Gauss-Seidel iterations. Due to its emphasis on solving only challenging overlapping regions, this parameterization process is much faster than existing spherical mapping methods. To ensure the correspondence of features from different models, we introduce a skeleton based feature identification and picking method for features alignment. Unlike traditional methods that align single point for each feature, this method can provide alignments for complete feature areas. This could help users to create more reasonable intermediate morphing results with preserved topological features. This skeleton featuring framework could potentially be extended to automatic features alignment for geometries with similar topologies. The skeleton extracted could also be applied for other applications such as skeleton-based animations. The 3D remeshing algorithm with spherical mesh subdivision is developed to generate a common connectivity for different mesh models. This method is derived from the concept of spherical mesh subdivision. The local recursive subdivision can be set to match the desired LOD (level of details) for source spherical mesh. Such LOD is controllable and this allows various outputs with different resolutions. Such recursive subdivision then follows by a triangular correction process which ensures valid triangulations for the remeshing. And the final mesh merging and reconstruction process produces the remeshing model with desired LOD specified from user. Usually the final merged model contains all the geometric details from each model with reasonable amount of vertices, unlike other existing methods that result in big amount of vertices in the merged model. Such multi-resolution outputs with controllable LOD could also be applied in various other computer graphics applications such as computer games

Numerical and variational aspects of mesh parameterization and editing

A surface parameterization is a smooth one-to-one mapping between the surface and a parametric domain. Typically, surfaces with disk topology are mapped onto the plane and genus-zero surfaces onto the sphere. As any attempt to flatten a non-trivial surface onto the plane will inevitably induce a certain amount of distortion, the main concern of research on this topic is to minimize parametric distortion. This thesis aims at presenting a balanced blend of mathematical rigor and engineering intuition to address the challenges raised by the mesh parameterization problem. We study the numerical aspects of mesh parameterization in the light of parallel developments in both mathematics and engineering. Furthermore, we introduce the concept of quasi-harmonic maps for reducing distortion in the fixed boundary case and extend it to both the free boundary and the spherical case. Thinking of parameterization in a more general sense as the construction of one or several scalar fields on a surface, we explore the potential of this construction for mesh deformation and surface matching. We propose an \u27;on-surface parameterization\u27; for guiding the deformation process and performing surface matching. A direct harmonic interpolation in the quaternion domain is also shown to give promising results for deformation transfer.Eine Flächenparameterisierung ist eine globale bijektive Abbildung zwischen der Fläche und einem zugehörigen parametrischen Gebiet. Gewöhnlich werden Flächen mit scheibenförmiger Topologie auf eine Kreisscheibe und Flächen mit Genus Null auf eine Sphäre abgebildet. Das Hauptinteresse der Forschung an diesem Thema ist die Minimierung der parametrischen Verzerrung, die unweigerlich bei jedem Versuch, eine nicht triviale Fläche über einer Ebene zu parameterisieren, erzeugt wird. Diese Arbeit strebt zur Behandlung des Parametrisierungsproblems eine ausgeglichene Mischung zwischen mathematischer Präzision und ingenieurwissenschaftlicher Intuition an. Wir behandeln dabei die numerischen Aspekte des Parameterisierungsproblems im Hinblick auf die aktuellen parallelen Entwicklungen in der Mathematik und den Ingenieurwissenschaften. Weiterhin führen wir das Konzept der quasi-harmonischen Abbildungen ein, um die Verzerrung bei gegebenen Randbedingungen zu verringern. Anschließend verallgemeinern wir dieses Konzept auf den sphärischen Fall und auf den Fall mit freien Randbedingungen. Durch allgemeinere Betrachtung der Parameterisierung als Konstruktion eines oder mehrerer skalarer Felder auf einer Fläche ergibt sich ein neuer Ansatz zur Netzdeformation und der Erzeugung von Flächenkorrespondenzen. Wir stellen eine \u27;on-surface parameterization\u27; vor, welche den Deformationsprozess leitet und Flächenkorrespondenzen erstellt. Darüber hinaus zeigt eine direkte harmonische Interpolation in der Domäne der Quaternionen auch vielversprechende Resultate für die Übertragung von Deformationen

An anisotropic mesh parameterization scheme

We introduce a simple anisotropic modification of Floater’s shape-preserving parameterization scheme. The original scheme is formulated as a discrete energy minimization and the modification is performed by introducing an additional stretching term. Results and example applications to anisotropic regular surface meshing are presented.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45915/1/366_2004_Article_284.pd

An Anisotropic Mesh Parameterization Scheme

We introduce a simple anisotropic modification of the Floater's shape-preserving parameterization scheme. The original scheme is formulated as a discrete energy minimization and the modification is performed by introducing an additional stretching term. Results and example applications to anisotropic regular surface meshing are presented