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Robust boolean operations library for VTK/Slicer

Key Investigators

• Mauro I. Dominguez (Independent, Argentina)
• Andras Lasso (Queen's University, Canada)
• Steve Pieper (Isomics, Inc., USA)
• Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin (Kitware Inc., US)

Project Description

Support robust boolean operations for 2D triangle meshes inside VTK or Slicer through an external library. This would allow an alternative to current boolean operations engine, vtkbool (from Sandbox’s extension CombineModels module), which is better than the default one of vtk but still unstable for complex meshes such as the ones used in the biomedical domain

Objective

1. Expose a robust boolean operations library (e.g. Geogram) in Slicer’s logic and GUI
2. Compile a robust boolean operations library (e.g. Geogram) as a vtk external module

Approach and Plan

1. Add a CLI module for Slicer that encapsulates a robust boolean operation command line as part of Sandbox extension.
2. Create a draft PR to the upstream repo with the code changes that incorporate the feature and documentation on how to use it from GUI and a code snippet on how to use it from the python interpreter
3. If there is enough time, evaluate creating a boolean operations DynamicModeler tool

Progress and Next Steps

1. Tested geogram successfully with mesh that made vtkbool fail
2. Current progress on effort integrating geogram boolean operations here.
3. Table that compares most “popular” boolean operations libraries from the awesome geometry processing projects list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tWbNuMz7vTIB2efFZE7YdT4vBmRb45DdQlqy_kda32k/edit?usp=sharing

Illustrations

No response

Background and References

No response