Geometry rounding problems: object no longer convex after simple transformations - c++

Question

I'm making a little app to analyze geometry. In one part of my program, I use an algorithm that has to have a convex object as input. Luckily, all my objects are initially convex, but some are just barely so (see image).
After I apply some transformations, my algorithm fails to work (it produces "infinitely" long polygons, etc), and I think this is because of rounding errors as in the image; the top vertex in the cylinder gets "pushed in" slightly because of rounding errors (very exaggerated in image) and is no longer convex.
So my question is: Does anyone know of a method to "slightly convexify" an object? Here's one method I tried to implement but it didn't seem to work (or I implemented it wrong):
1. Average all vertices together to create a vertex C inside the convex shape.
2. Let d[v] be the distance from C to vertex v.
3. Scale each vertex v from the center C with the scale factor 1 / (1+d[v] * CONVEXIFICATION_FACTOR)
Thanks!! I have CGAL and Boost installed so I can use any of those library functions (and I already do).

Answer 1

You can certainly make the object convex by computing the convex hull of it. But that'll "convexify" anything. If you're sure your input has departed only slightly from being convex, then it shouldn't be a problem.
CGAL appears to have an implementation of 3D Quickhull in it, which would be the first thing to try. See http://doc.cgal.org/latest/Convex_hull_3/ for docs and some example programs. (I'm not sufficiently familiar with CGAL to want to reproduce any examples and claim they're correct.)

Answer 2

In the end I discovered the root of this problem was the fact that the convex hull contained lots of triangles, whereas my input shapes were often cube-shaped, making each quadrilateral region appear as 2 triangles which had extremely similar plane equations, causing some sort of problem in the algorithm I was using.
I solved it by "detriangulating" the polyhedra, using this code. If anyone can spot any improvements or problems, let me know!
#include <algorithm>
#include <cmath>
#include <vector>
#include <CGAL/convex_hull_traits_3.h>
#include <CGAL/convex_hull_3.h>
typedef Kernel::Point_3 Point;
typedef Kernel::Vector_3 Vector;
typedef Kernel::Aff_transformation_3 Transformation;
typedef CGAL::Polyhedron_3<Kernel> Polyhedron;
struct Plane_from_facet {
Polyhedron::Plane_3 operator()(Polyhedron::Facet& f) {
Polyhedron::Halfedge_handle h = f.halfedge();
return Polyhedron::Plane_3(h->vertex()->point(),
h->next()->vertex()->point(),
h->opposite()->vertex()->point());
}
};
inline static double planeDistance(Plane &p, Plane &q) {
double sc1 = max(abs(p.a()),
max(abs(p.b()),
max(abs(p.c()),
abs(p.d()))));
double sc2 = max(abs(q.a()),
max(abs(q.b()),
max(abs(q.c()),
abs(q.d()))));
Plane r(p.a() * sc2,
p.b() * sc2,
p.c() * sc2,
p.d() * sc2);
Plane s(q.a() * sc1,
q.b() * sc1,
q.c() * sc1,
q.d() * sc1);
return ((r.a() - s.a()) * (r.a() - s.a()) +
(r.b() - s.b()) * (r.b() - s.b()) +
(r.c() - s.c()) * (r.c() - s.c()) +
(r.d() - s.d()) * (r.d() - s.d())) / (sc1 * sc2);
}
static void detriangulatePolyhedron(Polyhedron &poly) {
vector<Polyhedron::Halfedge_handle> toJoin;
for (auto edge = poly.edges_begin(); edge != poly.edges_end(); edge++) {
auto f1 = edge->facet();
auto f2 = edge->opposite()->facet();
if (planeDistance(f1->plane(), f2->plane()) < 1E-5) {
toJoin.push_back(edge);
}
}
for (auto edge = toJoin.begin(); edge != toJoin.end(); edge++) {
poly.join_facet(*edge);
}
}
...
Polyhedron convexHull;
CGAL::convex_hull_3(shape.begin(),
shape.end(),
convexHull);
transform(convexHull.facets_begin(),
convexHull.facets_end(),
convexHull.planes_begin(),
Plane_from_facet());
detriangulatePolyhedron(convexHull);
Plane bounds[convexHull.size_of_facets()];
int boundCount = 0;
for (auto facet = convexHull.facets_begin(); facet != convexHull.facets_end(); facet++) {
bounds[boundCount++] = facet->plane();
}
...
This gave the desired result (after and before):