CONSTRUCTING FACE OCTREES FROM VOXEL-BASED VOLUME REPRESENTATIONS

Boolean operations between solids can be performed efficiently by oper ating their respective octree encodings. Face octrees belong to the gr oup of octree-based representation models. They are approximate repres entations that are a good compromise between the need to save storage and the simplicity of the algorithms involved. They are also a good ch oice for the representation of smooth freeform surfaces. The construct ion of face octrees from voxel-based volume representations yields a m ore compact, smoother and further operable encoding. A method of perfo rming such a conversion is presented. The method consists of two steps . First, a network of points that represents the volume data is extrac ted. The extraction is based on the geometrically deformed models tech nique. Then, the network of points is transformed into a face octree. In the transformation process, face octree nodes are compacted as much as possible while the volume data precision is preserved.