I have a .xyz file that has irregularly spaced points and gives the position and surface normal (ie XYZIJK). Are there algorithms out there that can reconstruct the surface that factor in the IJK vectors? Most algorithms I have found assume that surface normals aren't known.
This would ultimately be used to plot surface error data (from the nominal surface) using python 3.x, and I'm sure I will have many more follow on questions once I find a good reconstruction algorithm.
The state of the art right now is Poisson Surface Reconstruction and its screened variant. Code for both is available, e.g. under http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~misha/Code/PoissonRecon/Version8.0/. It is also implemented in MeshLab if you want to take a quick look.
If you want to take a look at other methods, check out this STAR. Page three has a table of a couple of approaches and their inputs.