Question

With a set of points in 3d. How would one go about finding the fewest set of triangles connecting those points; creating a set of triangles all sharing at least two of their sides? (like a square sheet with bumps in it made of triangles)

example points for a 5x100x500 area:

points = [
    # Constant Points 
    (0  , 0  , 0  ),
    (0  , 100, 0  ),
    (5  , 100, 500),
    (1  , 50 , 100),
    (2  , 60 , 200),
    (3  , 75 , 300),
    (4  , 80 , 400),
    (5  , 0  , 499),
]

Here’s what the points plotted would look like with the axes normalized:

Answer 1

I think Delaunay Triangulation might give you what you require:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaunay_triangulation