Search

We propose a conservative algorithm to test the geometrical validity of simplicial (triangles, tetrahedra), tensor product (quadrilaterals, hexahedra), and mixed (prisms) elements of arbitrary polynomial order as they deform over a piecewise-linear trajectory. Our algorithm uses a combination of adaptive B\'ezier refinement and bisection search to determine if, when, and where the Jacobian determinant of an element's polynomial geometric map becomes negative in the transition from one configuration to another. Unlike previous approaches, our method preserves its properties also when implemented using floating point arithmetic: This feature comes at a small additional runtime cost compared to existing inexact methods, making it a drop-in replacement for current validity tests, while providing superior robustness and generality. To prove the practical effectiveness of our algorithm, we demonstrate its use in a high-order Incremental Potential Contact (IPC) elastodynamic simulator, and we experimentally show that it prevents invalid, simulation-breaking configurations that would otherwise occur using inexact methods, without the need for manual parameter tuning.

We present a numerically robust algorithm for computing the constrained Delaunay tetrahedrization (CDT) of a piecewise-linear complex, which has a 100% success rate on the 4408 valid models in the Thingi10k dataset. We build on the underlying theory of the well-known TetGen software, but use a floating-point implementation based on indirect geometric predicates to implicitly represent Steiner points: this new approach dramatically simplifies the implementation, removing the need for ad-hoc tolerances in geometric operations. Our approach leads to a robust and parameter-free implementation, with an empirically manageable number of added Steiner points. Furthermore, our algorithm addresses a major gap in TetGen's theory which may lead to algorithmic failure on valid models, even when assuming perfect precision in the calculations. Our output tetrahedrization conforms with the input geometry without approximations. We can further round our output to floating-point coordinates for downstream applications, which almost always results in valid floating-point meshes unless the input triangulation is very close to being degenerate.

Boolean operations are among the most used paradigms to create and edit digital shapes. Despite being conceptually simple, the computation of mesh Booleans is notoriously challenging. Main issues come from numerical approximations that make the detection and processing of intersection points inconsistent and unreliable, exposing implementations based on floating point arithmetic to many kinds of degeneracy and failure. Numerical methods based on rational numbers or exact geometric predicates have the needed robustness guarantees, that are achieved at the cost of increased computation times that, as of today, has always restricted the use of robust mesh Booleans to offline applications. We introduce the first algorithm for Boolean operations with robustness guarantees that is capable of operating at interactive frame rates on meshes with up to 200K triangles. We evaluate our tool thoroughly, considering not only interactive applications but also batch processing of large collections of meshes, processing of huge meshes containing millions of elements and variadic Booleans of hundreds of shapes altogether. In all these experiments, we consistently outperform prior art by at least one order of magnitude.

We introduce a large-scale benchmark for broad- and narrow-phase continuous collision detection (CCD) over linearized trajectories with exact time of impacts and use it to evaluate the accuracy, correctness, and efficiency of 13 state-of-the-art CCD algorithms. Our analysis shows that several methods exhibit problems either in efficiency or accuracy. To overcome these limitations, we introduce an algorithm for CCD designed to be scalable on modern parallel architectures and provably correct when implemented using floating point arithmetic. We integrate our algorithm within the Incremental Potential Contact solver [Li et al . 2021] and evaluate its impact on various simulation scenarios. Our approach includes a broad-phase CCD to quickly filter out primitives having disjoint bounding boxes and a narrow-phase CCD that establishes whether the remaining primitive pairs indeed collide. Our broad-phase algorithm is efficient and scalable thanks to the experimental observation that sweeping along a coordinate axis performs surprisingly well on modern parallel architectures. For narrow-phase CCD, we re-design the recently proposed interval-based algorithm of Wang et al. [2021] to work on massively parallel hardware. To foster the adoption and development of future linear CCD algorithms, and to evaluate their correctness, scalability, and overall performance, we release the dataset with analytic ground truth, the implementation of all the algorithms tested, and our testing framework.

We introduce a new technique to create a mesh of convex polyhedra representing the interior volume of a triangulated input surface. Our approach is particularly tolerant to defects in the input, which is allowed to self-intersect, to be non-manifold, disconnected, and to contain surface holes and gaps. We guarantee that the input surface is exactly represented as the union of polygonal facets of the output volume mesh. Thanks to our algorithm, traditionally difficult solid modeling operations such as mesh booleans and Minkowski sums become surprisingly robust and easy to implement, even if the input has defects. Our technique leverages on the recent concept of indirect geometric predicate to provide an unprecedented combination of guaranteed robustness and speed, thus enabling the practical implementation of robust though flexible solid modeling systems. We have extensively tested our method on all the 10000 models of the Thingi10k dataset, and concluded that no existing method provides comparable robustness, precision and performances., Comment: Siggraph Asia 2021

