Extracting features from 3D unstructured meshes for interactive visualization

This paper describes techniques, based on the extraction of geometric features, for facilitating the visualization and interactive manipulation of the typically very large and dense three-dimensional unstructured grids used in aerodynamics calculations. We discuss the difficulties that scientists currently face in efficiently and effectively dis-playing these meshes and propose methods for using geometric feature lines to clearly and concisely indicate the essential structural detail of the model while eliminating much of the unnecessary visual clutter. We describe the perceptual importance of specific viewpoint-dependent and view-independent features, discuss the practical implementation of simple but effective algorithms for identify-ing these features (taking into consideration both local and global criteria), and demonstrate the performance of each proposed technique on various types of data sets. tThis research was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under NASA con