Edge Collapse Simplification Based on Subdivision

Edge collapse simplification is one of the most important triangular mesh simplification algorithms. It is a basic one in multiresolution adaptive parameterization of surfaces, geometric compression based on normal detail, progressive transmission of meshes and so on. Traditional edge collapse simplification algorithms generate new vertex by choosing one of the two endpoints or the middle point of an edge that will be collapsed. The position of the new vertex is not accurate enough by these approaches. Our method computes new vertex by the butterfly subdivision scheme to reduce the approximation error between the simplified model and the original one and preserve the manifold topology of model that is unable to be maintained by other approaches. Finally, we give a new sampling method for error computation and analysis of Metro distance.