The HybridTree: Mixing skeletal implicit surfaces, triangle meshes, and point sets in a free-form modeling system

In this paper, we present a hybrid modeling framework for creating complex 3D objects incrementally. Our system relies on an extended CSG tree that assembles skeletal implicit primitives, triangle meshes and point set models in a coherent fashion: we call this structure the HybridTree. Editing operations are performed by exploiting the complementary abilities of implicit and polygonal mesh surface representations in a complete transparent way for the user. Implicit surfaces are powerful for combining shapes with Boolean and blending operations, while triangle meshes are well-suited for local deformations such as FFD and fast visualization. Our system can handle point sampled geometry through a mesh surface reconstruction algorithm. The HybridTree may be evaluated through four kinds of queries, depending on the implicit or explicit formulation is required: field function and gradient at a given point in space, point membership classification, and polygonization. Every kind of query is achieved automatically in a specific and optimized fashion for every node of the HybridTree.