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Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center
DiscretizeRegion
  • See Also
    • MeshRegion
    • BoundaryDiscretizeRegion
    • TriangulateMesh
    • DiscretizeGraphics
    • FindMeshDefects
    • RepairMesh
    • RegionImage
  • Related Guides
    • Mesh-Based Geometric Regions
    • Geometric Computation
    • See Also
      • MeshRegion
      • BoundaryDiscretizeRegion
      • TriangulateMesh
      • DiscretizeGraphics
      • FindMeshDefects
      • RepairMesh
      • RegionImage
    • Related Guides
      • Mesh-Based Geometric Regions
      • Geometric Computation

DiscretizeRegion[reg]

discretizes a region reg into a MeshRegion.

DiscretizeRegion[reg,{{xmin,xmax},…}]

restricts to the bounds .

Details and Options
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
Regions in 1D  
Regions in 2D  
Regions in 3D  
Detail  
Quality  
Options  
AccuracyGoal  
MaxCellMeasure  
MeshCellHighlight  
Show More Show More
MeshCellLabel  
MeshCellMarker  
MeshCellShapeFunction  
MeshCellStyle  
MeshRefinementFunction  
Method  
PlotTheme  
PrecisionGoal  
Applications  
Properties & Relations  
Neat Examples  
See Also
Related Guides
History
Cite this Page
BUILT-IN SYMBOL
  • See Also
    • MeshRegion
    • BoundaryDiscretizeRegion
    • TriangulateMesh
    • DiscretizeGraphics
    • FindMeshDefects
    • RepairMesh
    • RegionImage
  • Related Guides
    • Mesh-Based Geometric Regions
    • Geometric Computation
    • See Also
      • MeshRegion
      • BoundaryDiscretizeRegion
      • TriangulateMesh
      • DiscretizeGraphics
      • FindMeshDefects
      • RepairMesh
      • RegionImage
    • Related Guides
      • Mesh-Based Geometric Regions
      • Geometric Computation

DiscretizeRegion

DiscretizeRegion[reg]

discretizes a region reg into a MeshRegion.

DiscretizeRegion[reg,{{xmin,xmax},…}]

restricts to the bounds .

Details and Options

  • DiscretizeRegion is also known as mesh generation and grid generation.
  • DiscretizeRegion discretizes the interior and boundaries of the region reg.
  • In particular, DiscretizeRegion will attempt to discretize lower-dimensional parts of reg.
  • The region reg can be anything that is ConstantRegionQ and RegionEmbeddingDimension less than or equal to 3.
  • DiscretizeRegion has the same options as MeshRegion, with the following additions and changes:
  • AccuracyGoal Automaticdigits of accuracy sought
    MaxCellMeasure Automaticmaximum cell measure
    MeshQualityGoalAutomaticquality goal for mesh cells
    Method Automaticmethod to use
    MeshRefinementFunction Nonefunction that returns True if a mesh cell needs refinement
    PerformanceGoal$PerformanceGoalwhether to consider speed or quality
    PrecisionGoal Automaticdigits of precision sought
  • With MeshRefinementFunction->f, the function f[vlist,m] is applied to each simplex created, where vlist is a list of the vertices and m is the measure. If f[vlist,m] returns True, the simplex will be refined.
  • With AccuracyGoal->a and PrecisionGoal->p, an attempt will be made to keep the maximum distance between the region reg or the discretized region dreg and any point in RegionSymmetricDifference[reg,dreg] to less than , where is the length of the diagonal of the bounding box.

