3D editor for anatomical designs

Before we start, let me point out that I’m not reviewing a sofa that you sit on here (although I can reccommend the red one from Ikea I have at home). SOFA is actually an acronym for ‘Simulation Open Framework Network,’ but I guess they decided the shortened version was more catchy. Anyway, this is very useful program for anyone studying human anatomy, as it lets you create complex and evolving medical simluations. It’s very flexible too, allowing you to combine new algorithms with those already included in SOFA.

Obviously I’m not a biologist but the list of features in SOFA looks pretty impressive from what I can see, giving you the power to view bone structure, organs, tissue, etc. from a multitude of different angles. The app facilitates deformable behavior, surface representation, solver, constraints, collision algorithm, etc., which you can control simply by editing an XML file.

It may be a beyond the grasp of those outside the medical profession, but if you’re studying and researching human anatomy, SOFA provides an impressive set of tools.

SOFA is an Open Source framework primarily targeted at real-time simulation, with an emphasis on medical simulation. It is mostly intended for the research community to help develop newer algorithms, but can also be used as an efficient prototyping tool. Based on an advanced software architecture, it allows you to:

• Create complex and evolving simulations by combining new algorithms with algorithms already included in SOFA
• Modify most parameters of the simulation – deformable behavior, surface representation, solver, constraints, collision algorithm, etc. – by simply editing an XML file
• Build complex models from simpler ones using a scene-graph description
• Efficiently simulate the dynamics of interacting objects using abstract equation solvers
• Reuse and easily compare a variety of available methods