This module will reduce the number of triangles in a triangle mesh, providing a good approximation to the original geometry while preserving the original topology of the object. You will need to build the vtk library before attempting to compile this module. The Makefile in this archive may have to be modified to support your particular workstation and software installation. The description of this algorithm is taken directly from the vtkDecimate man page included with the libvtk distribution. The resulting hole is then patched by re-triangulation.
Iterations proceed until a target reduction is reached or a maximum iteration count is exceeded.
There are a number of additional parameters you can set to control the decimation algorithm. The error may be increased over each iteration with the error increment. Edge preservation may be disabled or enabled. Sub iterations are iterations that are performed without changing the decimation criterion. The aspect ratio controls the shape of the triangles that are created, and is the ratio of maximum edge length to minimum edge length.