Merging Triangulated Meshes

This bachelor thesis deals with the problem of merging triangulated meshes. The input data is provided by RAMSIS, a system that is used for vehicle occupant simulation. It consists of humanoid models, which are divided into groups for different limbs. The algorithm to solve this problem takes two objects in the obj file format and produces a third, merged object, which consists of the outer hull of the union of both objects, but does not contain any triangles inside its hull. All triangles from one object, which intersect the other object, are subdivided. Numerous types of intersections will have to be discussed for this. Then, all subtriangles that lie on the hull of the merged object are kept, whereas the ones inside the merged object are removed. To implement this decision, the algorithm classifies vertices according to their location, which signals, where the vertex lies with respect to the object it does not belong to. Based on this classification, we can then decide which triangles to save and which to discard.

Bachelor’s Thesis. University of Kaiserslautern.