Contour smoothing can be used to improve the presentation of contour information. It should be noted that smoothing will not increase the accuracy of the contours, and in some cases may result in a loss of detail.
The smoothing control is specified by the Thinning Distance parameter. To understand this parameter one must first understand how contours are generated. Contours are generated in 3 steps.
1) Contours are formed by creating straight line segment across each triangle.
Figure 1. Contour Interpolation
2) The resulting line segments are joined together and thinned to remove points which are close together. The spacing is controlled by the Thinning Distance parameter. This step effectively removes any small sharp bends in the contour.
3) The resulting contour is fitted with a spline curve which creates new points along the curve.
