Direct generation of extended STL file from unorganized point data

Abstract

An extended STL file format is presented in this paper. Differing with existing solutions, it proposes a new format to produce and store triangles. The format uses a cluster unit composed of several triangles. The main advantages of the format are that it contains both geometry and topological information and has improved storage capability. Direct generation of the extended STL from the scanned data has a great advantage in that it can reduce the time and error in modeling process. In order to obtain the format from unorganized point cloud, a new triangulation algorithm was introduced. The algorithm is based on reconstructing the relative Delaunay triangulation of the sample points on the surface. Other advantages of the extended STL format were also presented in this paper.