Propagation-based marching cubes algorithm using open boundary loop

The marching cubes (MC) algorithm is employed to generated triangular meshes for visualizing medical images, sculpture scans and mathematical surfaces. It sequentially traverses cuberille data composed of sampled points of a scalar volumetric data. This paper proposes a propagation-based MC algorithm that uses the open boundary loop concept. The open boundary loop is used to determine adjacent cells for the next iteration of the MC algorithm. After inserting each triangle, the open boundary loop is reevaluated. Simultaneously, it is ensured that all triangles are coherently oriented and there are no holes on the isosurface. Several tests are conducted to determine the performance of the algorithm in comparison with the original MC algorithm. Results from these tests indicate that, for large-scale problems, the proposed algorithm performs better than the original.