Self-adaptive surface subdivision and its application in data processing of RPM

In order to improve the smoothness of slice contours of a STL model in Rapid Prototyping Manufacturing (RPM), an algorithm of self-adaptive surface subdivision was proposed based on the Loop mode. Firstly, a mesh model was segmented into planar part and surface part, and new subdivision schemes were designed for the facets on the surface part connecting to the sharp edges. During this procedure, the flatness and tolerance flatness of a vertex were employed to determine whether this facet should be further subdivided to achieve self-adaptive subdivision. Finally, smoothness of the surface part was enhanced, while the sharp features were maintained. Thus, the smooth slice contours could be obtained from global information.