Examples

open all close all

Basic Examples  (3)

Discretize 1D embedded regions:

Restrict to :

Mixed-dimension region:

Discretize 2D embedded regions:

Restrict to the first quadrant:

Mixed-dimension region:

Discretize 3D embedded regions:

Restrict to the first orthant:

Restrict to :

Scope  (30)

Regions in 1D  (5)

Point and Line are special regions that can exist in 1D:

Line:

An ImplicitRegion is 1D if it has only one variable:

Because this region is unbounded, clip it to discretize:

A ParametricRegion is 1D if it has only one function:

The discretization can be clipped to a specified range:

Because this region is unbounded, clip it to discretize:

A BooleanRegion in 1D:

A region can include components of different dimensions:

Separate the components by dimension:

Regions in 2D  (8)

Point, Circle, and Rectangle are special regions that can exist in 2D:

Circle is 1D, but embedded in 2D:

Rectangle is 2D:

An ImplicitRegion is 2D if it has two variables. A 1D region is typically an equation:

A 2D region is typically a combination of inequalities:

For an unbounded region, clip the discretization to a specified range:

A ParametricRegion is 2D if it has two functions. A 1D region has one parameter:

A 2D region has two parameters:

Clip the region:

A 2D parametric region with parameters constrained to a unit disk:

When the parameters are constrained to just the unit circle, the result is 1D:

Parameters may be members of mixed-dimension regions:

Given two exact regions, ParametricRegion can be used to represent their Minkowski sum:

A RegionUnion in 2D:

A region can include components of different dimensions:

Separate the components by dimension:

A polygon with GeoGridPosition:

A polygon with GeoPosition:

Regions in 3D  (8)

Point, Line, Polygon, and Ellipsoid are special regions that can exist in 3D:

Line:

Polygon:

Ellipsoid:

An ImplicitRegion is 3D if it has three variables. A 2D region is typically an equation:

Clip an unbounded region to discretize it:

A ParametricRegion with 3 functions and a 3D parameters space is a 3D solid:

A ParametricRegion with 3 functions and a 2D parameter space is a surface embedded in 3D:

Parameters constrained to the lower surface of a sphere are in a 2D parameter space:

A ParametricRegion with 3 functions and a 1D parameter space is a curve embedded in 3D:

The parameters can be part of mixed-dimension region:

Discretize a ParametricRegion where the parameters are in a mixed-dimension region:

The result has 1D, 2D, and 3D components:

Given two exact regions, ParametricRegion can be used to represent their Minkowski sum:

A region can include components of different dimensions:

Detail  (2)

The measure of cells in the discretization can be controlled using MaxCellMeasure:

By default, when given as a number, it applies to the embedding dimension:

A particular dimension may be specified explicitly:

For nonlinear regions the measure of boundary cells depends on several options:

The length of any segment may be controlled by MaxCellMeasure:

The default PrecisionGoal is chosen to be a value so that curves appear as visually smooth:

PrecisionGoal->None may be used to base the boundary measure on MaxCellMeasure:

AccuracyGoal->a may be used to specify an absolute tolerance :

The default is for MaxCellMeasure to apply to the embedding dimension:

The measure on the boundary may be further restricted by approximation requirements:

Quality  (7)

The measure of cells in the discretization can be controlled using MaxCellMeasure:

By default, this applies only to full-dimensional cells:

MaxCellMeasure can also control the size of lower-dimensional cells:

Controlling face size in 3D:

The quality of cells in the discretization can be controlled using MeshQualityGoal:

The goal can also be set to "Minimal" or "Maximal":

MeshRefinementFunction can be used to refine a discretization based on a function:

Add a refinement function to refine triangles in the upper-left quadrant:

Use AccuracyGoal to ensure the discretized boundary is close to the exact boundary:

The discretization with the higher AccuracyGoal is closer to the true boundary:

Use PrecisionGoal to ensure the discretized boundary is close to the exact boundary:

The discretization with the higher PrecisionGoal is closer to the true boundary:

Set PerformanceGoal to "Quality" for a high-quality discretization:

Or to "Speed" for a faster discretization that may be of lower quality:

Options  (28)

AccuracyGoal  (1)

Use AccuracyGoal to ensure the discretized boundary is close to the exact boundary:

The discretization with the higher AccuracyGoal is closer to the true boundary:

MaxCellMeasure  (4)

Discretize a polygon using the Automatic setting for MaxCellMeasure:

Specify a minimal triangulation by not constraining cell measure:

