SMART—Surface models from by-axis-and-radius-defined tubes

This paper describes a new method for generation of topologically correct surfaces of branching tubular structures with given centerlines and radii. As the centerlines are not straight lines, the cross sections are not parallel and well known algorithms for surface tiling from parallel cross-sections cannot be used. Non-parallel cross sections can be tiled by means of the maximal-disc interpolation method, but this method is more complex than our approach. The proposed method tiles non-parallel circular cross-sections and constructs a topologically correct 2-manifold surface. The surface mesh serves as a data representation of a vessel tree suitable for real-time Virtual Reality operation planning and operation support within a medical application. That means the proposed method extracts a “classical” surface representation, which can be used in common surface oriented graphic accelerators.