Geometric predicates are a basic ingredient to implement a vast range of algorithms in computational geometry. Modern implementations employ floating point filtering techniques to combine efficiency and robustness, and state-of-the-art predicates are guaranteed to be always exact while being only slightly slower than corresponding (inexact) floating point implementations. Unfortunately, if the input to these predicates is an intermediate construction of an algorithm, its floating point representation may be affected by an approximation error, and correctness is no longer guaranteed. This paper introduces the concept of indirect geometric predicate: instead of taking the intermediate construction as an explicit input, an indirect predicate considers the primitive geometric elements which are combined to produce such a construction. This makes it possible to keep track of the floating point approximation, and thus to exploit efficient filters and expansion arithmetic to exactly resolve the predicate with minimal overhead with respect to a naive floating point implementation. As a representative example, we show how to extend standard predicates to the case of points of intersection of linear elements (i.e. lines and planes) and show that, on classical problems, this approach outperforms state-of-the-art solutions based on lazy exact intermediate representations., Comment: In Computer-Aided Design, 2020

Modern 3D printing technologies and the upcoming mass-customization paradigm call for efficient methods to produce and distribute arbitrarily-shaped 3D objects. This paper introduces an original algorithm to split a 3D model in parts that can be efficiently packed within a box, with the objective of reassembling them after delivery. The first step consists in the creation of a hierarchy of possible parts that can be tightly packed within their minimum bounding boxes. In a second step, the hierarchy is exploited to extract the (single) segmentation whose parts can be most tightly packed. The fact that shape packing is an NP-complete problem justifies the use of heuristics and approximated solutions whose efficacy and efficiency must be assessed. Extensive experimentation demonstrates that our algorithm produces satisfactory results for arbitrarily-shaped objects while being comparable to ad-hoc methods when specific shapes are considered.

We introduce a large scale benchmark for continuous collision detection (CCD) algorithms, composed of queries manually constructed to highlight challenging degenerate cases and automatically generated using existing simulators to cover common cases. We use the benchmark to evaluate the accuracy, correctness, and efficiency of state-of-the-art continuous collision detection algorithms, both with and without minimal separation. We discover that, despite the widespread use of CCD algorithms, existing algorithms are either: (1) correct but impractically slow, (2) efficient but incorrect, introducing false negatives which will lead to interpenetration, or (3) correct but over conservative, reporting a large number of false positives which might lead to inaccuracies when integrated in a simulator. By combining the seminal interval root finding algorithm introduced by Snyder in 1992 with modern predicate design techniques, we propose a simple and efficient CCD algorithm. This algorithm is competitive with state of the art methods in terms of runtime while conservatively reporting the time of impact and allowing explicit trade off between runtime efficiency and number of false positives reported.

Triangulation algorithms that conform to a set of non-intersecting input segments typically proceed in an incremental fashion, by inserting points first, and then segments. Inserting a segment amounts to: (1) deleting all the triangles it intersects; (2) filling the so generated hole with two polygons that have the wanted segment as shared edge; (3) triangulate each polygon separately. In this paper we prove that these polygons are such that all their convex vertices but two can be used to form triangles in an earcut fashion, without the need to check whether other polygon points are located within each ear. The fact that any simple polygon contains at least three convex vertices guarantees the existence of a valid ear to cut, ensuring convergence. Not only this translates to an optimal deterministic linear time triangulation algorithm, but such algorithm is also trivial to implement. We formally prove the correctness of our approach, also validating it in practical applications and comparing it with prior art.

In the industrial practice, additive manufacturing processes are often followed by post-processing operations such as subtractive machining, milling, etc. to achieve the desired surface quality and dimensional accuracy. Hence, a given part must be 3D printed with extra material to enable such finishing phase. This combined additive/subtractive technique can be optimized to reduce manufacturing costs by saving printing time and reducing material and energy usage. In this work, a numerical methodology based on parametric shape optimization is proposed for optimizing the thickness of the extra material, allowing for minimal machining operations while ensuring the finishing requirements. Moreover, the proposed approach is complemented by a novel algorithm for generating inner structures leading to reduced distortion and improved weight reduction. The computational effort induced by classical constrained optimization methods is alleviated by replacing both the objective and constraint functions by their sparse-grid surrogates. Numerical results showcase the effectiveness of the proposed approach., Comment: second version: fixed a problem with pdf conversion that would make Table 1 overlap with text. Added header with page number

