All-hex meshing using singularity-restricted field

Abstract

Decomposing a volume into high-quality hexahedral cells is a challenging task in geometric modeling and computational geometry. Inspired by the use of cross field in quad meshing and the CubeCover approach in hex meshing, we present a complete all-hex meshing framework based on singularity-restricted field that is essential to induce a valid all-hex structure. Given a volume represented by a tetrahedral mesh, we first compute a boundary-aligned 3D frame field inside it, then convert the frame field to be singularity-restricted by our effective topological operations. In our all-hex meshing framework, we apply the CubeCover method to achieve the volume parametrization. For reducing degenerate elements appearing in the volume parametrization, we also propose novel tetrahedral split operations to preprocess singularity-restricted frame fields. Experimental results show that our algorithm generates high-quality all-hex meshes from a variety of 3D volumes robustly and efficiently. © 2012 ACM.