Weighted area/angle distortion minimization for Mesh Parameterization

Purpose Mesh Parameterization is central to reverse engineering, tool path planning, etc. This work synthesizes parameterizations with un-constrained borders, overall minimum angle plus area distortion. This study aims to present an assessment of the sensitivity of the minimized distortion with respect to weighed area and angle distortions. Design/methodology/approach A Mesh Parameterization which does not constrain borders is implemented by performing: isometry maps for each triangle to the plane Z = 0; an affine transform within the plane Z = 0 to glue the triangles back together; and a Levenberg–Marquardt minimization algorithm of a nonlinear F penalty function that modifies the parameters of the first two transformations to discourage triangle flips, angle or area distortions. F is a convex weighed combination of area distortion (weight: α with 0 ≤ α ≤ 1) and angle distortion (weight: 1 − α ). Findings The present study parameterization algorithm has linear complexity [𝒪(n), n = number of mesh vertices]. The sensitivity analysis permits a fine-tuning of the weight parameter which achieves overall bijective parameterizations in the studied cases. No theoretical guarantee is given in this manuscript for the bijectivity. This algorithm has equal or superior performance compared with the ABF, LSCM and ARAP algorithms for the Ball, Cow and Gargoyle data sets. Additional correct results of this algorithm alone are presented for the Foot, Fandisk and Sliced-Glove data sets. Originality/value The devised free boundary nonlinear Mesh Parameterization method does not require a valid initial parameterization and produces locally bijective parameterizations in all of our tests. A formal sensitivity analysis shows that the resulting parameterization is more stable, i.e. the UV mapping changes very little when the algorithm tries to preserve angles than when it tries to preserve areas. The algorithm presented in this study belongs to the class that parameterizes meshes with holes. This study presents the results of a complexity analysis comparing the present study algorithm with 12 competing ones.