Mesh Simplification

Mesh simplification is an important stage after surface reconstruction since the models produced can contain a large number of polygons making them difficult to manipulate. In this paper we present a mesh simplification algorithm to reduce the number of vertices in a dense mesh of triangles. The algorithm is based on edge operations that are performed in the inside of independent clusters distributed over the entire mesh. The clusters are well‐characterized regions that can successfully accept simplification operations. The simplification operations produce only local transformations on the mesh. This region‐based, distributed approach permits to easily track and control the changes in the triangulation and avoids the appearance of particular cases that would require a special handling. The algorithm uses two user‐specified parameters to guide the operations. These parameters allow various simplification strategies that are illustrated on several dense triangulations.