pyvcad-medical 3.0.0

Utilities for doing medical image printing wih OpenVCAD (pyvcad). This project provides medical image conversion tools and color mapping utilities to aid medical 3D printing workflows with OpenVCAD. NOTE: the actual `Dicom` loading is still part of the core `pyvcad` library.

pyvcad_medical

pyvcad_medical is a pure‑Python sub‑project of OpenVCAD that provides medical imaging utilities for volumetric, multi‑material 3D printing workflows. It focuses on converting Hounsfield units (HU, radiodensity values from CT data) into continuous material and color attributes suitable for Inkjet/PolyJet‑style printers using OpenVCAD’s attribute modeling.

What this project contains

• HU → attribute mappings: Helpers to map Hounsfield units into:
  • Color attributes (e.g., soft tissue vs. bone colorization)
  • Mechanical attributes (e.g., stiffness/compliance gradients)
• Gradient generation utilities: Functions to build smooth volumetric gradients from medical image data, ready to be attached as OpenVCAD attribute fields.
• DICOM inspection tools: Convenience methods for reading and printing key DICOM/CT metadata relevant to AM workflows (e.g., spacing, windowing, patient/study info).

What it builds

• Python package: Builds and installs the pyvcad_medical package (via pyproject.toml in medical/), which depends on the local pyvcad bindings and integrates directly with the OpenVCAD node/attribute system.

How it is used

• Typical workflow:
  • Load DICOM/volume data and inspect basic metadata.
  • Convert HU values into one or more attribute fields (color, modulus, etc.).
  • Attach these attributes to OpenVCAD geometries as continuous fields.
  • Compile to printer‑ready volumetric outputs (e.g., Inkjet color/material jobs) using the OpenVCAD compilers.