Hello Adam,

I currently use Mimics by Materialise to proceed with the segmentation (extraction of the volume of interest from the grey scale images), creation of the 3D model (in CAD or STL format) and meshing. I believe Simpleware is another type of software you can use. However, licenses for both can be quite expensive.

I would be more than happy in helping you out if is a one off segmentation task of a few specimens.

Hello Adam,

Mimics and ScanIP are the best choices for segmentation and 3D reconstruction. However, I usually choose to create the FE meshes on the HyperMesh module of Altair Hyperworks. For numerical simulation, COMSOL is simple but effective. Abaqus or Ansys are more powerful, if you need more accurate computations.

Just a quick tip, if you need open source/free software, take a look into MeshLab, MevisLab and FEBio.

Cheers

Commercial tools like Mimics and ScanIP are leading software in this application. Trelis is another tool derived from Sandia lab's Cubit. For Open source you may consider ITK-snap, or iso2mesh.

If the surface of the geometry is in parametric form or NURBS i.e. typical  CAD format like .sat , acis, the mesh generation tools do a better job to create mesh however, when surface is imported as STL i.e. triangulated surface it becomes somewhat difficult job. If Surface triangulations are available, the open source tool like Tetgen can also be used. In fact Simpleware /ScanIP has TetGen in the backend somewhere !

http://iso2mesh.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi?Home

http://www.itksnap.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Downloads.SNAP3

http://wias-berlin.de/software/tetgen/

http://www.csimsoft.com/

Thanks all for the quick response. In detail:

- Diogo, the Mimics software seems to be the best tool for me. I will ask sellers of Materialise products about the price. Also thanks a lot for the proposition of cooperation. It is highly probable that I will ask you for such kind of task.

- A. P. G. Castro and Samarth, tips for open source/free software are very welcome. I will look also at them.

That's a lot of information, so give me a while to check what kind of solution is the best for me.

Adam,

Please feel free to ask if you need any more help, particularly about the bridging between meshing and simulating.

On the decision between the different software, the most important is to pay attention to the import/export compatibilities. I normally export from ScanIP on IGES if I a need a geometry file, or STL if I want to directly export a FE mesh.

Cheers to all.

Mimics from Materialise is one of the best but also MeshLab can be used to do the work. Good luck with the mesh generation and analysis.

i think COMSOL  is may be one option but among existing MIMICS is best for  apart  from License.  

To follow up on the recommendations above, my company Simpleware's ScanIP software is available as a 30-day trial at www.simpleware.com. If you have any specific questions about the software, please email [email protected].

Mimics is a good option. You can generate both geometric model and FE model with it. If you like better mesh topology, you can choose either TrueGrid or Hypermesh.

Good luck,

Wei

You can use some open libraries in C++ like VTK to generate a 3D model for importing on any FEM software.

You might use MIMICS from Materialise to generate your 3D model- and the corresponding mesh. Afterwards you can insert the model in Catia or Ansys or any other FEA software in order to simulate that model in various condition. Wasn't it helpful?

 You can use > Vg Studio for segmentation > Meshlab ( which is a freeware) for repairing, cleaning, smoothing, etc., and finally Comsol Multiphysics to generate 3D geometry from 3D closed surface. You can find details in my article Numerical Modeling of Ultrasonic Inspection in Fiber Reinforced Materials with Explicit Microstructure

For DICOM files which one is better? Mimics or Simpleware ScanIP?

You can segment images and create meshes in 3D Slicer (https://www.slicer.org) and do biomechanical analysis on them using FEBio (https://febio.org/febio-studio/). Both are very powerful and flexible, free, open-source software.