Slicer Interactive Module
The scope of this subproject is to develop a Slicer3 module for Finite Element modeling. Our approach is to adapt the process and source code from a standalone Finite Element Mesh generation program developed by the MIMX Group at the University of Iowa.
Standalone Program
The IaFeMesh application creates an established workflow consisting of multiple steps:
- read imagery file
- create surface from imagery
- create FE mesh bounding box from the bounds of the surface
- refine the FE bounding box
- generate a mesh using projection from the bounding box
The above properties are accomplished through customer KKWidgets which manage the user through workflow using a custom tabbed notebook with image, surface, FE Mesh, and FE Mesh Quality tabs. Under each category, the user works with the corresponding category of data as they perform the workflow that starts with a source image stack and results in a corresponding Mesh of the imaged object.
The standalone program manages surfaces, bounding boxes, and meshes created by the user in linked lists which are updated and displayed through the GUI. This creates an interesting integration situation.
Migrating the intermediate steps to MRML
MeshingWorkflow Slicer Module
An interactive module has been added to Slicer called the "MeshingWorkflow Module". This module performs the same multiple steps as the standalone FE application. The vast majority of the source code from the original application has been re-used without modification.
