Draft



High-level geometry pipeline
The following diagram sketches the planned high-level geometry pipeline for ConformalLab++. It shows how different input types are funneled through adapter layers into a universal half-edge mesh representation, processed by the core, and then exported or visualized.

text
graph TD
    A["INPUT SOURCES"]
    A1["Explicit<br/>(OBJ, PLY, STL)"]
    A2["Implicit<br/>(SDF, Formulas)"]
    A3["Parametric<br/>(NURBS, Curves)"]
    A4["Procedural<br/>(Noise, L-Sys)"]
    
    A --> A1
    A --> A2
    A --> A3
    A --> A4
    
    A1 --> ADAPTER1["Adapter Layer"]
    A2 --> ADAPTER1
    A3 --> ADAPTER1
    A4 --> ADAPTER1
    
    ADAPTER1 <--> UNIVERSAL["UNIVERSAL REPRESENTATION FORM<br/>(HalfEdge Mesh Interface)<br/>- Vertices<br/>- Halfedges<br/>- Faces"]
    
    ADAPTER1 <--> EXT["EXTERNAL LIBRARIES<br/>(Plugin System)<br/>- CGAL<br/>- OpenMesh<br/>- PyNoise<br/>- PointCloud Lib"]
    
    EXT <--> UNIVERSAL
    
    UNIVERSAL --> PROCESSING["PROCESSING CORE"]
    
    PROCESSING --> OPT["Optimization<br/>- Decimation<br/>- Denoising<br/>- Remeshing"]
    PROCESSING --> ALGO["Algorithmic<br/>- Boolean Ops<br/>- Smoothing<br/>- Hole Filling"]
    PROCESSING --> OTHER["Other<br/>- Custom Algos<br/>- Transforms<br/>- Filters"]
    
    OPT --> UNIVERSAL
    ALGO --> UNIVERSAL
    OTHER --> UNIVERSAL
    
    UNIVERSAL --> EXPORT_ADAPTER["Export Adapter Layer"]
    
    EXPORT_ADAPTER --> EXPORT["Export Formats<br/>- OBJ<br/>- PLY<br/>- STL<br/>- Custom"]
    EXPORT_ADAPTER --> VIZ["Visualization<br/>- OpenGL<br/>- QT<br/>- Screenshot"]
    
    style UNIVERSAL fill:#90EE90,stroke:#000,stroke-width:3px,color:#000
    style PROCESSING fill:#87CEEB,stroke:#000,stroke-width:2px,color:#000
    style EXT fill:#DDA0DD,stroke:#000,stroke-width:2px,color:#000
    style ADAPTER1 fill:#FFB347,stroke:#000,stroke-width:2px,color:#000
    style EXPORT_ADAPTER fill:#FFB347,stroke:#000,stroke-width:2px,color:#000
All external inputs (file-based, implicit, parametric, procedural) are first converted by an adapter layer into a single universal half-edge mesh interface, which is the canonical internal representation used by the preprocessing and processing stages. The processing core operates on this universal representation and can use external libraries via a plugin-like extension layer, while results are passed through an export adapter to file formats or visualization frontends.


Three-stage processing pipeline
The geometry processing pipeline in ConformalLab++ is structured into three main stages, all operating on the same universal mesh representation.

Preprocessing

Converts all external inputs (files, analytic models, procedural sources) into the canonical half-edge mesh form.

Performs optional cleaning and normalization (e.g. fixing degeneracies, rescaling, enforcing orientation).

Guarantees that downstream stages see a well-formed, consistent mesh (or fail early with clear errors).

Processing (core processing units)

Runs one or more core processing units in sequence on the canonical mesh.

Each unit takes a mesh of the same type as input and produces a mesh of the same type as output (possibly with enriched attributes).

Examples: remeshing, conformal parameterization, smoothing, boolean operations, experiment-specific transforms.

Postprocessing

Adapts the processed mesh for external consumption: export to file formats, visualization, analysis tools.

May attach or convert attribute data (e.g. colors, scalar fields, experiment results) into a format suitable for rendering or further tools.

Does not change the core topology or semantics of the processed mesh, only its representation for the outside world.

This structure makes it easy to reason about where data enters, is modified, and leaves the system, and keeps experimental algorithms clearly separated from IO concerns.

Role of the universal mesh representation
The universal mesh representation (a half-edge mesh interface) is the shared contract between all pipeline stages.

Single input/output type
Every core processing unit exposes the same function shape conceptually:
UniversalMesh → UniversalMesh.
This allows units to be chained in arbitrary order as long as their preconditions on the mesh are satisfied.

Local, topology-aware access
The half-edge structure encodes vertices, halfedges, faces, and their adjacency relations, which is essential for typical geometry operations (e.g. local neighborhood queries, traversal, edge flips).

Algorithms do not need to know where the mesh came from (file vs. analytic vs. procedural); they only rely on this uniform interface.

Extensibility via attributes
The universal mesh may carry extensible per-vertex, per-edge, and per-face attributes (e.g. UVs, curvature, experimental scalar fields).
Core units can read and write these attributes while still conforming to the same mesh type, enabling complex pipelines without changing the central data structure.

Because all processing units speak the same “mesh language”, you can build pipelines like:

text
Preprocessing
  -> RemeshingUnit
  -> ConformalMapUnit
  -> ExperimentSpecificFilter
  -> Export/Postprocessing
without changing the basic function signature or the surrounding infrastructure, only by reordering or swapping units.