Smooth interpolation of a mesh of curves (Q803834)

This nice paper gives an overview on interpolation of a mesh of curves by a smooth regularly parametrized surface with one polynomial pice per facet. It is established that not every mesh with a well-defined tangent plane at the mesh points has such an interpolant: the curvature of mesh curves emanating from mesh points with an even number of neighbors must satisfy an additional ``vertex enclosure constraint''. The investigation of this constraint yields efficient algorithms for the local interpolation. In particular, an algorithm is presented which determines the Bernstein-Bézier coefficients of a piecewise biquartic \(C^ 1\)- surface from a cubic curve mesh. Rational patches, singular parametrizations, and the splitting of patches are interpreted as techniques to enforce the vertex enclosure constraint. Several examples illustrate the constructions and algorithms.