Adaptive Grid Generation for Discretizing Implicit Complexes

Washington University in Saint Louis
Adobe Research
ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proc. SIGGRAPH 2024)
Simplicial Grids Illustration

Our method generates simplicial grids (top) that enable adaptive discretization of a variety of implicit shapes defined by vector functions (bottom), such as arrangements of multiple implicit surfaces (a), CSG shapes (b), non-manifold material interfaces (e), and curve networks (d). The grids are adapted to the geometric complexity of not only the surface components but also their intersections (shown as wires on top).

Abstract

We present a method for generating a simplicial (e.g., triangular or tetrahedral) grid to enable adaptive discretization of implicit shapes defined by a vector function. Such shapes, which we call implicit complexes, are generalizations of implicit surfaces and useful for representing non-smooth and non-manifold structures. While adaptive grid generation has been extensively studied for polygonizing implicit surfaces, few methods are designed for implicit complexes. Our method can generate adaptive grids for several implicit complexes, including arrangements of implicit surfaces, CSG shapes, material interfaces, and curve networks. Importantly, our method adapts the grid to the geometry of not only the implicit surfaces but also their lower-dimensional intersections. We demonstrate how our method enables efficient and detail-preserving discretization of non-trivial implicit shapes.

Paper:

BibTeX

@article{Ju2024Gridgen,
          title={Adaptive grid generation for discretizing implicit complexes},
          author={Ju, Yiwen and Du, Xingyi and Zhou, Qingnan and Carr, Nathan and Ju, Tao},
          journal={ACM Transactions on Graphics},
          volume={43},
          number={4},
          pages={Article 82},
          year={2024},
          month={July},
          publisher={ACM},
          doi={10.1145/3658215}
        }