--- layout: default title: "Triangulation" permalink: /meshedit/global/triangulate/ parent: Global Operations grand_parent: "A2: MeshEdit" --- # Triangulation For an in-practice example, see the [User Guide](../guide/model). A variety of geometry processing algorithms become easier to implement (or are only well defined) when the input consists purely of triangles. The method `Halfedge_Mesh::triangulate` converts any polygon mesh into a triangle mesh by splitting each polygon into triangles. This transformation is performed in-place, i.e., the original mesh data is replaced with the new, triangulated data (rather than making a copy). The implementation of this method will look much like the implementation of the local mesh operations, with the addition of looping over every face in the mesh. There is more than one way to split a polygon into triangles. Two common patterns are to connect every vertex to a single vertex, or to "zig-zag" the triangulation across the polygon: