# Geodesic Distance

This section describes algorithms for computing distance along a surface, or geodesic distance.

Note that distance depends on the intrinsic geometry of a surface (via the IntrinsicGeometryInterface). Therefore, these routines can be run on abstract geometric domains as well as traditional surfaces in 3D.

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## Heat Method for Distance

These routines implement the Heat Method for Geodesic Distance. This algorithm uses short time heat flow to compute distance on surfaces. Because the main burden is simply solving linear systems of equations, it tends to be faster than polyhedral schemes, especially when computing distance multiple times on the same surface. In the computational geometry sense, this method is an approximation, as the result is not precisely equal to the polyhedral distance on the surface; nonetheless it is fast and well-suited for many applications.

#include "geometrycentral/surface/heat_method_distance.h"

### Single Solves

A one-off utility function is provided which computes the distance from a source vertex using the heat method. Repeated solves or more general source data should use the stateful version below.

Example

#include "geometrycentral/surface/heat_method_distance.h"
#include "geometrycentral/surface/meshio.h"

std::unique_ptr<HalfedgeMesh> mesh;
std::unique_ptr<VertexPositionGeometry> geometry;

// Pick a vertex
Vertex sourceVert = /* some vertex */

// Compute distance
VertexData<double> distToSource = heatMethodDistance(*geometry, sourceVert);
/* do something useful */


VertexData<double> heatMethodDistance(IntrinsicGeometryInterface& geom, Vertex v)

Compute the distance from the source using the heat method.

### Repeated Solves

The stateful class HeatMethodDistanceSolver does precomputation when constructed, then allows many distance solves from different source locations to be performed efficiently.

The computeDistance() method in HeatMethodDistanceSolver can also take SurfacePoint(s) as the source location(s). A SurfacePoint (see here) is a location on a surface, which may be a vertex, a point along an edge, or a point inside a face.

Example:

#include "geometrycentral/surface/heat_method_distance.h"
#include "geometrycentral/surface/meshio.h"

std::unique_ptr<HalfedgeMesh> mesh;
std::unique_ptr<VertexPositionGeometry> geometry;

// Create the Heat Method solver
HeatMethodDistanceSolver heatSolver(geometry);

// Some vertices as source set
std::vector<Vertex> sourceVerts = /* some interesting vertices */
for(Vertex v : sourceVerts) {
VertexData<double> distToSource = heatSolver.computeDistance(v);
/* do something useful */
}

// A point in a face as a source set
Face sourceF =  /* some face */;
Vector3 sourceFBary =  /* some barycentric coords in face */;
SurfacePoint targetP(sourceF, sourceFBary);

VertexData<double> distToSource = heatSolver.computeDistance(targetP);
/* do something useful */


HeatMethodDistanceSolver::HeatMethodDistanceSolver(IntrinsicGeometryInterface& geom, double tCoef=1.0)

Create a new solver to compute geodesic distance using the heat method. All precomputation work is performed immediately at construction time.

• geom is the geometry (and hence mesh) on which to compute. Note that nearly any geometry object (VertexPositionGeometry, etc) can be passed here.

• tCoef is the time to use for short time heat flow, as a factor m * h^2, where h is the mean edge length. The default value of 1.0 is almost always sufficient.

Algorithm options (like tCoef) cannot be changed after construction; create a new solver object with the new settings.

VertexData<double> HeatMethodDistanceSolver::computeDistance(Vertex v)

Compute the distance from a single source vertex.

VertexData<double> HeatMethodDistanceSolver::computeDistance(std::vector<Vertex> verts)

Compute the distance from a set of source vertices.

VertexData<double> HeatMethodDistanceSolver::computeDistance(SurfacePoint p)

Compute the distance from a single source point.

VertexData<double> HeatMethodDistanceSolver::computeDistance(std::vector<SurfacePoint> points)

Compute the distance from a set of source points.