Subdivided linear and curved meshes preserving features of a linear mesh model

Abstract

To provide straight-edged and curved piece-wise polynomial meshes that target a unique smooth geometry while preserving the sharp features and smooth regions of the model, we propose a new fast curving method based on hierarchical subdivision and blending. There is no need for underlying target geometry, it is only needed a straight-edged mesh with boundary entities marked to characterize the geometry features, and a list of features to recast. The method features a unique sharp-to-smooth modeling capability not fully available in standard CAD packages. The goal is to obtain a volume mesh that under successive refinement leads to smooth regions bounded by the corresponding sharp features. The examples show that it is possible to refine and obtain smooth curves and surfaces while preserving sharp features determined by vertices and polylines. We conclude that the method is well-suited to curve large quadratic and quartic meshes in low-memory configurations.