Houdini 20.5 Nodes Geometry nodes

Remesh to Grid geometry node

Rebuilds polygonal topology to straighten edges, close small holes, and remove interior geometry.

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Since 19.0

Overview

This node converts polygonal geometry into a volume (VDB), then back into polygons, as a way to recompute the polygon layout. This can make the polygonal structure more regular, as well as more or less dense. It also eliminates any interior polygons, and can close small holes.

This is often useful to clean up irregular polgyons created by photogrammetry.

This node functions like wiring polygons into a VDB From Polygons node, followed by a Convert VDB.

Tip

This process destroys UVs on the input geometry. If you would like to transfer UVs from the original mesh down to the reconstructed surface, turn on Transfer Surface Attributes, or use an Attribute Transfer node for more control.

Parameters

Group

Specifies which faces in the input to convert. Leave this blank to convert all input geometry. This can be the name of a group and/or a space-separated list of group syntax. Click the Re-select icon to the right of the field to select geometry interactively in the viewer.

Source

Surface Type

Closed volume assumes the existing polygons create a closed surface, and converts it to a filled volume. Thin Plate treats the existing surface as a flat sheet, and builds a new, closed surface by offsetting a configurable distance around the sheet. Use Thin Plate to deal with input geometry with unshared edges, or to “puff out” an open surface into a 3D shape.

Offset

When Surface type is Thin plate, this is the offset distance (in Houdini units) of the new surface from the existing surface.

Meshing

Division Size

The size of the voxels in the intermediate volume. Lower values output higher polygon density. Turn on the “XYZ” button to the right to show individual scaling controls for each axis.

Scale

When the “XYZ” button next to Division Size is on, you can scale the divisions of the intermediate volume by different scales in each axis. This might be useful if a model has more detail along one axis.

Offset

Moves the voxel grid relative to the model. This has the effect of moving the polygon divisions across the model. This might be useful to make sure the output grid captures some fine detail.

Adaptivity

How much difference in polygon size is allowed. Low values give a dense mesh of more equal-sized polygons. High values give large flat polygons in flat areas, and small detailed polygons in curvy areas.

Transfer Surface Attributes

Attempts to transfer any attributes found on the input geometry onto the equivalent remeshed geometry.

Sharpen Features

Converting geometry to a volume tends to soften sharp edges. Turn this on to try to preserve sharp edges in the output.

Edge Tolerance

When Shapren Features is on, the tolerance level for softened edges. Low values give softer output, high values preserve more sharpness. You can visually tweak this until you get the level of edge preservation you want.

Project to Original

When this is on, the node moves the points of the generated mesh along their normals so they lie on the original surface.

Post Smooth Iterations

When Project to original is on, it can generate overlapping polygons. Turn this up to try to relax overlapping polygons.

VDB Smoothing

Dilate/Erode

Expands or contracts the intermediate volume before converting it to polygons. Negative values contract and positive values expand.

Smoothing Iterations

Applies a number of smoothing steps to the intermediate volume before converting it to polygons. You can use this to remove fine detail/noise from the model.

Examples

AdaptiveRemeshToGrid Example for Remesh to Grid geometry node

This example demonstrates how to adaptively remesh geometry using the Remesh to Grid node.

Geometry nodes