Many engineering disciplines can profitably use large high-resolution geometric models whose computational requirements exceed current computer hardware capacities. This paper presents an adaptive visualization solution for interactively building large geometric models in geoscience. We focus on model building using Boolean operations. Whereas adaptive visualization techniques have conventionally been applied to existing complete models, our work permits adaptive visualization of models while under construction. To achieve this, we use the same multiresolution surface representation for both Boolean operations and visualization. The paper develops techniques that dynamically and adaptively decimate models, adjusting to changing camera positions. The decimation algorithm preserves intersection curves between surfaces, and applies to models whose surface triangulation is either globally coherent or incoherent. We have embedded the technology presented in this paper into a 3D geoscience ...