A C-tree decomposition algorithm for 2D and 3D geometric constraint solving

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a method which can be used to decompose a 2D or 3D constraint problem into a C-tree. With this decomposition, a geometric constraint problem can be reduced into basic merge patterns, which are the smallest problems we need to solve in order to solve the original problem in certain sense. Based on the C-tree decomposition algorithm, we implemented a software package MMP/Geometer. Experimental results show that MMP/Geometer finds the smallest decomposition for all the testing examples efficiently. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]