cgal/Packages/Tutorial/tutorial/Polyhedron/doc/abstract.tex

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  pdftitle={A Tutorial on CGAL Polyhedron for Subdivision Algorithms},
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\date{}
\title{{\LARGE {\sffamily\bfseries A Tutorial on CGAL Polyhedron \\
for Subdivision Algorithms}}}

% pierre: other suggestions for the title?
%  Mesh Processing with CGAL Polyhedron
%  Algorithms on Meshes with CGAL Polyhedron
%  Getting started with CGAL Polyhedron
% ?

\author{\small
\sffamily Le-Jeng Shiue\footnote{SurfLab, University of Florida}
\and \small
\sffamily Pierre Alliez\footnote{GEOMETRICA, INRIA Sophia-Antipolis}
\and \small
\sffamily Radu Ursu\footnote{GEOMETRICA, INRIA Sophia-Antipolis}
\and \small
\sffamily Lutz Kettner\footnote{MPII, Saarbr\"ucken}}
\maketitle

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% ABSTRACT
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\abstract{
We will present a tutorial on the CGAL polyhedron data structure
assuming familiarity with the C++ template mechanism and the key
concepts of the generic programming. The tutorial is organized around
a mesh subdivision application.  It starts with a polyhedron viewer for a
customized polyhedron.  The polyhedron viewer demonstrates the basic
functionalities of the \cgalpoly\ and some extend functionalities such
as file I/O, mesh superimposition, and trackball manipulation.  The
tutorial also shows how to implement subdivision algorithms in three
different approaches. These approaches are proposed with increasing
level of sophistication and abstraction. The simplest approach uses
the atomic operators of the combinatorial modifications to implement
$\sqrt{3}$ subdivision scheme.  A second approach overloads the
modifier, with the help of the incremental builder, to implement
quad-triangle subdivision. The third approach abstracts the geometry
operations from the refinements.  This approach specializes a
subdivision with template geometry rules. Catmull-Clark, Loop and
Doo-Sabin subdivisions are illustrated based on the third approach.  }

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\begin{center} 
  \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{figs/teaser}\\
{\scriptsize Demo application running on Windows. A polygon mesh is 
   subdivided using the quad-triangle subdivision scheme.}
\end{center}

\subsection*{Generic Mesh Data Structure}

Polyhedron data structures based on the concept of halfedges have been
very successful for the design of general algorithms on meshes.
Although making a preliminary version of a halfedge-based mesh data
structure is as a fairly simple task and is often proposed as a
programming exercise, the time has come where we should not write our
own mesh data structure from scratch anymore. With the emerging of the
generic programming in C++, a set of reusable library components for
graphics modeling and geometry processing are demanded by researchers
and developers. \italic{Extensible algorithm} models based on a
\italic{robust, efficient and customizable polyhedron data structure}
will certainly speed up the research as well as the development cycle,
and benefit the community of the graphics modeling and geometry
processing.

Most of mesh algorithms employ a customized halfedge data structures
and most of the customizations are specialized by customizing the
primitive data, which are the vertex positions, the facet normals or
other algorithmic flags. \cgalpoly\ encapsulates a generic design of
the halfedge data structure allowing users customize the \poly\ with
the template parameters of the geometry primitives. There are several
advantages that employing the \poly\ as the core data structure of a
mesh processing application: \\

\indent $\bullet$ The \poly\ is a \italic{generic} data structure.\\
\indent $\bullet$ The \poly\ is a \italic{robust} and \italic{optimized} 
data structure.\\
\indent $\bullet$ A complete set of the geometry entities and predications 
is provided within CGAL.\\
\indent $\bullet$ CGAL is standardized following the C++ STL.

