Surface Power Diagrams for Knit Singularity Placement

May 22, 2026·
Rahul Mitra*
,
Mattéo Couplet*
,
Me
,
Jonathan Ng
,
Ruza Markov
,
Will Samosir
,
Megan Hofmann
,
Edward Chien
· 1 min read
Abstract
We present an algorithm for global knit structure planning that leverages a generalization of power diagrams to triangulated surfaces. This generalization is based on modified geodesic heat kernels and is used to quantize the curl measure of a normalized knitting time function gradient. Knit singularity positions are optimized jointly in a global fashion via an iterative Lloyd-type algorithm, leading to faster and more optimal placement of singularities than prior work, allowing for practical creation of denser knit graphs. In this denser setting, we present singularity ordering constraints that more robustly achieve helix-free knit graphs. The speed and robustness of the method is demonstrated via a diverse array of knits, and a virtual gallery of helix-free knit graphs. We also provide further demonstration of user constraints for knit singularity masking, level set alignment constraints, and apparent seam placement via curl boosting.
Type
Publication
In ACM SIGGRAPH

Overview

Our paper titled “Surface Power Diagrams for Knit Singularity Placement” has been conditionally accepted to SIGGRAPH 2026.

Authors: Rahul Mitra*, Mattéo Couplet*, Ruichen Liu, Jonathan Ng, Ruza Markov, Will Samosir, Megan Hofmann, Edward Chien (*equal contributions).

Boston University, VARIANT3D, Northeastern University

Abstract

We present an algorithm for global knit structure planning that leverages a generalization of power diagrams to triangulated surfaces. This generalization is based on modified geodesic heat kernels and is used to quantize the curl measure of a normalized knitting time function gradient. Knit singularity positions are optimized jointly in a global fashion via an iterative Lloyd-type algorithm, leading to faster and more optimal placement of singularities than prior work, allowing for practical creation of denser knit graphs. In this denser setting, we present singularity ordering constraints that more robustly achieve helix-free knit graphs. The speed and robustness of the method is demonstrated via a diverse array of knits, and a virtual gallery of helix-free knit graphs. We also provide further demonstration of user constraints for knit singularity masking, level set alignment constraints, and apparent seam placement via curl boosting.

Paper and code coming soon!

Citation

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