Volume Contouring of Generic Unstructures Meshes

This paper describes a generic algorithm for iso-line, iso-strip, iso-surface, and iso-volume visualization of unstructured 3D meshes, such as finite element models. The four types of visualization are integrated in the same data representation. Consequently iso-volume contouring is trivially implemented as a combination of iso-strip and iso-surface patches of surfaces. The algorithm can handle cells of any shape, even those that result from sectioning off parts of the model with cutting planes. The contoured stress results of two finite element analysis are shown as examples.