Best inexpensive Alternative softwares for Mimics Innovation Suits

[Reza Alavi]

Dear Members,

We are looking to find a software ( or a set of softwares) that enables us to construct 3D geometrical models from MRI data. We also need to be able to smooth, mesh and ideally co-register different parts for the subsequent finite element analysis. I understand that Mimics Innovation Suite+ 3 Matics package might be the best choice for us to meet our needs, but it is quite pricey. I was wondering if we could use an alternative software or multiple softwares, e.g. one for 3D model reconstruction and one for smoothing and meshing, to satisfy our needs with a lower cost. It does not have to be an open source but we would prefer to lower the costs as much as possible while keeping a high level of quality. So, I would be more than happy to hear from you if you have any suggestion to make.

Best,
Reza

[Bill Sellers]

Re: Best inexpensive Alternative softwares for Mimics Innovation Suits

I'd say there were lots of options but not in a single package to take you directly from MRI to FEA. What we do with CT (and I'm sure it would work with MRI too) is take the DICOM export files and if the contrast is good enough use something like Osirix (free) to isosurface at an appropriate threshold and export as an OBJ file. You can then smooth and simplify this in MeshLab (free) and then we use 3DS Max (not free, but the educational/research price is very reasonable and it is free for students) to convert the file to an SAT file that we can read into Abaqus for FEA. If the contrast is not good enough then you need to manually segment the DICOM file and things like Seg3D or Slicer3D can do that for you and generate the OBJ files frome the painted segments. I think ImageJ (particularly it's FIJI incarnation) can also do this very nicely. For hollow objects we find that we need to import the exterior and the interior into Abaqus separately and then do a boolean subtraction in Abaqus. You get a lot of control with this approach but it is slower. However not very much slower. The time consuming part is an manual segmentation or mesh clean up and that is slow whatever you do. There are plenty of other packages that will replace most of the parts in this chain and which you prefer depends quite a bit on the data that you are working with and the computer systems you have available.

Cheers
Bill

[Ahmet Erdemir]

Re: Best inexpensive Alternative softwares for Mimics Innovation Suits

Dear Reza,

In Open Knee(s) site, we list various free and open source software that are potentially useful for the modeling and simulation workflow:

http://wiki.simtk.org/openknee/Infrastructure/AuxiliarySoftware

As Bill noted, these include segmentation software to go from medical images to geometries, in particular triangulated surfaces such as ITK-SNAP, Slicer. In addition various geometry manipulation and mesh generation software are also noted such as MeshLab, Salome, etc.

Best,

Ahmet



These inclu

[Frances Sheehan]

Re: Best inexpensive Alternative softwares for Mimics Innovation Suits

NIH has an excellent package for segmenting images into point clouds, which is free

http://mipav.cit.nih.gov/

There is a strong community that supports the software and it is constantly being updated.

Fran

[Reza Alavi]

Re: Best inexpensive Alternative softwares for Mimics Innovation Suits

Thank you Bill, Ahmet and Fran for your generous comments. Would any of you folks know whether a separate meshing software is really needed to mesh anatomical parts (specially knee) ? I mean would not Abaqus is good enough to generate meshes on such parts?

My other question is that whether Solidworks FE package is sufficiently able for FE analysis of an already-meshed knee part? Because we already have Solidworks premium package in our lab and I wonder if it is necessary to purchase an Abaqus license.

Best,

[Robert Stupplebeen]

Re: Best inexpensive Alternative softwares for Mimics Innovation Suits

I would check out simpleware's ScanIP and +FE Module.

https://www.simpleware.com/

I hope this helps.

Rob Stupplebeen
www.OptimalDevice.com

[Jerome Noailly]

Re: Best inexpensive Alternative softwares for Mimics Innovation Suits

Dear Reza,

It depends on whether you want a structural mesh with hexahedral elements. Should it be the case, first, you need a geometry discretised in blocks (volumes) that are composed by six surfaces (e.g. spline or bezier). Then, you can easily mesh these blocks with a hexahedral automatic mesher. Focussing on open source softwares, both steps can be nicely handled through Salome (e.g. in the Salome-Meca package). I have personally no experience with FEBio for meshing.

As for the FE analysis, it depends on the kind of analysis you want to perform. If you want to capture the nonlinear and/or time-dependent behaviour of the soft tissues, I am not sure that the Solidwork FE package is appropriate (you need to check the material model libraries, and the capacity to take into account large rotations and deformations, among others), FEBio performs very well. Code Aster (included in the Salome-Meca platform) is also a powerful option though less intuitive than FEBio, according to my experience.

Best regards,

Jérôme.

Thank you Bill, Ahmet and Fran for your generous comments. Would any of you folks know whether a separate meshing software is really needed to mesh anatomical parts (specially knee) ? I mean would not Abaqus is good enough to generate meshes on such parts?

My other question is that whether Solidworks FE package is sufficiently able for FE analysis of an already-meshed knee part? Because we already have Solidworks premium package in our lab and I wonder if it is necessary to purchase an Abaqus license.

Best,

[Reza Alavi]

Re: Best inexpensive Alternative softwares for Mimics Innovation Suits

Dear Jerome,

Thank you for your helpful comment.

Best,
Reza

[Reza Alavi]

Re: Best inexpensive Alternative softwares for Mimics Innovation Suits

Thank you Rob !