suddivide

Suddivide is a term encountered in some theoretical discussions to denote the process of partitioning a geometric object or data set into smaller components through iterative application of a division rule. The concept is closely related to, and often confused with, subdivide. Unlike standard terminology, suddivide has no single, universally accepted definition, and it does not denote a specific algorithm in mainstream computational geometry.

In practice, suddivide is often described in informal contexts as an umbrella for recursive division strategies that share three features: a division rule that maps a region to a finite set of subregions; a stopping criterion that halts recursion; and an application to a domain that may be geometric, topological, or data-based.

Common variants discussed under the heading suddivide include: uniform suddivide, where each region is divided into a fixed number of subregions; adaptive suddivide, where subdivision intensity depends on a local criterion such as error estimates or density; and hierarchical suddivide, where the resulting subregions are organized into a tree structure for efficient querying. In GIS and mesh generation literature, people typically call these ideas subdivision, recursive partitioning, or meshing rather than suddivide, and many practitioners consider suddivide to be a nonstandard or informal coinage.

Applications imagined for suddivide include mesh generation for finite element analysis, image and terrain compression, spatial indexing, and procedural content generation in computer graphics. Criticism focuses on the lack of formal definitions and the risk of conflating it with existing methods such as subdivision surfaces, quadtree/octree schemes, and k-d trees.

See also: Subdivide, Subdivision surface, Quadtree, Octree, Mesh generation, Recursive partitioning.