Manipulation and display of geometric objects are the two most common operations in graphics and geometric modeling. These operations become cumbersome and time-consuming when the number of faces used to model the objects increases, as is common in many applications. Much work had been done to introduce simplification algorithms, that reduce the number of faces used in modeling while maintaining as much as possible the original geometry. In this work a new method for surface reconstruction is introduced, which simplifies the original object mesh and then builds a G^1 surface on top of it.

The algorithm consists of several stages. First, the algorithm constructs an initial subdivision of the surface into simple regions with restricted curvature deviation using a topology based method with a bounded error. Then, a boundary-conforming finite element quadrilateral mesh of each region is constructed. Finally, a G^1 surface is constructed over the simplified mesh using a plate energy method.

Surface reconstruction process using simplification of the original object mesh and then building a G^1 surface on
top of it.