[comp.graphics.visualization] >Creating 3D mesh

pdbourke@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Bourke) (02/20/91)

In article <1991Feb14.190639.26922@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU> johng@OCE.ORST.EDU (John A.
 Gregor) writes:
>We have a relatively large (several thousand) set of ocean samples in
>3-D that we want to visualize.  Unfortunately, all the tools we have
>demand that the data be represented as gridded data or as a connected
>mesh (either tetrahedrons xor hexahedrons).  Any pointers to routines
>or literature to accomplish this would be greatly appreciated.

I have a utility package called triangulate that does what you require. It 
runs on a Mac II, it takes as input a text file of randomly distributed 
samples and generates either a Delauney traingular mesh or a gridded 
approximation to any grid density. For output it generates a 3D DXF file 
using the 3DFACE DXF primitive, suitable for opening and viewing by 
most 3D modelling/CAD packages. (It also generates other 3D formats 
appropriate to the Macintosh.) If this sounds promising I am happy to let 
you have the program and/or the source code written in C.

We use it primarily for terrain modelling. One of the problems with 
many techniques for this sort of work is that many algorithms do not 
handle large numbers of samples. We have used our program for over 
20,000 sample points.

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