Medial surface generation

A method of generating a medial mesh of an object, the object having an interior;

• the method comprising steps to:
• a) obtain a surface mesh of the object comprising elements whose vertices are nodes;
• b) define a set of node notuial vectors, each node normal having its origin at a node and being directed towards the interior of the object;
• c) for each node:
• i. select a node normal from the set of node normals having their origins at that node;
• ii. define a sphere wherein a surface of the sphere includes the node and wherein a centre point of the sphere is positioned at a scalar multiple of the node normal;
• iii. increment the centre point along the scalar multiple of the node normal;
• iv. iterate steps ii and iii until the surface of the sphere includes another node or element;
• v. record the centre point of the sphere as a medial point and the diameter of the sphere as a thickness;
• vi. repeat steps i to v for each node normal from the set of node normals having their origins at that node;
• and
• d) generate a medial mesh from the set of medial points and record object thickness from the set of thicknesses.