[vtkusers] topology-preserving decimation

[Audette, Michel]

Hello, 

I've been playing with vtkDecimatePro, and I'm finding that despite using .PreserveTopologyOn(), whether or not topology is preserved depends on other factors. I'm finding that with .SetTargetReduction(.80) I get a mesh that is fine, but with 
.SetTargetReduction(.90), I'm seing a mesh that features 2 faces with only 2 edges, for some reason (I have a conversion program that checks this). 

Can anyone comment on what other factors have to be tweaked to preserve topology at all costs? Otherwise, is there an easy way to re-integrate vtkDecimate, which can be made faithful to topology, with vtk 5.0? 

Cheers, 

Michel Audette, Ph.D. 
Innovation Center Computer Assisted Surgery (ICCAS) 
Philipp-Rosenthal-Strasse 55
Leipzig, Germany
Phone: ++49 (0) 341 / 97 - 1 20 13
Fax: ++49 (0) 341 / 97 - 1 20 09