[Gmsh] Gmsh -- mean plane definition

[Christophe Geuzaine]

Romain Quey wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I am wondering about one step of the 2-D mesh process within Gmsh.
> 
> Actually, I would like to know how the "mean plane" is defined in the
> case where all the points of a 'plane surface' are not really in a
> same plane.
> In the source code, I found that the resulting plane is defined
> according to a least squares criterion; but which form of the criterion
> is it about? In other words, which expression is minimized?
> 
> I am using this option to approximate (slightly) non-planar faces by
> planar ones...
> 
> I thank you in advance for your answer (in fact, it is for a 
> presentation next week),... and thank you for Gmsh too!
> 

It's the plane that minimizes the distance to the vertices (obtained
after the 1D mesh) on the surface boundary.

(It's a lousy projection technique, but it's easy to implement...)




-- 
Christophe Geuzaine
Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University, Mathematics
http://www.case.edu/artsci/math/geuzaine