\subsection*{Demo Application}

We have designed and implemented an application based on the
\cgalpoly. This program provides a polyhedron viewer that supports
following functionalities:\\
\indent $\bullet$ File I/O,\\
\indent $\bullet$ polyhedron rendering,\\ 
\indent $\bullet$ and trackball manipulation.\\
In addition to these build-in functions, the viewer is accompanied
with a set of subdivision algorithms that generate smooth polyhedron
surfaces from a coarse polyhedron. \italic{The tutorial instructs the
readers through the design and the implementation of the polyhedron
viewer and the subdivisions}. The first part of the tutorial
highlights the design and implementation issues related to the \poly\
of the viewer. The second part of the tutorial explains how to
implement the connectivity and geometry operations of the subdivision
algorithms. The source codes are going to be published with the
releasing of the tutorial.

\subsection*{Tutorial Outlines}
\subsubsection*{Polyhedron Viewer}

The tutorial starts with demonstrating how to implement a simple
viewer based on the default configuration of the \cgalpoly . This
simple viewer demonstrates some basic functionalities of the
\cgalpoly\ such as \italic{modifier} and \italic{incremental builder} 
for initialization and the mesh traversal, i.e. the \italic{iterators}
and the \italic{circulators}, for rendering or mesh exporting. Based on
this simple viewer, we then show the readers how to
\italic{customize the \poly} to support certain functionalities. 
An enriched polyhedron is proposed with the primitives specialized
with algorithmic flags. This enriched polyhedron is used as the core
data structure of our application.  We then show how to interact with
a customized \poly.  The extended primitives are employed to support
the superimposition of the input mesh on the subdivided surfaces. A
trackball function of the enriched polyhedron is also demonstrated in
the tutorial.

\subsubsection*{Subdivision Algorithms}

The second part of the tutorial focuses on the design and the
implementation of the subdivision algorithms.  In addition to the
importance in surface modeling, we choose subdivision algorithms to
demonstrate both the \italic{topology operation} (refinement) and the
\italic{geometry operations} (smoothing). The topology and the geometry
operations are the two basic operations required by most geometry
algorithms. Our implementations of the subdivisions are designed to be
a separated library that accepts any generic \poly\ as the input
polyhedron (not just the enriched polyhedron we used in the polyhedron
viewer). The key to implement a subdivision algorithm is to support
the refinement, i.e.\ the connectivity modifications.  Two approaches
are first introduced to support the refinement: the \italic{atomic
operators of the combinatorial modifications} (operator scheme) and
the \italic{modifier mechanism} (modifier scheme).  The operator
scheme reconfigures the connectivity with a combination of several
combinatorial operators. The $\sqrt{3}$ subdivision is used to
demonstrate this scheme. Though simple and efficient in some
refinements, e.g.\ $\sqrt{3}$ subdivision, the correct combination of
the operators is hard to find for some refinements, e.g.\ Doo-Sabin
subdivision. The modifier scheme solves the problem by letting the
programmers create their own combinatorial operators using the
polyhedron incremental builder.  The Quad-Triangle subdivision is used
to demonstrate this scheme.

\subsubsection*{Generic Subdivisions}

Subdivisions can be represented as a combination of a refinement and a
set of smoothing rules. Based on this observation, our third approach
generalizes the subdivision by abstracting the smoothing rules from
the refinement. The refinement is designed as a \italic{host function}
that accepts a \italic{policy class} supporting the smoothing rules. A
subdivision function is then a legal combination of the refinement and
the smoothing rules.  For example, the Catmull-Clark subdivision can
be declared as:
\begin{lstlisting}
void CatmullClark_subdivision(Polyhedron& p) {    
  quadralize_polyhedron<CatmullClark_rule<Polyhedron>>(p);  
}
\end{lstlisting}

The \lstinline!quadralize_polyhedron<>! represents the refinement
(host function) and the \lstinline!CatmullClark_rule<>! supports the
geometry rules (policy).  This approach offers a convenient way to
specialize a subdivision with the \italic{template smoothing rules}.
Catmull-Clark, Loop and Doo-Sabin subdivisions are illustrated based
on this approach.

\subsection*{Intended Audience}

The intended audience of the tutorial are researchers, developers or
students in the graphics community developing algorithms around
meshes. Experience in advanced C++ design (i.e.\ generic programming
using templates) and knowledge of the halfedge data structure and
subdivisions are prerequisites.

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