CGAL/cgal releases/CGAL-4.11-beta1

CGAL-4.11-beta1

on GitHub

The CGAL Open Source Project is pleased to announce the release 4.11 Beta 1
of CGAL, the Computational Geometry Algorithms Library.

CGAL version 4.11 Beta 1 is a public testing release. It should provide
a solid ground to report bugs that need to be tackled before the
release of the final version of CGAL 4.11 in September.

This release is pretty special by its number of breaking changes in the
API. In order to have a better feature set, or a better API, several
packages have been reworked in a way that breaks the back-compatibility
with the previous versions of the API.

Besides fixes and general enhancement to existing packages, the following
has changed since CGAL 4.10:

3D Periodic Regular Triangulations (new feature)

• Added the class Periodic_3_regular_triangulation_3, which provides
  functionality for 3D periodic weighted Delaunay triangulations. The
  construction is fully dynamic: it provides both point insertion and
  vertex removal.

dD Regular Triangulations (new feature)

• Added the class Regular_triangulation, which provides functionality for
  dD weighted Delaunay triangulations. Note that the removal of points is
  not yet supported.

2D and 3D Linear Geometry Kernel (breaking change)

• Breaking change: The dangerous implicit conversions between weighted
  points and points in the concept Kernel have been
  disabled. Constructors offering to build a weighted point from a point
  (and reversely) are still requested by the concept Kernel but must now
  be marked with the explicit specifier.

• Breaking change: The removal of implicit conversions between points and
  weighted points in the concept Kernel has incidentally created various
  minor breaking changes in the following packages: 2D Alpha Shapes, 2D
  and 3D Triangulations, and 3D Mesh Generation. See the full changelog
  for details.

Triangulated Surface Mesh Parameterization (breaking change)

• Breaking change: The package has been rewritten and can operate on any
  model of the MutableFaceGraph concept. All previous parameterization
  methods are still offered, although with a different, simpler API. The
  documentation has been updated and offers a gentle introduction to the
  new API. Users who wish to use the former API must use a version prior
  to 4.11.

• Breaking change: The adapter to add virtual seams is now the class
  CGAL::Seam_mesh in the package CGAL and the BGL.

• Breaking change: The package has been restructured and most headers
  have been moved. In a general manner, users should replace <CGAL/XXX.h>
  with <CGAL/Surface_mesh_parameterization/XXX.h>.

• Add the As Rigid As Possible Parameterization method. This
  parameterization allows the user to prioritize angle preservation,
  shape preservation, or a balance of both.

• Add the Orbifold Tutte Embedding method. This parameterization method
  allows to parameterize meshes that are topological spheres.

3D Surface Subdivision Methods (breaking changes)

• The subdivision algorithms now work on any model of a
  MutableFaceGraph. A new API to the subdivision methods is offered,
  which uses optional named parameters to pass the number of iterations
  and a vertex property map.

• Breaking change: Removed the headers <CGAL/Subdivision_method_3.h> and
  <CGAL/Subdivision_mask_3.h>. The headers <CGAL/Subdivision_method_3/ subdivision_methods_3.h> and <CGAL/Subdivision_method_3/ subdivision_masks_3.h> should respectively be used instead.

• Sqrt3 subdivision can now handle input surfaces with a border.

Scale-Space Surface Reconstruction (breaking change)

• Breaking change: the API was rewritten to separate the smoothing and
  meshing algorithm and making it possible for the user to use different
  ones. The default algorithms used are the same as before this API
  change, but methods are moved to the classes Weighted_PCA_smoother and
  Alpha_shape_mesher.

• Alternative smoothing and meshing methods are provided: Jet_smoother
  and Advancing_front_mesher.

See the full changelog for a complete list of changes.