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Exact and Approximate Construction of Offset Polygons

Abstract

Exact and Approximate Construction of Offset Polygons
The offset of complex polygons. The boundary of each input polygon is drawn in a thick black line, and the approximated offset is shaded

We describe an efficient and robust implementation of the construction of the Minkowski sum of a polygon in R2 with a disc, an operation known as offsetting the polygon. Our software includes a procedure for computing the exact offset of a straight-edge polygon, based on the arrangement of conic arcs computed using exact algebraic number-types. We also present a conservative approximation algorithm for offset computation that uses only rational arithmetic and decreases the running times by an order of magnitude in some cases, while having a guarantee on the quality of the result. The algorithm is included in the 2D Minkowksi-sum package of CGAL. It also integrates well with other CGAL packages; in particular, it is possible to perform regularized Boolean set-operations on the polygons the offset procedures generate.

Illustrations

Exact and Approximate Construction of Offset Polygons
The offset of complex polygons

Links

  • Ron Wein
    Exact and approximate construction of offset polygons
    Computer-Aided Design, 39(6): 518–527, 2007 [link] [bibtex]

Contacts

Ron Wein
Dan Halperin

Yair Oz - Webcreator

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