A simplified interpolation and conversion method of contour surface model to mesh surface model

Abstract

AbstractContour line type representation is useful for understanding the surface structure qualitatively to a human. However, for the computer handling, a contour line model may not be suitable and it is required to be converted to the other type model such as a mesh surface model. It may be a problem how to decide mesh data on a mesh line where there are fewer points intersecting with contour lines. In this article, the authors propose a new method to convert a contour line model to a mesh surface model with minimum errors. Mesh lines (equivalent to the planes intersected with contour surface) located on the contour surface and intersected with contour lines are calculated. A mesh line which has maximum number of effective sampling points (that means maximum number of intersections with contour lines, and hereafter referred to as latter) is selected and a sectional shape along this mesh line is decided. The sectional shape is represented by spline curve with parameters, so that the mesh point data on the mesh line can be determined easily, and these decided mesh points are regarded as equivalent as intersection with contour lines. The above processes are repeated until all mesh lines which have intersection points or obtained mesh data have been chosen and calculated. Thus we can convert a contour model to a mesh surface model with minimum loss of contour line informations.