Specify a maximum cell area:

This gives the areas of the triangles:

Specify a maximum length for line segments:

A Histogram of the line segment lengths:

In 3D, specify a maximum area for faces:

A Histogram of the face areas:

MeshCellHighlight  (3)

MeshCellHighlight allows you to specify highlighting for parts of a MeshRegion:

By making faces transparent, the internal structure of a 3D MeshRegion can be seen:

Individual cells can be highlighted using their cell index:

Or by the cell itself:

MeshCellLabel  (3)

MeshCellLabel can be used to label parts of a MeshRegion:

Label the vertices and edges of a polygon:

Individual cells can be labeled using their cell index:

Or by the cell itself:

MeshCellMarker  (1)

MeshCellMarker can be used to assign values to parts of a MeshRegion:

Use MeshCellLabel to show the markers:

MeshCellShapeFunction  (2)

MeshCellShapeFunction allows you to specify functions for parts of a MeshRegion:

Individual cells can be drawn using their cell index:

Or by the cell itself:

MeshCellStyle  (3)

MeshCellStyle allows you to specify styling for parts of a MeshRegion:

By making faces transparent, the internal structure of a 3D MeshRegion can be seen:

Individual cells can be styled using their cell index:

Or by the cell itself:

MeshRefinementFunction  (2)

Get a mesh of the unit disk that is finer in the center:

Refine an interval so that the spacing is finer in the left half:

Method  (6)

The "Continuation" method uses a curve continuation method that can in many cases resolve corners, cusps, and sharp changes quite well:

The "RegionPlot" method is based on improving output from RegionPlot and can sometimes be faster:

The "Boolean" method is optimized for Boolean regions:

The "DiscretizeGraphics" method is optimized for graphics primitives:

The "RegionPlot3D" method for 3D regions is based on RegionPlot3D:

The "ContourPlot3D" method for 3D regions is based on ContourPlot3D:

PlotTheme  (2)

Use a theme with grid lines and a legend:

Use a theme to draw a wireframe:

PrecisionGoal  (1)

Use PrecisionGoal to ensure the discretized boundary is close to the exact boundary:

The discretization with the higher PrecisionGoal is closer to the true boundary:

Applications  (2)

Visualize LaminaData:

Discretize and visualize the region:

Visualize SolidData:

Discretize and visualize the region:

Properties & Relations  (5)

The output of DiscretizeRegion is a MeshRegion:

TriangulateMesh can be used to re-discretize a MeshRegion:

Only discretizing the original region can more accurately discretize the boundary, though:

Applied to a MeshRegion, DiscretizeRegion is the same as TriangulateMesh:

DiscretizeRegion can discretize a region with holes:

DiscretizeRegion can discretize a region with disjoint components:

Neat Examples  (2)

Discretize an implicit Lissajous region:

Get the discretized regions of various car manufacturer logos:

See Also

MeshRegion  BoundaryDiscretizeRegion  TriangulateMesh  DiscretizeGraphics  FindMeshDefects  RepairMesh  RegionImage

Function Repository: IntrinsicCurvedManifoldToGraph

Related Guides

    ▪
  • Mesh-Based Geometric Regions
  • ▪
  • Geometric Computation

History

Introduced in 2014 (10.0) | Updated in 2015 (10.2)

Wolfram Research (2014), DiscretizeRegion, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/DiscretizeRegion.html (updated 2015).

Text

Wolfram Research (2014), DiscretizeRegion, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/DiscretizeRegion.html (updated 2015).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2014. "DiscretizeRegion." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2015. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/DiscretizeRegion.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2014). DiscretizeRegion. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/DiscretizeRegion.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_discretizeregion, author="Wolfram Research", title="{DiscretizeRegion}", year="2015", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/DiscretizeRegion.html}", note=[Accessed: 01-March-2026]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2025_discretizeregion, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={DiscretizeRegion}, year={2015}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/DiscretizeRegion.html}, note=[Accessed: 01-March-2026]}

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