Structure Preserving CAD Model Repair

There are two major approaches for converting a tessellated CAD model that contains inconsistencies like cracks or intersections into a manifold and closed triangle mesh. Surface oriented algorithms try to fix the inconsistencies by perturbing the input only slightly, but they often cannot handle special cases. Volumetric algorithms on the other hand produce guaranteed manifold meshes but mostly destroy the structure of the input tessellation due to global resampling. In this paper we combine the advantages of both approaches: We exploit the topological simplicity of a voxel grid to reconstruct a cleaned up surface in the vicinity of intersections and cracks, but keep the input tessellation in regions that are away from these inconsistencies. We are thus able to preserve any characteristic structure (i.e. iso-parameter or curvature lines) that might be present in the input tessellation. Our algorithm closes gaps up to a user-defined maximum diameter, resolves intersections, handles incompatible patch orientations and produces a feature-sensitive, manifold output that stays within a prescribed error-tolerance to the input model.