Topology

Applied digital documentation In the historic environment, published on 19 March 2018 by Historic Scotland, states in relation to topology: ‘In the context of 3D models and meshes used to refer to the qualities of the surface geometry. ‘Retopologising’ refers to the creation of different geometric representation of a surface or object, often used in the context of cleaning or reducing polygonal/triangle count in 3D models.’

The Geospatial Glossary, published by the Geospatial Commission, and accessed on 17 September 2022, defines topology as: ‘The logical relationships between interacting points, lines, and polygons that are independent of spatial values. For example, two adjacent touching polygons may be topologically independent geometries, or they may be toplogically linked by the sharing of an edge. This can enforce a skin-of-the-earth model in that if one of those polygons changes the shared edge, then the other polygon will match the change, so as to avoid overlaps or slivers.’

See also: Topography.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

• BIM.
• LIDAR.
• Manifold geometry.
• Point cloud.
• Survey.
• Topography.