Generating Contour Meshes from ROIs
You can generate contour meshes that describe the surface of a region of interest in the Generate Contour Mesh panel. In the example below, three contour meshes with different threshold values (maximum in white, mid in orange, and minimum in blue) were generated from a region of interest created on the femoral head and neck of a thigh bone.
Contour meshes generated at different thresholds
The settings for generating contour meshes are available in the Generate Contour Mesh panel, shown below. Right-click the required region of interest in the Data Properties and Settings panel and then choose Generate Contour Mesh to access the panel.
Generate Contour Mesh panel
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Description |
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Object |
Indicates the currently selected region of interest. If required, you can select another object in the drop-down menu to generate additional contour meshes. |
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Threshold |
Determines the threshold value that will be used to generate the contour mesh.
NOTE The threshold values for a region of interest range from 0 to 100, in which 0 is the maximum padding (a distance of 4 voxels in all directions) and 100 is directly on the border of the region of interest. Decreasing the threshold value will usually result in a smoother mesh. |
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Sampling |
Determines the sampling rate that will be applied along each axis and the sampling algorithm. At a setting of 4, one of every four pixels will be sampled. Modifying the values for an axis or axes will generate a mesh representing more or less vertices. Each voxel value is analyzed when the sampling value is set at 1. You can also select a sampling algorithm — Linear or Nearest. Linear… Selecting Linear will result in a linear sampling algorithm being applied. Nearest… Selecting Nearest will result in a nearest-neighbor sampling algorithm being applied. |
How to Generate a Contour Mesh
- Right-click the required region of interest in the Data Properties and Settings panel and then choose Generate Contour Mesh in the pop-up menu.
The Generate Contour Mesh panel appears on the Dataset Tools tab.
- Do one of the following:
- Enter a threshold value in the Threshold edit box.
- Select a threshold value with the slider.
- Select a sampling rate and algorithm, which determines how surfaces are tessellated or broken down logically into a series of small triangles or facets.
Each voxel value is analyzed when sampling value is set at 1. Setting the sampling rate at a higher value will produce results faster, but at a lower quality.
- Click the Export to a Mesh button.
The generated mesh is added to the Data Properties and Settings panel (see Mesh Properties and Settings for information about making a mesh visible in a scene and about the settings available in the lower section of the panel.
- Generate additional contour meshes, if required.
You can select different threshold values for the currently selected object, or choose to work with another object.
- Click the Close button to close the Generate Contour mesh panel.
