Short note on color-coded 3D models for structure thickness

Accurately setting up realistic transfer functions on your 3D models can be a challenging task. New
features in CTVox version 2.7 now allow stretching of and zooming in on your transfer function. Even
creating a transfer function on a very narrow histogram separation becomes child’s play, for example
when density differences are small or on datasets color-coded for structure thickness or separation.

How to create color-coded 3D models for structure thickness: methodology

One way to illustrate a thickness distribution is by a color-coded 3D model. In a first step, CTAn software
is used to create a new dataset where the grey values represent structure thickness instead of density.
This is done in 3 simple steps:

 Open the reconstructed data in CTAn and select a region of interest to analyze
 Threshold the structures you want to make the model from
 Run a 3D analysis in custom processing, selecting structure thickness and / or separation and the
option to save the data as color-coded images. This will create new datasets with gray-level
distribution according to local morphological characteristics.

The results will be saved in subfolders located in the same directory as original dataset.
 This grey-scale coded output can be loaded as any other dataset in CTVox, after which the second
step is to generate a color volume rendered 3D model. This can be done in only 3 short steps:

 Stretch the transfer function editor window, zoom in using the sliders
 Edit the RGB transfer function curves
 Adjust the transparency

CTVox previous version

Transfer function

Double click to move the transfer

function in the 3D viewing window

Sliders to zoom in
><

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Stretch
dockable
windows

Screenshot of CTVox version 2.7 shows a (trabecular bone, foam, fibers, …) color coded for
structure thickness. Small structures are represented in blue, turning to green and finally red as
the thickness increases. You can zoom in on the transfer function by stretching the window and
using the sliders below the histogram.

A copy of the full method note on

how to make color-coded size
distributions can be obtained by
emailing to:

applications@bruker-microCT.com