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smoothSurfaceMesh

Smooth surface mesh

Since R2023a

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Syntax

surfaceMeshOut = smoothSurfaceMesh(surfaceMeshIn,numIterations)
surfaceMeshOut = smoothSurfaceMesh(surfaceMeshIn,numIterations,Name=Value)

Description

surfaceMeshOut = smoothSurfaceMesh(surfaceMeshIn,numIterations) smooths the surface mesh surfaceMeshIn iteratively in the specified number of iterations numIterations.

example

surfaceMeshOut = smoothSurfaceMesh(surfaceMeshIn,numIterations,Name=Value) specifies options using one or more optional name-value arguments. For example, SmoothVertexColors=true smooths the vertex colors of the surface mesh.

example

Examples

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Open Live Script

Define the x-, y-, and z- coordinates of the vertices.

[x,y] = meshgrid(1:15,1:15);
z = peaks(15);
vertices = [x(:) y(:) z(:)];

Define triangular faces for the vertices using Delaunay triangulation.

faces = delaunay(x,y);

Define a surface mesh from the vertices and faces.

surfaceMeshIn = surfaceMesh(vertices,faces);

Visualize the surface mesh.

surfaceMeshShow(surfaceMeshIn,Title="Original Mesh")

Smooth Surface Mesh using Average Filter

Smooth the surface mesh using the average filter with varying number of iterations. Visualize the smooth surface meshes. Observe that the smoothing increases with number of iterations. The mesh shrinkage also increases with number of iterations.

for numIterations = [2 5 10]
    surfaceMeshOut = smoothSurfaceMesh(surfaceMeshIn,numIterations);
    surfaceMeshShow(surfaceMeshOut,Title="Average Filter (Iterations = "+numIterations+")")
end

Smooth Surface Mesh using Laplacian Filter

Smooth the surface mesh using the Laplacian filter with varying scale factor. Visualize the smooth surface meshes. Observe that the smoothing increases with the scale factor.

numIterations = 5;
for scaleFactor = [0.3 0.6 0.9]
    surfaceMeshOut = smoothSurfaceMesh(surfaceMeshIn,numIterations,Method="Laplacian",ScaleFactor=scaleFactor);
    surfaceMeshShow(surfaceMeshOut,Title="Laplacian Filter (Scale Factor = "+scaleFactor+")")
end

Smooth Surface Mesh using Taubin Filter

Smooth the surface mesh using the Taubin filter. Visualize the smooth surface meshes. Observe that the mesh does not shrink even after 5 iterations.

numIterations = 5;
scaleFactor = [-0.62 0.6];
surfaceMeshOut = smoothSurfaceMesh(surfaceMeshIn,numIterations,Method="Taubin",ScaleFactor=scaleFactor);
surfaceMeshShow(surfaceMeshOut,Title="Taubin Filter")

Input Arguments

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Surface mesh to smooth, specified as a surfaceMesh object.

Number of iterations, specified as a numeric scalar.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Example: surfaceMeshOut = smoothSurfaceMesh(surfaceMeshIn,numIterations,Method="Laplacian") smooths the input surface mesh using the Laplacian filter.

Method for smoothing, specified as "Average", "Laplacian", or "Taubin".

  • Average filter — Repeatedly replaces each vertex in the input surface mesh with the mean average of its neighbors, including itself. The average filter is suitable for surface meshes without any sharp features.

  • Laplacian filter — Repeatedly moves each adjustable vertex to the weighted average of the vertices adjacent to it. The weights assigned to neighboring vertices depend on their connectivity with the adjusted vertex. The Laplacian filter is suitable for surface meshes that have various densities of vertices in different regions.

  • Taubin filter — Repeatedly uses two Laplacian filters with scaling factors that have different magnitudes and signs. Unlike the average and Laplacian filters, the Taubin filter prevents mesh shrinkage.

Smoothing surface meshes over multiple iterations can result in shrinkage of the original surface mesh. Thus, the average and Laplacian filters give better results across a small number of iterations. Increasing the number of iterations can result in surface mesh shrinkage for these methods. The Taubin filter prevents surface mesh shrinkage, but it requires more iterations than the average and Laplacian filters to perform a similar level of smoothing.

Data Types: char | string

Scale factor for the Laplacian and Taubin filters, specified as a numeric scalar or two-element numeric vector. A large scale factor results in more smoothing of the surface mesh. Specify the scale factor based on the value of the Method name-value argument.

  • "Laplacian" — Specify the scale factor as a scalar in the range (0, 1). The default value for the scale factor for the Laplacian filter is 0.5.

  • "Taubin" — Specify the scale factor as a two-element vector, such that the two scale factors in the vector satisfy these requirements.

    • The absolute values of the scale factors are in the range (0, 1).

    • One scale factor is positive and the other is negative.

    • The absolute value of the positive scale factor is smaller than the absolute value of the negative scale factor.

    To prevent surface mesh shrinkage, the difference between the absolute values of the positive and negative scale factors must be small. The default value for the scale factor for the Taubin filter is [0.5 -0.53].

Data Types: single | double

Smooth vertex colors, specified as a logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). Specify SmoothVertexColors as true to smooth the vertex colors of the surface mesh.

Data Types: logical

Output Arguments

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Smooth surface mesh, returned as a surfaceMesh object with the same number of vertices and faces as surfaceMeshIn.

Version History

Introduced in R2023a

See Also

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