All-Hex Mesh Generation via Volumetric PolyCube Deformation

• Published in: Computer graphics forum Vol. 30; no. 5; pp. 1407 - 1416
• Main Authors: Gregson, James, Sheffer, Alla, Zhang, Eugene
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.08.2011; Wiley
• Series: Special Issue of Symposium on Geometry Processing 2011
• Subjects: Computer graphics; Computer Science; Construction; Deformation; Distortion; Finite element method; Graphics; Mapping; Mathematical analysis; Studies; Unions
• ISSN: 0167-7055; 1467-8659
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8659.2011.02015.x

While hexahedral mesh elements are preferred by a variety of simulation techniques, constructing quality all‐hex meshes of general shapes remains a challenge. An attractive hex‐meshing approach, often referred to as sub‐mapping, uses a low distortion mapping between the input model and a PolyCube (a solid formed from a union of cubes), to transfer a regular hex grid from the PolyCube to the input model. Unfortunately, the construction of suitable PolyCubes and corresponding volumetric maps for arbitrary shapes remains an open problem. Our work introduces a new method for computing low‐distortion volumetric PolyCube deformations of general shapes and for subsequent all‐hex remeshing. For a given input model, our method simultaneously generates an appropriate PolyCube structure and mapping between the input model and the PolyCube. From these we automatically generate good quality all‐hex meshes of complex natural and man‐made shapes.