Converting voxel data into mesh data

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1

Hi - not sure where I should be asking this…

Is there anything out there that converts voxel date to mesh data? Mesh data that I can then import into Blender?

2

Nothing out there?

Really?

The irony is, it seems that the fluid sim converts from voxel to mesh data…

3

Do you mean point cloud ?

4

Exporting to a pointcloud would be useful. Really I want to be able to create a solid mesh like this http://www.volumesoffun.com/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=90 but I think, if I could import a pointcloud that would be useful.

5

Thankyou… that was very helpful!

6

Sorry - but though that program looks very useful, the voxel data I have is in the form of a series of PNG images, and I can’t import it into CloudCompare, or convert it into anything that will import.

7

I know nothing about voxels with png images, only point clouds.

8

I can’t say anything about how to import voxel data to Blender, but if there’s no dedicated importer, you might try MeshLab to convert to a supported format. For example, PLY or STL to import just as vertices. If there’s no real surface yet, you may use MeshLab’s pointcloud triangulation capabilities and export as OBJ.

Once you got a mesh object in Blender with a surface, try the Laplacian Smooth Modifier, which let’s you smooth mesh surfaces while retaining a lot of details.
Go to Properties Editor > Modifiers and add it to your object.

9

These are two different things. A point cloud is a (usually very dense) set of vertices with normal and colour information. A voxel map is something akin to a 3d bitmap.

As far as I know there isn’t a converter for blender currently - Chapter 1 of GPU Gems 3 http://http.developer.nvidia.com/GPUGems3/gpugems3_ch01.html outlines a method that could be used to make the conversion if you are capable of python scripting.
Out of curiosity - how are you generating these png files?

10

I think Slicer3D has the capability to convert a png image stack http://www.slicer.org/slicerWiki/index.php/Slicer-3.6-Load-Overview#png.2C_jpeg.2C_tiff_Image_Stacks
and it definitely has the ablity to output 3D meshes