Hello - I am a mechanical engineer and a brand new user of Slicer3D. I have some X-ray data of a spine and I am wanting to bring parts of that data into a Finite Element Analysis software to apply different loading conditions to the spine. However, I need help on the intermediary step (using 3D Slicer) to bring the X-ray into CAD. Can anyone guide me on how to best approach this? I think my application is simple enough, but not 100%. I would greatly appreciate any input on this subject!
Thank you for your time.
First you need to segment the spine CT and then generate a volumetric mesh from the segmentation. Many people use 3D Slicer for these and this topic has been discussed quite intensively on this forum. You can find the relevant post by searching for “spine” on this forum. If you have any specific questions then feel free to ask here.
Hi Andras thank you for getting back to me. Unfortunately, I do not have CT data of the spine only X-rays. Is there a way to segment the spine using X-ray data not CT data to then take into CAD for analysis?
Thanks for your time.
Seth
You cannot reconstruct a 3D spine from just a few projection images. To reconstruct a 3D volume from projection images, you would need dozens (bet preferably hundreds) of projections.
You may be able to generate 3D volumes from less projections if you build shape models (e.g., statistical shape models) or train an AI network (e.g., GAN) for volume reconstruction.