Incremental tessellation of trimmed parametric surfaces

This paper presents an incremental approach for tessellating trimmed parame tric surfaces. A database is built to keep the tessellation of a CAD model. With the topological information provided, the database is efficiently upd ated when the model is modified. This enhances the tessellation process as only a slight change of the existing tessellation is required. The tessella tion which involves the insertion and removal of trimlines is performed com pletely in the parametric space. The topological information also facilitat es the triangles classification and the merging of boundaries between surfa ces. The algorithm is particularly suitable for the generation of a valid t riangulation of a complex CAD model for many downstream applications, e.g, in rapid prototyping (RP). (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserv ed.