Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 192 (2006) 148 151

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Generation of computational surface meshes of STL models

D. Rypl , Z. Bittnar
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department of Structural Mechanics, Czech Technical University, Thkurova 7, 166 29 Prague, Czech Republic Received 15 September 2004; received in revised form 24 January 2005

Abstract The stereolithography (STL) le format, developed for rapid prototyping industry, became an attractive alternative for surface representation in solid modeling. In this paper, an algorithm for the surface discretization of 3D models in STL format is presented. Initially, a boundary representation is reconstructed from the STL le format using feature recognition. Then a smooth surface is recovered over the original STL grid by adopting the interpolating subdivision procedure. And nally, the recovered surface is subjected to the triangulation accomplished using the advancing front technique operating directly on the surface. 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: 3D surface mesh; STL format; Interpolating subdivision; Advancing front technique

1. Introduction During the last decades, the nite element method (FEM) has become the most powerful tool for structural analysis. Automatic generation of consistent, reproducible, high-quality meshes without user intervention makes the power of the nite element analysis accessible to those who are not experts in the mesh generation area. Therefore, tools for an automated and efcient mesh generation, including the discretization of 3D surfaces, are important prerequisites for the complete integration of the FEM with design processes in CAD, CAE, and CAM systems. An important class of 3D surfaces is the group of surfaces described by the stereolithography (STL) le format. This format approximates 3D surfaces of a solid model with oriented triangles (facets) of
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E-mail addresses: drypl@fsv.cvut.cz (D. Rypl), bittnar@fsv.cvut.cz (Z. Bittnar). 0377-0427/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.cam.2005.04.054

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different size and shape (aspect ratio) in order to achieve smooth enough representation suitable for industrial processing of 3D parts using stereolithography machines. However, such a representation is not suitable for the computational analysis using the FEM because of inappropriate size and large aspect ratio of elements. The aim of this paper is to adapt a recently developed algorithm for the triangulation of discrete 3D surfaces [2] for the surface discretization of models, the geometry of which is described by discrete data in the STL format.

2. Extraction of boundary representation Initially, a boundary representation of the entire model is constructed from the STL le using feature recognition based on appropriate topological and geometrical criteria. In the current implementation, a similar approach to that described in [1] has been adopted, but without any attempt to detect the volumes. In this way, distinct model entities (vertices, curves, and surfaces) of topological nature or with important geometrical aspects are established. Although the STL mesh is a fully conforming grid the construction of boundary representation is not trivial. This is due to the fact that the identication of original geometry from the STL le is generally not unique. In other words, there may exist several geometries that are represented by the same STL le generated for the same tolerance. This makes the full automation of the extraction of the boundary representation without user intervention generally impossible.

3. Reconstruction of smooth surface In the next phase, smooth (so-called limit) surfaces are recovered over the original STL grid. This is accomplished using the interpolating subdivision based on the hierarchical recursive renement of triangular simplices forming the STL mesh. In the present study, the recursive subdivision based on the modied Buttery scheme [3] has been employed. This is the interpolating non-uniform stationary scheme which yields C 1 surfaces even in the topologically irregular setting. With respect to the application to STL meshes, the modied Buttery scheme was subjected to slight amendments (without any impact on the continuity of the limit surface) in order to better recover the shape of the underlying geometry in specic situations where the behaviour of the original scheme seems to be not satisfactory. This is often the case of STL meshes containing elements of large aspect ratio spanning the whole extent of the surface in the direction corresponding to small or zero curvature. Note that prior to the actual subdivision process, the original STL grid is enhanced (in terms of both geometry and topology) to prevent some undesirable effects during the recovery process applied to surfaces with curvature in one direction only.

4. Mesh generation In the last phase, the reconstructed limit surfaces are subjected to the triangulation performed by the advancing front technique operating directly on the limit surface. This avoids difculties with the construction of a smooth parameterization of the whole surface. The actual discretization is carried out in a hierarchical manner. Firstly, the model vertices are discretized. Then the (limit) curves are segmented using

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D. Rypl, Z. Bittnar / Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 192 (2006) 148 151

Fig. 1. STL model (left) and graded mesh (right) of a mechanical part.

the mass curve of the required element density along that curve. And nally, the individual (limit) surfaces are triangulated. The generated mesh is then subjected to an optimization in order to improve the quality of the nal mesh. The Laplacian smoothing technique in combination with topological transformations is adopted. A crucial aspect of the proposed mesh generation strategy is related to the point-to-surface projection. Simple and efcient algorithms available for the projection to parametric surfaces cannot be adopted simply because of the missing parameterization of the limit surface. In [2], an efcient and reliable approach for the projection of a point to the limit surface has been proposed. This approach is based on the localized progressive renement of the control grid toward the actual projection. Alternatively, during some phases of the mesh generation, an approximate, but computationally more efcient projection technique can be employed. This is based on approximating facets of the control grid by quadratic Bezier triangular patches and on the employment of a standard projection technique applicable to parametric surfaces.

5. Examples The proposed methodology for the discretization of surfaces described by STL meshes is demonstrated on the example of a mechanical part. The original STL mesh is depicted in Fig. 1 on the left, clearly revealing the highly stretched facets used to described individual parts of the model. The resulting triangulation with curvature-based element size control is presented in Fig. 1 on the right.

6. Conclusions In the presented paper, an approach for the direct triangulation of 3D surfaces described by STL meshes has been introduced. Firstly, a boundary representation of the object is constructed from the STL le using feature recognition approach. In the next phase, smooth surfaces are reconstructed over the original STL mesh using a subdivision technique based on the modied Buttery scheme yielding the differentiable

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C 1 limit surface. Finally, the limit surfaces are subjected to a triangulation based on the advancing front technique constrained directly to the recovered surface. Acknowledgements This work has been partially supported by the Ministry of Education of Czech Republic project No. MSM 210000003. References
[1] P. Krysl, M. Ortiz, Extraction of boundary representation from surface triangulations, Int. J. Num. Methods Eng. 50 (2001) 17371758. [2] D. Rypl, Z. Bittnar, Triangulation of 3D surfaces reconstructed by interpolating subdivision, Comput. Struct. 82 (2004) 20932103. [3] D. Zorin, P. Schrder, W. Sweldens, Interpolating subdivision for meshes with arbitrary topology, in: Computer Graphics Proceedings (SIGGRAPH 96), 1996, pp. 189192.