The Halfedge Data Structure and Euler Operators

If an application only needs to visualize a solid, then indexed face sets are adequate; nested iterations over the set of faces and then over the set of vertices defining a face suffice. But IFS representations are not adequate if one wishes to make incremental modifications to the set of vertices, edges, and faces defining a solid. This chapter discusses the halfedge data structure and a set of accompanying algorithms, Euler operators, that make such modifications possible.