Algorithm for generating a triangular mesh from a cloud of points

Question

In some simulation program we generate object surfaces in terms of points, each point has 3D coordinates and the vector that represents the normal to the surface at that poi

Answer 1

Note that Delaunay triangulations may not suit your application in that Delaunay triangulations are not suited to true 3D problems (i.e. where points are well-distributed in R3). They are more appropriate for 2D manifold problems (i.e. terrain, etc).

To generate surfaces in R3, look at the work of Hugues Hoppe and his "surface reconstruction" work.

Surface reconstruction is used to find a meshed surface to fit the point cloud; however, this method yields high triangle counts. If this is a problem, you can then apply mesh a reduction technique to reduce the polygon count in a way to minimize error. As an example, you can look at OpenMesh's decimation methods.

Hugues Hoppe

OpenMesh