Surface offsetting using distance volumes

Abstract

Proposed in this paper is a new approach for offset surface construction using three-dimensional (3D) distance volumes. After converting an original compound surface into a triangular mesh, the approach creates a distance volume of the triangular mesh. With this distance volume and a given offset value, it extracts the offset points in each slice to create a sequence of two dimensional (2D) cross-sections. The approach then performs offset surface construction using the serial cross-sections. For more accurate and efficient computation of the distance volume, the concept of space division is combined with the concept one of distance propagation to the whole space of interest. The resulting offset surface is a G(1) composite surface consisting of three kinds of surfaces: skinned, capped, andor branched surfaces. The proposed approach provides offset surfaces that are accurate and free of degeneracy. Some experimental results demonstrate its usefulness and quality.