Users frequently seek to fabricate objects whose outer surfaces consist of regions with different surface attributes, such as color or material. Manufacturing such objects in a single piece is often challenging or even impossible. The alternative is to partition them into single-attribute volumetric parts that can be fabricated separately and then assembled to form the target object. Facilitating this approach requires partitioning the input model into parts that conform to the surface segmentation and that can be moved apart with no collisions. We propose Surface2Volume, a partition algorithm capable of producing such assemblable parts, each of which is affiliated with a single attribute, the outer surface of whose assembly conforms to the input surface geometry and segmentation. In computing the partition we strictly enforce conformity with surface segmentation and assemblability, and optimize for ease of fabrication by minimizing part count, promoting part simplicity, and simplifying assembly sequencing. We note that computing the desired partition requires solving for three types of variables: per-part assembly trajectories, partition topology, i.e. the connectivity of the interface surfaces separating the different parts, and the geometry, or location, of these interfaces. We efficiently produce the desired partitions by addressing one type of variables at a time: first computing the assembly trajectories, then determining interface topology, and finally computing interface locations that allow parts assemblability. We algorithmically identify inputs that necessitate sequential assembly, and partition these inputs gradually by computing and disassembling a subset of assemblable parts at a time. We demonstrate our method...., Comment: Accepted at SIGGRAPH 2019. Chrystiano Ara\'ujo and Daniela Cabiddu are joint first authors

Due to the wide diffusion of 3D printing technologies, geometric algorithms for Additive Manufacturing are being invented at an impressive speed. Each single step, in particular along the Process Planning pipeline, can now count on dozens of methods that prepare the 3D model for fabrication, while analysing and optimizing geometry and machine instructions for various objectives. This report provides a classification of this huge state of the art, and elicits the relation between each single algorithm and a list of desirable objectives during Process Planning. The objectives themselves are listed and discussed, along with possible needs for tradeoffs. Additive Manufacturing technologies are broadly categorized to explicitly relate classes of devices and supported features. Finally, this report offers an analysis of the state of the art while discussing open and challenging problems from both an academic and an industrial perspective., Comment: European Union (EU); Horizon 2020; H2020-FoF-2015; RIA - Research and Innovation action; Grant agreement N. 680448

We focus on the analysis of planar shapes and solid objects having thin features and propose a new mathematical model to characterize them. Based on our model, that we call an epsilon-shape, we show how thin parts can be effectively and efficiently detected by an algorithm, and propose a novel approach to thicken these features while leaving all the other parts of the shape unchanged. When compared with state-of-the-art solutions, our proposal proves to be particularly flexible, efficient and stable, and does not require any unintuitive parameter to fine-tune the process. Furthermore, our method is able to detect thin features both in the object and in its complement, thus providing a useful tool to detect thin cavities and narrow channels. We discuss the importance of this kind of analysis in the design of robust structures and in the creation of geometry to be fabricated with modern additive manufacturing technology.

Purpose: The class of models that can be represented by STL files is larger than the class of models that can be printed using additive manufacturing technologies. Stated differently, there exist well-formed STL files that cannot be printed. In this paper such a gap is formalized and a fully automatic procedure is described to turn any such file into a printable model. Approach: Based on well-established concepts from combinatorial topology, we provide an unambiguous description of all the mathematical entities involved in the modeling-printing pipeline. Specifically, we formally define the conditions that an STL file must satisfy to be printable and, based on these, we design an as-exact-as-possible repairing algorithm. Findings: We have found that, in order to cope with all the possible triangle configurations, the algorithm must distinguish between triangles that bound solid parts and triangles that constitute zero-thickness sheets. Only the former set can be fixed without distortion. Originality: Previous methods that are guaranteed to fix all the possible configurations provide only approximate solutions with an unnecessary distortion. Conversely, our procedure is as exact as possible, meaning that no visible distortion is introduced unless it is strictly imposed by limitations of the printing device. Thanks to such an unprecedented flexibility and accuracy, this algorithm is expected to significantly simplify the modeling-printing process, in particular within the continuously emerging non-professional "maker" communities.

This paper presents an advanced search engine prototype for bibliography retrieval developed within the CHRONIOUS European IP project of the seventh Framework Program (FP7). This search engine is specifically targeted to clinicians and healthcare practitioners searching for documents related to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). To this aim, the presented tool exploits two pathology-specific ontologies that allow focused document indexing and retrieval. These ontologies have been developed on the top of the Middle Layer Ontology for Clinical Care (MLOCC), which provides a link with the Basic Formal Ontology, a foundational ontology used in the Open Biological and Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) Foundry. In addition link with the terms of the MeSH (Medical Subject Heading) thesaurus has been provided to guarantee the coverage with the general certified medical terms and multilingual capabilities., Comment: published in eChallenges e-2011 Conference Proceedings Paul Cunningham and Miriam Cunningham (Eds) IIMC International Information Management Corporation, 2011 ISBN: 978-1-905824-27-4