Creating a surface from a plurality of 3D curves

• Main Authors: DUCOUT, ROMAIN, BONNER, DAVID, LEO
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 05.06.2013
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL; PHYSICS

It is provided a computer-implemented method for creating a surface from a plurality of 3D curves. The method comprises providing (S10) a plurality of 3D curves, determining (S20) crossings between pairs of the curves, defining (S30) a base graph comprising nodes representing the crossings and arcs connecting pairs of nodes representing crossings that are neighbors, determining (S40), from the graph, a mesh comprising vertices defined by a 3D position and edges connecting pairs of the vertices, and fitting (S50) the mesh with a surface. A crossing between a given pair of the curves is an indication of a zone where the given pair of the curves are particularly close to each other. By "close to each other", it is meant that the distance between the two curves of the given pair is below a predetermined threshold. By "particularly" close to each other, it is meant that the distance between the two curves at the crossing is smaller than for other zones of the curves. A crossing between two curves may be an intersection between the two curves. However, as the curves may be provided by the user, there is a high probability that the curves usually do not exactly intersect each other, although the user meant to make them intersect. Such a method makes the creation of a surface from a plurality of 3D curves easier.