Generating a new / better surface mesh : Remeshing Bodies

Options

The following options are available for the Remesh Tool:

Factor

The remesh Factor is a unit-less value that defines how much each node/location is allowed to move during each iteration of the algorithm. It is recommended to keep this value small and instead favor a larger number of iterations as it is otherwise possible for the data to start experiencing overlaps, flips or other issues.

Iterations

This value defines the number of steps or iterations are to be performed. It is generally beneficial to keep both the Factor and Iterations at reasonably small values and to keep an eye on how much the data is changing during the process.

Fix Loops

With this option enabled, the algorithm will attempt to prevent edges that are not connected (boundaries of non-solid bodies) from being gradually moved into the existing body. By enabling this option, the vertices on these boundaries can still be moved along them, but not into the body.

Fix Boundaries

This is the more aggressive option to the Fix Loops and instead of allowing vertices on the boundary to move along the perimeter, they are completely fixed and cannot be moved. This is generally not beneficial as it means that any attached facets will similarly experience some amount of restraint. However, there are cases where this may be explicitly desired such as where different meshes are to line up after the remeshing has been completed.

Re-Project Mesh

This option can be useful if the original data contains coarse sections that would otherwise take many iterations to properly address. By enabling this, the body is first completely re-sampled and the resampled data is then processed. For very dense geometries (such as 3D scans), this may lead to an inadvertent removal of small details and therefore keeping this option enabled should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Keep Topology

This option overrules the others and strictly only allows edges to be split in two. This option is intended for cases where a 'mechanical' body is being modified in such a way that very long and thin (sliver) faces are to be split into several smaller ones. With this option, the number of Iterations defines the maximum number of iterations by which edges are re-evaluated for their length and then split if their length is larger than the threshold length set.

Workflow

The general workflow is essentially the same as for all other operations. Prior to using this tool, a decision must be made as to whether or not multiple bodies are expected and the data split if that is a possibility (splitting does not make any changes if it determines that only a single, continuous body exists).
After that, clicking the button in the tool bar brings up the Remesh tab in the Options. Making any changes and clicking the Preview button in the Apply group box then proceeds to remeshing the body (or bodies if multiple are available and the 'All Bodies' or 'Selected' option is checked).
Once the Preview completes, indicated by the color of the displayed data changing to a light blue color, the result can be further reviewed (perhaps turning edge display on through the shortcut Alt+E) and any parameters changed and the Preview updated. Note that the preview always works from the original data, not the last state of the Preview. Once the result is as desired, the changed can be made permanent by clicking Apply. If no preview has been generated, clicking the Apply button first generates the data and then assigns it to the current data.

Examples

A few simple examples illustrate the effect of this. Here the original body is shown that is being operated on (with Edge display enabled using Alt+E)

Disabling the re-project option, after performing one iteration (with a factor of 0.2), the mesh is shown below, containing some regions where the quality is not ideal, though better than in the original data:

Running the same values but for 10 iterations generates this:

By using the Re-Projection option, after ten iterations, the body retains more of the original shape as the slender facets over the eyes did not contribute as much in terms of dominating the local changes: