jan@prisma.cv.ruu.nl (Jan Buitenhuis) (09/05/90)
I am looking for some more information about the marching cubes algorithm. Are there any other papers or what ever besides this (many times reprinted) paper: Lorensen, W.E. and Cline, H.E. "Marching Cubes: A High Resolution 3D Surface Construction Alogorithm," Computer Graphics, Vol. 21, No. 4, July, 1987, pp. 163-169. Furthermore I am Looking for a PD version of this algorithm. Is there anyone out there who can help? J.Buitenhuis.
krogh@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (09/05/90)
NCSA has just released a new product call NCSA Isosurface Visualizer for the Silicon Graphics workstation. The code will run on non-SGI systems, but will only generate files containing the polygons. You may download a copy of the source, executables, and documentation from the NCSA anonymous ftp server ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu (128.174.20.50). Enjoy! Mike Krogh NCSA krogh@ncsa.uiuc.edu
hallett@enterprise.positron.gemed.ge.com (Jeff Hallett x5163 ) (09/06/90)
=> Path: mrsvr.UUCP!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!krogh
=> From: krogh@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
=> Newsgroups: comp.graphics
=> Date: 5 Sep 90 13:53:00 GMT
=> References: <652536877@<jan>
=> Lines: 13
=> Nf-ID: #R:<jan:652536877:ux1.cso.uiuc.edu:5300038:000:387
=> Nf-From: ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!krogh Sep 5 08:53:00 1990
=>
=>
=> NCSA has just released a new product call NCSA Isosurface Visualizer for the
=> Silicon Graphics workstation. The code will run on non-SGI systems, but
=> will only generate files containing the polygons. You may download a copy
=> of the source, executables, and documentation from the NCSA anonymous
=> ftp server ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu (128.174.20.50).
=>
=> Enjoy!
=>
=>
=> Mike Krogh
=> NCSA
=> krogh@ncsa.uiuc.edu
Uh, sorry. Since Marching Cubes is a proprietary algorithm to GE
Medical Systems, it is doubtful you would find the full description or
source in the public domain. More probably, you would find a facimile
algorithm - same results, but more slowly.
--
Jeffrey A. Hallett, PET Software Engineering
GE Medical Systems, W641, PO Box 414, Milwaukee, WI 53201
(414) 548-5163 : EMAIL - hallettJ@gemed.ge.com
"Keep that sense of humor. It's critical."c60c-3gh@e260-1d.berkeley.edu (Eric van Bezooijen) (09/06/90)
Newsgroups: ca.wanted Subject: Bitmaps Summary: Expires: Sender: Reply-To: c60c-3gh@e260-1d (Eric van Bezooijen) Followup-To: Distribution: ca Organization: University of California, Berkeley Keywords: Hi there students! I am writing program a which needs bitmap for a ufo. Not being an artist, I am asking you to mail me a clever, 16x16 bitmap of an ufo (white pixels on black pixels). It should be neat-looking, and there is no limit to the level of cute-ness! Think of it as a contest. The bitmaps I use will have your name in my program forever, along with your name displayed proudly at the beginning of the program. Remember, they should be in x11 format, but if they are not, tell me, I know how to convert them from x10 to x11. Thanks a million, Eric van Bezooijen. Berkeley:-)Studying:-(Sleeping:-)Dishes:-(Xtrek:-)Class:-(Griljor:-)Physics:-( W "Having a burglar alarm on a Yugo is like farting in a house filled with M o methane!" , self ||| "I'm an OR-DI-NA-RY guy", The Talking Heads, BURNING u r DOWN THE HOUSE ||| "You don't F**K with the Department of Motor Vehicles, s k Mr. Anderson, we can make your life a living hell", good quote, bad movie. i :-(Napping:-)Engineering Department:-(Eating:-)Finals:-(Programming:-)X-:((-:c
foo@titan.rice.edu (Mark Hall) (09/06/90)
In article <HALLETT.90Sep5134014@enterprise.positron.gemed.ge.com> hallettJ@gemed writes: )Uh, sorry. Since Marching Cubes is a proprietary algorithm to GE )Medical Systems, it is doubtful you would find the full description or )source in the public domain. More probably, you would find a facimile )algorithm - same results, but more slowly. ) Well, the oft-quoted article @Article{LC:MCubes, author = "W. Lorenson and H. Cline", title = "Marching Cubes: A High Resolution 3D Surface Construction Algorithm" journal = siggraph, year = 1987, volume = 21, number = 4, pages = "163--169" } SAYS it is the Marching Cubes algorithm. The authors are from GE. I guess they spilled a company secret? More likely you refer to some tweaked version of the algorithm. Big deal. People just want a working version of the PUBLISHED algorithm. There are several available implementations of the algorithm described in the above article. Trying to redefine the "Marching Cubes Algorithm" as something internal to GE is not helpful. - mark PS I have several implementations of Marching Cubes. One is currently ftp`able from titan.rice.edu (128.42.1.30) in directory "incoming", file marchingCubes.tar.Z
antony@george.lbl.gov (Antony A. Courtney) (09/06/90)
In article <HALLETT.90Sep5134014@enterprise.positron.gemed.ge.com> hallettJ@gemed writes: >Uh, sorry. Since Marching Cubes is a proprietary algorithm to GE >Medical Systems, it is doubtful you would find the full description or >source in the public domain. I see. And keeping marching cubes a "trade secret" really helps make it a standard, well accepted approach to doing volume visualization. As someone else pointed out, all people care about is an implementation of the PUBLISHED algorithm. Whatever hacks GE makes to this are of little interest to anyone else unless they publish what they are and why they are good. Furthermore, here's a thought you can take back to your marketing trolls who tell you that 'Our PROPRIETARY version is undoubtadly better': The person who posted the request for an implementation of the algorithm did so from an academic instition, meaning he is either a student or researcher. And students or researchers tend to go out into the working world eventually. Now, had you posted an article with a complete description of the algorithm, a description of what enchancements GE has made, and source to this version(although with no support for this product), this person would have probably been left very pleased by GE's kind offering, and would, when consulted for some purchasing decision in future, be able to recommend that they purchase their software from GE(so as to have it be supported software rather than just a 'freebie'), with full confidence in the quality of the product, because he has actually used it for some time. After your rather arrogant article, with unsupported conjecture about it being better than other implementations, he is more likely left with a bad taste in his mouth about GE's attitude, which is(as your article implies) "Ours is a better implementation, but we're not going to tell you how or why, you just have to take our word for it and pay us cash money to use it." Since he is clearly not going to pay for the software(and why should he?! there are several perfectly adequate implementations out there for FREE), your article only LOST you a future sale. Not to mention all of the rest of the people who read this newsgroup who will hopefully feel the same way. >More probably, you would find a facimile >algorithm - same results, but more slowly. "More slowly?" Do you have any factual basis for this claim?!! If so, I would be very interested to see a complete analysis of every marching cubes implementation available compared with your own and some FIGURES indicating the substantial speed difference. >-- > Jeffrey A. Hallett, PET Software Engineering > GE Medical Systems, W641, PO Box 414, Milwaukee, WI 53201 ~antony -- ******************************************************************************* Antony A. Courtney antony@george.lbl.gov Advanced Development Group ucbvax!csam.lbl.gov!antony Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (415) 486-6692
montnaro@spyder.crd.ge.com (Skip Montanaro) (09/09/90)
GE holds a patent on Marching Cubes. Lots of people have implemented it for their own use. There's nothing wrong with that. To make money from it, however (for instance, use MC in a volume visualization system you sell), you must license it from GE. -- Skip (montanaro@crdgw1.ge.com)
antony@george.lbl.gov (Antony A. Courtney) (09/10/90)
In article <MONTNARO.90Sep8232504@spyder.crd.ge.com> montanaro@crdgw1.ge.com (Skip Montanaro) writes: >GE holds a patent on Marching Cubes. Lots of people have implemented it for >their own use. There's nothing wrong with that. To make money from it, >however (for instance, use MC in a volume visualization system you sell), >you must license it from GE. That's great, and there is nothing wrong with GE wanting to reap the benefits of their work. They made the investment in the R&D, they should get the cash returns off it. MY gripe was with the tone of the original posting by the guy from GE Medical Systems division. His posting basically stated that "ours is better, and the REAL thing, everything else is fake and is neither as good nor as fast." To make claims like this without any real support does not shed a favorable light on GE. Furthermore, the original inquiry about marching cubes came from an individual at an academic institution who clearly had no intention of purchasing the software, and the followup articles were from places like NCSA who are quite clearly NOT using Marching Cubes in a for-profit product development effort. I still assert that it would have been to GE's advantage to make all this software freely and easily available to academics from the start, but that is neither here nor there. I'll leave market theory to the financial analysts. Clearly *THEY* know how to make a computer company succesfull... > >-- >Skip (montanaro@crdgw1.ge.com) ~antony -- ******************************************************************************* Antony A. Courtney antony@george.lbl.gov Advanced Development Group ucbvax!csam.lbl.gov!antony Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (415) 486-6692
george@ucs.adelaide.edu.au (George Travan) (09/10/90)
In article <MONTNARO.90Sep8232504@spyder.crd.ge.com>, montnaro@spyder.crd.ge.com (Skip Montanaro) writes: > > GE holds a patent on Marching Cubes. Lots of people have implemented it for > their own use. There's nothing wrong with that. To make money from it, > however (for instance, use MC in a volume visualization system you sell), > you must license it from GE. > > -- > Skip (montanaro@crdgw1.ge.com) how can GE patent marching cubes?! i'm sure they can patent the NAME Marching Cubes or even Dividing Cubes but how can they patent the idea when the same method to construct a surface from a grid of 3D values was described by Wyvill et al 1986. sure the implementation details were slightly different as were the optimizations, application area. The surface generated is the SAME nevertheless.Better in some respects, due to fact that Lorenson, Cline method might produce 'false' holes in some cases. this 'smells' the same as the PIXAR patent on MAXIMUM LIKLIHOOD feature classifiers for medical images. what gives here? this has to be a joke! Reference: Wyvill G et al... Data Structures for Soft Objects. The Visual Computer (AUGUST 1986), 227-234. George Travan "rebel without a clue" PHONE : +61 8 2285968 University of Adelaide Telex : UNIVAD AA89141 G.P.O Box 498 Adelaide FAX : +61 8 2240464 AUSTRALIA 5001 e_mail: george@frodo.ua.oz.au
cullip@sargent.cs.unc.edu (Timothy Cullip) (10/03/90)
Does anyone out there know of a version of the Marching Cubes algorithm (for finding isolevel surfaces in 3D datasets) that has been vectorized for a Cray? If so, I'd sure like to get ahold of that code. Tim Cullip
ganter@milton.u.washington.edu (M. Ganter) (04/25/91)
I know within the last year the issue of marching cubes has been raised several times. I have tried to locate comp.graphics archives to locate old information. But alas, no luck. I remember several versions of marching cube type code being mentioned. I am trying to locate sources for such code for student use. I have located the code on szechuan.ncsc.org. I have applied to obtain APE. Would anyone in netland have either a better memory or more information on location of marching cubes code. I will collect any info. provided and post summary if requested. Also, I will submit info. to FAQ. Thanks for any info. <ganter@u.washington.edu>