C++ library for mesh to mesh intersection: what is available?
c++, collision-detection, intersection, mesh
Solution
libigl as of version 1.1 has robust mesh boolean operations in `igl/boolean/mesh_boolean.h`. This uses either an implementation using CGAL's exact arithmetic kernel or a wrapper of cork (another option for you).
For now, libigl also contains a patched version of cork in `libigl/external/cork`, which greatly improves robustness.
While implementing libigl's boolean ops, I found that cork is faster but does not always produce the correct result (specifically, it fails to resolve all intersections).
Libigl, using CGAL as a backend, is the most robust and still fast compared to converting a mesh to CGAL's `Nef_polyhedron`, conducting CSG operations and converting back to a mesh. This final conversion would be possible only if the result is manifold. Instead, libigl only uses CGAL for exact triangle-triangle intersection and 2D meshing. Correct, non-manifold output is no problem.
Libigl's interface is very simple and familiar to users of Eigen. For example, to find the intersection between a solid mesh with vertices in the rows of `VA` and triangles indices in the rows of `FA` and another mesh `(VB,FB)` and store the output in a new mesh `(VC,FC)`:
#include <igl/boolean/mesh_boolean.h>
...
igl::mesh_boolean(VA,FA,VB,FB,MESH_BOOLEAN_TYPE_UNION,VC,FC);
Problem
I need to calculate volume intersection and penetration depth between 3D triangular meshes (e.g. in .obj format), but I am quite new to computational geometry. In a previous post (Mesh to mesh intersections) and from my google search, I found a few C++ libraries which might be appropriate to do the job: - CGAL - PQP - libigl - SWIFT Though, I am not sure which one could be the most appropriate for a beginner. Any suggestion?