Patent ID: 7542036

Claim:
A method for editing a geometrical model with a level set modeling surface editor operator, comprising: defining a level set surface model having at least one deformation thereon to be modified using a computing device; performing a level set surface editing operation on a level set surface model, wherein said operation is defined by a level set surface editing operator and is free of edge connectivity data and wherein said performing a level set surface editing operator is defined as a speed function, said function comprising: a regional constraint function component; a filter function component; a surface properties defining function component wherein said speed function is F(x, n, φ)=D q (d)C(γ)G(γ), wherein D q (d) is said regional constraint function component, C(γ) is said filter function component, and G(γ) is said surface properties defining function component; γ is a local geometric surface property; q is a geometric structure; φ is an iso-surface; d is the distance from a level set surface of said level set surface model to q and n is a normal of the surface at point x; wherein said operation modifies the at least one deformation and further including resetting a volumetric representation of said level model after said step of performing a level set surface editing operation to ensure that φ is approximately equal to a shortest distance to a zero level set in a narrow band.